IPCC report into police search for Natasha Coombs

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has today, Monday 30 March 2009, published the findings of its investigation into the police operation to find 17-year-old Natasha Coombs in Essex.

Natasha was killed on Friday 27 July 2007, when she was struck by a train while walking along a railway line between Manningtree Railway Line and Colchester. Her body was deflected down an embankment. She was reported missing to Essex Police the following morning by her parents. Natasha's body was not found by police until 14 days later, on Friday 19 August 2007.

On 18 September 2007, Natasha's mother, Joanne Coombs, took her own life by lying across the railway line near where Natasha had been found.

The independent investigation examined 11 complaints from Natasha's father.

Four of the complaints were upheld as the IPCC investigation found that:

- Essex Police and British Transport Police (BTP) failed to conduct thorough and timely searches which led to a delay in finding the body of Natasha.

- Essex Police failed to properly check and act upon investigation material which would have focussed the investigation on the railway lines at an earlier stage. Specifically, an assessment of Natasha as *Medium Risk* rather than *High Risk* at the outset delayed important actions by up to 24 hours.

- Search opportunities were lost because Essex Police officers failed to assert themselves to ensure BTP conducted searches at the earliest opportunity.

- Inappropriate, confidential and inaccurate information was passed to the media, allegedly from a police source.

During the investigation, the IPCC discovered that a BTP Communications Officer had misled an Essex Police Officer, by claiming that the trains had sensors which could detect any collision with an object on the line. When interviewed by IPCC investigators, the Communications Officer admitted he lied to an Essex Police Officer in a phone call. He explained he did so to end the call. He wanted to get on with other tasks. He admitted that he was unaware of the train having sensors.

A separate report was written and sent to BTP Professional Standards Department (PSD) which recommended that he face a full powers disciplinary hearing in respect of gross misconduct. The IPCC agreed with this recommendation. However, on being informed of this, the Communications Officer immediately resigned. The IPCC maintains that there can be no excuse for the Communications Officer giving this false information.

Seven of the complaints were not upheld:

- That there was a failure to properly check and act upon information provided by the Coombs family.
- That failures of the police investigation contributed to Joanne Coombs taking her own life.
- That a team of volunteers were not used to search the area around the railway lines because BTP *pulled rank* on Essex Police
- That an Essex Police Officer gave false evidence at the inquest of Natasha regarding their proximity to, and their ability to detect Natasha's body.
- That the evidence at the inquest was given to defend Essex Police's search strategy and was part of a calculated cover-up to avoid disclosure of the incompetence of the searches.
- That specific media releases were made following the inquests in order to defend police actions and were also part of the calculated cover-up over failing in searching for Natasha.
- That the BTP police officers attending the inquest behaved inappropriately by giggling and talking in a manner which was disrespectful and insensitive towards Natasha's father and his family.

IPCC Commissioner David Petch said: *Mr Coombs twice suffered a grievous loss in a few short weeks during the summer of 2007. Clearly our first thoughts and our sympathy must be with him.

*Mr Coombs made a number of complaints about the police operations surrounding these distressing deaths. We have examined them very carefully. We have substantiated four of them. In particular we conclude that the police did miss opportunities for a timely and thorough search for Natasha Coombs. However, there are seven complaints which have not been up upheld. The most prominent of these being that Essex Police deliberately misled the inquest. There is no evidence of this.

*Our investigation criticised the decision not to categorise Natasha as high risk, when there were good reasons to do so. We have also discovered shortcomings in the methods of search used and the liaison between Essex and British Transport Police.

*We have made various recommendations on search procedures and risk assessment, some of which I am pleased to say have already been implemented. I hope that both forces will examine all these recommendations carefully with the aim of reducing the risk of failures in any future similar operation.*