Contact with police before a woman is allegedly assaulted - Northamptonshire Police, June 2018

In June 2018 Northamptonshire Police officers attended reports of a domestic violence incident made by a woman, who alleged that the friends she was currently with had become involved in a physical dispute. Upon arrival at the scene officers spoke to the woman’s friend and her partner. They established that no domestic incident had taken place and that the woman had been asked by her friends to leave the property. Officers ascertained that the woman had lost the keys to her flat, did not have any friends or family who she could stay with for the night, and had no money to pay for a hotel. They took the woman home and organised for an out-of-hours locksmith to attend and provide access to her home. The officers were then re-deployed to another emergency incident and left her.

When the locksmith arrived, he found the woman unresponsive in the stairwell of her building in a significant state of undress. It was alleged that the woman had been the victim of a serious sexual assault.

Our investigators obtained airwave recordings, witness statements and crime reports from the force. They also obtained accounts from the officers who had attended the incident.

The officers stated that, when they assessed the situation, they did not consider it necessary to remain with the woman to await the arrival of the locksmith: she did not appear heavily intoxicated, had no reported disability, no identifiable or disclosed physical injuries, and the locksmith had confirmed that he would attend within the hour.

We were of the opinion that the evidence did not support that the decisions and actions of any Northamptonshire Police officers or staff could have caused or contributed to the injuries allegedly sustained by the woman following the departure of the two officers.

Based on the evidence available we found no indication that any person serving with the police may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings, or had committed a criminal offence. We completed our investigation in October 2018.