Police contact with a woman before she died - Greater Manchester Police, March 2016
On 11 March 2016 North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) were called to assist a young woman who had been drinking and had cut her arms, which were bleeding. NWAS requested Greater Manchester Police’s (GMP) assistance as they had information which indicated that she was being violent or had been in the past. NWAS could not allocate an ambulance for some time, but GMP had the capacity to send two officers to the woman’s home address.
When GMP arrived, they were greeted by the woman’s sister. She was surprised to see the police, as an ambulance had been requested.
The woman was transported to hospital by ambulance two and a half hours after the call to NWAS was made; GMP did not assist in the transportation to hospital.
Four days after the woman was taken to hospital, she was found dead on a cycle path under a bridge.
Statements were taken from the woman’s relatives. They said that, while the woman was with the GMP officers in her home, she mentioned several times that she wanted to kill herself and would do it in the next few days if released from hospital. The woman’s family said that she made these threats repeatedly to police, ambulance and hospital staff and that there was no doubt as to what she meant.
The GMP officers who attended both described a serious deep cut to the woman’s arm and said that she made a number of threats to take her own life. However, one officer did not feel that this was genuine, as the woman could not say how she was going to do it. Officers also said that she made the same threats in the presence of the paramedics. GMP officers also searched the woman, as there was a smell of cannabis. A high-risk referral was made to GMP Public Protection Intelligence Unit (PPIU) for further onward referral to other agencies.
The PPIU referral was reviewed later on the same day that GMP officers went to the woman’s home. However, the referral was marked as ‘no further action’ due to the fact that the woman had been taken to hospital by ambulance with no further assistance from GMP; this was confirmed as being in line with PPIU policy.
GMP were not involved in the decision to discharge the woman from hospital. They received no further PPIU referrals relating to her.
Based on the evidence available, we were of the opinion that the officers provided a high standard of care to the woman and stayed with her until the ambulance arrived. They also submitted a high-risk PPIU referral. The report concluded that there was no indication that any GMP officer may have committed a criminal offence or behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of criminal proceedings.