IPCC review of investigation into police contact with Rachael and Auden Slack, and Andrew Cairns, prior to their deaths

26 Oct 2015 02:58 PM

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has published its internal review of an independent investigation into Derbyshire Constabulary contact with Rachael and Auden Slack, and Andrew Cairns, prior to their deaths.

Her Majesty’s Coroner held the inquest into the deaths of Rachael and Auden Slack, and Andrew Cairns in 2013. The findings of the inquest concluded that Derbyshire Constabulary failings contributed more than minimally to the deaths.

This finding was in contrast to the IPCC’s earlier investigation that had not found any indications of poor performance.  In light of the Coroner’s findings, the IPCC undertook a thorough review of the original investigation. This review was critical of some aspects of the investigation and raised a number of learning points for the IPCC which have bee­n fed in to improvements in our procedures for conducting independent investigations. These include:

• Ensuring the scope of the investigation is clearly detailed and accurate
• Resourcing investigations with sufficient staff
•  A more robust quality assurance and supervision process

However, the review did not find any reason to overturn the conclusions reached in the original investigation - that there was no case to answer for individual officers. For that reason, it is not necessary to reinvestigate the case but there were learning issues for the force that were identified.

Derbyshire Police has since made changes to its policies and procedures following the investigation including changes to how it dealt with reports of harassment.