WIREDGOV

Our investigation into Kent Police contact with Matthew Mackell before he was found dead found that officers and staff had acted appropriately and in accordance with force policies.

Matthew, aged 17, made a call to the police on 6 May 2020 saying he intended to take his own life and asked the police to send someone to pick him up, this call was abandoned before Matthew provided his location. The following day, he was found dead in Dunorlan Park, Tunbridge Wells.

Our investigation followed a mandatory referral from Kent Police about the contact staff had with Matthew and the force’s response to the call.

We concluded our investigation in December 2020. Our final report was shared with Matthew’s family, Kent Police and HM Coroner, for the purpose of assisting with the inquest hearing into the teenager’s death. It ended yesterday (Wednesday, 19 May) and his death was recorded as suicide.

Our report includes details of the actions of Kent Police before he was found in the park.

There was initially an indication one police officer and five members of police staff individually may have breached the police’s standards of professional behaviour.

We analysed the abandoned call Matthew made to the police and the calls returned by Kent Police, along with all other documents created during the incident.

Kent Police policy, guidance and legislation were examined along with its training material. All the individuals under investigation were interviewed by the IOPC. Various witness statements were also obtained.

The investigation found no officer or staff member had a case to answer for misconduct or should face unsatisfactory performance proceedings.

However, we have recommended a Practice Requiring Improvement process for a police officer and two police staff members.

There were also potential areas of organisational learning identified by the investigation which we will continue to discuss with the force with a view to potentially making either local or national recommendations in due course. These are around gradings of threat to life calls made to the Police and the system they use to trace the location of callers.

IOPC Regional Director Graham Beesley yesterday said:

"Our thoughts and sympathies remain with Matthew’s family and all those affected by this incident.

"After a full review we found that the actions of the officers involved did not amount to misconduct.

"We are working closely with Kent Police to identify learning that has come out of this case, improve practices and the approach taken to calls of this nature in the future."