Watchdog finds police failed vulnerable murder victim

Elizabeth Bowe was known to Police Scotland and had been extensively recorded on their systems as a vulnerable person who had been the subject of domestic abuse. This included allegations that she had been assaulted by her brother, Charles Gordon.

Ms Bowe was found seriously injured at her home in St Andrews on 17 September 2016, almost an hour and a half after she had phoned police on the 999 emergency number.

Her injuries were so severe that she died on 20 September 2016 and the matter was referred to the PIRC by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).

Following agreement with the COPFS, commissioner Kate Frame has now published a summary of her findings.

She said: “Had Police Scotland timeously dispatched resources in accordance with their call priority system following Elizabeth Bowe’s 999 call 1 hour and 24 minutes earlier, officers may have arrived at her home prior to her receiving the injuries from which she died and thereby prevented her death.”

Ms Frame identified a number of failings in the police response to Ms Bowe’s 999 call.

She found that the service advisor who dealt with the initial call from Ms Bowe failed to record all relevant and appropriate information, such as the fact she was a vulnerable adult, was in a violent domestic relationship and required her mobile telephone to report any matters relating to her personal safety.

The commissioner acknowledged that the service advisor correctly graded the call as requiring an urgent response within 15 minutes but that when the call was passed to the communications controller, he failed to properly assess the incident and dispatch resources to investigate Ms Bowe’s report of a crime.

He decided, contrary to the Scottish Crime Recording Standard, that no crime had occurred and decided instead to downgrade the call priority and close the incident, without obtaining the necessary permission from a supervisor and failed to send officers to respond to the report of theft. This was contrary to Police Scotland’s command and control standard operating procedure.

Ms Frame said: “I have made a number of recommendations to the Chief Constable to ensure that priority calls from vulnerable persons such as Elizabeth Bowe are responded to appropriately.”

View the report here