Bullied man let down by ‘systemic failures’ says IPCC

David Askew, 64, collapsed and died in March 2010 after suffering heart failure at home in Hattersley, Tameside. For ten years he had been harrassed by youths who lived near him. The abuse had escalated in the three years leading up to his death.

The report, from the Independent Police Complaints Commission, points to what it describes as “systemic failures” within the Greater Manchester Police, although it cleared any individual officers of wrongdoing, saying that no officers broke the law or breached professional standards.

But many failures are pointed out, with the report concluding that “Greater Manchester Police… took the easier route of regarding Mr Askew as part of the problem and trying to focus on changing his behaviour, rather than robustly and consistently tackling the behaviour of the perpetrators.”

The report makes clear that dedicated local officers, who tried to help the family, were let down by the system they worked within. There is praise from the IPCC for the local Neighbourhood Policing Team, who they said showed “real concern” for the family and ‘”worked diligently to assist them at a local level, including undertaking work when off duty.”

Greater Manchester Police… took the easier route of regarding Mr Askew as part of the problem… rather than robustly and consistently tackling the behaviour of the perpetrators. IPCC report

Between January 2004 and March 2010 there were 88 reported incidents involving the family, but the IPCC, who were asked to conduct an inquiry by Greater Manchester Police, focused on the final three years of Mr Askew’s life.

The report found that in half of the incidents examined, there was no acknowledgement of vulnerability or of the history of incidents and crimes previously reported. Staff who took emergency calls from the Askew family didn’t know the history of the case or pass on that information to responding officers. The IPCC said that this meant that “officers dealt with incidents in isolation”.

Greater Manchester Police should have recognised what was happening to Mr Askew as a hate crime, the report found, but no officer or call handler ever flagged this up. Other agencies were mentioned as faililng to work together on the case. A Serious Case Review has been commissioned by Tameside Adult Safeguarding Partnership.

No system was in place that allowed the problems being reported to be stored in one place and CCTV installed failed to work properly.

Greater Manchester Police say that they have changed the way they deal with anti-social behaviour. Garry Shewen, Assistant Chief Constable, said: “Tackling anti-social behaviour and giving people the support and protection they need is an absolute priority for Greater Manchester Police and we have put structures in place to try and stop what happened to the Askews from happening to anyone else.”

IPCC criticisms of Greater Manchester Police
A lack of consistent identification of, and response to, the vulnerability factors affecting the Askew family
A total failure to recognise and respond to the incidents as 'hate crime'
An apparent lack of coordination and cohesive action between partner agencies 
A lack of robust offender management

In September last year Kial Cottingham, 19, who lives doors away from the Askew family, pleaded guilty to harassing Mr Askew for cigarettes over a three month period and was sentenced to 16 weeks in a Young Offenders Institution. Cottingham was questioned on suspicion of manslaughter but was cleared of any involvement in Mr Askew’s death.

IPCC Commssioner Naseem Malik said: “It is fully acknowledged that since 2007 there was an escalation in efforts by the Neighbourhood Policing Team to assist the family. However their hands were tied by organisational shortcomings and the failure to recognise that the matter needed a higher level strategic approach. They were left with a sticking plaster solution when the matter needed extensive surgery.”

The report comes a year after another IPCC investigation into a similar case, that of 18 year old Francesca Hardwick who was killed by her mother Fiona Pilkington. The pair died together in a burning car on the A47 near their home in Barwell, Leicestershire in October 2007.

The famiy were subjected to years of abuse in their street from a gang of youths, including children pelting their home with eggs and stones and lighting fires in the garden.

Speaking to Channel 4 News today, Alexandra O’Dwyer, head of communications at Scope, the disability charity, said: “The Fiona Pilkington case should have been a watershed when it came to the subject of disability hate crime, but here we are again.”

She said that not enough is being done to identify hate crimes against disabled people: “It often arises as low level incidents, what is described as bullying, and because disabled people are often misunderstood, cases don’t get escalated quickly enough. Local officers in this case should have been putting two and two together and all of those separate incidences should have been flagged as hate crime. Then a strategic intervention could have been made much sooner.”