Jury finds PC’s “pursuit” contributed to death of young couple in Cumbria
Ryan Duffy, 24, and Ellie Marsden, 20, were found dead in September 2021
A jury has concluded that a police officer’s late night road pursuit of a young couple’s van contributed to a crash which tragically claimed both their lives.
Ryan Duffy, 24, and 20-year Ellie Marsden were found dead inside a Citroen Berlingo at around 7-30am on September 5, 2021. The van had left a country lane in darkness, in the early hours of September 5, 2021, and collided with a tree several miles from the village of Kings Meaburn, near Appleby-in-Westmorland.
An inquest into their deaths heard the couple had travelled from their Greater Manchester homes to Appleby at 10pm on September 4, 2021.
They booked into a hotel at the town’s historic castle for the night. “I just want to make her happy with a night away,” Ryan told the hotel duty manager.
The couple visited the to nearby town centre Hare & Hounds pub for two hours. At around 12-30am, CCTV footage captured them leaving the premises and returning to a parked Citroen Berlingo van, which drove on to a main town road heading towards the castle.
Their presence was also noted by PC Craig Stevenson, a standard response officer on patrol who decided to follow and monitor the van’s movements. He watched as the driver went the wrong way along a one-way street.
PC Stevenson continued following, seeking to stop the car and speak with the driver. His own Ford Transit vehicle data showed he repeatedly travelled above the speed limit both in Appleby and then out on to rural country roads as he attempted, unsuccessfully, to catch up with the Berlingo.
"high risk activity"
Both vehicles turned on to a country lane known as Long Rigg. At that stage, PC Stevenson lost sight of the van. He stopped and sent a radio message to his control room. He was a mere 170 metres from where the crashed Berlingo was later found.
“Just had a vehicle make off from me on the back roads from Appleby,” the officer reported, before turning around.
He had never managed to log the registration number of the Berlingo nor the vehicle’s make during a four-minute journey. He told jurors the opportunity to activate blue lights to attempt a safe stoppage did not arise.
PC Stevenson confirmed he was trained to follow and stop vehicles but not to engage in any pursuit which, he explained, was a “high risk activity” for any officer or people in a subject vehicle.
At no stage, he told jurors, did he believe he was involved in a “spontaneous pursuit”, as defined by College of Policing policy. This dictates that if a subject driver is aware of police presence, fails to stop and a pursuit begins, a non-trained pursuit officer must immediate inform a control room and disengage.
“I didn’t believe it was a pursuit,” PC Stevenson told assistant coroner Joseph Hart during the inquest.
After listening to evidence over the course of a week, a jury concluded, on the balance of probabilities, that Ryan had become aware of the officer’s presence while driving out of Appleby.
Ryan took evasive action, the jury found, unanimously, resulting in a spontaneous pursuit.
"spontaneous pursuit"
The 11-strong jury concluded today (18th March) that there were a number of factors which contributed to the deaths of Ryan and Ellie in the collision.
One was excess alcohol, with a post-mortem reading from Ryan’s bloodstream showing he was between two and three times the legal drink-drive limit; along with other intoxicants, cocaine and ketamine also being found in his system.
Another factor, jurors found, was driver error, with Ryan, of Ashton-in-Makerfield, failing to negotiate a bend on which he crashed. A third factor was the fact that neither he nor Ellie, of Golborne, had been wearing seat belts.
And a fourth was PC Stevenson following the van. “On the balance of probabilities the police officer was engaged in a spontaneous pursuit of Ryan, and this contributed to causing the crash,” concluded jurors.
Relatives of Ellie wept as the conclusions were delivered by a jury foreman.
Coroner Mr Hart offered his sympathies to the loved ones of care assistant Ellie and Ryan, a United Utilities leakage engineer.
“There is literally nothing I can say to diminish your loss and the tragedy of your loss,” he said.
A Cumbria Police spokesman said:
“The Constabulary has supported the coronial process and respects the findings and conclusions of the inquest today. We will now review these and consider any actions, learning, training or changes in procedures that need to take place.
“This incident was referred to the IOPC (Independent Office for Police Conduct) following the tragic incident in 2021 who returned the investigation back to the Constabulary. We will contact the IOPC regarding today’s conclusions.
“Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of Ellie Marsden and Ryan Duffy at this very difficult time.”