Delays in search for murdered Wigan teen Ellen Higginbottom
An Independent Office for Police Conduct investigation found a lack of resources contributed to a four hour delay
Last updated 5th Apr 2018
An investigation has found that a lack of resources at Greater Manchester Police (GMP) contributed to a four hour delay in the search for Ellen Higginbottom.
18 year old Ellen was reported missing at around 7pm on 16 June 2017. She was found dead at Orrel Water Park in Wigan in the early hours of the next morning. GMP's criminal investigation found Ellen died prior to being reported missing.
Mark Buckley, 51, was jailed for life for her murder in September last year.
The independent investigation looked at GMP's response to Ellen being reported missing by her father; including the time taken to dispatch officers to search for Ellen at her last known location.
The investigation focused on the actions of three radio operators and found that information about Ellen being missing was placed on the police national computer (PNC) around 15 minutes after the report to GMP.
According to GMP policies, it should have been dealt with within an hour, but was delayed 13 times due to a lack of available patrols at GMP, who were already dealing with other priority incidents.
Shortly after 11.30pm, following a call to GMP from Ellen's father requesting an update, officers became available and were dispatched to Ellen's home and began searching for her.
The investigation found there was insufficient evidence to bring misconduct charges against the three radio operators, but that their performance was unsatisfactory and fell below the standard expected.
GMP agreed with the findings and made the decision not to conduct formal proceedings but to remind the call handlers of the Escalation Polcy.
They say staff shortages due to funding cuts to their budget meant they could not respond sooner.
GMP gave us this statement:
Greater Manchester Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Chris Sykes said: “My thoughts are with Ellen’s family, what they have been through is unimaginable.
“We have acknowledged the findings of the IOPC’s report and recognise that the search for Ellen was delayed due to staff resourcing.
“Unfortunately Greater Manchester Police have lost 2,000 officers due to funding cuts, all the while our work has become more demanding.
“Managing this demand with reduced resources is extremely difficult and it is sometimes a challenge to allocate resources to incidents.
“While Ellen’s death would not have been prevented if the search had begun earlier, the delay in being able to allocate officers clearly caused extra stress and worry to her family and friends, for this we can only apologise.
“We will continue to do our best to provide the people of Greater Manchester with the service they want and deserve, and take the findings of the IOPC report very seriously.
IOPC Regional Director for the North West, Amanda Rowe, said: “Firstly, I would like to reiterate our thanks to Ellen’s family for their assistance with our investigation, and the courage they have shown since her tragic death, and our thoughts and sympathies remain with them. This is a most harrowing case, and our investigators worked hard to ensure our involvement could be concluded as quickly as possible.
“It is difficult to draw definitive conclusions to this case. There were significant delays in dispatching officers, and clear evidence that there were simply no officers available. While we believe there were errors in following force policy, delays may still have been inevitable given the number of high priority incidents that day.
“Unfortunately in this case there is no simple answer, but we hope every effort is made in future to escalate such incidents. At the very least, the public should be reassured that if someone is reported missing, action will be taken as soon as possible."