Durham police actions ‘appropriate’ prior to 2016 restaurant attack

An independent investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) into Durham Constabulary’s actions in the build up to the stabbing of two restaurant workers in Darlington last year, has found that the force’s response was appropriate.

The investigation looked at the police’s contact with Mohibur Rahman in the days prior to him stabbing two people at a Darlington restaurant on the evening of 21 July 2016. Rahman, aged 43, was given a 16-year sentence after pleading guilty to wounding at Teesside Crown Court on 7 February this year.

The IPCC analysed the force’s actions in the preceding 43 hours before the attack, when Rahman himself made four 999 calls to Durham Constabulary and was detained at Darlington custody suite for possession of a controlled substance.

During one of the calls to the police, Rahman claimed he had seen people with firearms. The assessment of the call handler was later found to be appropriate; no firearms were involved in this incident. The force also received a 101 call from Rahman’s landlady to report criminal damage at his flat.

In the investigator’s opinion, none of the police call handling staff or police officers involved had a case to answer for misconduct. Although Durham Constabulary did not send officers to Rahman’s address within their one hour target time in response to his final 999 call, in the investigator’s opinion, this was as a result of a lack of resources rather than any individual failure to follow policy.

IPCC Operations Manager Lauren Collins said:

“I’d like to offer our sympathies to everyone affected by this horrific attack on innocent people and to reassure the families involved and the public that we carried out a very thorough and detailed investigation.

“Our investigators examined all of Durham Constabulary’s contact with Mohibur Rahman in the days prior to his attack. We reviewed the content of the calls made by him and his landlady and the CCTV footage from the custody suite. We also interviewed police officers and staff, and considered whether local and national policies were complied with.

“Although there were no identifiable conduct issues, we have identified learning for Durham’s control room staff about how they handle calls concerning firearms. We have also reiterated the importance of accurately recording information received from callers and accurately recording actions taken as a result of those calls.”

The IPCC report was finalised on 1 August 2017 and was shared with the force soon after, who agreed with its findings.

A redacted version of the report has been published here: http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/investigations/mohibur-rahman-durham-constabulary