By Andrew Young-
The Metropolitan Police have been condemned by the family of a 17-year-old boy who died after crashing a stolen car during a police chase.
The family have criticised the Metropolitan Police for throwing out a misconduct hearing because of their own delays.
Liam Albert crashed the stolen car in Lammas Lane, Esher, in July 2009, after a high-speed pursuit. He died in hospital eight days later.
Last week, an internal disciplinary hearing was called off because the amount of time that has passed since his death meant “a fair process was not possible”.
PC John Wills, the police passenger was accused of failing to install the relevant in-car video system, and an appropriate commentary of the pursuit . PC Wills also unprofessionally removed evidence from the crash scene without authority. Making matters worse is the fact that
inspector Mandy Chamberlain, from the Met, who arrived at the scene later, and allegedly issued an instruction to delete photographic evidence a, which was withheld evidence from a Surrey Police investigation. The failing is a serious disgrace to the Met, who are notorious for cover-ops, instead of following correct procedures. Officers are expected to hold the highest level of professionalism in their line of work, but history is full of instances where they abuse their position and mask the facts in a way that obstructs a proper investigation.
Shockingly, none of the officers was punished in a way that fitted their offence their misconduct. Insp Chamberlain has been suspended since May this year – while PC Wills has been on restricted duties.
IPCC Investigation
An IPCC investigation began in May 2013, but failed to interview PC Wills or Insp Chamberlain until autumn 2014. The Crown Prosecution Service(CPS) also decided against prosecution in March 2016, and in April that year the IPCC told the Met to begin its misconduct process. It must be made clear that car theft is wrong, thoughtless, and selfish. Perpetrators of car theft seek to deprive hardworking people of the products of their hard earned cash , for which legal punishment should be given. Running away in a stolen car and engaging police in a car chase, can always end in a fatal way, but police have no excuse to tamper with evidence when pursuing their job in the proper legal way.
The eye of media.com investigate this case further with the IPCC and the police officers involved, misconduct should always lead to punishment of some sort. It is a frightening thought to think that the IPCC may have failed in their duty as regulators of the police, somebody must be held to account for this, and we intend to vigorously pursue this for some answers.
IPCC Commissioner Cindy Butts said ion a statement:
“It is crucially important for public confidence that police officers are held to account and the sad death of Liam has been investigated twice, through a managed and then independent IPCC inquiry, and fully scrutinised during an inquest.
“However, it is also very important that officers are treated fairly and in the exceptional circumstances of this case the panel determined that could not happen.”“We have apologised to Liam’s family for the frustration and upset this has caused. Since this investigation concluded, the IPCC has undergone a substantial change programme and has made significant improvements in the way we work to prevent similar delays occurring.” However, this is just not good enough, not if officers and officials of the IPCC clearly failed in their duties.
Liam’s parents, Sharla John and Delroy Albert are still very much in mourning over their son’s death. The sad fact is their son was not innocent in the calamity that befell him, but if officers behaved unlawfully and inappropriately, they must answer for it.
“This was an opportunity for the officers and the Met to explain their conduct during and after the fatal collision. At every step of this process they have declined to give us some understanding of why they sought to obstruct the Surrey Police investigation, and to explain what really went wrong. The death of Liam and the truth was always less important than self-preservation,” they said.
A 2011 inquest found Liam, of Vectis Road, Mitcham, died “as a direct result” of police involvement, and police should have stopped the chase 2.7km earlier. The unfortunate reality is also that Liam should have stopped running too, but two wrongs have never made a right.
The police driver, PC Paul Rogers, retired before the misconduct process began., and so escaped accountability. Retirement should not make anybody immune from questioning in an investigation involving a death.
Deputy assistant commissioner Richard Martin, who leads for professionalism for the Met said: “Our thoughts and sympathies remain with Liam’s family for their tragic loss.
“It is crucially important for public confidence that police officers are held to account and the sad death of Liam has been investigated twice, through a managed and then independent IPCC inquiry, and fully scrutinised during an inquest.
“However, it is also very important that officers are treated fairly and in the exceptional circumstances of this case the panel determined that could not happen.”
This statement doesn’t appeal to fair and logical thinking. Officers remove evidence from a crash scene without authority, and the instruct the deleting of photographic evidence, yet the official word from the Metropolitan police is that a fair investigation could not happen? What nonesense!