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REDACTED IPCC Final Report Duggan Family Complaint 80. There then followed a discussion during which DC Manz attempted to verify Mr Duggan’s identity by looking at a photograph on Ms Wilson’s phone and asking about tattoos and distinguishing marks. He attempted to look at the body himself, but was unable to do so. However, a senior officer from Operation Trident confirmed that the body was that of Mark Duggan. 81. A room was found in the nearby tube station where DC Manz, with his colleague DC Buchanan, explained what they knew at that stage, which was not very much, and advised that to the best of their understanding it was Mr Duggan who had been shot and formal identification would take place in due course. 82. Contact details were exchanged and Ms Wilson provided Mr Duggan’s parents’ details to the officers. DC Manz explained that someone from the MPS would come to Ms Wilson’s home address later that evening. Ms Wilson was escorted to her car and she went home. Nobody from the MPS came to see her that night and the next morning she telephoned DC Manz to ask what was happening. 83. DC Manz told Ms Wilson that the IPCC would be taking over family liaison and would contact her by telephone later in the day. Richard Omotosho from the IPCC telephoned and introduced himself as her Family Liaison Manager. 84. Ms Wilson emphasised that at no time did either she or Ms Hall tell DC Manz and/or DC Buchanan (or indeed any other officer) that Mr Duggan’s parents would be upset and on no account should they be contacted by the police as that would not be welcomed. At no time did they agree to tell Mr Duggan’s parents about his death. 85. Ms Hall told the investigation that they were in a state of shock at the news and it is understandable that their recollections may have been affected by the emotion of the situation. 86. Ms Hall felt that the fact they were not allowed to see the body, the initial rumours that the victim was in hospital and then that he might be Asian, gave her hope that it was not Mr Duggan who had been killed. For her, it was only when she went to the mortuary two days later that she fully accepted that Mr Duggan was dead. 87. She had no memory of any conversation with the MPS Family Liaison Officers about how further members of the family were to be informed. She did not remember any reference to either her or Ms Wilson stating that the parents should not be told at this time. 88. Ms Hall described police officers driving in vans past the home of Mr Duggan’s parents, slowing down as they passed the house on the night of the incident. She could not understand why they did not come in and formally inform them that Mr Duggan had been shot by the police. 89. None of the family members who provided this investigation with an account had any specific recollection of conversations over the Saturday and Sunday with IPCC staff about Mr Duggan’s parents. They are sure that no one from the family told the IPCC that Mr Duggan’s parents should not be visited by the IPCC. Ms Wilson did not recall her telephone conversation with Karen Roche on the Saturday evening. REDACTED Page 16 of 23
REDACTED IPCC Final Report Duggan Family Complaint 90. Mrs Pamela Duggan told the IPCC that she was at home during the evening of the 4 August 2011 with one member of the extended family keeping her company. She had the television news on and heard that it was rumoured that the man shot was Mark Duggan. She remembers lots of members of the family making telephone calls and coming to the house, but she was not told directly by anyone that night that her son had definitely been killed. 91. She went on to say that Mark’s address was her home and she fully expected someone from the police to come and inform her of his death. The uncertainty at the scene, the rumour that the dead man was Asian and that Mark may have been taken to hospital kept hope alive for her. She stated: “A mother’s worst nightmare is the police coming to the door to tell you your child is dead. Because this did not happen, I believed the worst had not happened.” 92. Ms Carol Duggan told the IPCC that it was left to her to tell her sister that Mark had died by telephoning her from Manchester. There were so many conflicting stories that her sister had not known who to believe. Whilst family members do not accept the police accounts of what Ms Wilson and Ms Hall said at the scene, Mrs Pamela Duggan is clear that even if they had made a request for the police not to attend the family home, this should have been ignored. She feels that Ms Wilson and Ms Hall were in shock, they were unsure that it was Mark and not in a positon to make such a decision. 93. All the family members spoken to by the IPCC investigation expressed concern that in the aftermath of the shooting there was a great deal of confusion about whether the IPCC or the police should have visited the parents and that this was not clarified by either organisation. Policies and procedures 94. The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) has produced, on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), a 113-page guidance document on family liaison. It sets out best practice and procedures that should be followed in relation to dealing with families where a death has occurred. The guidance was issued in 2008. 95. Chapter 4 has a short section on identifying the family and states that family should include partner, parents, siblings, children, grandchildren, guardians and others who have had a direct and close relationship with the victim. 96. Appendix 2 of the guidance document is titled Independent Police Complaints Commission guidance on family liaison in police complaint investigations. In relation to initial deployment the guidance states: It is of the utmost importance that the delivery of the death message to the next of kin is not delayed. This will invariably mean the prompt deployment of a police officer, probably a Family Liaison Officer, to the family to deliver that message. REDACTED Page 17 of 23
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