Wrong address for 999 police
Nov 21 2007 by Dave Black, The Journal
A MISTAKE led to police officers being sent to a wrong address 20 miles away following a 999 call from a domestic incident which ended with a suicidal man setting himself on fire, an inquest heard yesterday.
Troubled David McCarthy, 33, died in hospital from 85% burns after dousing himself with flammable liquid and setting it alight at his parents’ home in Moorland Avenue, Bedlington, Northumberland, in January.
A neighbour had dialled 999 and asked for police to respond after Mr McCarthy attacked his mother and chased her into the street while brandishing a knife.
A Northumbria Police civilian worker who took the emergency call logged the wrong information into her computer, which meant officers were at first sent to Moorland Avenue in Haltwhistle, 20 miles away.
The mistake resulted in a 13-minute delay in officers reaching the Bedlington address, where ex-soldier Mr McCarthy had barricaded himself inside the house with a knife.
The error was only rectified when his father Michael – who works as a supervisor in the Northumbria Police control room and was on duty at the time – spotted it and re-routed the officers to his family home.
Police tried to talk Mr McCarthy out of the house but he refused, and eventually officers forced their way in when he was seen pouring liquid over the upper part of his body. One officer used CS spray in a bid to subdue him but it had no effect and within seconds Mr McCarthy had set himself alight and emerged from the front of the house engulfed in flames.
Officers used their jackets and water to put out the flames but he died a few hours later in Wansbeck General Hospital.
Yesterday, at the inquest into his death, North Northumberland coroner Ian McCreath welcomed moves by Northumbria Police to improve their 999 communications as a result of the tragedy.
He said the call taker’s mistake had been a serious one, although he was not convinced that the 13-minute delay had made a difference to the eventual outcome of the incident. However, it might have done and a similar error could clearly have serious implications in other sets of circumstances, he added.
Mr McCreath said evidence suggested that such errors happened on a regular basis and it was vitally important that the force ensured that the correct addresses were logged for 999 incidents. He said he would write to Chief Constable Mike Craik urging him to act on a series of recommendations made by a senior officer who reviewed Mr McCarthy’s death.
It has already been agreed that initial training for civilian call takers will be increased from three to eight weeks and the force is planning further measures aimed at ensuring accurate logging of information.
These include call takers always asking callers to repeat the full address of the incident to ensure accuracy, keeping callers on an open line to confirm the address and other information and seeking an IT solution which would identify errors by matching the caller’s telephone area code with that of the address officers are dispatched to.
Mr McCreath also backed recommendations that tactical ground command radio communications should be improved at incidents and that all police vehicles should carry fire blankets.
The inquest was told that Mr McCarthy, who was separated from his wife Joanne, suffered from serious problems of alcohol dependency and depression and had made two suicide attempts not long before his death. The week before he had been assessed at St George’s psychiatric hospital in Morpeth but no mental illness was detected.
After yesterday’s hearing, his mother Bernadette said: “David was loved by everyone and was a good husband and a good son.” She said he had been distraught because of his inability to see his three young children following the break-up of his marriage.
Verdict: suicide while the balance of his mind was disturbed.
