The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating the response of West Midlands police into the death of a 23-year-old man who ran away from a mental health hospital and was killed by a train.
The IOPC also said it had served a police inspector with a notice that they were under investigation for misconduct.
Matthew Caseby absconded from a hospital in Birmingham run by the Priory Group just 60 hours after he was admitted.
He had been sectioned as an NHS patient under the Mental Health Act after being found running along a railway line and telling doctors he was hearing voices.
An inquest last April concluded that his death was “contributed to by neglect” on the part of the Priory Woodbourne. A jury found it was not safe for Caseby to be left unattended and an opportunity was missed to improve security after previous patients had absconded.
Richard Caseby, Matthew Caseby’s father, has argued that the police were also at fault. He said mistakes were made by the inspector that day in charge of responding to 999 calls and allocating police resources. Instead of his son’s case being classified as high-risk, it was classified as medium-risk.
The assessment, he said, meant that far less effort was made by the police to find Caseby than if he had been assessed as at serious risk of harm.
Richard Caseby, a former managing editor of the Sunday Times, accused the inspector of having been “utterly negligent about Matthew’s acute vulnerability”.
The inspector knew, he said, that his son was suffering a psychotic episode and had been sectioned under the act for his own safety because he had been found running on train lines.
The inspector “dismissed all the overwhelming medical evidence he was given that our son was at serious risk”, Richard Caseby said.
Matthew Caseby’s case was later assessed at high-risk but it was too late for any useful action to be taken, his father said.
Caseby was a personal trainer who had a first-class degree in history from Birmingham University. He was a talented footballer and as a teenager had trials with Charlton Athletic.
He began seeing a counsellor in 2019 and his mental health deteriorated during lockdown.
Caseby died after being struck by a train in September 2020.
His family described him as “a beautiful, gentle and intelligent young man whose ambition was to help everyone live a better life through exercise”.
The Priory Group has apologised for shortcomings identified at the inquest.
The Care Quality Commission subsequently launched a criminal investigation into the Priory Group and the hospital manager for possible breaches of health and social care law.
A spokesperson for the IOPC said: “We can confirm that we are investigating the West Midlands police (WMP) response to reports on 7 September 2020 that Matthew Caseby was missing. Our investigation began in October 2022 after we received from WMP the mandatory referral of a complaint.
“We are considering the initial risk assessments and subsequent reviews by officers; the actions taken to locate Matthew; what consideration was given to concerns and information relayed by his parents; and the conduct of an officer during the inquest into Matthew’s death, which was held in April 2022.
“During the course of our investigation, we have served a WMP inspector with a notice informing them that they are under investigation for misconduct, in relation to their decision making and handling of information after Matthew was reported missing. The serving of notices does not necessarily mean that disciplinary proceedings will follow.
“Our inquiries, which are ongoing, have included applying to HM Coroner to obtain evidence and recordings from the inquest, and we are seeking statements from a number of witnesses.”
A spokesperson for West Midlands police said they had no comment to make.
