The decision to not refer Jake Davison’s assault of two teenagers to the Crown Prosecution Service a year before he shot dead five people in Plymouth was wrong and posed a danger to the public, a detective has admitted.
DS Edward Bagshaw said a case should have been sent to the CPS for it to consider charging him with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and battery. But the police were under pressure not to send more cases to the courts, which were struggling to deal with backlogs caused by the pandemic, and instead he was put through a restorative justice programme.
The inquests into the deaths of Davison’s five victims heard that Davison aimed a volley of punches at a 16-year-old boy and slapped his female friend, 15, after being called fat by another teenager. The boy sustained injuries to his eyebrow, nose and lip during the incident in a Plymouth park in September 2020.
Davison, an apprentice crane operator, was not charged over the incident and instead was referred to the restorative justice Pathfinder scheme. His legally held shotgun and certificate were later seized but they were later returned in July 2021. The following month Davison, 22, killed his mother, Maxine, 51, three-year-old Sophie Martyn, her father, Lee Martyn, 43, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66, before turning his pump-action shotgun on himself.
Bagshaw said police could charge offences of common assault or battery themselves but if it was a more serious charge, such as assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) or assault occasioning grievous bodily harm, it required approval from the CPS.
Bridget Dolan KC, counsel to the inquest, asked the detective whether there had been a tendency to downgrade offences during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bagshaw replied: “There were a lot of pressures from the court to use out-of-court disposals at that time.”
Dominic Adamson KC, representing the families of Davison’s victims, suggested the assault on the boy was a “nailed on” section 47 ABH case and should have been referred to the CPS.
“In my opinion at that time it should have been referred to the CPS,” Bagshaw said.
Nick Stanage, representing Davison’s brother and sister, Zoe and Josh Davison, asked: “The decision not to treat the case as ABH was a decision that failed to protect the public? Do you agree?”
Bagshaw replied: “I would have to agree with that.”
Stanage asked: “A decision that posed a danger to the public?”
Bagshaw answered: “Probably, yes.”
The inquest also heard from DI Debbie Wyatt, who made the decision to send Davison’s case to Pathfinder. She said that at the time officers were receiving “regular emails” asking them to consider “out-of-court disposals”.
Dolan asked: “It was a call to send as much as you can to the Pathfinder?”
The officer replied: “If it was appropriate. If I didn’t feel it was suitable, I would not have sent it.”
The inquests continue.
