One of Merseyside’s most senior police officers has shared what it's really like to work in the fight against gun crime and child sexual exploitation.
Deputy Chief Constable Ian Critchley has worked on some of the most high profile murder investigations and child abuse cases across the North West during his 31 year career as a police officer. The dad-of-three was 22 years old when he first started working as a police constable at Accrington Police Station in 1992.
He worked his way through the ranks at Lancashire Police, where he was Head of Public Protection for four years, before joining Merseyside Police as Assistant Chief Constable in 2016. DCC Critchley spoke to the ECHO ahead of his retirement from Merseyside Police on March 31 about some of the biggest challenges he's faced during his time in the job.
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DCC Critchley said: "I don't think anything prepares you when you join at 22 years old and certainly didn't then, in terms of the importance of the role that you go into.
"You remember going to your first death message that you'd deliver to a family. I remember dealing with the first post mortem of a child, and I remember particularly the post mortem of a child that had the same name as my oldest daughter, which leaves an impression.
"And you remember your first arrest. You remember dealing with young children who were in care in Accrington at the time, and as a 22 year old and where policing has changed, maybe not seeing behind the vulnerabilities that they have and just hearing the words or hearing the language that was used, rather than trying to get beneath what help does this person need."
In his time as Deputy Chief Constable for Merseyside Police, DCC Critchley said last August was one of the most challenging times of his career, when the three fatal shootings of Sam Rimmer, Ashley Dale and Olivia Pratt-Korbel occurred in the space of six days.
On August 16, 22-year-old Sam Rimmer collapsed onto the street of Lavrock Bank, Dingle, with a bullet wound in his chest fired from one of four men on two electric bikes. Then followed the death of Ashley Dale, 28, who was shot in her own home by a gunman who burst through the door and fired "multiple shots" indiscriminately, in what detectives believe was an attempt to kill someone else.
Less than 48 hours later, nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel was shot dead in her own home on Kingsheath Avenue, Dovecot. DCC Critchley was also working on call on Christmas Eve when Rachael Louise Moore was hit and killed by a marked police car on Sheil Road in Kensington and Elle Edwards was shot dead at the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village.
He said: "August and Christmas were really challenging times. Most of all, clearly for bereaved families, for impacted communities, for staff who worked tirelessly to seek to bring offenders to justice.
"But it doesn't get any worse than seeing innocent members of the public being shot and killed in such a brutal, unnecessary way, which is why I'm proud to be part of an organisation that works tirelessly to seek to remove organised criminality.
"Our focus is about making sure that we're working so hard to prevent gun crime and child abuse, to prevent acts of violence against women and girls, because we know it has lifelong harm. I do that professionally because of the difference I make to society and social values but I also do it because I have my own family and have my own three girls growing up in this world."
He added: "We've had some real tragedies for our communities where we've seen the worst of humanity but we've also seen the best of our communities coming together, ranging from the bombing at the Women's Hospital, through to clearly the week in August where Sam, Ashley and then clearly Olivia were murdered.
"You often think about the horrendous acts of one human being to the other, but also within that time the amazing acts of the courage and compassion that our staff have shown, but also the amazing partners, stakeholders and members of the public that we deal with."
As a Detective Superintendent for Lancashire Police, DCC Critchley was the Head of Public Protection - a role which he's continued as NPCC lead for Child Protection. He wrote the first national action plan to tackle child sexual exploitation and was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in 2016 for services to policing.
DCC Critchley said dealing with the abuse and sexual exploitation of children during his time as Superintendent was one of the biggest challenges he has faced in the job. He said: "We obviously had national scandals involving the appalling abuse by Jimmy Saville.
"I was Head of Public Protection whilst we arrested Stuart Hall while we're in Lancashire. And we were also dealing with two no body murders in Lancs: the murders of Charlene Downes and Paige Chivers." (Charlene vanished without trace from Blackpool in November 2003, while Paige Chivers was reported missing from Blackpool in 2007. In July 2015, paedophile Robert Ewing, who groomed Paige, was convicted of killing her at his Blackpool flat, and given a life sentence.)
"We brought somebody to justice for the murder of Paige Chivers but again, it taught me that this is not how society should be. Children should not be harmed in this way."
DCC Critchley said policing has "made great strides forward around its ability to tackle child exploitation", but one of the biggest challenges that remains is policing of the internet. He added: "There are children being abused anywhere in the world.
"The online safety bill presents the biggest opportunity to make sure that the companies that are earning billions of pounds of profits fulfil their legal duty, as well as their moral duty to protect children."
During his time at Merseyside Police, DCC Critchley has led the force's approach to Operation Venetic, which targets criminals using encrypted mobile devices, commonly known as EncroChat. He has also helped to lead the force's approach to tackling County Lines as part of Project Medusa.
One of the biggest challenges he's faced working for Merseyside Police has been working on Operation Aloft - an investigation into building and development contracts in the city and has led to a number of arrests of figures linked to Liverpool Council.
These figures include former Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson and his son David, who were arrested in December 2020 and the council's former Regeneration Director Nick Kavanagh who was detained a year before that. All have denied wrongdoing and as with Sheridan, there have been no charges to this date.
DCC Critchley said now is also a challenging time in policing after London Metropolitan Police officers Wayne Couzens and David Carrick were exposed for heinous sexual crimes against women.
He said these national scandals have "shone a spotlight on the necessity to accelerate our approach to protect women and girls, both in the public and our communities", as well as "enhancing our own workforce for women and girls and also for other minoritised communities and staff."
Asked how trust can be restored in policing at this time, DCC Critchley said: "We acknowledge that this is an issue for policing and there are a lot of people working hard nationally and across Merseyside to both acknowledge, identify the issues and make sure we correct what needs to be corrected.
"I think this is a really important time for policing. For all the understandable headlines there are - we'll see more this week with the Casey report nationally - I am also optimistic that this will make a real difference to the culture within policing, and continue to build on enhancing trust and legitimacy, which ultimately underpins the effectiveness of policing within our communities."
Ahead of his retirement on March 31, DCC Critchley is set to complete an 100 mile bike ride followed by a marathon around all the police stations across Merseyside on Wednesday, March 22. All money raised via a Just Giving Page will be donated to the Doyle Phillips Foundation, which was set up following the deaths of PC Neil Doyle and PC Dave Phillips.
DCC Critchley said: "Policing goes much beyond any individual, it is here to serve our communities. We are part of the community."
Looking back at his 31 year career in policing, one person DCC Critchley said he remembers working with fondly is Pauline Fielding, whose son Andrew was killed in a crash on the day of his exam results in June 1994. Ever since Andrew's death, Pauline, who is a trustee of the charity RoadPeace, has campaigned tirelessly to make the dangerous junction of Raby Park Road and Chester High Road safer, and has organised remembrance events for bereaved families.
DCC Critchley said: "That's a perfect example and a privilege to have been in policing and worked alongside people that give others hope at a time of real darkness and sadness."
He added: "I move on with pride of the people I've worked with. Thanks to the people that have supported me, both colleagues but most importantly the public and communities and our partners around it.
"Policing will continue to face some of those challenges that you've identified, but I've no doubt at all that Merseyside Police will continue to do that very well indeed. It's a good organisation and I've been proud to be a part of it.
"It accepts scrutiny, it takes accountability, it's led by a fantastic Chief Constable and it will continue to do all it can to protect the most vulnerable, prevent crime and bring offenders to justice. It's been a privilege to be part of."
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