A teenager whose body was found in a pond at London’s Epping Forest weeks after he went missing had drowned, an inquest heard.
Richard Okorogheye, 19, was last seen at his West London home on 22 March 2021 and his body was pulled from the water nearly a fortnight later, on 5 April.
The Metropolitan Police apologised to the family of the teenager after an investigation by the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), found that Mr Okorogheye should have been classed as a missing person earlier and he was classed as low risk for too long.
The investigation found that the Metropolitan Police provided an “unacceptable level of service” to Mr Okorogheye’s mother, Ms Evidence Joel, after she reported her son missing.
The IOPC inquiry found six Met Police employees, three officers and three police staff, should receive enhanced training. However, none were found to have a case to answer for misconduct.
Who was Richard Okorogheye?
Richard Okorogheye was a student at Oxford Brookes University, studying computer science and cyber security.
He had sickle cell disease which forced him to shield throughout the coronavirus pandemic, only leaving the house for hospital appointments for regular blood transfusions to treat his condition.
Mr Okorogheye told his mother that he was “struggling to cope” throughout lockdown.
When did Richard Okorogheye go missing?
The teenager left his home in West London on Monday, March 22, 2021, without his medication after telling his mother he was going out.
His mother returned home from a nursing shift at around 9pm to discover he was missing but his wallet, bus pass and bank card had been left behind.
The teenager’s mother contacted police the following day, but her son was not officially recorded as missing until 8am on March 24.
The Met Police said the student left his home headed in the direction of Ladbroke Grove at approximately 8.30pm on March 22.
The last confirmed sighting of Mr Okorogheye was when he was seen boarding the 23 southbound bus in Ladbroke Grove at 8.44pm.
Police said further enquires established that he then took a taxi journey from the W2 area of London to a street in Loughton, Essex.
He was captured on CCTV walking alone on Smarts Lane, Loughton, towards Epping Forest at 12.39am on Tuesday 23 March.
CCTV from the early hours of March showed the student wearing an all-black outfit and carrying a black satchel bag with a white Adidas logo.
Richard Okorogheye— (Evidence Joel )
When was Richard Okorogheye’s body found?
Mr Okorogheye’s body was found by police in a pond in Epping Forest on Easter Monday.
Two days later, police confirmed the body was Richard’s following a post-mortem examination, which found no evidence of physical trauma or assault.
Detective Superintendent Danny Gosling, head of the Met’s Central West Public Protection Unit, said: “My deepest sympathies go out to Richard’s family at this incredibly difficult time.
“This was not the outcome that any of us had hoped for and we will ensure that his grieving family are well-supported by specially trained officers.
“I would like to extend my thanks to the many officers, staff and members of the public who have each played a part in the extensive effort to locate Richard.”
CCTV from the early hours of March showed the student wearing an all-black outfit— (Supplied)
Ms Joel described the discovery of her son’s body as “devastating”.
She told The Evening Standard: “My baby will never come home to his mummy again. He was taken away from me too early.
“The only child I have. It’s devastating and the last thing I thought I’d hear.”
How did Richard Okorogheye die?
Mr Okorogheye’s cause of death was given as “consistent with drowning” by consultant forensic pathologist Dr Benjamin Swift during the first day of an inquest held at Essex Coroner’s Court in Chelmsford, on 24 July 2023.
Dr Swift was told by Mr Okorogheye’s family that he had been unable to swim and disliked water.
Mr Swift said there were no acute injuries externally or internally on Mr Okorogheye’s body and no marks of an offensive or defensive nature.
Area coroner Sean Horstead decided the inquest would not look into the wider circumstances surrounding Mr Okorogheye’s death, as his provisional view was that Mr Okorogheye had died by the time his mother first reported him missing to the police.
What has Richard Okorogheye’s family said?
Mr Okorogheye’s mother has previously rejected an apology from the Metropolitan Police following the “substandard level of service” she received.
Ms Joel filed a complaint against the Met after her son was found on April 5. In a statement issued through her lawyers, she said: “The IOPC investigation has confirmed what I always knew – in the darkest period of my life, I was dismissed by multiple Metropolitan Police staff at all levels of seniority and my son’s disappearance was not taken seriously.
“It is a matter of deep regret to me that despite both the IOPC and Metropolitan Police concluding that the performance of three police officers (including an inspector) and three call handers fell short of the standard expected, nobody will face misconduct proceedings.
“Therefore the apology is not accepted.”
Metropolitan Police officers at the scene at the Wake Valley pond in Epping Forest following the discovery of Richard Okorogheye’s body.— (PA Archive)
The IOPC probe found that Mr Okorogheye should have been classed as a missing person earlier and he was defined as low risk for too long, while a call handler inaccurately recorded his medical condition as anaemia rather than sickle cell anaemia on the initial police report.
Complaints from Ms Joel were also factored into the investigation including details of how she was treated during phone calls, such as one occasion where an officer told her words to the effect of: “If you can’t find your son, how do you expect us to?”
The distraught mother believed racism underpinned some of the treatment she received and that police were too slow to classify Mr Okorogheye as missing. However, though the IOPC acknowledged that the comment was “inappropriate”, it could not be determined that the remark was influenced by racial bias.
Deputy assistant commissioner Javid said: “It is clear the service we provided in the days following Richard’s disappearance was not at a level the public would expect of us … we will address these issues directly with the officers and staff involved through additional enhanced training.
“We recognise how worrying it must be to not know where a loved one is, and we are challenging ourselves to do better at responding when someone does report a missing person.
“To help us improve we are working with partners, such as the charity Missing People, to understand and learn from the experiences of different communities across London.
“We are also introducing a new way to assess all the missing person reports we receive every day.”
In the wake of the teenager’s disappearance, Ms Joel and campaigners told The Independent that public services are dismissing sickle cell patients because the illness disproportionately affects Black people.
