Plymouth shooting inquests: Jake Davison 'could not control emotion'

A gunman who shot dead five people was unable to control his emotions or think through his actions, an inquest into their deaths has heard.

Jurors were shown an assessment done on Jake Davison after he assaulted two teenagers in a park a year before the killings in Plymouth.

Davison did not face criminal charges following the assaults in 2020.

He went on to kill five people with a legally-owned pump-action shotgun in August 2021.

Davison, 22, killed his mother Maxine, 51; three-year-old Sophie Martyn; her father, Lee, 43; Stephen Washington, 59; and Kate Shepherd, 66, in the Keyham area, before turning the gun on himself.

After the assaults he carried out in September 2020, police made the decision to refer him to a Devon and Cornwall Police deferred charge scheme called Pathfinder.

Heather Coombe, a project manager for the scheme, said cases were allocated to a key worker and there was an expectation an individual would comply with a number of conditions.

This would be based on their needs and might include location or victim contact bans, the payment of compensation or restorative conditions.

The inquest heard Davison only met with his key worker face to face twice - once after he was referred to the scheme in November 2020 and once in March 2021 for a final sign-off.

Miss Coombe said she believed this was "reasonable in the context of Covid" but it was "likely" Davison would have had more frequent in-person meetings had it not been for the pandemic.

Jurors were shown the assessment Davison underwent on the first meeting, in which he reported being unable to control his emotions or think through his actions.

He was also asked why he assaulted the two teenagers in the park and the report said: "Jake states he had a bad day.

"He left home to clear his head. As he walked through the park by the skatepark he heard a male sat among a group of youths calling out to him, calling him fat."

The inquest heard two online courses - thinking skills and anger management - were identified as suitable for Davison, but his key worker decided to only ask him to complete one.

Counsel to the inquest, Bridget Dolan KC, said the key worker made a "unilateral decision" as he did not think it was appropriate for Davison to have to pay for two courses at £40 each.

Miss Coombe said Pathfinder clients were means-assessed and Davison was paying compensation, which was a priority.

The inquest heard that aside from the two face-to-face meetings, a number of emails and calls were exchanged, discussing the administrative details of Davison's paying compensation and attending the online thinking skills course,

Dominic Adamson, representing the Martyn, Washington and Shepherd families, said some would say Pathfinder was a "soft option for people who have committed serious offences" and the decision to refer Davison rather than prosecute was "disastrous".

Miss Coombe did not agree, saying she did not believe it was a "disastrous referral based on the information we had at the time".

Mr Adamson said his clients did not accept that.

The inquest continues.

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