Skegness: Man died during unauthorised police pursuit, hearing told

A man died during a 103mph (166km/h) police pursuit which had not been authorised by a senior officer, a misconduct hearing has been told.

The VW Scirocco driven by Kyle Johnson left the A52 near Skegness and hit a tree at 23:14 GMT on 4 March 2022. Mr Johnson died at the scene.

At the time, he was being pursued by PC Jared Brereton, in a marked police car, with PC Phoebe Chambers as passenger.

Both officers have denied breaches of Lincolnshire Police's standards.

Logs shown to the hearing at the force's Nettleham headquarters on Wednesday, which were not disputed by PC Brereton, showed he radioed the police control room at 23:11 GMT to report he had sighted the VW, which had been linked to an earlier incident.

Seconds later, PC Brereton switched on the vehicle's siren and blue lights, according to analysis of the police car.

Simon Mallett, representing the force, said PC Brereton then told the control room Mr Johnson's vehicle had failed to stop, prompting pursuit manager Insp Dan Gardner to request details of his "driver authority".

It was "quite clear" in Lincolnshire Police's policies that all officers must have passed "initial phase pursuit" training before they could get involved in such a pursuit, Mr Mallett said.

Police logs showed PC Brereton had told Insp Gardener he was not pursuit-trained, at which point the senior officer informed PC Brereton he was not authorised to pursue the VW.

Despite this, PC Brereton continued driving for about one mile (1.6km), reaching speeds of up to 103mph (166km/h), Mr Mallett told the hearing.

Mr Mallett said while there was "insufficient evidence" to suggest PC Brereton's actions directly caused Mr Johnson's death, the officer's failure to immediately comply with the inspector's command and instead continue with the pursuit "was likely to have caused Mr Johnson to continue at high speeds that increased the possibility for such an outcome".

Following the crash in which Mr Johnson died, both PC Brereton and PC Chambers, who had completed her probation the previous August, produced a report into the incident.

Mr Mallett said: "They both indicated that PC Brereton had deactivated emergency functions (blue lights and siren) when he was instructed not to continue.

"They did not state that PC Brereton continued to drive at high speed after being advised not to."

PC Brereton accepted breaches of orders, instructions, duties and responsibilities, but denied discreditable conduct and breaches of honesty and integrity, the hearing was told.

In interview, he had insisted he did not set out to deliberately mislead investigators.

Mr Mallett said PC Chambers denied all allegations against her, namely: failure to challenge and report improper conduct, discreditable conduct and breaches of honesty and integrity.

The hearing was told that PC Chambers said to investigators she "didn't have a clue" about pursuit policies and was traumatised when she wrote her report.

Mr Mallett said the officers' actions amounted to gross misconduct, something which both PC Brereton and PC Chambers had denied, those attending the hearing were told.

The Lincolnshire force has confirmed to the BBC that no criminal charges had been brought against either officer.

The hearing, which was attended on Wednesday by Mr Johnson's family, is expected to conclude on Friday.

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