Report finds man murdered after wrongful paedophilia accusation failed by British police and council

A police force and council "repeatedly sided with the abusers" of a man murdered after being wrongly accused of being paedophile, a report has found.

Report finds man murdered after wrongful paedophilia accusation failed by British police and council

A police force and council "repeatedly sided with the abusers" of a man murdered after being wrongly accused of being paedophile, a report has found.

The Safer Bristol Partnership found a "collective failure" by Avon and Somerset Police and Bristol City Council in the case of Bijan Ebrahimi.

The 44-year-old was beaten to death and his body set on fire by neighbour Lee James outside his home in Bristol in July 2013.

James, who was later jailed for life for the murder, wrongly believed that Mr Ebrahimi was a paedophile who had been filming his children.

"This overview report concludes that there was a collective failure of both Avon and Somerset Constabulary and Bristol City Council to provide an appropriate and professional service to Bijan Ebrahimi," the report states.

"No evidence has been provided to this review that any individual representative of either agency intentionally behaved in a racist manner.

"There is nothing racist in the intentions or established policies and procedures of either organisation.

"Nevertheless, there is evidence that Mr Ebrahimi was repeatedly targeted for racist abuse and victimisation by some members of the public, that this was repeatedly reported to Avon and Somerset Constabulary and Bristol City Council and that representatives of both organisations repeatedly sided with his abusers.

"The more incidents that were reported, the more ingrained this pattern of responses became right up to Mr Ebrahimi’s death.

"Even leaving aside the tragic events leading to Mr Ebrahimi’s murder, this approach had direct adverse consequences for Mr Ebrahimi beyond through a lack of response to his complaints."

In July, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) produced a report on the case, concluding that Avon and Somerset Police repeatedly failed Mr Ebrahimi in the seven years before his death.

It found that officers showed "hallmarks" of racial bias against Mr Ebrahimi, with police logs concerning him appearing to have "racist undertones".

Pc Kevin Duffy and PCSO Andrew Passmore were jailed at Bristol Crown Court last year for misconduct in a public office in connection with Mr Ebrahimi’s death.

They, along with Pcs Helen Harris and Leanne Winter, were dismissed from Avon and Somerset Police.

Duffy failed to respond to numerous pleas for help by Mr Ebrahimi because he viewed him as a nuisance and a liar.

Mr Ebrahimi made 85 calls to the force between 2007 and July 2013, not including the weekend of his murder.

He remained polite and persistent in reporting crimes against him, despite police failing to record them dozens of times.

In 73 calls, he reported incidents including racial abuse, criminal damage and threats to kill - but these were not recorded as crimes on at least 40 occasions.

Chief Constable Andy Marsh said: "Once again, I want to offer my sincere apologies to Mr Ebrahimi’s family.

"We failed him in his hour of need and I am unreservedly sorry for the pain his family have suffered in the last four years.

"The intervening period since Mr Ebrahimi’s tragic and brutal murder has been difficult for everyone involved.

"But we did not stand still and wait for these reports to be published; instead we scrutinised the events leading up to his murder.

"We looked at the case from every dimension to understand what happened, what we failed to do, and what we should have done differently.

"We’ve made many changes since Mr Ebrahimi’s murder in response to the things we learnt and identified to be in need of change.

"Officers are faced with difficult situations and decisions every day. But it’s clear that we had opportunities to change the tragic outcome for Mr Ebrahimi and we failed to take them.

"Some of these failings were systematic but it’s important to acknowledge that the actions of a very small number of individuals had a catastrophic effect.

"They fell well short of those qualities the public expect of their police service. We must ensure this cannot happen again."

Alison Comley, chairwoman of the Safer Bristol Partnership, said: "The murder of Bijan Ebrahimi shocked our city and, as a partnership, we are committed to learning the lessons from what went wrong.

"We thank Mr Ebrahimi’s family for their dignity and strength in working with us through an extremely difficult time and for their commitment in helping all agencies to improve how they work with victims.

"As chair of the partnership, I am sorry for the collective failure of organisations to support Mr Ebrahimi as a victim of anti-social behaviour and hate crime.

"Safer Bristol accepted the initial findings of the review in 2014 and has now accepted the final version.

"It has provided invaluable insight for all of the partners involved to help us make lasting changes to the way we deal with anti-social behaviour and hate crime. We did not wait until this review was published to make improvements."

Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol, said: "On behalf of Bristol City Council, we sincerely and wholeheartedly apologise for the failings in the council’s treatment of Bijan leading up to his tragic death in July 2013.

"We appreciate that no amount of lessons learned or changes in practice can possibly mitigate the impact this had on Bijan and his family.

"However, we assure the family and the public that every effort will continue to be made, building on the considerable work that has already been completed by the council as part of the Safer Bristol Partnership, to further identify how we need to change and improve.

"We are committed to working with the family and other partners to achieve this objective in memory of Bijan.

"We apologise for failing to adequately support Bijan as a victim. We accept all of the findings of the Safer Bristol-commissioned independent review, including ’evidence of both discriminatory behaviour and institutional racism on the part of Bristol City Council’.

"We would like once again to offer our sincere condolences, remorse and apologise to Bijan’s family."

- Press Association

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