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Inquest rules that Liam Toner’s tragic death was accidental after an investigation into how police acted.
When Liam Toner disappeared after a night out in Cleethorpes an investigation into how police had acted found that when they received a report of a sighting of him near Holton Le Clay a police car was sent.
But the report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct is believed to have found that that the police officer drove around in his car for some time on December 16th at 3 pm the day after he vanished. But the police officer did not leave his car.
His grandmother discovered his body in a ditch running along Louth Road after a family search. In an inquest this week it was ruled that Liam had died accidentally. He had suffocated in the 9ft ditch in Holton Le Clay which is around 20 miles away from his Ulceby home.
He was out for a Christmas Party on December 15th with his work colleagues when he failed to return after getting a taxi. Two women put him in the taxi he told them he lived in Old Clee. The taxi driver is believed to have said that Liam told him to drop him off in Holton Le Clay.
Liam was unable to pay the taxi driver and as far as the taxi driver was concerned he thought he had dropped him off near his home in Holton Le Clay. An officer from Lincolnshire Police conducted a general search for Liam after being contacted by Humberside Police. It is believed that the police were also dealing with another missing person incident on the same night. A Humberside Police Inspector asked that Lincolnshire Police should be made aware that the incident was being treated as a high-risk missing person. The IOPC found that although the log was not officially graded as high risk. There were a number of actions carried out by both forces that were in line with national policing policy for a high risk missing person investigation. During the investigation it did not find any misconduct of any of the individual officers or staff who were involved in the incident. Although it agreed that some officers and staff would benefit from learning debriefs with management.
The IOPC also asked that both forces ensure that there are clear methods of contact to share information in relation to missing persons. Both forces have already introduced the IOPC recommendations into their relevant policies already.
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