Shropshire Star

Police 'wrong' over helicopter request to search for missing teenager found in Shropshire golf club pond, inquest told

Police were wrong to assume a request for a helicopter would have been refused to search for a missing teenager who fled from a Shropshire hotel in just his boxer shorts, an inquest heard.

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Tyrone Lock

Distressed Tyrone Lock, 18, was under the influence of drugs and hallucinating as he ran out of the Hill Valley Golf Club in Whitchurch when confronted by police in the early hours of November 20 last year.

West Mercia Police made a request to the National Police Air Service for a helicopter to trace Mr Lock's friend Len Evans as a "suspected drink driver who had escaped on foot".

But when that was refused a second request for a helicopter to help in the search for Mr Lock was not made because officers believed it was pointless after the first rejection.

Mr Lock, from Leominster, was found dead in a pond at the golf course by a greenkeeper two days after he disappeared.

His family believe police could have done more to look for him and that his life could have been saved if he had been found more quickly.

A jury inquest at the Park Inn hotel in Telford heard yesterday from Inspector Simon Hepworth, operations centre manager for NPAS.

He told the hearing he was not in post at the time of Mr Lock's death – but was asked by Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin coroner Mr John Ellery how he thought a call for a second helicopter would have been dealt with.

"I would expect that the dispatcher who would have received that information would have viewed it in a completely different light than that for a drink driver escaping on foot," Inspector Hepworth said.

"We make dispatching decisions based on the threat to the individual, the harm that may be caused and the risk to an individual, regardless of the circumstances with which it arises.

"It would be clear to me that this represented a risk to that individual. He would be very vulnerable indeed, therefore my expectation is that the dispatcher would have to use every means possible to respond, subject to operational restraints that we have as an operator.

"That call would have been dealt with on its own merits."

The inquest had earlier heard that if the helicopter had been deployed to try and find Mr Evans, it would have only been able to stay at the hotel for two minutes because of shift changeovers.

But Inspector Hepworth said that would not necessarily have been the case if it was searching for Mr Lock.

The hearing continues.

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