Northumbria Police officer sentenced to three years imprisonment

01/05/2009

For Immediate Release

PR 1516         Northumbria Police officer sentenced to three years imprisonment

Northumbria Police officer John James Dougal has been sentenced today to three years imprisonment after being found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.

Pc Dougal, who has also been banned from driving for four years, was found guilty on 8 April 2009 of causing the death of 16-year-old Hayley Adamson. Ms Adamson was knocked down and killed by a police car being driven by Pc Dougal on Denton Road in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 19 May 2008.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission investigated the incident.

The IPCC’s investigation had determined that Pc Dougal was on Denton Road in Newcastle-upon-Tyne when his automatic number plate recognition system (ANPR) was activated in relation to a Renault Megane.

Pc Dougal accelerated and reached a speed of 94mph on Denton Road. The speed limit on the road is 30mph. At no point did Pc Dougal activate his emergency warning equipment.

Approximately 50m south of the Dorset Road junction Pc Dougal’s vehicle collided with Hayley Adamson as she crossed the road. Hayley died as a result of her injuries.

Gary Garland, IPCC Commissioner for the North East, said: ““The sentence handed down to Pc Dougal must serve as a reminder to police drivers that their training does not give them a licence to take unnecessary risks on the roads. Their training is designed to give them greater awareness of risk – but on 19 May 2008 Pc Dougal appears to have totally forgotten the key elements of his training with terrible consequences for Hayley Adamson and her family.

“He drove his car at excessive speed without any warning equipment on. To drive at more than three times the speed limit without any attempt to warn pedestrians or motorists defies belief.

Mr Garland added: “Pc Dougal attempted to justify his actions during the IPCC’s investigation and in court by saying he was driving as per his training. The IPCC and the criminal justice system never accepted that. Pc Dougal’s driving that night was far removed from the training he had been given. His driving was dangerous and fell well below the standards expected.

“The IPCC has been working for some time to try to get police driving standards formalised across the country. The Association of Chief Police Officers currently gives advice on driving standards – but it is up to individual police forces to put in place local policies. We believe the ACPO guidance needs to become compulsory to put in place strong and clear regulation in this area of policing. This can only happen if the guidance is codified by the Home Office. We will continue to push for this to happen and continue to ensure any lessons learned from our investigation work are fed back into operational policing.”

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Notes for editors:

In September 2007 the IPCC published a study aimed to establish the extent of road traffic incidents involving the police which have resulted in a fatality or serious injury; to report on the extent to which these occur in relation to police pursuits, responses to emergency calls or other police activity; to establish trend information on these incidents; and to examine the circumstances surrounding incidents leading to serious injury or death.

The report "Police Road Traffic Incidents: A study of police-related road traffic driving deaths and serious injuries" can be found here: http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/index/resources/research/reports_rti.htm

Media contact:

Ian Christon, IPCC Regional Communications Officer (North Region) Tel 0161 246 8582 Journalists with urgent enquiries outside normal office hours should contact the on-call press officer on 07717 851157