Police officers sacked after leaving vulnerable man to die outside a railway station in Cornwall

Two police officers have lost their jobs after being found guilty of gross misconduct for leaving a vulnerable man to die outside a railway station in Cornwall.

A police disciplinary panel heard the victim, 51, was drunk and vulnerable when they saw him outside St Erth railway station at 1am on a November morning in 2022.

The officers, PC David Bishop and former PC Daniel Baber, asked for an ambulance but left him after 50 minutes as they went to another high risk incident. The man was not under any shelter and the weather conditions were poor.

CCTV showed the pair drive by at 2:20am but they did not stop to check on the man. They returned again at 5am and found the rain soaked man still asleep.

The panel heard they asked for an ambulance but stayed in their police car a few feet away but close enough to hear him snoring, but 50 minutes later his condition deteriorated and he later died in hospital.

The disciplinary hearing was told the man died from drug intoxication and pneumonia and there were no claims that the officers' inaction caused his death.

PC Bishop made misleading entries on the police log to overstate their actions in monitoring the man's welfare.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct said their safeguarding actions 'were sorely lacking' and they did not try to move him into a sheltered position or cover him to keep warm on a cold night or drive him to hospital.

The panel ruled that PC David Bishop will be dismissed and former PC Daniel Baber would have been sacked had he not already quit the Devon and Cornwall force.