I am sure that many of us have had occasion at the beginning of this new year to reflect upon the fact that the beginning of the Covid pandemic was no less than four years ago – although I am sure your memories of that time remain as vivid as mine.
During that first half of 2020, we all had to get use to ‘social distancing’ and lockdowns designed to keep people out of each other’s houses and confined to their own for significant swathes of time – in the middle of all of that, however, my clients the Bennet family suffered the trauma not of isolation in their home, but an invasion of it – by a gang of men whom at first they had no way of knowing were Officers of Cheshire Constabulary.
My client Emily Bennet lived at an address in Northwich, Cheshire with her young son and daughter, then aged 5 & 6 respectively. One morning, the family were all upstairs in their house when Emily saw a man downstairs and froze in fear, believing him to be a burglar. Her fear multiplied as she realised that the man was not alone, and two other members of this ‘gang’ of intruders started to come up the stairs towards her and her children.
Although one of the men now began to shout “Police, Police, stay where you are, don’t move your hands“ they were not wearing Police uniforms, and had produced no warrant cards or other form of identification. Emily was terrified and her young children hysterical. One of the men now stood by the Bennets, whilst others began to search the rooms around them.
The man ‘guarding’ Emily shouted at her “Don’t move your hands” and then “Who else is in the property?”. From their behaviour, Emily now began to guess that the men were indeed Police Officers, although this was hardly reassuring for her. She was told that the officers had a warrant to search for ‘drugs’ and was repeatedly asked where was ‘the male’. Emily informed the officers that no man lived in the premises, it was just her and her children.
Emily was now instructed to come downstairs “to do the admin.” She accompanied the Officers into the living room. She noticed that none of these men were wearing masks or gloves notwithstanding the ongoing Covid pandemic. Emily asked if she could take her son and daughter outside because they were traumatised enough and she did not want them to witness the search; the officer replied they were not allowed to leave the premises.
Emily and her children sat on one sofa and one of the Officers sat on the other sofa. Emily could see a second Policeman in the kitchen on his phone and a third walking around the house. This third Policeman then asked Emily what number she lived at i.e what house they were in, and when she told him, the Officer pronounced “It’s the wrong house!”. Throughout this time, both Emily and the children were crying and upset. It now became clear that the Officers had actually intended to search the house next door to Emily’s.
Nevertheless, the officers remained in Emily’s house for approximately 20 minutes, and as they were leaving they instructed Emily to wait inside whilst they went to the neighbouring property. Emily then heard her neighbours’ door being smashed in and the Officers shouting “Police, Police“.
Emily had to wait in her house, as instructed, for the officers to return from their search of the target premises, and she and her children thus remained prisoners, nervous and on edge in their own home for around a further 2 hours – a ‘lockdown’ indeed.
One of the Police Officers did then return and ‘apologised’ to Emily for their mistake, but in a flippant and half-hearted manner, that was more of an excuse than an apology, stating that what happened was ‘one of those things’ and that ‘it happens’.
To Emily, the officers appeared to have no understanding or empathy as to what they had done and the harm caused. She lost faith and confidence in Cheshire Police and would think twice about contacting the Force for help/assistance in the future. To compound matters, Emily subsequently heard from the Officers’ supervisor by telephone and found him too to be dismissive of what had happened, trying to dissuade her from pursuing a ‘pointless’ complaint and flippantly commenting “If it makes any difference, I was on my way round with a box of maltesers”.
Emily and her children were left in a state of shock and the psychological ramifications of this Police intrusion into their lives would take a lot of hard work and heartache to resolve. Their sense of safety and security in their own home had been grossly violated and Emily’s own trauma was multiplied by her awareness of her children’s upset and her desperate wish to protect them. The Covid years were stressful enough on young families without having your home itself become a place haunted by such a distressing memory, and Emily had to support her children emotionally as they both became very clingy to her, reluctant to sleep alone and fearful of strangers and sudden knocks at the door.
Matters were not finally brought under control for the family psychologically until late November 2022 when they moved out of the house to a new property; like leaving a haunted house and its ghosts behind, Emily and her children found a great psychological burden being lifted from them.
In response to letters of claim which I sent to Cheshire Constabulary on behalf of the family, the Police quickly admitted liability for their mistake – but failed to make any meaningful offers of settlement, resulting in me having to commence Court proceedings and drag the Police almost to the doors of Court, before my clients’ claims were finally settled in December 2023, only a week before the scheduled trial.
I pursued claims for Emily and her children not only for trespass to land and breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the Right to Family and Private Life) but also for false imprisonment. The tort of false imprisonment is committed when a person is unlawfully prevented from leaving a defined area, by means of physical barriers or threats/ commands. It does not require physical restraint and a person can be falsely imprisoned in their own home if, as in this case, the Police are issuing commands so as to restrict a person’s liberty, with an implied threat of force or legal punishment if those commands are breached. Most people whose houses are unlawfully searched will therefore also have, over and above a claim for the trespass itself, a claim for false imprisonment in their own home for the duration of the search, by reason of the Police having told them they can’t leave until the search is finished.
Of course ‘Keystone Cops’ errors such as this can occur no matter how meticulous the planning of a drugs operation is, and I have seen enough similar cases in my time to know that this type of ‘human error’ will always be with us – but when they do happen it is absolutely beholden on the Police to treat the matter with seriousness and not a sneer, and move heaven and earth to put things right for the innocent victims of their gross mistake, both financially and emotionally, especially when children are involved. Instead, Cheshire Constabulary approached this case in the usual truculent way the Police as an institution do to even clearly meritorious claims, offering excuses instead of real apologies, displaying enmity rather than empathy, and adding to the family’s stress by forcing them into the combative arena of litigation.
Fortunately, Emily was more than strong enough to face that challenge and with my support and guidance was able to finally achieve an excellent settlement for her and her young children; a damages award totalling £41,210 for the family, plus their legal costs.
I will let Emily have the last word, in the form of the poignant victim impact statement which she read out to Cheshire Constabulary’s legal team, including a senior Police Officer, at the final settlement meeting-
“Have any of you ever stood and watched three men enter your house without permission? Have any of you ever been so scared that your body is frozen to the spot and not even a sound or breath could leave your body? Have you ever had to listen to the terrified screams of your children whilst you’re told not to move and keep your hands where they can be seen whilst three men go into every room of your house without any explanation, leaving you unable to comfort or explain what was happening to your distraught,terrified children?! The answer I imagine is probably no and if the answer is yes then I’m certain that the perpetrators would have been arrested and charged with a crime. Unfortunately for myself and my children our justice was going to be a box of Maltesers as a way of a pathetic apology.
Another thing I’m certain of is that [the Police Officers] went home that night, had a good nights sleep and probably haven’t thought much about that day since or had a single repercussion. After all it was just another day in the office and it was ‘just one of those things, it happens’
Unfortunately, this is not the same reality for my children and I. Living with my own and more importantly my children’s PTSD has been the hardest few years of my life. Lack of sleep, being scared to live in your own home, Watching my children drop to the floor and crawl on all fours because of the sound of someone moving a wheelie bin for example, Having to try and live my life with two children who were until very recently unable to be in a separate room to myself at any time. There hasn’t been many areas of our lives this hasn’t affected!
I feel insulted, angry , shocked and ultimately disappointed with the way this whole ordeal has been dealt with. From the day it happened to this present day I’ve felt that it has in no way been taken seriously. I don’t feel I’ve had a sincere apology from anyone. I also don’t feel that the severity of what happened that day and the way it has affected our lives, mental health and my physical health since then has been taken seriously. Instead I’ve had several lies told by [the Police Officers] to try and justify what happened that day and told my complaints wouldn’t make any difference.
So what will make a difference? What will stop this happening to another family? Three TRAINED professionals entered my house after what I know will have been a result of weeks if not months of planning every detail of the operation, So how could something as simple as getting the right door number go so horribly wrong?! What happened to my family should never have happened and for it to be disregarded as ‘just one of those things’ because it was police officers that entered my house is disgraceful.
Unfortunately as a result of all of this my families faith in the police is diminished.”
My client’s name has been changed.
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