Police assumed dad who died stuck between fence panels was ‘drunk somewhere’

Lee was reported missing in October 2021 but his body wasn’t found until the next January (Picture: Corinna Bowman)

The family of a man who was found dead stuck between two fence panels are still no closer to finding out how he died.

Lee Bowman was 44 when he died in 2021. He was a dad to two daughters and suffered with mental health problems stemming from childhood sexual abuse.

His inquest heard it took two months for his body to be found because Nottinghamshire Police assumed he was still alive and ‘drunk somewhere’.

The coroner said she cannot be sure how Lee died, because his body was too decomposed when he was found.

Assistant Coroner Abigail Combes said police had been affected by ‘unconscious bias’ due to Mr Bowman’s background and assumed he was ‘missing because he didn’t want to be found and was drunk somewhere’.

She was so concerned about what happened she intends to issue what is known as a Regulation 28 report to the College of Policing, to prevent future deaths.

Lee’s medical records, summarised at the inquest, said he was just eight years old when the sexual abuse began while he was a pupil at a boarding school for children with dyslexia.

He started using drugs at around 16 years of age and he had a history of self harm. At the time of his death he was an alcoholic and had liver cirrhosis.

Lee had struggled with his mental health (Picture: Corinna Bowman)

Lee was last seen by his family on October 29, 2021, when he visited his girlfriend. She last saw him on October 31, when they had a disagreement and she ‘kicked him out of the house’.

Trick-or-treaters saw him wandering outside, looking ‘disorientated’ and ‘stumbling about, clearly intoxicated’. This was the last time he was seen alive.

He was reported missing by his brother Wayne on November 2 because Lee normally phoned family members numerous times per day, but police treated it as a ‘deliberate absence’ until November 4.

A number of sightings were reported but later found to be false, with coroner Ms Combes saying they ‘gave false assurances that Lee was alive’.

A South Yorkshire PCSO sent an email to Nottinghamshire Police on November 24 which read: ‘The missing person can be seen in Rotherham town centre on a daily basis. He is hanging around with the local drug users and drinkers.’

Nottinghamshire Police transferred the investigation to South Yorkshire Police on November 28 and the investigation was closed shortly afterwards.

The case was reopened on December 7 after the family contacted police again to say they had not heard from him.

Lee’s body was eventually found on January 3, 2022, wedged in a very narrow gap between two fence panels at the end of gardens backing on to each other, close to where he had visited his girlfriend.

Lee’s body was found trapped between the two fence panels of two gardens (Picture: Google)

Lee’s eldest daughter, 23-year-old Corrina Bowman, said not knowing what happened had a significant impact on her mental health.

She tried to kill herself six days after reading a news article in which police said her father was ‘alive and well’. She was then sectioned for her own safety.

Miss Bowman hopes what happened to her father will change how police approach other missing persons cases, the BBC reports.

She said: ‘I’m grateful for how the court saw my dad for a human and not his addictions and troubles.

‘I’m glad that things are having to change as I don’t want my dad to have died for nothing and I’m hoping now that missing people with vulnerabilities such as addiction are handled with the care and respect they deserve.

‘I don’t know how to grieve when I don’t know how he died.

‘The pathologist couldn’t guarantee he died that night. What if someone had gone out to look for him? Would he have been alive? Would we have been able to save him?

‘I hope it was really sudden. I hope he passed away really quickly and wasn’t trapped for days.’

A Nottinghamshire Police spokesman said: ‘Our thoughts go out to all of Mr Bowman’s family. Any lessons that can be learnt from this inquest and for policing as a whole we of course welcome.’

South Yorkshire Police said its professional standards department carried out an internal investigation which had ‘identified some learning for our organisation around missing people investigations’.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

from News – Metro https://ift.tt/m3F1zVc