Suicidal trainee West Yorkshire Police officer 'waited months' for work health appointment

A trainee police officer who had spoken about depression and suicide was left waiting months for work occupational health appointments before being found dead, an inquest heard.

Anugrah Abraham, 21, from Bury, Greater Manchester, feared the sack and suffered nightmares about his station sergeant sitting on his chest and strangling him, the inquest into his death at Rochdale Coroners Court was told.

His father, Amar Abraham, claims his son was bullied and suffered racism. West Yorkshire Police has denied the claims.

The hearing has been told Mr Abraham was struggling under the pressure of working as a trainee PC with the force while also doing a degree apprenticeship at Leeds Trinity University.

On the second day of the three-week inquest into Mr Abraham’s death, his personnel records were detailed.

They showed he had been referred to the force's occupational health department by a superior on 24 September, 2022, after reporting physical health problems from lower back pain and mental health problems relating to anxiety and stress from dealing with traumatic incidents in his job.

Referrals are supposed to take five days before being seen by an occupational health nurse or doctor, but it took three months before Mr Abraham was seen on 15 December.

Clinical notes showed he reported struggling with his mental health, pressure from being both a student officer and studying for a degree, feeling down and depressed daily, with reports of suicidal ideation.

He was seen again on 13 January, 2023 when he reported being behind on his university degree work and struggling with his job.

Another appointment was arranged, in April, but Mr Abraham was found dead in woodland near his home on 4 March, the same day he was due back in work after a two-week break.

Coroner Joanne Kearsley asked chief inspector John Toothill, current head of health and wellbeing at West Yorkshire Police, said: "If I was to tell you he received a letter on 23 January, 10 days later, giving him an appointment on 13 April, what would your view be?”

Mr Toothill replied: "I would be devastated. I did not know until you just told me today. I’m shocked and devastated."

He said it was a "massive problem" that many police officers are now younger than historically and they themselves are being managed by inexperienced officers, with big increases in officers requesting welfare support and elevated drop-out rates among degree apprenticeship recruits.

"Doing a degree is difficult," he said. "Being a police officer is difficult. Doing both is difficult."

Nichola Timmins, manager for recruitment and onboarding, said Anu was in the second group of around 200 recruits to be taken on under the PC degree apprenticeship scheme, with the average age of 22.

She said the apprenticeship was more attractive to younger applicants to the force because they got a degree which the police paid for.

But the force had since cut numbers recruited through the degree apprenticeship programme.

Before the degree apprenticeship recruitment, entry did not require a university qualification and recruitment targeted people with useful "life skills", she said.

Ms Timmins also said West Yorkshire PoliceYP’s Positive Action Team had a campaign to recruit applicants from under-represented groups in the police and the team would support them through the process.

When Mr Abraham applied to join, recruits would apply online and face-to-face interviews were dropped following a decision by the chief officer team at West Yorkshire Police, the inquest heard.

But in-person interviews had now been brought back in after "feedback" from training officers, Ms Timmins said.

Ex-sergeant Andy Baker, a retired training officer, said he assessed PC Abraham after a role-playing exercise, giving feedback that he was far too quiet and hesitant, with gaps in knowledge and insight, but later made significant progress in his training.

Mr Baker told the hearing the force's policies meant it was virtually unknown for any recruit to fail training, even when bosses were told they were unsuitable for the role of police officer.

The hearing continues.

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