Keyham inquest: Police give first public apology 18 months after mass shooting in Plymouth

A senior police boss has apologised for allowing the Plymouth gunman to own a weapon, saying it should never have happened.

Chief Supt Roy Linden spoke on the final day of live evidence at the Keyham inquest today (15 February). The jury is set to retire to consider their verdicts later this week.

Giving the first public apology on behalf of the force, he said: "Jake Davison should not have had a licence. It should not have been given back to him. For that we very much apologise, it should not have happened."

But he insisted the force has introduced 'significant changes' since the tragedy.

Asked whether such a tragedy could be repeated, he said: "While I can't say it will never happen again, I can say it will be extremely unlikely."

He said the force has "completely changed the building blocks of decision making", introduced a training program and changed the licensing unit's "cultural approach".

When Davison was granted a shotgun certificate in 2017, despite a history of violence and medical conditions, the recommendation was made by a police staff member.

The same worker also recommended the gun be returned to Davison after it was confiscated in 2020.

He claimed he had not been properly trained and the department was understaffed and poorly managed.

A review carried out by Durham Police in the weeks after the Keyham shooting made several recommendations, including that licence reviews should be "spread more equitably among senior managers, and/or greater human resources (should) be devoted to the firearms licensing unit to facilitate this".

Chief Supt Linden said the recommendations are being addressed, with all "high risk" licensing decisions now being conducted by superintendents, chief inspectors or licensing managers.

He said he believes the decision to return the shotgun to Davison 'would not happen now unless it had gone through a senior decision maker. It simply would not happen.'

He said Michelle Moore, former head of the firearms licensing department, is no longer involved in reviewing high-risk decisions since the start of this year.

He also said the force is regularly carrying out random sampling of high-risk decisions to ensure the proper procedures are being followed.

He added that changing the overall culture will be a long process.

"If somebody sees something they’re not happy with, the culture you want is for them to say ‘I’m not happy with that’," Chief Supt Linden said.

The national head of firearms licensing told the inquest there needs to be a "fundamental review" of the law on guns and a nationally accredited training scheme for licensing officers.Debbie Tedds, Chief Constable of Warwickshire Police and National Police Chief Council lead on firearms and explosives, gave evidence today (15 February).She told the court the Plymouth tragedy, and subsequent revelations about police failings, has has been a "benchmark for me of how catastrophically it can go wrong".

"It’s really important we pick up all the learning from this awful case so we can move forward", she said.

At the moment, training for firearms enquiry officers varies between forces in different parts of the country.

Chief Con Tedds said: "We need to get accredited training sorted. While there is some training place, we need to make sure that happens.

"We need to drive consistency across the country and I do believe that is starting. While we haven’t got the national accredited stuff in place, we have got a peer review system where if officers have a difficult case they can talk about it.

"But this inquest has reinforced to me that I need to continue to drive that consistency across the country."

Senior coroner Ian Arrow indicated he intends to write a 'prevention of future deaths' report following the inquest, which could contain a number of recommendations about changes to guidance and legislation.

The inquest continues.