Jake Davison assault case should have been sent to CPS, detective tells inquest

Police were under pressure not to send more cases to courts at time of attack a year before Plymouth shooting

The decision to not refer Jake Davison’s assault of two teenagers to the Crown Prosecution Service a year before he shot dead five people in Plymouth was wrong and posed a danger to the public, a detective has admitted.

DS Edward Bagshaw said a case should have been sent to the CPS for it to consider charging him with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and battery. But the police were under pressure not to send more cases to the courts, which were struggling to deal with backlogs caused by the pandemic, and instead he was put through a restorative justice programme.