A rookie police officer who responded to a 999 call which ended in a crash that left a teenage pedestrian with severe brain damage will be allowed to keep his job after a disciplinary hearing ruled he ‘acted in good faith’.
PC Boris McDohl, 34, defied his ‘basic’ driving police permissions which required him to stick to the normal laws of the road when he activated his emergency lights and topped 59mph on 30mph-limit roads when he responded to reports of a man with a knife running amok in a house.
But a disciplinary panel ruled the officer had ‘acted in good faith’ when volunteered to respond to the 999 call, had not lied afterwards and should keep his job. He was handed a final written warning.
PC McDohl admits he defied his ‘basic’ police driving qualification which stipulated he abide by the laws of the road like any other civilian road user. The rookie officer, who joined the force a year before and who had only completed his ‘basic’ police driver training five weeks earlier, was captured topping 59mph in a 30mph-limit zone in a residential area of Stockport on a dark and rainy Boxing Day evening in 2020.
The police car he was following to the incident, driven by PC Sarah De Meulemeester, crashed into Khia Whitehead, then 15, causing catastrophic injuries which left him in a ‘permanent vegetative state’.
PC McDohl says he was ‘justified’ in breaching the rules to keep up with another colleague so the fellow officer did not have to confront a ‘violent’ cocaine-fuelled man with a knife on his own.
De Meulemeester, of Mill Court, Chinley, Derbyshire, was found guilty of causing serious injury by dangerous driving following a trial in 2023, and was jailed for 30 months. The 26-year-old, who also had only ‘basic’ GMP driving permissions and was not allowed to go above the speed limit, was over twice the 30mph limit when she hit then-15-year-old Khia.
Khia Whitehead suffered life-changing injuries after being hit by the police car driven by Sarah De Meulemeester
(Image: PA/family handout)
PC McDohl a former airport fuel systems engineer, was in the patrol car immediately behind PC De Meulemeester and was at the end of a 14 or 15-hour shift when the incident happened on a wet and rainy Boxing Day evening in 2020.
Based on the Stockport division of GMP as a ‘response officer’, PC McDohl was working on a force-wide initiative to tackle licenced premises breaking Covid restrictions when the incident happened..
He and a second officer on the same initiative, PC Michael Blakey, were sitting in their respective patrol cars when each became aware of reports of a ‘domestic disturbance’ in Adswood via their radios.
With a ‘skeleton staff’ on duty, a single officer, PC De Meulemeester, was dispatched to the scene but PC McDohl said he and his colleague agreed in conversation it was ‘not appropriate’ for her to respond alone and to provide her with ‘back up’ and also head to Adswood.
PC Blakey, an ‘advanced’ driver allowed to go above the speed limit, turned on his emergency lights and sped towards Adswood, overtaking PC De Meulemeester. PC McDohl moved into the ‘wrong lane’ to overtake PC De Meulemeester but when her car also moved into the lane to navigate another car, PC McDohl swerved to avoid a collision, mounted the pavement and crashed into a police, the disciplinary hearing was told.
PC De Meulemeester’s car struck Khia Whitehead.
Paul Forster, chairman of the disciplinary panel, announced today (Wednesday) that PC McDohl would receive a final warning but could keep his job as his driving had not amounted to gross misconduct.
The officer ‘had tunnel vision which allowed his judgment to be compromised’ when he decided to drive above the speed limit, said Mr Forster.
Sarah De Meulemeester
(Image: Lynda Roughley)
However, Mr Forster also outlined a series of mitigating factors, including that the officer had ‘acted in good faith for a policing purpose’, was ‘young in service’, was ‘single crewed’ so was operating on his own, was ‘without direct supervision because of scarce resources’ and was ‘expected to work beyond his level of experience’.
The panel concluded his driving amounted to misconduct but wasn’t serious enough to justify dismissal.
The panel also concluded an allegation that the officer had lied in an initial statement about the crash penned five hours later, which said he deliberately omitted that he had been speeding and had activated his emergency lights, was not proven.
Mr Forster said the officer had removed a line added by a representative of the Police Federation – which represents rank-and-file cops – which claimed he driven at ‘normal road speed’ from a draft, adding that at this stage the officer was not aware of the precise speed he had been driving.
The chairman also noted that the officer had pressed a button in his patrol car’s ‘black box’ device to ensure data from the journey would be captured and viewed later by investigators. “This is not the action of someone who is seeking to conceal evidence,” said Mr Forster.
Mr Forster said the officer ‘believed’ the contents of his statement and ‘did not withhold relevant detail’.
Following the hearing, Assistant Chief Constable, Matthew Boyle said: “Our thoughts continue to be with the Whitehead family. We are sorry for the hurt and distress this truly tragic incident caused. No officer joins policing to be involved in such an awful incident, and this case is a reminder of the risks involved in an officer’s duties and the life-changing consequences of making a devastating poor decision.
“Our team responsible for upholding the force’s professional standards imposes our strict policies and processes in order to protect our officers, and the public and ensure we deliver the best service to Greater Manchester.”