February 19, 2016
A British judge has sentenced two police officers to short, but career-ending, jail terms for ignoring pleas for help from an Iranian who was later incinerated by a neighbor.
Judge Neil Ford criticized the actions of the two officers but said they could not be blamed for the wider policing problems that contributed to the murder of the Iranian refugee, who was wrongly suspected of being a pedophile by his neighbors.
Bijan Ebrahimi, 44, had called police to report a mob outside his Bristol home, but was arrested himself for a breach of the peace. After being detained overnight, he made another dozen calls to police. But his cries for help were ignored in the hours before he was beaten to death by a neighbor and then incinerated.
Police Constable Kevin Duffy, 52, was jailed for 10 months and community support officer Andrew Passmore, 56, was given four months for what the judge described as a “serious departure” from the standards that the public expects of the police service. The two men were sacked from the Avon and Somerset Police last month, but 15 other officers and staff are awaiting disciplinary hearings over the Ebrahimi case, which has drawn nationwide attention.
“It is with a heavy heart that in each of your cases I take the view that only a custodial sentence is appropriate,” Judge Ford told the two men. “It doesn’t seem to me a proper consequence of your wrongdoing that the sentences need be long. You have already suffered greatly. You have already lost your careers and in each of your cases there is genuine justification for mercy.
“You must not bear the responsibilities for the wider failings in the police, which were beyond your control.”
Ebrahimi was kicked and beaten to death by his neighbor Lee James, who had been described as frothing at the mouth when police first responded to the victim’s call to 999, the British emergency number. Officers led Ebrahimi away in handcuffs in front of a jeering crowd.
Police checked his cellphone and found he wasn’t taking photos of James’s young daughters, as James had charged, but of James and other adults who were screaming at him. The police freed Ebrahimi, but didn’t announce that his phone video showed he was innocent of what the neighbors alleged.
Ebrahimi tried to contact Duffy, but the officer wouldn’t take the calls, despite being warned by another officer of “vigilante issues” at the apartment complex where Ebrahimi lived.
Duffy eventually sent Pass-more to the estate. Passmore lied to investigators about patrolling the area for an hour, when he could have been there only a couple of minutes. The last phone call from Ebrahimi was made about an hour before James killed him by stamping repeatedly on his head and setting the body alight with the help of a neighbor.
It emerged that Ebrahimi had been taking pictures as evidence of harassment as he sought a move from his assigned public housing.
James – who told his partner he killed Ebrahimi for his daughters – was jailed for life in 2013.
Ebrahimi’s sister, Manisha Moores, said: “We hope the judge’s words today send out a strong message to police officers across the country about the importance of protecting victims and the importance of telling the truth.” Avon and Somerset’s Deputy Chief Constable Gareth Morgan repeated his apologies to Ebrahimi’s family.