Hayley Burke, 36, was shot by her abusive ex-boyfriend Jacob Cloke, 29, before he turned the gun on himself at her home on Priory Road in May 2023.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) raised concerns about various elements of Inspector Thomas McCall’s performance including his decision to first send unarmed patrols despite a neighbour telling police Cloke had a gun.
He was also accused of failing to make or communicate an adequate plan, not providing a proper briefing to officers, impeding negotiators by directing them not to provide items Cloke was demanding and failing adequately record his decision-making.
But a misconduct hearing chaired by Kent Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Andrew Pritchard emphatically cleared him of misconduct and Kent Police have now accused the IOPC of carrying out a “flawed” investigation which led to the misconduct charges.
Picture from scene of incident in Dartford (Image: PA)
The events of May 6
During the misconduct hearing it was stated that Cloke had a long history of domestic violence against Ms Burke and was on court bail on suspicion of strangling her at the time of the killing.
On May 6, a series of 999 calls were made by a neighbour informing police that Cloke was at Ms Burke’s home despite being prohibited by a court order and that she was in danger.
The first call came at 10.33am but officers were not sent until the situation escalated two hours later when the same neighbour said Cloke was beating her up and had a handgun.
When Inspector McCall became aware of the incident he sent unarmed officers who arrived and made intial contact with Cloke at 1.46pm.
But officers soon heard shots being fired and retreated to a safe place to report what happened.
Inspector McCall then declared it to be a firearms incident and armed response officers were sent to the scene.
Around this time Cloke was able to get Ms Burke out of the house and into a separate lock-up garage at the rear.
Between 2.55pm and 4.19pm hostage negotiators spoke to Cloke seven times.
During the calls he told them he wanted cigarettes, water, his phone and a sanitary pad – it was directed that these items should not be provided unless he released Ms Burke.
At around 4.29pm further shots were heard and the armed officers forced entry to the garage where Cloke and Ms Burke were both found with gunshots.
They both subsequently died from their injuries.
Hayley Burke died after she was shot by her abusive ex-boyfriend Jacob Cloke (Image: Kent Police)
Inspector McCall cleared of misconduct
Assistant Chief Constable Pritchard said Inspector McCall’s decision to not send armed officers to the scene initially was a “considered and reasonable response to the situation”.
The misconduct hearing heard that some commanders in his position would have immediately sent armed officers, but others would have taken the same steps as Inspector McCall.
At no point prior to the first shots being fired was Inspector McCall told that Cloke was threatening Ms Burke was the gun.
“Tragically, it turned out the suspect did in fact have a firearm but the panel has concluded that at the time, the officer’s decision-making fell within the reasonable range of proper responses that he could have made to a developing situation and was not negligent nor was it a breach of his professional duties,” Assistant Chief Constable Pritchard said.
The misconduct hearing also found Inspector McCall did make, record and communicate a tactical plan, he did brief officers sufficiently and he did not impede negotiators in the manner alleged.
Detective Chief Superintendent Jon Armory, Head of Professional Standards, said: “Following a serious police incident where a man and a woman both sadly lost their lives, the IOPC undertook a review of Kent Police’s actions and determined that Inspector Thomas McCall, the Force Incident Manager at the time of the incident, should answer a case of possible gross misconduct.
“The review examined an incident on May 6, 2023 when Kent Police officers were called to a residential address in Dartford in response to reports a man was breaching a court order. This developed into concerns for the welfare of a woman at the address and then subsequently a firearms incident.
“At the conclusion of a five-day public misconduct hearing, a panel with a legally qualified advisor dismissed all allegations against Insp McCall.
“Our thoughts remain with Hayley’s loved ones and all those affected by this tragic event.”
Jacob Cloke (Image: Kent Police)
Force slams IOPC
In the published misconduct report Assistant Chief Constable Pritchard states the IOPC investigation should “never have taken the form of allegations of misconduct”.
He said: “Whilst the panel agreed with him that after an event of this magnitude and tragedy, it is only right and proper there should be an open and honest examination of the actions of all the officers involved, this should never have taken the form of allegations of misconduct against this officer.
“It would not have done so had a proper investigation been completed in the first place and a proper and complete review of the evidence by the IOPC undertaken.”
He accused the IOPC’s report of being “incomplete”, “unhelpful” and consisting of “opinions which were not grounded in facts”.
An inquest into both deaths is yet to take place.
The inquest is expected to examine whether sufficient steps were taken to protect Ms Burke prior to this incident, in light of Cloke’s history of violence towards her.
