FORCE'S SENIOR MANAGER DID NOT REVIEW DECISION

FORCE'S SENIOR MANAGER DID NOT REVIEW DECISION

- By ROD MINCHIN Press Association

 THE decision to give a shotgun and certificate back to Keyham gunman Jake Davison, after he assaulted two teenagers, was not reviewed by a senior manager, an inquest has heard.

The pump-action shotgun was confiscated by Devon and Cornwall Police, weeks after Davison was arrested following an altercation in a park in September 2020.

Davison’s case would have been automatically classed as “high risk” because he had been accused of assault, and any decision to return his weapon and certificate should have been reviewed by the firearm licensing unit’s head of department.

Michelle Moore, who became head of the department in 2017, told the inquest at Exeter Racecourse yesterday that the decision was made by a firearms inquiry officer and not reviewed by her – even though it should have been.

On July 9, 2021, the shotgun and certificate were returned, and on August 12 that year the trainee crane operator killed five people, including his mother, in the Keyham area of Plymouth.