Lessons of massacre 'forgotten' by police

RECOMMENDATIONS FROM DUNBLANE 'SIMPLY FORGOTTEN'

- ROD MINCHIN

SOME of the recommendations made in the wake of the Dunblane massacre were not implemented by the police force which granted Jake Davison a firearms licence, an inquest heard.

A public inquiry into the 1996 killings of 16 pupils and a teacher said police staff assessing firearms applications should receive nationally recognised training.

But an inquest into the shooting of five people by Davison in Plymouth in August 2021 heard no relevant training had been undertaken within Devon and Cornwall Police for more than 20 years.

Steve Carder, a supervisor in the force's firearms licensing unit, approved a recommendation from a colleague to grant the 22-year-old a licence in 2017.

He told the hearing the only specific training he had done for firearms licensing had been a two-day course in 1998 and he had not done anything on supervising the work of the firearms inquiry officers.

Bridget Dolan KC, counsel to the inquest, asked Mr Carder: "Does that suggest recommendations that came out of Dunblane in 1996 about firearms licencing staff getting as much training as possible has been simply forgotten about in your unit?" "It would appear so," he replied.