A POLICE officer has been cleared of gross misconduct over his account of a visit to a house where a man was taken to hospital and later died.

PC David Perry told a senior officer that he had talked to Eileen Wright in her kitchen and he had seen her husband Jim asleep in bed.

But at a gross misconduct hearing PC Perry admitted he had only spoken to Mrs Wright through the window and had not seen her husband.

He told the hearing that he got "mixed up" and his mind had been “racing” when he was informed by an inspector on October 19, 2016 that Mr Wright, whose house he had been to the previous evening, had been taken to hospital after an insulin overdose and would probably die.

PC Perry had visited the house in Pleasant Gardens, Bolton, which Mr Wright shared with his wife, Eileen, just after 11pm the previous evening following calls from the couple to the ambulance service.

The hearing heard that, just before 9pm Mr Wright had called for an ambulance claiming his wife was bipolar and was being violent. She later rang to say he was exaggerating and an ambulance was not needed.

Police communications asked PC Perry to attend, but he told the hearing that when he got there Mrs Wright was unable to find to find the keys to let him in and he spoke to her through the property’ s kitchen window.

PC Perry stated that the house was calm and there were no signs of disorder so he had no reason to disbelieve Mrs Wright when she said her husband had been drinking, was asleep on the sofa and she did not want him disturbed.

Mrs Wright told the hearing that she does not have a good memory of the evening but remembers talking to the officer through the window.

“He was fast asleep, my husband, and we hadn’t been arguing at all,” she said.

At 11.15pm the officer recorded that the call to the ambulance service had been malicious, the male was drunk and no ambulance was required.

But the next day, when questioned by Det Sgt David Abram, PC Perry initially claimed that he had talked to Mrs Wright in the kitchen and he had seen Mr Wright asleep in bed.

“I got a bit mixed up with my account,” said PC Perry. “I was shell shocked really and trying to piece together what I did and what I could have missed.”

He added that he had felt “guilt” that he might have missed something.

But in the same conversation, after Det Sgt Abram asked for clarification about a kitchen fire that had previously occurred at the Wrights’ home, PC Perry changed his account and revealed that he had not been inside the house or seen Mr Wright.

Nicolas Wilcox, counsel representing Greater Manchester Police, said: “At this point PC Perry changed his story and said he did not wish to mislead anyone and conceded he had not actively entered the property.”

“That one question (about the fire) seemed to rationalise my mind a bit,” PC Perry told the hearing, insisting that he had not intended to initially mislead Sgt Abram and that he takes being honest seriously.

“Not just in policing — it’s my life. It is how I have been brought up,” he added.

The gross misconduct hearing, at Greater Manchester Police headquarters, followed an investigation into the incident by the Independent Police Complaints Commission which recommended to Greater Manchester Police that PC Perry had a case to answer for breaching standards of behaviour expected of an officer.

The alleged breaches related to his honesty and integrity, neglecting his duties and not following the force’s domestic abuse policy when visiting the house because he did not activate his body camera, carry out a risk assessment and did not get independent accounts from both parties.

PC Perry, who has served as an officer with Greater Manchester Police for 14 years, told the hearing panel that he had not regarded the call to the property as being a domestic abuse incident, but rather a concern for Mrs Wright’s mental health.

“With hindsight I could have done more to see how Mr Wright was,” said PC Perry, but he stressed that, at the time, he had not felt it was appropriate to force his way into the house to check on him.

The hearing heard that there was a history of public protection investigations involving the couple and on the morning of October 18, 2016 Mrs Wright had called police to complain about her husband’s behaviour, only to later phone back to say they were not needed as Mr Wright was going out. The fire service were also called that day to deal with a fire in the kitchen.

Mr Wright, aged 59, died in hospital on October 24 but the hearing was told that PC Perry’s actions were not a factor in the death in any way.

Steven Crossley, counsel for PC Perry produced a number of character references from the officer’s colleagues who described him as a “calm, upstanding officer” who is “diligent” and willing to put himself in harm’s way.

“They point in one direction — this officer having honesty and integrity running through his veins,” said Mr Crossley.

The panel, while stating that PC Perry’s failure to get access to the property was poor performance, concluded it did not amount to gross misconduct.

They also accepted that the officer could not be criticised for failing to treat the incident as one of possible domestic abuse given the information he had been provided with, including no evidence that the couple had been violent towards each other, and the circumstances at the premises.

Panel chairman Warren Spencer added that PC Perry had “panicked” when questioned by Sgt Abram but had also corrected himself during his account to the sergeant and, so that too, did not amount to gross misconduct.

“There was no suggestion that DS Abram had been misled as a result of the whole conversation that took place between them,” said Mr Spencer.

The panel concluded that the officer had not breached any of the standards of professional behaviour.