Murdered schoolgirl's family lose case against police

Arsema Dawit was killed in 2008 by Thomas Nugusse

The family of a murdered schoolgirl have had their bid to sue the Metropolitan Police thrown out by a judge, who ruled officers did not “promise” to keep the teenager safe.

Arsema Dawit, 15, was stabbed more than 50 times in a lift on the estate in Waterloo where she lived by her ex-boyfriend Thomas Nugusse in June 2008.

More than a month before her death, Arsema’s family had reported Nugusse, then 21, to the police for threatening to kill her and leaving her with a black eye after an assault in a McDonald’s.

In 2010, the Independent Police Complaints Commission found “collective and organisational failings” in the handling of Arsema’s case. It said the threat to kill was not logged adequately and the inquiry was not pursued urgently enough.

A 2014 inquest found that the police investigation of the McDonald’s attack had been “insufficient” and was “not carried out in a timely manner”.

Nugusse confessed but could not be tried after a suicide attempt in jail that left him brain-damaged

Arsema’s mother, Tsehaynesh Medihani, and relatives sued the Met for £100,000 in damages. They argued that Arsema would be alive if police had dealt with Nugusse and acted to protect her.

But Judge Charles Freeland QC, at Central London county court, threw out the claim last week. He told the family: “The police do not generally owe a duty to members of the public in the detection and prevention of crime.

“The general sense of public duty that motivates police officers is unlikely to be improved by the imposition of such liability on their duty to investigate crime.” The judge said compensation claims against the police should be “exceptional” to succeed.

Una Morris, for the family, had argued Arsema was a vulnerable child who had been given “assurances” of police protection. The lawyer said officers should have taken responsibility for her safety after the threat to kill. But the judge ruled: “At no particular point did any officer promise to secure Arsema’s safety — nor could he or she do so.

“The actions taken by the police amounted to a routine expression of expectation, rather than any assurance. In the absence of exceptional circumstances, the police owe no common law duty of care to protect individuals from harm by third parties.”

Nugusse confessed but could not be tried after a suicide attempt in jail that left him brain-damaged. In 2009, an Old Bailey jury returned a special verdict that he had “committed the acts”. He was given an indefinite hospital order.

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