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Policemen jailed for failing to help murder victim

ByMartin Evans CRIME CORRESPONDENT

A JUDGE has jailed a police officer and a PCSO after hearing how they repeatedly failed to go to the aid of a disabled refugee before he was murdered by a vigilante gang.

One colleague claimed another officer – who was later cleared of misconduct – was too busy eating a Pot Noodle to respond to a call, the court heard.

The judge who sentenced them for misconduct in public office said he did so with a heavy heart, adding that they were being punished for wider mistakes in the force.

Pc Kevin Duffy, 52, and PCSO Andrew Passmore, 56, were convicted in connection with the death of Bijan Ebrahimi in Bristol in 2013.

Mr Ebrahimi, 44, an Iranian, was punched and kicked to death and his body set on fire by his neighbour Lee James, who wrongly believed he was a paedophile.

The court heard how Mr Ebrahimi made numerous pleas for police help, which were repeatedly ignored, with Duffy seeing him as a “nuisance and a liar”.

Passmore, a former soldier, lied to detectives, saying he had patrolled outside Mr Ebrahimi’s home for an hour, when it was two minutes.

On one occasion a police officer told a colleague that Pc Leanne Winter, who was cleared of misconduct, could not respond to an urgent call from Mr Ebrahimi, because she was “stuffing her face with a Pot Noodle”.

Duffy was jailed for 10 months, while Passmore was sentenced to four months. Both were dismissed by Avon and Somerset Police.

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https://dailytelegraph.pressreader.com/article/281694023837666

Daily Telegraph