UK police watchdog probing officers’ handling of Richard Okorogheye disappearance to see if race ‘played a part’

The UK’s police watchdog has said it is investigating complaints against London’s Metropolitan Police Service made by the mother of a teenager who went missing and was found dead in a lake this month.

Richard Okorogheye’s body was discovered in Epping Forest, Essex on April 5. The 19-year-old student had been reported missing from the family home in West London by his mother, Evidence Joel, on March 23. 

Joel met with investigators from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) on April 16 to complain about how officers had treated her and how they handled her report that her teenage son, who also had sickle cell disease, was missing. 

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The IOPC’s London chief Sal Naseem announced the watchdog’s investigation in a statement on Monday. He said it will examine if police properly risk-assessed the reports, if the Met had adequate resources and "whether Richard’s or his mother’s ethnicity played a part in the way the initial reports of his disappearance were handled.” 

Joel said in a statement earlier this month that she was “disappointed” with the initial police response, but was subsequently “very pleased” with the work of officers.

Police and British social media users launched public information campaigns in March to try to locate the missing boy, before his body was found in a pond in the woodland. A post-mortem examination on April 7 did not find evidence of trauma or assault. 

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