The families of five people shot dead in Plymouth, England, by Jake Davison, 22, before he took his own life have claimed he was given a “licence to kill” by incompetent police officers. On Aug. 12, 2021, Davison shot dead his mother Maxine, 51, at their home in the Keyham area of the city, and then walked through the area, killing three-year-old Sophie Martyn, her father Lee, 43, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66. Last month, an inquest heard Davison used his penultimate cartridge to kill himself just as the first police cars arrived at the scene.
The inquest jury delivered verdicts of unlawful killing for all five victims and was heavily critical of Devon and Cornwall Police, as the force had returned Davison’s gun to him—having confiscated it after an incident nine months beforehand in which he had assaulted two teenagers at a skate park. In their narrative verdict, the jury said there was a “catastrophic failure in the management of the firearms and explosives licensing unit, with a lack of managerial supervision, inadequate and ineffective leadership” which was compounded by a lack of senior management and executive leadership who failed to notice or address the issues.
The relatives of Davison’s victims called for the 1968 Firearms Act to be overhauled, and their plea was echoed by the new Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, Will Kerr. Kerr said it should be up to the applicant to prove they are a safe person to own a shotgun, and not the other way around. The victims’ families said Davison’s actions were “an act of pure evil,” but insisted they had been “facilitated and enabled by a series of failings and incompetence from the people and organisations that are supposed to keep us safe.”
The jury also claimed that successive governments had failed to implement all of the recommendations of Lord Cullen, who compiled a report after Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 primary-school children and their teacher in Dunblane, Scotland, in 1996—in what remains the UK’s deadliest mass shooting. In Britain, it is illegal to own a handgun of any type and shotguns can only be held if the owner has a licence, which is granted by the local police force.
The inquest heard that Davison first applied for a shotgun licence in July 2017, when he was 18, saying he wanted to go clay pigeon shooting with his uncle. Davison had declared that he had autism and Asperger’s syndrome, but his doctor refused to give the police any more information when they enquired. The police were also aware that Davison had assaulted two teachers when he was 12, and that the following year, he had punched a fellow student at his special school. Nevertheless, he was granted a five-year shotgun licence in January 2018. Davison subsequently bought a black Weatherby pump-action shotgun—the gun he was to use to carry out the shooting.
In September 2020, he was caught on CCTV punching a 16-year-old boy up to nine times in a skate park and slapping a 15-year-old girl after an altercation. Davison subsequently claimed he had been called a “fat (expletive).” Devon and Cornwall Police decided against prosecuting him for the assault before taking his shotgun and licence away two months later. However, both shotgun and licence were returned to Davison five weeks before the shooting.
It has emerged that the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), made a series of recommendations to Devon and Cornwall Police—but that no officers were sacked as a result of the mistakes made in the run-up to the shooting. Devon and Cornwall Police says it has invested £4 million in the firearms licensing unit since the shooting.
Home Office Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire, Chris Philp, told MPs on Tuesday: “We must ensure our controls on firearms are as robust as possible and learn the lessons of the tragic deaths in Keyham, and also in Scotland, and we therefore await the coroner’s anticipated report into the prevention of future deaths with keen interest.” Philp added: “I commit today that any further changes needed to protect the public will be made.”
The families of five people shot dead in Plymouth, England, by Jake Davison, 22, before he took his own life have claimed he was given a “licence to kill” due to the incompetence of police officers. On Aug. 12, 2021, Davison shot dead his mother Maxine, 51, at their home in the Keyham area of the city, and then walked through the area, killing three-year-old Sophie Martyn, her father Lee, 43, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66. Last month, an inquest heard Davison used his penultimate cartridge to kill himself just as the first police cars arrived at the scene.
The inquest jury delivered verdicts of unlawful killing for all five victims and was heavily critical of Devon and Cornwall Police, as the force had returned Davison’s gun to him—having confiscated it after an incident nine months beforehand in which he had assaulted two teenagers at a skate park. In their narrative verdict, the jury said there was a “catastrophic failure in the management of the firearms and explosives licensing unit, with a lack of managerial supervision, inadequate and ineffective leadership” which was compounded by a lack of senior management and executive leadership who failed to notice or address the issues.
The relatives of Davison’s victims called for the 1968 Firearms Act to be overhauled, and their plea was echoed by the new Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, Will Kerr. Kerr said it should be up to the applicant to prove they are a safe person to own a shotgun, and not the other way around. The victims’ families said Davison’s actions were “an act of pure evil,” but insisted they had been “facilitated and enabled by a series of failings and incompetence from the people and organisations that are supposed to keep us safe.”
The jury also claimed that successive governments had failed to implement all of the recommendations of Lord Cullen, who compiled a report after Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 primary-school children and