— After arrest and release, the claimant took an insulin overdose and suffered life changing injuries. He argued that the police owed a duty of care, having assumed responsibility to protect him from harm, and had breached that duty by not further detaining him pending a full mental health assessment. The judge held that: (1) the defendant had not assumed responsibility to protect the claimant from self-harm after release: appropriate mental health and risk assessments had been carried out in custody and, in any event, there was no basis to detain him (s136 could not have been used as he was not in immediate need of care or control, and there is no distinct common law right to detain pending a mental health assessment as that would defeat the legislative purpose of s136); (2) counterfactually, were there a duty there would be no breach, and were there a breach there would be no causation; (3) Article 2 was not engaged because there was no evidence of a real and immediate risk to life, and in any event would bring nothing new.
Full details available at: https://www.mentalhealthlaw.co.uk/Dobson_v_Chief_Constable_of_Leicestershire_Police_(2025)_EWHC_272_(KB)?id=130225-1140