Firearms department criticised over farmer’s death

Coroner finds police missed opportunities

A coroner has concluded that police missed opportunities to prevent a Devon farmer taking his own life after his lawfully held firearms were returned to him despite concerns about his wellbeing.
Richard Haddock, 66, a former NFU Devon county chairman and prominent figure in the 2000 national fuel protests, died at his Churston farm shop near Brixham in June 2023, eight months after his guns were handed back by Devon and Cornwall Police.

An inquest at Exeter Coroner’s Court on 24 November heard that Mr Haddock’s firearms had been seized in November 2021 following concerns raised by a family friend that he was depressed and experiencing “good days and bad days”. The guns were returned in November 2022 after repeated requests from Mr Haddock and his wife.

.

Criminal proceedings not communicated to police licensing unit

Coroner Alison Longhorn concluded that Mr Haddock died by suicide two days after admitting six charges at Exeter Crown Court of contravening Environment Agency (EA) permits between 2010 and 2020. He was awaiting sentencing at a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing.

EA area director Mark Rice told the inquest that Mr Haddock had admitted at court allowing waste to be deposited on his land for “financial gain”. The court heard that Mr Haddock had been declared bankrupt after losing a long-running boundary dispute with Churston Golf Club, which ended in the High Court. He and his wife had lost their farm in Kingswear and became tenant farmers at Churston, where the EA offences were committed.

The court heard that police were “completely ignorant” that the EA was prosecuting Mr Haddock, despite the agency having shared this information. Inspector Mitch Wallace, a firearms licensing manager, told the inquest that her department either never received or never filed the information about the criminal proceedings.
She commented: “If we had been made aware, it may have impacted the decision to return the guns.”

.

Coroner highlights failures in firearms licensing processes

The coroner said there were “missed opportunities” by the force’s firearms licensing department to assess Mr Haddock’s suitability to hold the guns and an “absence of more robust processes” to identify and act on relevant information.

“Whatever the reason, the firearms licensing department was not aware of the prosecution,” she said. “I find it likely that had the [department] been in possession of all the facts a week before his death, it is likely a review of his case would have taken place and the guns seized.”

Mrs Haddock told the court her husband thought the EA was “making an example of him” and felt it was “deeply unfair” that the agency was pursuing “the small guys”. She described his death as “completely unnecessary” and expressed hope that other lives would be saved. The coroner is writing a Prevention of Future Deaths report to Devon and Cornwall Police.