Police who sent Top Gun tweet about dead woman face new investigation | UK news

Kent Police celebrated the quick identification of a dead woman’s body in 2020 by releasing a Top Gun GIF, but now their work and the investigation into her death are under renewed scrutiny.

Police officers who tweeted a Top Gun GIF to celebrate identifying a woman’s body are now being investigated by another agency after a watchdog report criticized the investigation into her death.

The review by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found that Kent Police detectives had not properly collected, recorded or evaluated all information before concluding that Azra Kemal’s death was not suspicious.

The Office for Professional Standards for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire is currently reviewing the investigation.

It is four years since the 24-year-old died in July 2020 when she fell from a dual carriageway bridge over the Medway River on the A21 in Kent. Her car had broken down nearby and caught fire. She was on her way back to London with a male friend.

In a tweet posted on the day of the death of Mrs. KemalKent Police congratulated their forensic officers on their quick work with a GIF from the movie Top Gun showing the characters Maverick and Goose high-fiving each other.

The reason for this celebration was the fact that they “identified the deceased person within approximately 90 minutes of arriving at the scene of the accident.”

The police watchdog’s report said the news could increase fears “that the police are in a hurry to complete their investigations.”

After discovering the tweet, Ms Kemal’s mother, Nevres Kemal, told Sky News it was “just appalling”. She had already lodged complaints in areas where she felt her daughter’s death had not been properly investigated.

Their complaint stated that “procedures were not followed, evidence was not secured and information about a witness was not followed up.”

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It is alleged that “assumptions” were made about Azra Kemal’s character and the sole suspect in a possible murder investigation was released as a witness before his statement was properly verified and other evidence such as forensic examinations and witness statements were secured.

The IOPC report, published late last year, said: “Having considered the grounds for review and all background papers, I agree with your concerns.”

The author of the report said the investigating officer “took risks” by releasing the suspect as a witness within 24 hours of Ms Kemal’s death, but he “did not justify” this in his notes, as he “relied largely on the evidence provided by the suspect”.

The author of the report added: “In my opinion, all available information was not collected, recorded and thoroughly evaluated before the decision was made… and therefore the level of service here is not acceptable.”

This decision to release the suspect led to a further decision not to conduct a full forensic autopsy on Ms Kemal’s body to look for further evidence of suspicious events prior to her fall, which is also criticised in the report.

Ms Kemal’s mother, who is supported by the Centre For Women’s Justice, wants the police to reopen the investigation into her daughter’s death.

Nevres Kemal said: “Kent Police concluded that Azra’s life was worth nothing, so they failed to examine the evidence and investigate her death because they chose not to.

“Everyone in this country has a right to have the death of their loved ones investigated properly and according to the law. No one is above the law – especially not the police. As long as I have breath, I will pursue the people who abandoned my child.”

A review of Kent Police’s investigation by Essex Police initially found it to be “acceptable”, but the new IOPC report, seen by Sky News, concludes that the investigation was “not adequate and proportionate”.

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Referring to the Top Gun tweet, the author of the IOPC report told the complainant: “It appeared to you that the police had made it public that they were satisfied with the speedy resolution of this incident. I understand that a complaint was made about the content of tweets published by the police shortly after the incident.”

“While it is not appropriate for me to go into the details of these tweets given the ongoing complaint, I point them out because I see that doing so would only reinforce your concerns that the police were in a hurry to complete their investigations and did not do a thorough job of analyzing and examining the evidence.”

Kent Police told Sky News it “supports an independent review of the investigation into the death of Azra Kemal on 16 July 2020”.

“It would not be appropriate to comment further until the results of the review are available,” police added.

The complaints will now be independently re-investigated by the Professional Standards Department in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire.