Caption: BEST QUALITY AVAILABLEUndated family handout file photo issued by the Metropolitan Police of Richard Okorogheye. Mr Okorogheye, 19. Police searching for the missing 19-year-old student have said a body has been found in Epping Forest. On Monday, the Metropolitan Police said they were informed by Essex Police that the body of a man was found in a pond in the woodland. Issue date: Monday April 5, 2021. PA Photo. See PA story POLICE Okorogheye. Photo credit should read: Family Handout/PA WireNOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
Photographer: Family Handout
Provider: PA
Source: PA(Credits: PA)
The death of a missing student found in a pond in Epping Forest was ‘consistent with drowning’, an inquest has heard.
Richard Okorogheye, 19, had been missing from his home in Ladbroke Grove, west London for two weeks when he was discovered in the Essex woodland on April 5, 2021.
The teenager, who had sickle cell anaemia, left his home on the evening of March 22 without his medication.
His mum Evidence Joel – who has previously spoken to the Metro about her son -phoned police the next day but Mr Okorogheye was not officially recorded as missing until two days later.
Police watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) later launched an investigation and concluded that officers provided an ‘unacceptable level of service’ to Ms Joel and the force should apologise to her.
It said the performance of three police officers and three call handlers fell below the standard expected, but their actions did not meet the threshold for disciplinary action.
The IOPC investigation found that Mr Okorogheye should have been classed as a missing person earlier and he was seen as low risk for too long. It also noted that a call handler inaccurately recorded his medical condition as anaemia rather than sickle cell anaemia on the initial police report.
However, it said there was no evidence to suggest the delay in upgrading Mr Okorogheye’s risk level was down to the family’s race.
Ms Joel also alleged that a police officer made a racist comment but the watchdog said that, while it could be considered ‘unprofessional’, it could not conclude the remark was ‘influenced by any bias regarding Richard’s ethnicity’.
Caption: Handout CCTV grab dated 22/03/21 issued by the Metropolitan Police of missing student Richard Okorogheye. Mr Okorogheye is believed to have left his family home in the Ladbroke Grove area of west London on the evening of March 22 and was reported missing two days later. Issue date: Tuesday March 30, 2021. PA Photo. See PA story POLICE Okorogheye. Photo credit should read: Metropolitan Police/PA WireNOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
Photographer: Metropolitan Police
Provider: PA
Source: PA(Credits: PA)
Mr Okorogheye’s cause of death was given as ‘consistent with drowning’ by consultant forensic pathologist Dr Benjamin Swift during the first day of an inquest held at Essex Coroner’s Court in Chelmsford, today.
Dr Swift said the teenager’s family had informed him that he was unable to swim and did not like water.
Area coroner Sean Horstead decided the inquest would not look into the wider circumstances surrounding Mr Okorogheye’s death, as Mr Horstead’s provisional view was that he was dead by the time his mother first reported him missing to the police.
Mr Okorogheye, who was a student at Oxford Brookes University, had been isolating during the coronavirus pandemic and left home only to go to hospital to receive blood transfusions for his sickle cell disorder.
Mr Okorogheye’s aunt Toyin Ideozu read out a statement written by Ms Joel in which he was described as ‘a respectful, hardworking and ambitious boy’.
Caption: Richard Okorogheye inquest
(Picture: @evi.joel.9)
She said: ‘Only a few weeks before he disappeared, Richard came up to me in the kitchen and said, “Mum, I really appreciate you, you do so much for me.”
“The last time I saw Richard, I was leaving our home to do a night shift. As I was leaving, I said to Richard “I love you.”
‘Richard said to me, “Mummy, I love you too, take care and we will talk later.”
‘Richard was, and always will be, my everything, my baby. He is missed every day.’
Ms Joel said her son did not resent having to shield during the pandemic, and asked by Mr Horstead if he had any poor history of mental health, she replied ‘no, never’.
Speaking at the inquest, Mr Jefir Sharif, a forensic toxicologist, said levels of alcohol and gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) were found in Mr Okorogheye’s blood and urine during tests after his death.
But in a summary of Mr Sharif’s report, the coroner said the forensic toxicologist was unable to rule out the possibility that some or all of the alcohol was produced naturally within Mr Okorogheye’s body after death.
Mr Sharif also said the levels of GHB suggest they were produced by the body after death rather than ingested or administered.
Dr Swift said the post-mortem examination showed Mr Okorogheye’s lungs were “somewhat overexpanded” and his spleen was enlarged which would be ‘consistent with a history of sickle cell disorder’.
Mr Swift added that there were no acute injuries identified externally or internally, no marks of an offensive or defensive nature.
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The 19-year-old student’s body was found in a pond in Epping Forest, Essex in 2021.
