Police apologise and drop threat to prosecute grieving mother

Channel 4

23-04-2025

A UK police force has apologised and withdrawn a threat to prosecute a grieving mother unless she deletes a damning review of the investigation into her daughter's death.
Caroline Charters was warned that she faced possible criminal prosecution unless she destroyed all copies of the official review into Gloucestershire Constabulary's actions following her daughter Danielle Charters-Christie's sudden death in February 2021.
Gloucestershire Constabulary – which originally commissioned the review and directly handed it to Ms Charters last year – said it had since identified 'a serious data breach' and was compelled to act.
The force deployed officers to Ms Charters' home in Greater Manchester and sent multiple emails to demand its deletion, raising the prospect of 'legal enforcement action' under the Data Protection Act.
The threat to prosecute the mother-of-four sparked outcry, with author JK Rowling declaring that she would fund any legal defence.
If they prosecute this bereaved mother, I stand ready to fund her defence. https://t.co/s86sq4UFUl
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 11, 2025
A government spokesperson issued a statement to remind police to 'treat bereaved families with compassion' and 'use their resources to pursue perpetrators'.
Gloucestershire Constabulary has now dropped its threat to prosecute, telling Ms Charters in writing on Tuesday: 'Although you have declined to do so [delete the review] we have decided not to take this matter any further, at this time'.
The force's assistant chief constable concluded the letter by saying: 'May I take this opportunity to apologise to you and your family for our oversight and the way our attempts to rectify it may have impacted you and your family'.
Ms Charters told Channel 4 News that she believed the U-turn 'proved they were just trying to threaten and intimidate me into giving up'.
She added: 'Never underestimate the lengths a mother will go to, to establish the truth. I will not be silenced. I will ensure the truth is known'.
Gloucestershire Police has been approached for further comment.
'Never underestimate the lengths a mother will go to, to establish the truth. I will not be silenced. I will ensure the truth is known'.
– Caroline Charters
Channel 4 News reported the contents of the Victim's Right to Review last October, with serious questions raised about the quality of the investigation into Ms Charters-Christie's sudden death.
The death was ruled as a suicide within 55 minutes of police arriving, with the review exposing a failure to forensically examine Ms Charters-Christie's body for signs of trauma nor the scene where she was found dead by her former partner.
A decision to grant permission to the father of her former partner to transfer her body to a morgue, in his capacity as an undertaker, was also highlighted.
The review found that the caravan that lived in had been 'disposed of' by the time of her former partner's arrest on suspicion of her murder in April 2022.
He was later released without charge, with police citing a lack of evidence and unrealistic prospect of conviction.
The individual, who Channel 4 News is not naming, has never responded to repeated requests for comment in response to Ms Charters-Christie's death.
'No one should have to go through that'
Ms Charters' grave concerns about the handling of her daughter's case prompted Gloucestershire Constabulary to order the external review, conducted by a separate police force in Wiltshire Police.
The review – detailing a litany of shortcomings – was directly handed to Ms Charters in June 2024, with Gloucestershire Constabulary promising 'openness and transparency'.
Gloucestershire Constabulary's Assistant Chief Constable Arman Mathieson told Channel 4 News last October that the review demonstrated that 'evidential opportunities had not been taken'.
He added: 'Caroline has had to campaign and challenge the organisation quite extensively and no one should have to go through that'.
In February, four months after Channel 4 News' original reporting of Danielle Charters-Christie's death, Caroline Charters received a text message from a senior police officer requesting a face-to-face meeting to 'discuss/share some new information'.
Ms Charters' hopes that this may be a significant development in her daughter's case were quickly dispelled when she was handed a letter demanding that she destroy all electronic and physical copies of the review.
The force later said it would replace the 74-page document with a six-page 'outcome letter'. The letter stripped out all the detailed findings listed in the original review.
On 10 April, Channel 4 News published the threat to prosecute Caroline Charters, with the mother-of-four saying she was 'appalled' by police actions towards her and her family.
Responding to the case, Harriet Wistrich, director of the Centre for Women's Justice, told LBC : 'A mother should not have to fear prosecution. She should be able to speak about her concerns freely about what happened to her daughter and police failures to investigate.'
Domestic Abuse Commissioner Nicole Jacobs said: 'Bereaved families rely on the police to provide answers and justice when the unimaginable happens – any contact with the police must be met with empathy, humility and respect, every single time.'
A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We expect to see police using their resources to pursue perpetrators and protect victims from harm.'
In the letter confirming its decision not to pursue Ms Charters, Gloucestershire Constabulary maintained that it 'made a mistake' in sharing the unredacted Victim's Right to Review because of the availability of 'sensitive third-party data.'
The force said the Information Commissioner's Office was continuing to investigate the 'data breach' and requested that Ms Charters not share the review 'further than your immediate family'.
On the decision to send police officers to her home to demand its deletion, the force's assistant chief constable Arman Mathieson told Ms Charters: 'I felt this was providing you the best possible service and I'm sorry for any distress you felt upon our attendance'.