A MAN died in a North Yorkshire lake after police failed to "undertake an effective search" when he went missing, an investigation has found.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), investigating the death of 34-year-old Gavin Egan, said there had been a number of errors in the actions of a North Yorkshire Police constable, who was later given a written warning.

Mr Egan, who was from Kirkbymoorside in Ryedale and who had also once lived off Hull Road in York, died last year in a lake at Peasholme Park, Scarborough. He was found alive by a dog walker and pulled from the water at just after 3am on February 24. The dog walker then ran home to phone an ambulance and the operator asked him to return to the scene.

The dog walker took a furniture throw back to the lakeside, but Mr Egan - who was known to have memory and balance issues due to a medical condition - had gone.

The rapid response ambulance driver said the temperature was -3 degrees Celcius, and the puddle of water where he had been pulled from the lake was already beginning to ice over. He searched for 38 minutes around the park, but was unable to find Mr Egan.

Police were called just before 4am, and PC Helen Hardie was sent to the scene and said in radio transmissions to the control room she would have “a quick look round”.

In interview, PC Hardie said she was not concerned that the “male from the lake was in any danger”, and as he had come out of the lake and “the male running off indicated there was no immediacy for concern”.

In a radio transmission at 4.15am, PC Hardie said she was “disinclined to believe” the incident had happened, and it was more likely the dog-walker was “actually homeless in the park and has actually made this up. There is no evidence whatsoever of anyone having been in the lake”.

Following this transmission, two officers who had offered to assist with the search decided against it.

Mr Egan’s body was recovered from the lake at 12.30pm that day.

In interview, PC Hardie said she did not consider whether Mr Egan might have been the victim of a crime, back in the lake, might be dead or in need of help.

She also said she presumed the dog walker was homeless and living in the park, as he had “some kind of quilt” with him - in fact a furniture throw brought from his nearby home after the emergency services operator asked him to return to Mr Egan.

The watchdog said: “PC Hardie has a case to answer for gross misconduct, for failing to take all reasonable steps to investigate the incident, and failing to undertake an effective search of the lake.”

Lesley Shields, Mr Egan’s mother, said the initial search was insufficient, and the length of time taken for police to inform her of her son’s death was too long.

York Press:

Gavin Egan with his mother, Lesley Shields

She said: “As far as I am concerned the whole incident was a total farce from start to finish. I shall live the rest of my life with the knowledge that if the police had done their duty my son could still be alive today.”

Mrs Shields said her son had lived a difficult life in which he had struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, had suffered from depression, and overcome a brain aneurysm, but was happy and feeling positive in the days before his death, and planning to move into a new home in Scarborough.

More than 300 people paid tribute to him on a Facebook memorial page set up after his death, with friends and family describing him as a ‘caring person’ with a ‘heart of gold’.

Deputy Chief Constable Tim Madgwick said he hoped Mr Egan’s family had found “a degree of closure” following the investigation, and the police search followed a search by the ambulance service.

He said: “It’s important that our response to the incident is seen the context of the events on the morning that Mr Egan died, including the fact that the initial call from the man who rescued Mr Egan was made to the ambulance service who attended and carried out a 38-minute search for Mr Egan. We were called approximately half an hour after this first call and arrived at the scene 15 minutes later. A further short search was carried out by our officer and discontinued. Tragically, Mr Egan’s body was recovered from the lake later that morning. The coroner recognised that the search carried out by our officer was reasonable, given the information available at the time.”

The watchdog also confirmed Mr Egan’s mother, his next of kin, was not told of his death by police until 4.30pm the following day. By that time, she had already been made aware of his death by a member of the public.

The IPCC said this was “due to a genuine misunderstanding” by the officers responsible, but upheld the complaint and made recommendations to the force.