Costessey: Police self-refer to watchdog over 999 call from house - where four family members found dead

Norfolk Police has referred itself to the police watchdog, after it emerged it did not send officers to respond to a 999 call from a house where a family was found dead - an hour later.

Emergency services were called to the a property in Costessey, near Norwich, on Friday (19 January), after receiving a call from a neighbour. Police forced entry to the house shortly after 7am, where they found four bodies - two young girls, a 45-year-old man and a 36-year-old woman.

On Saturday, the force revealed it had made a self-referral to the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) as per standard procedure on Friday - relating to two previous callouts to the address in the past few weeks. The first involved Norfolk Police being called to the address on 14 December in relation to a missing person inquiry, while the second involved a 999 call from a man at the property about an hour before the bodies were found. Police resources were not deployed.

In an update, Norfolk Police said uniformed officers would remain on the Queen’s Hill estate throughout Saturday. A police cordon remains in place and forensic investigations continue inside the property, while detectives have been carrying out house-to-house enquiries.

Detective Chief Inspector Chris Burgess, from the Norfolk and Suffolk major investigation team, told PA: “We’ve had a heavy police presence in the area since yesterday morning and there’s understandably concern in the local community. However, their help and support in the investigation has been unwavering and on behalf of everyone involved in this devastating incident, we’re extremely grateful for that."

“Today, the focus of our inquiries remains at the address and we’re examining local CCTV," he continued. "While we’re still piecing together what’s happened, at this stage we remain satisfied that this is an isolated incident.”

He said all four people were found with injuries, and post-mortem examinations would be held to establish the cause of death. “We’re aware of commentary on social media and in news media, however, I would emphasise that formal identification is yet to take place,” Mr Burgess added.

“As I said yesterday, we believe the man and two children lived at the address, and while the woman was staying there, she wasn’t a permanent resident.”