Hannah Warren: Woman died at docks after failings by Met Police

The family of a woman from London found dead in disused docks in Wales has told the Met to make "significant changes" after it made mistakes in the case.

Hannah Warren, 28, drove her car into a quay in February 2016, after being reported missing the day before.

An inquest jury found "inadequacies" in the Met Police investigation could have contributed to her death.

The Met admitted to failings and said it "will seek to learn any lessons" from the inquest.

Marketing director Ms Warren was reported missing on 3 February, after having set out in her car from her home in Streatham that morning.

She was captured on CCTV cameras arriving at Port Talbot Docks at about 03:30 GMT the next day.

Assistant Coroner for Swansea Neath Port Talbot Edward Ramsey said he believed she drove into the water, before escaping from the car and climbing out of the water before falling back in.

She was found dead hours later by a member of the public. Police divers later discovered her car nearby in the water.

Ms Warren's car had been clocked several times during the journey by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras, but the family was not informed and no attempts were made to find out whether she had links to those areas, the coroner said.

Her brother Tom Warren said he believed if she had been considered to be a higher risk, she would have been stopped by local forces before she reached Port Talbot.

The Met Police, which led the inquiry into her disappearance, admitted five failings in the case, including a "lack of action" during the night shift, "insufficient use" of ANPR cameras and "shortcomings" in communications with other police forces.

However, a complaint made to the police watchdog by the family in 2017 about the force's handling of the case concluded there was "insufficient evidence" to uphold it.

Ms Warren's mother Jane Barnes told the BBC: "We'd like to see the Met Police make significant changes in the way they deal with missing people." She said its systems "don't seem to be connected in any way" and that "they're not ringing family".

Her son said there had been a failure in "bog-standard policing".

"We just don't want this to happen to anyone else," he said. "Without changes, other families are going to lose loved ones, other people are needlessly going to die."

Mr Warren told the BBC his sister had sent "incoherent and disorganised" text messages on the morning she went missing. In them, she said she had been on the phone to Barack Obama and that she believed she was being chased by the FBI.

'Tragedy'

The inquest jury, which returned a narrative verdict, concluded she had been suffering from a mental disorder.

Her family believes her death was an accident.

"It was absolutely not suicide," Ms Barnes said.

Met Police Ch Supt Colin Wingrove described the death as a "tragedy".

"It is important we acknowledge the findings of the inquest," he said.

"I hope to be able to apologise in person to the family for the identified shortcomings in the police response."

He added: "The Met fully respects the finding of the jury and will seek to learn any lessons that may come from the hearing."

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