POLICE Scotland is to be sued by the family of Barry Croal who was found dead in his house by officers two days after concerns for his well-being were first raised to them by his mother.

The police watchdog has criticised the force for failure in call handling after the mother of the 51-year-old rang police three times on February 20 2017 amid concern for his safety, having not seen him for two days or been able to unlock his front door.

But no police officers were sent to investigate, a Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc) report found.

The Herald:

It was not until she phoned a fourth time on February 22 - more than 38 hours after her initial calls - that officers were sent to Mr Croal's home in Fallin, Stirlingshire, and found him dead.

A doctor certified the cause of death as a gastrointestinal bleed but could not give an estimated time of death, beyond saying that Mr Croal had been dead for more than two hours before she arrived.

READ MORE: Police Scotland rapped over failure to find body of dead man in his house

Last year Police Scotland were warned by Scottish Conservatives that they were losing public confidence in the wake of a list of blunders.

Police Scotland issued an apology last month after being criticised by the Pirc over officers' failure to discover the body of Arnold Mouat (below) at his home in Bo'ness a month after he went missing.

The Herald:

Mr Croal's daughter Sinead, 27, who says she has spoken to a few people affected by poor police call handling, now says the Pirc findings are to be the basis of a negligence claim being made by herself and brother Robbie against the force.

She said: "All they have done is put the call handlers in training, and my dad's lying in a graveyard. "It's [the decision] not going to bring my dad back. All the [call handling] cases just seem to get written off the same.

"We have never had a direct apology about this. They've taken responsibility. "But I've hired a lawyer so it's fine. I am not sure when it is going to court, because we had to wait for the Commissioner to sign this off.

"We have lost our dad. We don't know whether this would have been caught in time if they had come out. But he has had a bleed before and it was caught in time. It is something that can be treated. After three phone calls you'd think the police would help you."

The Herald:

Pirc said Mr Croal's mother experienced a "variety of failures" by three separate employees.

It said there was evidence of an "apparent reluctance" to transfer the calls to the correct department.

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Commissioner Kate Frame said: "In her earlier calls, she made it clear to both police officers and a member of civilian staff that nobody had seen her son for a number of days and that she had been unable to get into his house because it appeared that the door had been locked with keys from the inside.

The Herald:

"Barry Croal's mother experienced a variety of failures by three separate police personnel within a 10-minute period, which must have undoubtedly been very frustrating and ultimately a distressing experience for her."

Mr Croal's mother first called police at 18:36 to express concerns that two-and-a-half hours earlier she was unable to get into her son's house, and to inquire if he was in custody.

READ MORE: Police Scotland rapped over failure to find body of dead man in his house

She was transferred to a sergeant who told her Mr Croal was not in custody and she would have to redial on the 101 number to report her son missing.

Three minutes later after selecting the wrong option on her second call, she was told again, this time by a constable, to redial.

She reiterated her concerns for her son in a third call three minutes later and believing the operator would call her back after providing contact details, Mr Croal's mother ended the call.

But the adviser did not call her back and instead updated the call log with the words "advice given/resolved".

The Pirc has recommended that police call handlers take information and transfer the call rather than ask the caller to redial and that they should be given guidance on how to deal with dropped 101 calls.

The Herald:

Police Scotland were rapped in October, last year, after David Penman (above)  was found dead in a van in a lay-by near Dunipace two days after the force was first alerted to the abandoned vehicle.

In August, last year, it emerged a call-handler in Glasgow didn’t know where the A90 was after receiving a call from a pensioner in Aberdeenshire, and in April officers were sent to investigate a crime in Glasgow which had actually occurred in Aberdeen.

READ MORE: Appeal to help find missing Scots rock star Scott Hutchison as search continues

In 2015, Lamara Bell, 25, and her boyfriend John Yuill, 28, (below) died after their car left the M9 and officers failed to respond to a report of the crash for three days. Ms Bell was found alive but died four days later in hospital.

The Herald:

Assistant Chief Constable Wayne Mawson said the force had worked with Pirc to address their concerns in the latest case and further improve call handling and custody management.

READ MORE: Police Scotland rapped over failure to find body of dead man in his house

He said: "We note the recommendations within the Pirc report and acknowledge the fact that there were some shortcomings in relation to the Police Scotland response to enquiries to establish his wellbeing. We would like to offer our sincere apologies to Barry’s family and friends for that.

"We recognised at an early stage these shortcomings and promptly made significant changes and improvements to manage custody enquiries both within and between Criminal Justice Services (Custody) and C3 Divisions. Staff have also received additional briefing to recognise risk and vulnerability at the first point of contact."