WARRINGTON officers’ actions have been put under the spotlight by the police watchdog after a man was found dead in Latchford.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission ran an investigation into how Cheshire Constabulary responded to a 999 call after 20-year-old Duane Robert Syers was found hanging from a tree in woods off Kingsway South last July 30.

Police received an emergency call at around 12.35am that morning expressing concern about a man seemingly about to hang himself.

Officers responded to the call and searched the location they had been given but could not find him.

As a matter of protocol Cheshire Constabulary referred the case to the IPCC who took over the force’s investigation and revealed that the caller, who seemed to be drunk and refused to provide details or wait for the police, was Mr Syers.

He claimed to have seen a man on Kinsgway South in trees near the Lidl supermarket wearing combat clothing and carrying a rope who was about to “string himself up”.

The police call handler correctly graded the call as needing an immediate response but the force computer mapping system located the telephone box in Reynolds Street, which intersects with Kingsway South.

The call handler then failed to provide the specific location to the officers who went to Reynolds Street.

The officers were only told the man was carrying a rope and not that he was attaching it to a tree .

A catalogue of errors then followed with none of the three units dispatched being able to find My Syers – the incident was closed on the police computer at 1.40am.

His body, wearing combat clothing, was discovered by a member of the public at around 6.10am.

As a result of the investigation’s findings the police call handler and dispatchers will receive advice about the importance of giving all available information to the responding officers.

A police sergeant supervising the deployment will also receive advice about failing to adequately supervise the incident.

Naseem Malik, IPCC Commissioner for the north west, said: “It is unclear whether Mr Syers 999 call was a cry for help – an attempt to get someone to stop the chain of events.

“If that was his intention it is tragic that the help he sought did not arrive in time. My sympathies go out to Mr Syers family.

“It is clear there was a failure by the call handler to record accurate information, compounded by poor communication by dispatchers to the officers dealing with the incident.

“These errors led to a considerable delay in locating Mr Syers body.

“We can unfortunately never know whether the officers searching for Mr Syers might have found him in time if they had been given accurate information. It may well be the case that more accurate information may simply have led to an earlier discovery of the body.”

An inquest concluded today with the coroner recording an open verdict.