Official review of police search for Adrian won't be published

Tuesday 09 August 2016

A UK National Crime Agency review made thirteen recommendations following a review of the police search for Adrian Lynch, but it isn't going to be published.

Someone has requested the review be made public under the Freedom of Information law, but they've been turned down on the basis that they didn't submit their name, and that information from the UK National Crime Agency is absolutely exempt under article 26 A(2)(n). In essence this is a list of bodies whose information the public do not have a right to see.

That said the Freedom of Information disclosure goes on to shed some light into the review of Operation Panama, which was the formal name for the search for Mr Lynch.

It says: “without releasing any of the report detail, the States Police can state: the report contained 13 recommendations relating in the main to major incident procedural issues, and all were adopted by the senior investigating officer.”

Most Freedom of Information requests are answered within 20 days. It’s not clear exactly when this request was put in, but it would appear to have been over the weekend since it refers to “the then missing Adrian Lynch." A body, thought to be Mr Lynch, was discovered at Handois Reservoir last Thursday morning. Mr Lynch’s passport was found in one of the pockets, and although a check of dental records was inconclusive, police concluded it was "in all probability" his body.

Mr Lynch had been missing since leaving a Christmas Party in town early in December last year. The search was one of the most extensive carried out by Jersey Police. Specialist officers and dogs, divers, and state-of-the-art sonar equipment were all used in the search, including in the area of Handois Reservoir. 

The Police always maintained his disappearance had most likely been an accident. At a press conference after the body of the 20-year-old was discovered, Detective Superintendent Stewart Gull gave his reaction: “We’ve always maintained a stance that in all probability this was a sad and tragic event of misadventure. We know Adrian had been on a works do. He’d been drinking. He’d been seen or heard on 18 occasions I think it was between midnight and 2:30 that morning. And various parties described him as quite vocal and disorientated. There is no vindication today, today is a very sad day, and of course our thoughts are with the family.”