West Midlands Police chief defends force over Birmingham stabbings

A police chief has defended his force's actions following a spate of stabbings which left one person dead and another seven injured.

Dave Thompson, the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, said his officers' response to the attacks in Birmingham earlier this month had been "reasonable and well considered".

Zephaniah McLeod, 27, from the Selly Oak area of the city, has been charged with one count of murder and seven counts of attempted murder following the city centre knifings in the early hours of Sunday September 6.

Jacob Billington, 23, a university worker, died after being stabbed and one other person remains in a critical condition in hospital.

The police were accused of failing to respond quick enough to the initial reports, allowing the perpetrator to strike again.

But at an inquest earlier this week, it emerged that the alleged attacker returned home between some of the stabbings.

Speaking to an online crime board, Mr Thompson said there had been almost an hour long gap between the first three incidents and the next two.

He told the meeting: "The first issue is there has been some criticism of the force because there's a belief the suspect was allowed to wander around the city centre of Birmingham for two hours between the first and final attack.

"The first three victims' attacks were reported to the police between 12.31am and 12.52am on September 6.

"At 1.23am the initial investigation identified links between the two incidents.

"There was then almost an hour's gap until the next two attacks were reported to the police. They were reported at 1.50am and 1.59am.

"Evidence presented to the court in this case will allege the suspect left the city centre after the first three victims were attacked, returning to another part of the city centre around an hour later.

"This addresses why the prime suspect was not located between the two sets of incidents."

Countering claims police had not acted quickly enough, Mr Thompson cited response times for the four "clusters" of attacks, and said multiple firearms officers, Taser units, traffic resources and the police helicopter had been deployed.

"I believe the prompt police and equally swift ambulance response will subsequently be shown to have saved lives," he added.