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Police slammed over handling of dead journalist’s domestic abuse complaints

Teresa McMahonThe police’s handling of alleged domestic abuse involving a regional journalist who was found dead days later is to be reinvestigated.

A report has revealed Greater Manchester Police delayed seeing Teresa McMahon for nine days after she made the allegation and also failed to inform her of her former partner’s violent history when she requested it under Clare’s Law.

Teresa, who worked for the Manchester Evening News on a freelance basis between 2014 and 2016, was found dead at her flat in Little Hulton, Salford, in August 2021.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct has now looked into GMP’s handling of the case, while the MEN revealed last month the force has been ordered to reinvestigate the issue.

The developments came after the 43-year-old’s family complained to the IOPC, which subsequently ruled the probe conducted by GMP into the complaints made by Teresa “was not adequate, reasonable or proportionate” and that “lines of enquiry had not been pursued”.

The IOPC report found Teresa, pictured, had reported domestic abuse in the weeks before she died.

She had ended the relationship but had accused her former partner of pressurising her into resuming it, while GMP told her she had no right to see details of his history of violence because she was no longer in a relationship.

A police bodycam recording of an interview with Teresa, discussing her concerns, 12 days before she died was also lost by the force.

At a pre-inquest review last summer, Bolton Coroner’s Court was told Teresa, who also worked as a producer and news editor for Granada Reports, was a “vulnerable individual” who was “locked in a coercive and controlling relationship” before her death.

An inquest into her death, which was due to be held this month, has now been postponed following the IOPC’s findings.

A spokesperson for GMP told the MEN: “GMP is re-investigating the complaint and note an Inquest into the death of Teresa McMahon is due to be heard, so we are unable to comment further at this stage.”