[2024] UKUT 126 (AAC)

The appellant’s own contemporaneous account was missing

It appeared to be common ground that, while still at the home after the incident, the appellant had completed a handwritten report about it, in the period from approximately 20.30 to 21.50. It was at 21.50 that she walked up the driveway to wait for her taxi. It was also common ground that the DBS has not seen that report, and that the appellant has never seen it since handing it over to one of the home staff just before leaving the home on the evening of the incident. A letter dated 30 June 2021 from Northamptonshire Police made no mention of the police having seen it either. And the appellant thought her employment agency had not seen it. The written account was not before the Upper Tribunal. The police letter said that the appellant had “said she had written a statement before she left the home and one for the agency she worked through”. But no written statement at all by the appellant was before the tribunal, whether written for the home or for her employment agency. Moreover, it was not suggested to us that there was more than one contemporaneous written statement by the appellant.

However, the 30 June 2021 letter from Northamptonshire Police said of the appellant’s written account (although the source is not stated), among things, that “She wrote that she defended herself and swung at the child” (page 63, second paragraph).