Plymouth gunman’s GP was contacted by police about firearms license

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The Plymouth gunman’s GP was contacted by police about the shooter’s firearms license but declined to help because he didn’t think he was qualified to comment on the “personality of a patient”.

Jake Davison, 22, killed five people and injured two others in August before taking his own life. The tragedy prompted the Home Office to introduce new guidance on firearms licensing that makes it a requirement for an applicant to provide details of their medical history to the police.

Questions have been raised about why Jake Davison was able to get a shotgun in the first place. The apprentice crane operator had had his licence and shotgun removed by police in December 2020, following an alleged assault in September of that year.

Devon and Cornwall Police is currently being investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct and a police officer and a member of police staff have both been issued with misconduct notices over their handling of Davison’s application for a shotgun.

The serving of the notices means that the staff are under investigation but does not mean that they will necessarily be disciplined.

A pre-inquest review heard on Thursday that police had contacted Jake Davison’s GP about the licensing of his shotgun.

Dr Carolyn Addock, from the child death overview panel at Derriford Hospital, told Plymouth’s senior coroner that she had asked Jake Davison’s GP about whether they had “responded appropriately to the request from the police.”

She said the police request followed “a request of a gun licence from the perpetrator.”

She continued: “The response from the GP was that there was a request made for information.

“The GP wrote declining to give information because he did not feel that he was in a position to be qualified to comment on the personality of a patient to say whether or not they were safe to hold a gun licence.”

Police representatives also told the Coroners’ court that they had recently gained access to Jake Davison’s phone and were examining it as part of their inquiries.

It emerged after the shooting that Jake Davison had been in contact with mental health services during the coronavirus lockdown. The NHS said he had phoned a telephone helpline service in the city, run by the Livewell Southwest organisation.

A spokesperson said in August that: “When mental health services were approached for help, it was given.”

A representative for Livewell told the senior coroner on Thursday that the organisation would be providing a statement on “such contact as there was with the perpetrator”.

He added that they would also provide a comment on the “contact or lack of between Livewell and the victims.”

Under new licensing guidance announced last month, any applicant for a gun licence will have to arrange for information about their medical suitability to carry a gun to be provided by their GP.

Officers considering their application should have access to this medical information for every person who applies.

“An application for a certificate will not be granted without such medical information”, the guidance reads.

A full inquest into the deaths of the Plymouth shooting victims and attacker Davison is not likely to happen until Spring next year.