Tracy Shelvey: Woman who fell to her death after rape trial was ‘let down’, says family
'I think she was so distressed that he didn’t get found guilty'
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The mother of a woman who fell to her death from a car park roof after learning that a man accused of raping her had been acquitted said yesterday that her daughter had been devastated by the verdict and her family felt she had been failed by the authorities.
An inquest heard that Tracy Shelvey, 41, had been confident that her alleged attacker, Patrick Hall, would be convicted of assaulting her and other women after giving evidence against him for a second time at a trial in Manchester.
But when Mr Hall was acquitted after a re-trial in January last year, Ms Shelvey became “very distressed” and called her mother and police to express her disbelief at the verdict. She died on 3 February last year after standing on the roof of a car park in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, and telling bystanders that she felt she was not believed.
A detective who worked on the case and rushed to the scene to try to talk to Ms Shelvey broke down as she gave evidence at the inquest in Oldham County Court. Detective Constable Katrina Fitzsimons, of Greater Manchester Police, told the hearing: “I just felt I’d let her down.”
Ms Shelvey, who was known to her local mental health service and was described as “vulnerable”, had reported the alleged rape against her to police in 2011. A decision was taken not to pursue the case but it had never been explained to Ms Shelvey as to why, the inquest was told.
The case was reopened in 2012 in order to reinvestigate several allegations of sexual offences against Mr Hall and multiple alleged victims, including Ms Shelvey, were contacted. [MUST KEEP] Mr Hall was subsequently acquitted of all charges following two trials.
Tracy’s mother, Irene Shelvey, said that her daughter had agreed to testify at the trials to help other alleged victims of the man, including a 15-year-old girl.
In a statement, the family said they felt Ms Shelvey had been let down by the authorities.
The family said: “She agreed to give evidence in the trial and retrial of Patrick Hall because she was concerned at the number of others he had allegedly attacked including an underage girl. She helped the state but we feel she was let down by the state agencies.”
Det Con Fitzsimons said that Ms Shelvey had been initially “eager to get justice” by agreeing to give evidence but had been “worn down” by the re-trial. Upon learning the verdict she “went into a rage, swearing and shouting”, the officer said.
The inquest heard that four days before her death on 3 February 2014, Mrs Shelvey had received a phone call from her daughter in a distressed state concerning the alleged attack against her. The mother said her Ms Shelvey had been “extremely upset”, saying “he’s got away with it” and “how could he do that?”.
In the early hours of the next day police visited Mrs Shelvey trying to find Tracy after saying they had also received distressed calls from her.
The inquest was told Mrs Shelvey received a call on 3 February saying that her daughter, who was herself the mother of a young child, had been taken to hospital following the fall.
Mrs Shelvey told the hearing: “I think she was so distressed that he didn’t get found guilty, I think she had it in her mind that he was going to get found guilty.
“Obviously she was distressed, when she was on the roof and people were saying things, she was saying ‘you're the non-believers’. She had it on her mind that maybe people didn’t believe her.”
The mother added that she had believed her daughter “100 per cent”.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has undertaken two reports into the case, one into the circumstances surrounding Ms Shelvey's death and a second, not yet published, into Greater Manchester Police's handling of the multiple rape allegations.
The hearing continues.