The Retraction at 2am
It is 02:00 on a Sunday. A neighbour has called in a disturbance. You attend a flat where a 34-year-old woman has a swollen wrist and a small cut to her lip. Her husband is not there - she says he is at his brother's. Two children, aged six and three, are asleep in the back bedroom. She speaks limited English; her cousin is on speakerphone translating. She says she fell against the door and that she will not make a statement, and that if 'police make trouble' she will lose the tenancy and her husband's family will stop helping with the children. The only interpreter booking is 09:00. Your sergeant radios: 'Can you just get a VA and close it down?'
1. What do you do in the next hour, and how do you answer the sergeant?
Read the worked answer
Secure the evidence before deciding anything about the statement.
- Keep body-worn video running throughout; photograph the wrist and lip with consent, or record a precise written description if refused.
- Get the neighbour's account and note the original call; ask whether they heard anything and whether they have heard it before.
- Ask open questions through the interpreter - 'what happened tonight?' not 'did he hit you?' Leading questions destroy the value of an account you may only get once.
- Do not arrest the absent husband on a whim, but assess the immediate risk to the children honestly rather than assuming they are safe because they are asleep.
- Do not promise outcomes, and never say 'we will close it'.
- Book the 09:00 interpreter, tell her when it is and that she can speak without the cousin present.
To the sergeant: 'I am not closing it tonight. I have injuries, two children in the property and a retraction I need to record properly with a neutral interpreter at nine. I will hand over a risk assessment and a recommendation for evidence-led review.' A retraction is a factor in the case, not the end of it, and the charging decision is not yours or hers alone.
2. How do you manage the fact that a family member is acting as interpreter by phone, and what are the risks?
Read the worked answer
A cousin on speakerphone is not a neutral interpreter and may sit inside the same family network as the suspect.
Risks:
- The cousin may soften, edit or omit what is said, in either direction.
- She may not disclose in front of a relative - particularly anything about coercion, money or previous incidents.
- Your record of what she said becomes second-hand and is easily attacked.
- The cousin may relay the questions to the husband.
What to do:
- Ask, through the cousin, whether she would prefer to speak to you without the cousin listening; note the answer.
- Keep questions short, closed and factual, and record explicitly that a family member interpreted - never present her words as her own verbatim account in a statement.
- Do not use the cousin to explain her rights, bail conditions or safeguarding options; those need a neutral interpreter.
- Identify the language properly so the right interpreter is booked, and tell her the time.
- Record the gap and flag it to the supervisor as an unmet need, not as something you worked around.
3. She is an adult with capacity who does not want to proceed. How do you balance her autonomy against safeguarding the children and preserving the case?
Read the worked answer
Autonomy and safeguarding are not opposites here, and the two decisions belong to different people.
- Her decision: she can decline to make a statement. What you control is that the decision is informed - Clare's Law disclosure, an IDVA referral, tenancy and housing advice, and the domestic abuse protection options. A retraction made in ignorance is not really a choice.
- Record the reason verbatim. Fear of losing the tenancy or of the husband's family withdrawing childcare is itself relevant evidence and could support a witness intimidation line of enquiry. Do not paraphrase it into 'does not wish to support'.
- The children are a separate matter. A reported assault in a household with a six-year-old and a three-year-old requires a safeguarding referral whatever the mother decides. You do not need her permission for that, and you should tell her you are doing it.
- The case: an evidence-led file can rest on the neighbour's account, the injuries, the 999 call and body-worn video. Recommend it rather than deciding it.
Do not tell her that cooperating will keep her safe when you cannot guarantee it, and do not treat a retraction as a box-ticking failure to be closed.