:00:04. > :00:07.Hello from Weston-super-Mare on the North Somerset coast. Tonight, we
:00:07. > :00:16.are investigating mistakes made by the police after they received a
:00:16. > :00:25.harrowing 999 call. I want to kill myself I want to end
:00:25. > :00:28.it all. Why d'you want to kill yourself?
:00:28. > :00:37.Christofer Walker was suicidal. He was taking an overdose of pills.
:00:37. > :00:42.And when he turned to the police for help, they let him down. He was
:00:42. > :00:46.at the end of his 10 there. He desperately needed help, so he
:00:46. > :00:48.called the police. But the did not attend.
:00:48. > :00:51.Also in the programme tonight Isambard Kingdom Brunel - brilliant
:00:51. > :01:00.engineer or reckless blunderer? We meet the historian who argues that
:01:00. > :01:05.we have got him wrong. People should remember that he was not so
:01:05. > :01:15.per month. He did not do everything on his own and we needed do stuff
:01:15. > :01:17.
:01:17. > :01:19.on his own, it was a dog's I am Alastair McKee and this is
:01:19. > :01:22.Inside Out West. First tonight, a mother from here
:01:22. > :01:25.in Weston-super-Mare who believes the police are failing in their
:01:25. > :01:29.duty to help vulnerable people at risk of suicide. Carol Bagg lost
:01:29. > :01:32.her son Christofer after he took an overdose of pills. This report,
:01:32. > :01:34.from our health correspondent Matthew Hill, includes a recording
:01:34. > :01:44.of Christofer's desperate 999 call, which some people may find
:01:44. > :02:03.
:02:03. > :02:07.I think he was desperate. I think he was at the end of his tether. He
:02:07. > :02:17.desperately needed help and he turned to the people we have always
:02:17. > :02:22.
:02:22. > :02:27.I am in the street where police were called to the aid of a young
:02:27. > :02:35.man who was threatening to take his own life and train out for their
:02:35. > :02:45.help. It was in the early morning in February 2008 when Christofer
:02:45. > :02:57.
:02:57. > :03:04.Walker made this distressing call It is harrowing because it is money
:03:05. > :03:10.child. I do not want to listen to it any more. Christopher's mother
:03:10. > :03:18.has been trying to find out more about the circumstances surrounding
:03:18. > :03:26.her son's death. He was pretty desperate. He wanted somebody to
:03:26. > :03:36.help him. He did not have been a credit on his mobile and the police
:03:36. > :03:39.is the only number you could call. He specifically for the police.
:03:39. > :03:49.Christofer knew the local police and had been in touch with them
:03:49. > :03:59.before. He was a kind and gentle man. He was independent. He was
:03:59. > :04:05.marginally autistic. He was slightly unusual and people like
:04:05. > :04:13.that are generally bullied and taken advantage of, but he got on
:04:13. > :04:23.with life. He was facing eviction from his form and that upset him. A
:04:23. > :04:23.
:04:23. > :04:28.was that what was upsetting him the most? I really do not know if that
:04:28. > :04:35.was it. He talked to his grandmother and then went back to
:04:35. > :04:39.his flat. He talked to work late at night and then got a meal. And then
:04:39. > :04:49.something went wrong. We do not know all went wrong. To this day,
:04:49. > :04:58.
:04:58. > :05:03.Christofer made this emergency call at 125 in the morning. The police
:05:03. > :05:08.operator correctly lob his call as the Dean and immediate response -
:05:08. > :05:18.be raised priority which could be given. It means the police unit
:05:18. > :05:29.
:05:29. > :05:34.should arrive at the house within As we come here, the operator asks
:05:34. > :05:41.an ambulance service to attained. The vehicle is dispatched
:05:41. > :05:45.immediately. The pill that Christofer has over does don't wear
:05:45. > :05:51.for his heart condition and there is no antidote. The ambulance
:05:51. > :05:57.arrived quickly, by 131 in the morning. But they had not been told
:05:57. > :06:02.which of the flats Christofer lived in. He did not get any response
:06:02. > :06:12.from any of the flat. The police should have been the within 10
:06:12. > :06:13.
:06:13. > :06:19.minutes. The police despite richer decided to downgrade the call from
:06:19. > :06:28.an immediate response to resolution without deployment. It means the
:06:28. > :06:38.police will not attained. What happens next was a crucial delay.
:06:38. > :06:40.
:06:40. > :06:45.The ambulance driver was unable to If the police had been there, the
:06:45. > :06:51.police have the power to use force to enter the flat. Once more, they
:06:51. > :07:01.had not passed on his phone number, so crucial minutes went by any.
:07:01. > :07:01.
:07:01. > :07:08.When eventually the ambulanceman got hold of a neighbour he managed
:07:08. > :07:18.to get access to Christofer. By this time, Christofer was extremely
:07:18. > :07:19.
:07:19. > :07:23.groggy. It was over and all were later before he left for hospital.
:07:23. > :07:29.If they had been able to do their duty as they were meant to do,
:07:30. > :07:34.Christofer would have done what they had asked him to do. If they
:07:34. > :07:44.had just said, Christofer, we need to get you to the hospital, he
:07:44. > :07:46.
:07:46. > :07:50.would hold on immediately. At that point, Christopher's only hope was
:07:50. > :08:00.that his stomach was pumped straight away. This delay of over
:08:00. > :08:03.
:08:03. > :08:07.one or were made that was simply too late. He died at the hospital.
:08:07. > :08:15.In mental illness charity has listen to recall and the case has
:08:15. > :08:21.raised alarm bells. He was clearly asking for help and we now
:08:21. > :08:25.understand that the police did not attained at all. The coroner said
:08:25. > :08:35.that the police's failure to not attained had not affected the
:08:35. > :08:43.outcome. But after a complete to the Police Complaints Commission,
:08:43. > :08:48.they have admitted that there was a fault. We have apologised privately
:08:48. > :08:58.to Christofer's mother. It is clear that this scene should have been
:08:58. > :08:59.
:08:59. > :09:09.attended. It is useful to know some context. In the last month, we have
:09:09. > :09:11.
:09:11. > :09:19.deal with 215 calls relating to suicides. How do you react to them?
:09:20. > :09:27.The investigating inspector told us that if we knew what the other
:09:27. > :09:37.units we're doing in the town at eight we may not be impressed.
:09:37. > :09:38.
:09:38. > :09:42.you explain that? No, I cannot. What I am saying is that when you
:09:42. > :09:51.have an immediate priority, we need to find the resources to deal with
:09:51. > :10:01.that. Since his death, the Police Complaints Commission would
:10:01. > :10:07.
:10:08. > :10:14.investigate if briefcases of the similar fashion. -- bereaved cases.
:10:14. > :10:24.The deaths you refer to where between 2009 and 2010. What we have
:10:24. > :10:26.
:10:26. > :10:31.done subsequently is introduced a new technology. The Independent
:10:31. > :10:36.Police Complaints Commission has now made OECD's of recommendations.
:10:36. > :10:43.They say that the system for vulnerable people needs to be clear
:10:43. > :10:47.or and more consistent. Because someone who has the mental health
:10:47. > :10:52.problem and feeling suicidal, there is this feeling that this is not as
:10:52. > :11:02.important as some other emergency situation. Be need to get away from
:11:02. > :11:06.
:11:06. > :11:10.it. The allegation is that maybe the police do not treat suicide
:11:10. > :11:20.cases like this as a priority because of the mental health
:11:20. > :11:25.
:11:25. > :11:31.issues? I totally refute that. We treat each case on its own merits.
:11:32. > :11:41.For Carlisle, it has been agonising for her to relive the events of
:11:41. > :11:47.that nature. It was the very difficult decision for us to take.
:11:47. > :11:52.We hope it will bring about change, particularly regarding the police's
:11:52. > :11:57.attitude to people with mental health problems. We do not want
:11:57. > :12:00.another family to have to suffer what we have suffered.
:12:00. > :12:03.Matthew Hill there on the tragic case of Christofer Walker. And if
:12:03. > :12:08.you would like details of organisations which can offer
:12:08. > :12:14.advice or support, you can call the BBC Action Line. The number is
:12:14. > :12:24.08000 566 065. Your call is free from a landline, but mobile
:12:24. > :12:26.
:12:26. > :12:32.operators will charge. The lines Next tonight, a controversial
:12:32. > :12:35.attack on a man who was voted one of our greatest ever Britons.
:12:35. > :12:40.Isambard Kingdom Brunel is prepared for the brilliance of his
:12:40. > :12:43.engineering, but historian Adrian Vaughan believes we have
:12:43. > :12:52.conveniently airbrushed out a side of Brunel which tells a very
:12:52. > :12:59.different story. Do you want history or do you want a fairy
:12:59. > :13:04.story? People should remember that Brunel was not Superman, he did not
:13:04. > :13:10.do everything on his own, he did not think of everything on his own.
:13:10. > :13:16.He had help and when he did think of everything on his own, it was a
:13:16. > :13:20.dog' breakfast. I am Adrien Vaughan and I am a volunteer signalman on
:13:20. > :13:25.the North Norfolk Railway. I have been on the railway for most of my
:13:25. > :13:29.working life and have written over 30 books about its history,
:13:29. > :13:34.including the work of a certain Isambard Kingdom Brunel. I do not
:13:34. > :13:40.think we have got his history quite right, so I am going on a journey
:13:40. > :13:45.to some of his great landmarks, from Paddington station... The
:13:45. > :13:51.stage and began to lead sideways. To the SS Great Britain... It is as
:13:51. > :13:59.if he hadn't heard of propellers. And Clifton Suspension Bridge. It
:13:59. > :14:05.is a very long-lived fairy-tale. I am going to set the record straight.
:14:05. > :14:10.Isambard Kingdom Brunel, 1806-1859, creator of the Great Western
:14:10. > :14:16.Railway, creator of Paddington station. Had he got one hand
:14:16. > :14:23.extended, it would be wonderful, we would be able to shake it. But
:14:23. > :14:29.unfortunately he has not, so I must just pat him. Well done, is a bad.
:14:29. > :14:34.Well done for creating the very first, I run glass industrial unit
:14:34. > :14:41.in the world. But his design was not perfect. Brunel made one
:14:41. > :14:47.strange error of judgment in designing this superb station. He
:14:47. > :14:54.made these three arches and they are very beautiful. If you can
:14:54. > :14:59.imagine taking away those that are going across, it is very essential
:14:59. > :15:04.to that station, he did not put them into the original station,
:15:04. > :15:09.because he did not want to spoil the symmetry of the Archers. That
:15:09. > :15:15.was great, except that over a number of years, the station began
:15:15. > :15:22.to lean sideways because there was nothing to tie them in and keep the
:15:22. > :15:27.columns upright. So all the columns you see holding the roof up are not
:15:27. > :15:36.by Brunel, they are made of steel and not cast iron and they were put
:15:36. > :15:40.in about 1906 and in the 1920s before the First World War
:15:40. > :15:49.intervened. They brought the roof back straight again. Not many
:15:49. > :15:53.people know that. It is time to board the train to take me along
:15:53. > :15:59.the Great Western Railway to continue my journey. There are so
:15:59. > :16:05.many more, a little-known facts I would like to share with you. I
:16:05. > :16:11.started to research Brunel, to write a book about him, and to my
:16:11. > :16:14.amazement I discovered that he was doing some very silly things. This
:16:14. > :16:20.is a terrific surprise and I believe it has even surprised a lot
:16:20. > :16:27.of other people who said that I had denigrated a great man. I have not
:16:27. > :16:31.really, I just told the story straight. In 1833, Brunel was
:16:31. > :16:37.appointed Chief Engineer for the Great Western Railway, to devise a
:16:37. > :16:43.route from Bristol to London. He had no previous experience in
:16:43. > :16:48.railway construction. He laid a piece of track to try out his new
:16:48. > :16:56.idea of putting big Telegraph poll size to pieces of wood into the
:16:56. > :17:01.ground. That was every 15 feet all the way to Bristol. His idea was
:17:01. > :17:07.that if he drove these deep into the grounds and then nailed the
:17:07. > :17:12.track members, the track could not possibly move because it would be
:17:12. > :17:16.held in position. That is a nonsense, because the weight of the
:17:17. > :17:24.train running over the track crushes it where it is not
:17:24. > :17:30.supported. Where it is supported, it is held up. You have got a 15 ft
:17:30. > :17:37.of roller-coaster, doing this. How Brunel could have been so silly,
:17:37. > :17:46.but that was him. And that was not the only delay he caused. We are
:17:46. > :17:53.just going into the tunnel now. 3312 yards of blood, sweat and
:17:53. > :17:58.tears of thousands of navvies, choking on the fumes of gunpowder
:17:58. > :18:02.as they blasted their way through Box Tunnel. Brunel had terrible
:18:02. > :18:05.trouble getting this built because he was such a bad employer that no
:18:05. > :18:11.reputable contractor wanted to work for him because he would not pay
:18:11. > :18:17.them when they had finished the job. The Great Western Railway was 18
:18:17. > :18:23.months longer in the building because of Brunel. Now I am in
:18:23. > :18:29.Bristol. There is so much of Brunel's work to see. But I was not
:18:29. > :18:35.quite expecting to meet the man himself. Mr Vaughan I presume. A
:18:35. > :18:40.pleasure to meet you, sir. Welcome to the SS Great Britain, perhaps my
:18:40. > :18:47.greatest achievement. I believe it is a wonderful thing. It will be my
:18:47. > :18:51.pleasure to give you a guided tour. I would be privileged. His weight.
:18:52. > :18:57.The SS Great Britain was designed by Brunel for a transatlantic
:18:57. > :19:03.service between Bristol and New York. She was the first, iron hold,
:19:03. > :19:10.screw propeller steamship to cross the Atlantic, which she did in 1845
:19:10. > :19:15.in a record time of 14 days. A as you are aware, the design for the
:19:15. > :19:18.ship changed several times before it was finally produced and finish.
:19:18. > :19:24.Brunel's indecision about the ship's design becomes clear as soon
:19:24. > :19:30.as I am let loose to investigate by myself. Here we have in front of us
:19:30. > :19:35.what seems to me to be the evidence of Brunel's not being quite
:19:35. > :19:41.knowledgeable about modern developments in ships. The ship has
:19:41. > :19:48.got a nice, long, straight looking Hull, but here we have this semi
:19:48. > :19:57.circular cut-out and this is proved that the ship was originally
:19:57. > :20:02.designed as a paddle steamer. It would take the extended box shape
:20:02. > :20:08.that the wheel goes around in, that drives it through the water, so
:20:08. > :20:12.they build the dock for a paddle steamer and the captain who had
:20:12. > :20:21.designed this dock came to Brunel to say that a screw propeller ship
:20:22. > :20:26.had arrived in Bristol docks. As soon as Brunel saw it, he was
:20:26. > :20:33.immediately captivated that this was the new technology, this was
:20:33. > :20:38.the way forward, the screw propeller. He redesigned the hull,
:20:38. > :20:45.but we have this as a silent witness for Brunel changing his
:20:45. > :20:50.mind, which was something he often did. And it is not just the captain
:20:50. > :21:00.who we must credit for the design of the SS Great Britain. Becchio of
:21:00. > :21:01.
:21:01. > :21:05.the ship, which was revolutionary at the time that it was done, was
:21:05. > :21:11.patented by Mr Thomas. William Paterson, the owner of the shipyard,
:21:11. > :21:18.helped to design the lines, how its curved out. They all put their peas
:21:18. > :21:27.in and Brunel took their advice. The extra pairs of hands a Brunel
:21:27. > :21:31.time to concentrate on this. Brunel made a lot of mistakes in his early
:21:31. > :21:37.days on the Great Western Railway. It is therefore a wonderful to be
:21:37. > :21:42.able to come along to a marvellous thing like the SS Great Britain and
:21:42. > :21:47.say nice things about Mr Brunel because now I am standing
:21:47. > :21:53.underneath this fantastic propeller, which is truly an amazing piece of
:21:53. > :21:58.technology. It is all down to him and nobody else. He designed this
:21:58. > :22:02.all on his own. I have learnt about Brunel from his own letters and
:22:02. > :22:07.diaries, so it is a real treat to enter into a treasure trove of
:22:07. > :22:16.archives was at the SS Great Britain. This is an absolutely
:22:16. > :22:23.charming drawing done by him as a child. This is 1812. He was six.
:22:23. > :22:27.is signed. This is the Brunel Institute. The collection opened in
:22:27. > :22:32.November last year and anyone can come to have a look at Brunel's
:22:32. > :22:38.notes and drawings. What we can tell from the sources in the
:22:38. > :22:44.archive is that Brunel was a man of an astonishing range of abilities
:22:44. > :22:48.with astonishing charisma, a force of personality and energy it.
:22:48. > :22:53.it was Brunel's force of personality that could jeopardise
:22:53. > :22:59.his projects. I do not know why he was always abusive to the
:22:59. > :23:09.contractors. He always had to abuse them. I have often wondered why he
:23:09. > :23:09.
:23:09. > :23:13.was like that. What is recorded by the abusive episodes. If you go to
:23:13. > :23:19.the Public Record Office, you can read page after page, it goes on
:23:20. > :23:24.forever. He is always abusing people and when they do a good job
:23:24. > :23:30.by him, he turns around and says, I am not paying you. It is not what I
:23:30. > :23:36.say, it is what he says. But he did have a softer side. He talks about
:23:36. > :23:43.Clifton Bridge, my first child, my darling. He was a very sensitive
:23:43. > :23:47.man. What is so striking is the emotional engagement with his work.
:23:47. > :23:51.Well, Brunel might have talked about Clifton Suspension Bridge as
:23:52. > :24:00.being his darling, but I dispute whether the bridge we have today is
:24:00. > :24:07.his at all. Up here on top of the tower we have got three names.
:24:07. > :24:16.Isambard Kingdom Brunel started it. John Hough sure, William Henry
:24:16. > :24:21.Barlow, completed it. That was in 1864. That is the small print of
:24:21. > :24:28.the Clifton Bridge. Because the truth is Brunel did not design the
:24:28. > :24:34.Clifton Bridge, it was dying -- designed by the others. 24 year-old
:24:34. > :24:39.Brunel designed his Bridge in 1831, but the project ran out of funding
:24:39. > :24:48.and was abandoned 12 years later. Only part of the towers had been
:24:48. > :24:54.completed. Brunel died in 1859. As a memorial to him, the bridge was
:24:54. > :25:00.opened in 1864. But the new engineers did not use his design.
:25:00. > :25:07.They added a third Tia to the suspension chains, so straight away
:25:07. > :25:13.Brunel's design has been altered. The other thing they did was to
:25:14. > :25:20.incorporate the latticework girder that forms the footpath railings.
:25:20. > :25:28.That is part of the bridge. The third thing they had to do was to
:25:28. > :25:35.take away Brunel's idea of a wood and it substructure underneath the
:25:35. > :25:41.bridge. That was taken away and underneath there is a wrought iron,
:25:41. > :25:46.riveted, latticework girder as a stiff neck underneath. The design
:25:46. > :25:52.is completely different to the one that Brunel first put together in
:25:52. > :26:00.1830. But someone is not going to let the sun set on this argument
:26:00. > :26:05.quite yet. It is historian and Brunel in busiest, Professor Mark
:26:05. > :26:14.Horton. This is the story of the bridge, pretty well OK apart from
:26:14. > :26:21.one small detail. It was designed in 1831, rather than 1830. This is
:26:21. > :26:29.the extent of the mistake. It is a very long-lived fairy-tale. It is
:26:29. > :26:35.not. Like Cinderella. This is this great monument to his engineering
:26:35. > :26:41.genius. Well, I am afraid, I think not. If you want a monument, which
:26:41. > :26:45.of course we do, to Brunel's great engineering genius, you should go
:26:45. > :26:53.down and look at the Royal Albert Bridge. There is a bridge and he
:26:53. > :26:58.designed it. He also designed this bridge. The bridge was designed by
:26:58. > :27:03.the others and in their paper to the Institution of Civil Engineers
:27:03. > :27:10.in 1867, they describe what was wrong with Brunel's Bridge and what
:27:10. > :27:16.they had to vary and rearrange. This is all Brunel's Bridge. No, it
:27:16. > :27:22.is not, it is theirs on the side of Brunel's proposed bridge. I totally
:27:22. > :27:27.disagree. Goodness, I think the two of us could argue this matter until
:27:27. > :27:31.the cows come home. But it is nearly the end of my trip and there
:27:31. > :27:37.is one last place I am dying to visit before I get on the train
:27:37. > :27:44.back to Norfolk. Brunel designed the original station in Bristol in
:27:44. > :27:49.1839. This is a photograph I took of it in the 1960s. Look at it now,
:27:49. > :27:57.a venue hall used by the people of Bristol and beyond. I have to admit
:27:57. > :28:01.it is an artistic triumph, but as for his engineering work... His
:28:01. > :28:07.track was a joke. The Clifton Suspension Bridge has got nothing
:28:07. > :28:13.to do with him. If they had put his desire up, it would have fallen.
:28:13. > :28:17.The SS Great Britain was a great triumph, a tremendous work. But he
:28:17. > :28:22.did not design it on his own. I would argue that Bruno should be
:28:22. > :28:29.remembered as much by his blunders as for his brilliance. I think it
:28:29. > :28:33.is time we set the record straight. -- Brunel. That is where we must
:28:33. > :28:39.bring things to a close. If you would like to keep in touch, you
:28:39. > :28:44.can find us on Facebook and Twitter. Inside Out is back at the same time