Plymouth shooting: firearms inquiry officer had no formal training, jury told

A police staff member who recommended the Plymouth gunman Jake Davison be granted a shotgun certificate had not received any formal training but rather had to learn “on the job”, an inquest has heard.

David Rees knew Davison had carried out violent assaults on teachers but told the inquest in Exeter this did not concern him as it had been dealt with internally and he had apologised.

Rees, a firearms inquiry officer, processed Davison’s application when he applied for a licence in 2017 and made a formal recommendation accompanied by a report that he sent to a supervisor for approval.

The inquest heard that as part of the assessment process, Rees, a former armed police officer and Royal Marine, sought information from people who knew Davison including a former teacher who was his referee.

In January 2018 Davison was granted a shotgun certificate which was valid for five years but in December 2020 it was seized, along with his firearm, after he assaulted two teenagers.

The certificate and weapon were returned on 9 July 2021. On 12 August the 22-year-old apprentice crane operator shot dead his mother, Maxine Davison, 51, three-year-old Sophie Martyn, her father, Lee, 43, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66, in the Keyham area of Plymouth.

Rees told the jury he did not receive any formal training in understanding the Home Office guidance on issuing firearms certificates, or regarding domestic violence or mental health. “Nothing I would describe as training,” he said. “The training was done in a mentoring/buddy system – learning on the job. No specific training, none at all.”

Rees said he had no prior knowledge of autism or Asperger syndrome but did his own research after Davison had declared the conditions on his application.

The inquest heard Rees had checked police records as part of his assessment and knew about two assaults Davison had committed while a student at Mount Tamar school in Plymouth.

Davison “put teacher in headlock twice” and was taken to an office where he “struggled, spat on [two] teachers and head-butted one of the teachers”, the inquest was told.

In a second incident, aged 13, he assaulted another student “punching him once to the face, visible injury caused”.

Another police report from 2015 recorded there had been a “verbal argument” between Davison and his father, Mark, in which his father “has been ejected from the property by son”.

Asked about the role the school assaults played in his decision-making process, Rees said: “I wasn’t concerned because it was committed in school and dealt with internally by means of an apology.”

The inquest continues.