Exclusive: Family of missing man sue police over inquiry

The civil action against Humberside Police is being brought by the family of Russell Bohling, who has not been seen since leaving home near Hull at 8am on March 2, 2010.

The hearing, which will be held behind closed doors before a circuit judge at Hull Combined Courts Centre on September 6, follows a long-running dispute between the family and the force.

Russell’s father Roger said he could not discuss details of the legal action, but said: “This is a momentous event for the family because we stand by the criticisms we have made in the past and we are looking forward to having those resolved in court.”

Police have said the most likely explanation to Russell’s disappearance is that he had an accident or killed himself, but although his family accept he is probably dead they have always maintained a belief that someone else was involved.

The Bohlings wanted the search to be upgraded to a murder inquiry, but the force said it had no evidence of third-party involvement and continues to treat it as a missing person inquiry.

Russell, who is considered vulnerable because of a speech and language disorder and was 18 at the time of his disappearance, was expected to travel to Bishop Burton College near Beverley, where he was in the second year of a construction course.

It is not clear whether he arrived and his blue Renault Clio was found abandoned at the Bempton Cliffs nature reserve, near Bridlington, displaying a £3.50 parking ticket that was bought at 11.30am that day.

The force said a thumbprint found on the ticket was Russell’s but the family later questioned this, saying it did not match 19 others taken from his bedroom and the car.

The family have also questioned police analysis of the vehicle and the distance Russell could have travelled on the fuel it had and the cash he may have had with him to refill it.

They recreated the journey it took after being filled up on March 1 – a round trip from home to East Hull Baths, which Russell and his mother Christine made that night, and the journey from the family home in West Ella to Bempton on March 2.

On their reconstruction the car ran out of diesel at Brandesburton, 20 miles short of Bempton.

Russell’s steel toe-capped boots, which he used for college, were missing from the rucksack he had left in the car, a fact the family were not informed of until three months later.

The Bohlings had also asked the force to gather CCTV footage from the 71 petrol stations in the East Riding to establish whether Russell was alone or not, and criticised officers for not doing so.

Other aspects the family has questioned include a decision not to begin large-scale interviewing of students and staff at the college until three months after Russell went missing.

Police and other agencies launched a massive air, sea and land search for Russell in the immediate aftermath of his disappearance, but few clues were found.

Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Kerman, the force’s head of crime management, said last year he sympathised with Mr Bohling but his criticisms of the investigation were unfounded.

Det Chief Supt Kerman, a former national police commander for disaster victim identification, said the forensic work on the fingerprints had been “first class”, and that he had the “utmost confidence” in the detectives who had worked on the case.

A spokeswoman for Humberside Police said: “The force is aware of these proceedings.

“Russell Bohling remains a missing person and the inquiry into his disappearance is ongoing.”