A veteran crime scene investigator is suing West Midlands Police for £100,000, claiming the stress of dealing with around 50 murders a year caused him to have a stroke.
Paul Tebbutt, 68, spent 27 years as a forensic investigator before becoming a crime scene co-ordinator in 2012. He said he investigated 45 murders and 100 suspicious deaths each year, and helped investigate more than 2,000 deaths in total since joining the force's forensics team.
Mr Tebbutt, from Coventry, is now suing West Midlands Police because he believes the pressures of the job caused the stroke he suffered in 2023, which forced him to retire.
His caseload included some of the region's most disturbing killings, among them the stabbing of a 15-year-old boy in Coventry. He was also the forensics expert who attended the 1994 Coventry air disaster, in which five crew members died after a Boeing 737 crashed in Willenhall.
Mounting pressure over the years
In 2017, Mr Tebbutt said he dealt with up to 200 deaths while working 45 hours a week. The following year he attended the highest number of murders recorded in the West Midlands, and worked alone for much of that period after his partner left the role and was not replaced.
He has previously said he suffered "burnout" after photographing a teddy bear left in bed by a 12-year-old murder victim.
Court documents filed to London's High Court state that his job exposed him to "cumulative levels of harmful occupational stress." They acknowledge that the nature of his work was inherently stressful, but argue that West Midlands Police failed to put in place a system to monitor how much pressure he was under, according to The Sun.
Life after the stroke
Mr Tebbutt said he became unable to return to work in a police station because it filled him with dread and anxiety, so he began working from home instead.
Following his stroke, he was classed as permanently disabled and medically retired in April 2024.
West Midlands Police said it would be inappropriate to comment while the matter remains ongoing.
