A FATHER who had to hire private divers to recover his teenage son’s body from the River Thames because police had no diver resources says no lessons have been learned, after a man went missing in the river last week and no divers were used in the fruitless search for him.

Darren Downes, whose son Ellis, 16, died in May 2016, blasted Thames Valley Police, which was forced to apologise to him and vowed to learn lessons following the botched search for his son.

Mr Downes questioned why the current operation to find the body of a man who witnesses saw in the water near Caversham Bridge in Reading last Monday has been run without divers.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing the man around 10:25am on January 10. An initial search, assisted by boat owners and Berkshire Lowland Search and Rescue volunteers has been scaled down.

The man is described as Asian, in his thirties, with a beard. He was wearing a black jacket. Police have been in contact with his family.

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Mr Downes said: “If Thames Valley uses volunteers it costs them no money. But there is no price on getting your loved one back. The waiting and anguish are awful. Thames Valley Police could call in professional divers and within half a day the family of this man would have closure. Instead, this is the fourth day. It is unacceptable.”

After Ellis went missing his family waited for ‘hours and hours’ to hear from Thames Valley Police, which axed its specialist diver unit in 2014 due to budget cuts. When the Downes eventually discovered no divers had been used to search the river they rang private companies. Eventually Specialist Group International discovered his body within half a day of answering a Facebook appeal for help. The company’s dive team were initially barred from entering the water, adding to the delay.

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Mr Downes said: “It was paramount for us at the time to recover Ellis. We knew he was gone but we just needed to get him back. At the time they said the police said they didn’t have the resources. They were like headless chickens and didn’t know what was going on. After the professional divers arrived it took just a few hours to locate him.”

Following the botched police search, Thames Valley Police Assistant Chief Constable, Nikki Ross, issued a ‘profound apology’ for the treatment of the family ‘in particular the level of support and compassion and lack of information and communication’. The force referred itself top the IPCC and began engaging professional divers for recovery and rescue work

Mr Downes said events happening this week illustrate that the force has failed to learn lessons, however.

He said: “When we had the apology it was said it would never happen again. But here we are nearly six years later and it’s the same old story. Another family is going through what we went through.

“What this man’s family will be going through now is horrendous. The anguish and waiting, when you know someone is gone, is horrific. You just need to get them.”

Thames Valley Police would not comment on Mr Downes concerns, which were also voiced in a Facebook post.

In a statement the force said: “Following a report of a man being seen in the river on Monday (10/1), multiple officers and a Sergeant were deployed immediately to complete visual river searches and within a few hours Berkshire Lowland Search and Rescue was deployed in a sonar boat to assist officers with the search for the man. Our specialist underwater search team was also deployed later that day.

“Further, we have had police specialist underwater search teams utilised throughout this week carrying out sonar work and with an underwater camera in order to locate the missing man.

“We also have an officer in daily contact with the man’s next of kin.”