Police could have prevented the murder of disabled refugee Bijan Ebrahimi (Picture: Family Solicitor)

Police could have prevented the murder of a disabled refugee by a vigilante who wrongly believed he was a paedophile, a damning report has found.

Bijan Ebrahimi, 44, was beaten to death and his body set on fire outside his home in Capgrave Crescent in Brislington, Bristol, by neighbour Lee James in July 2013.

Avon and Somerset Police repeatedly failed Mr Ebrahimi before his death and showed ‘hallmarks’ of racial bias, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) found.

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Officers ignored his pleas for help – including his final call about an hour before his murder – as he was viewed as a liar and a nuisance.




Police, who accused him of ‘playing the race card’ and lebelled him a ‘pest’ logs with potentially ‘racist undertones’ included comments about the Iranian national’s accent and him being ‘foreign’, the report states.

Bijan’s family solicitor, Tony Murphy at Bhatt Murphy Solicitors, added: ‘Bijan was left defenceless against the race hatred of other tenants because the very institutions whose duty it was to protect him are infected with the same racism.’

Footage filmed by Bijan Ebrahimi showing his neighbour Lee James, who went on to murder Mr Ebrahimi (Picture: PA)

The IPCC has published a report into Avon and Somerset Police’s contact with Mr Ebrahimi in the seven years before his murder.

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They show Mr Ebrahimi made 85 calls to the force between 2007 and July 2013, not including the weekend of his death.

In 73 of these, he reported incidents including racial abuse, criminal damage and threats to kill – but police failed to record these as crimes on at least 40 occasions.

The police watchdog found ‘consistent systematic failure’ by call handlers, who breached standards on recording crimes, and identifying hate offences and repeat victims.

Jan Williams, an IPCC commissioner, said Mr Ebrahimi had been failed ‘on a number of levels, over a number of years’.

‘We found evidence that Bijan Ebrahimi had been treated consistently differently from his neighbours, to his detriment and without reasonable explanation.

‘Some of the evidence has the hallmarks of what could be construed as racial bias, conscious or unconscious.’

PCSO Andrew Passmore who was jailed at Bristol Crown Court last year after being convicted of misconduct in a public office (Picture: PA)

The IPCC has recommended that police officers and staff should be trained to recognise the potential for bias, while the force’s leadership should send a ‘strong message’ that discrimination is unacceptable.

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Pc Kevin Duffy and PCSO Andrew Passmore were jailed at Bristol Crown Court last year after being convicted of misconduct in a public office.

They were dismissed from Avon and Somerset Police, along with Pcs Helen Harris and Leanne Winter. The force also conducted misconduct proceedings against 17 officers and civilian staff, resulting in outcomes including two officers receiving final written warnings.

Reports show Mr Ebrahimi was wrongly branded a paedophile by neighbours after moving to a flat in The Whartons, Brislington, Bristol, in November 2006, soon after his home and car were set alight, he was racially abused and the word ‘pervert’ was daubed across his front door.

He was moved to nearby Capgrave Crescent in September 2007, with the false allegations that he was a paedophile following him.



In repeated calls, he reported feeling unsafe, racial abuse and threats to kill from his neighbours and that his panic alarm was not working.

Kevin Duffy, an officer who was jailed for misconduct following the murder of Bijan Ebrahimi (Picture: PA)

It is reasonable to believe ‘that the perpetrators of the offences against Mr Ebrahimi, came to believe that they could act with impunity towards Mr Ebrahimi’, the report states.

One police officer allegedly claimed Mr Ebrahimi caused problems with neighbours and was known for lying and ‘playing the race card’.

In the hour before Mr Ebrahimi’s murder, at 00.12am, he called police for help. Winter told a call operator: ‘I’m absolutely not interested in speaking to him ever thanks … I don’t think anybody is to be honest, he’s a pest.’

Andy Marsh, Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Police, apologised for failing Mr Ebrahimi ‘in his hour of need’. Adding: ‘We’ve made many changes since Mr Ebrahimi’s murder in response to the things we learnt and identified to be in need of change,’ Mr Marsh said.