The mother of 16-year-old Liberty Charris has submitted a formal complaint about the handling of her daughters death to both West Midlands Police and the IOPC.
In the complaint, Tracy Challis details serious concerns about the conduct of police officers on the evening of Liberty's death at an illegal street racing event in Oldbury in 2022, which also saw 19-year-old Ben Corfield lose his life and two other young people seriously injured.
Tracy said: “My beautiful daughter was killed at an illegal racing event that had been reported again and again from around half past nine that night.
"Two officers from Operation Hercules, the force's initiative to combat illegal street racing and car cruising, had been deployed. They watched the crowds gather and the cars race and drivers show off, yet nothing was done to stop it.
"Two young people died and two more were left seriously injured. This should never have been allowed to happen. I believe the police knew how dangerous it was yet they still did nothing.”
Tracy said an officer told her she “needed to see the logs” written by the officers who were monitoring the event to understand how dangerous the situation was.
She added: “If the danger was so severe that it was being documented in real time - if officers themselves were writing down how bad it was - then how can anyone justify doing nothing?"
"A dangerous, escalating situation was left to unfold, unchallenged. And now we are living with the consequences forever.”
Tracy and her family say they have been left with 'permanent emotional devastation' and that the way information was handled has only magnified their pain.
They claim that when officers first visited to tell her about Liberty's death, she was told her daughter had been killed on impact, received no medical intervention and had been taken to Sandwell Hospital.
Nearly two years later, in a packed courtroom during the sentencing hearing, the family learned for the first time that Liberty had been alive when officers reached her and that CPR continued until paramedics arrived around ten minutes later.
Tracy added: “For nearly two years, we had been told she died on impact. That belief, as painful as it was, gave us a small sense of peace - a fragile comfort that she had not suffered.
"But discovering that she had been alive, and that she had been left on the pavement until five o'clock the next morning, was almost too much to bear. Our grief has never stopped.
"This revelation made it unbearably worse, in ways we could never have imagined. No family should ever endure trauma made worse by misinformation, confusion, or cruelty. Liberty deserved honesty.”
The family say they also endured contradictory explanations from officers involved in the investigation. They claim that one Family Liaison Officer said the officers were present ‘only to monitor the event’, while a senior officer later said Operation Hercules was there to 'stop it'.
Tracy further criticised the information the police shared with the press, which suggested Liberty was stood in a crowd of 200 on the corner of a road. However subsequent reports place the four victims sitting on a wall further up the road and away from the main crowd.
Tracy said: “They placed Liberty somewhere she wasn’t, making her appear careless when she was not, and shifting responsibility from those at fault. It enrages me as her mother to see her memory misrepresented in this way. Liberty does not deserve to be made to look stupid.”
The family is calling for urgent national reform after learning that footage of the collision and its aftermath had been filmed and shared online.
Tracy added: “People who are critically injured or who have died are still human beings. They still have the right to dignity, privacy, and respect even if the law does not currently protect them.
"Filming someone’s final moments while commentating and laughing, then posting them online, is not freedom of expression. It is a violation of their humanity.
“I will not accept that my daughter lost her human rights the moment she died. No family should ever have to live with the knowledge that their loved one’s last moments were shared as entertainment.”
The formal complaint, submitted to both the West Midlands Police Professional Standards Department and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) requests a full, independent investigation into:
- the decision to monitor rather than intervene in the illegal street racing event
- the accuracy, honesty, and consistency of information provided to Liberty’s family
- the conduct of the officers assigned to support the family
- and the wider handling of bereaved families in fatal collision cases
They are urging police forces and policymakers to confront the 'systemic failures' that contributed to the deaths and injuries that night and to ensure no other family is left suffering preventable heartbreak.
Tracy said: “We are a family changed forever. Our hearts will never heal from losing Liberty. But if speaking out can protect others, then we have to do it. We have to do it for her, for us, and for every family who could one day find themselves in this nightmare.
“This is about truth. It is about humanity. It is about making sure no one else pays the price we have paid. Liberty deserved better. All four victims deserved better. And no family should ever have to endure this agony again.”
A spokesman for West Midlands Police said: “Our thoughts remain with Liberty’s loved ones after her tragic death in 2022.
“We've received a complaint into our Professional Standards Department, and this will be referred to the Independent Office of Police Conduct.”
A spokesman for the IOPC said: “All complaints must first be received and assessed by the relevant force, and a decision is then made as to whether a referral to the IOPC is required, in line with our referral criteria.
“We have not received a referral at this time, but if we do, we will then carry out an assessment to decide what further action is required by us.”
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