The family of a man who died after he was attacked by a mentally ill neighbour are demanding answers after waiting almost two years for the outcome of a police probe into the bungled investigation.
John Whyte, 75, fled home and dialled 999 after being kicked in the stomach in his street by Latvian-born Oskars Rancevs, who had just fatally beaten up his 73-year-old friend Martyn Smith in a row.
But officers sent to the pensioner’s home in Oban failed to speak to him, mistaking another elderly man they talked to for John.
The ex-cabbie lay in his flat for 11 hours, his telephone still in his hand, until worried relatives who had not heard from him all day contacted police.
Now John’s sister, Joan Drummond, is demanding answers after she said the family were promised a police review into the case would take weeks. Eighteen months later, they are still waiting.
Joan, 83, said: “We’ve been to hell and back. It has been nearly two years since John died and we still know nothing. We need answers. We need closure.
“My brother was on the phone to police for eight-and-a-half minutes before he died, telling them he had been attacked, telling them what he had witnessed and asking for help. But no help ever came.
“Where were they when he needed their help? What were they doing when he was lying in his flat?
“John was a big gentle giant. I miss him terribly. He was a lovely, caring soul who did not deserve to die the way he did.
“His life could have been saved if the police had acted and reached him sooner. Instead, he lay there for 11 hours.”
Rancevs, a former reality TV dance star, was suffering from a mental illness when he launched his assault on October 1, 2018.
He approached former SAS soldier Martyn as he stood outside his flat talking to John at 9.30am.
Rancevs pushed Martyn and when the OAP fell to the ground, he kicked and jumped on him.
John only managed to escape after Rancevs booted him in the stomach twice and he staggered into his flat and locked himself in.
When police arrived at the scene, a case of mistaken identity led them to assume another local they spoke to was John and that he had escaped unhurt.
It wasn’t until 8.10pm that night that police forced entry into his home and found him lying dead.
His death was referred to the Police Investigation and Review Commissioner (PIRC) and its report was passed to the Crown Office last year. Its investigation, which will determine further criminal action, is still ongoing.
Joan, who also lives in Oban, said: “Six weeks after John’s death an officer from PIRC stood in my living room and told me that they would have answers for us in six weeks’ time.
“An apology will never cut it. It won’t bring my brother back and heal the way our family feels. But acknowledging their failures is a start.”
Professional dancer Rancevs, 33, was found not guilty of murdering Martyn and the culpable homicide of John because he was suffering from bipolar affective disorder at the time.
In February, Judge Lady Rae ordered him to be detained indefinitely at the State Hospital in Carstairs.
The High Court in Glasgow heard how he appeared on a Strictly-style show in his homeland before moving to the UK in 2015.
But two years later, he was sectioned and detained in a mental hospital after claiming he was God and had superpowers.
In the weeks before his horror attacks, several people expressed concerns over his behaviour. Psychiatrists believe he suffered from bipolar affective disorder and was experiencing a manic episode when he pounced on his two elderly neighbours over the row about rubbish.
The court heard how Rancevs was arrested soon afterwards and as he was being led away, he told police: “This is the best day I’ve
ever had.”
A post-mortem later found that Martyn, who had a fractured sternum and several broken ribs, died from blunt-force trauma.
John, who had heart disease and high blood pressure, was found to have died from cardiac arrest caused by stress.
Joan said: “The police heard John say he’d been attacked and that the killer had chased him up the stairs but that he’d managed to get into his own flat.
“Going by what I heard in the court, there was no more conversation with my brother, just heavy breathing and gurgling.
“They didn’t bother to check on him. Why would they listen to a phone call like that and not go and check on that person?
“It took his family to contact them. After we couldn’t reach him all day, my daughter went up to the police station and said she was concerned.
“We knew there had been an incident where he lived and my son asked the police if the man in the hospital who had died was John.
“They told him officers had spoken to him in the street. But they had talked to an elderly man who they presumed was John.
John’s nephew Andrew Drummond, 52, a painter and decorator, said: “We were told that due to the mistakes this was the most high-profile case in Scotland but nearly two years have passed and we’ve been told nothing.
“That day police had a call from a man asking for help and they didn’t even go and check for hours. That is their job.
“Lessons need to be learned and acted upon to stop any other person losing their life unnecessarily and any other family going through the pain we have.
“Our family were devastated by this. To still have no answers, it’s an insult to John’s memory.”
A Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service spokesman said: “COPFS appreciates the impact the time taken to conclude investigations can have on those affected and we are committed to ensuring that the facts and circumstances surrounding the death are investigated as thoroughly and expediently as possible.
“The investigation is ongoing and the family will continue to be kept updated in relation to any significant developments”
A PIRC spokesman said: “Following an instruction from the COPFS, we carried out an investigation into Police Scotland’s response in the lead- up to the tragic death of two men, aged 73 and 75, in Oban on Monday, October 1, 2018.
“A report on our findings was subsequently submitted to the COPFS in June 2019 for it consideration.”
