Kent police criticised for Top Gun tweet after identifying woman’s body

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A woman has criticised Kent police for sharing a tweet congratulating themselves for quickly identifying her daughter’s dead body, above a gif showing characters from the film Top Gun.

In the tweet, posted on the day Azra Kemal, 24, died after falling from a dual carriageway bridge, police praised themselves for identifying a deceased person “within about 90 minutes” of arriving at the scene, above a gif showing the film characters Maverick and Goose high-fiving.

“A really busy morning for all of the Kent CSI’s, with the wonders of modern technology we were able to identify a deceased person within about 90 mins of being at scene by sending an image of a fingerprint to our FP bureau. Great teamwork,” the police force said in the tweet.

Nevres Kemal told Sky News: “That tweet was just horrendous. I could not believe that professional police officers would high-five themselves and pat themselves on the back, on the back of my daughter’s demise.

“It’s more than insensitive. It’s unacceptable. What is the mindset of people investigating crimes on our behalf?”

Another tweet celebrated the police drone work, with the hashtag #crackingbitofkit, while another stated – within hours of Azra’s death – that police were “satisfied there are no suspicious circumstances”, even though Kemal says she was told they were still investigating her daughter’s death at that time.

On the night she died, witnesses saw Azra trying to cross a dual carriageway in the middle of the night after her car caught fire. She fell 9 metres (30ft) from a gap in the bridge on 16 July 2020 and died from her injuries at the scene.

Kemal, 56, was told her daughter had begged paramedics attending the scene: “Please don’t let me die.”

Azra’s body was then placed in a mortuary in Tunbridge Wells, where she was raped repeatedly by David Fuller, who used his job as a hospital electrician to rape and abuse 100 corpses over the course of 12 years. He was jailed for life in December 2021.

Kate Ellis, from the Centre for Women’s Justice, who is supporting the Kemal family, told Sky News: “I think it’s shocking that with an investigation ongoing, and in fact within a few hours of Nevres having been informed of her daughter’s death, the police would brag about the expediency of their investigation or the impressiveness of their kit.”

The offending tweets have been removed and a complaint about them is being reviewed by a separate police force.

Kent police said it had carried out a full and thorough investigation. A spokesperson added: “Officers determined there were no suspicious circumstances, and a man who had initially been arrested in connection with the incident was released without charge.

“A police investigation into the circumstances then continued for several months to assist an inquest by the coroner. The subsequent inquest into the death returned a verdict of misadventure.

“A complaint about the quality of the investigation was made to Kent police in November 2020. This complaint was sent to an independent force to review, which concluded the service provided by Kent police had been acceptable.

“In 2022, the Independent Office for Police Conduct received a request to carry out a further investigation into the complaint. In response, the IOPC concluded that the investigation into the complaint had been ‘reasonable and proportionate’ and that an acceptable service had been provided in respect of the criminal investigation into the woman’s death. A request to review the complaint was not upheld.”