On 28 March 2024, six men knocked on the door of Scott Gough’s home in Chandler’s Cross, Hertfordshire, and asked for the “owner of the white Range Rover.” They left a note: “I think it’s in your best interest to give me a call. Call this number.”
Gough said he did not know who they were. He called the police, and the call handler judged there was no danger or threat to life. His partner of 14 years, Cameron Tewson, came back from visiting family the next day and found him dead upstairs.
An investigation closed in seven weeks
Hertfordshire Constabulary deemed the death a suicide and did not investigate it as blackmail. Within seven weeks the case was closed for “insufficient evidence.” Tewson says officers failed to take key evidence from the property, and the record shows the force did not take CCTV footage, did not collect Gough’s laptop and lost DNA. Police had also known that the number on the note was linked to at least four similar cases in the area.
Tewson raised Gough’s past use of Grindr with officers and felt they “had a homophobic assumption of a promiscuous lifestyle.” He alleges an officer told him, a day after the death, that “people their age either kill themselves due to ill health, money issues or paedophilia.”
In July 2024 he complained to the force’s Professional Standards Department. It upheld allegations that the force had not examined links to other blackmail cases, and found police had identified suspects and visited them to “provide stern words of advice.” It did not uphold the homophobia complaint, so Tewson took it to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
What the IOPC said
The IOPC concluded that the force’s handling of his complaint was “not reasonable and proportionate” and that it had not properly examined whether Gough’s sexuality shaped key decisions. It directed the force to look again at two points: that officers made “several errors” and did not investigate the death fully, and that “homophobic assumptions may have influenced the investigation.”
Tewson said his letters to police from July 2024 onward met “a persistent lack of curiosity and understanding.” He told The Independent that the process felt like “a tick-box exercise.” One officer questioned by the Professional Standards Department said Tewson had a “personal vendetta.”
A force spokesperson said a blackmail investigation should have been considered, and that Bedfordshire Police is carrying out an independent review of the original inquiry. It will also take on a new investigation if one is needed. Grindr said its guidelines prohibit blackmail and extortion, and that offending accounts can be suspended or banned at device level.
The Samaritans can be reached in confidence on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland.
