It was a routine 999 call - but it was a police force in crisis and the day ended in heart-break and tragedy

When a 999 call came into GMP at 9.16pm on a dark and wet evening on Boxing Day 2020, it didn't initially appear to be too much more than yet another domestic disturbance between fraught relatives who had perhaps been drinking too much. A drunken man was smashing up a house in Adswood, Stockport.

By 9.29pm, things took a turn for the worse and the worried 999 caller reported the man now had a knife, was high on cocaine, had threatened to torch the home and had gone outside where he was 'smashing up cars'. Screams could be heard down the line.

The call was elevated to a 'grade 1' emergency by GMP because it was deemed there was an immediate threat to life, and it started a train of events which would change lives forever.

It's worth remembering that at the time GMP was a failing force in crisis, having only a week earlier been placed in special measures following a damning inspectorate report. The pressure on response team drivers was intense as only 20 per cent of some response teams were trained to drive to incidents. That figure is now nearer 60 per cent.

Back at Cheadle Heath police station on Boxing Day 2020, there was only a skeleton staff on duty because it was the back end of the public holiday. One of them was a rookie officer who had only recently realised her dream of becoming a cop, PC Sarah De Meulemeester.

She was tasked with responding to the call in a patrol car, and even though it was a serious incident it appeared she was being sent on her own. This seemed wrong to at least two of her colleagues who were sitting in the yard of the police station in their respective patrol cars, listening to the unfolding drama on their police radios and chatting through the open windows - PCs Michael Blakey and, another