A POLICE watchdog has concluded that officers from two North-East police forces dealt appropriately with concerns about a mother in the days before she strangled her two-year-old son.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) released its report in the wake of an inquest which found that Christy Ruddell had been unlawfully killed.

Melanie Ruddell, 40, killed Christy at her brother’s home in West Rainton, near Durham City, in August 2010, hours after friends and family had begged the authorities to admit her to hospital when she suffered a mental breakdown.

Instead, she was allowed to discharge herself and later walked into Peterlee police station with Christy’s lifeless body.

The independent investigation concluded that nobody could have predicted that Ms Ruddell’s behaviour would have resulted in her killing her son.

IPCC commissioner Nicholas Long said: “This was a terrible tragedy.

“From all the accounts I have seen Ms Ruddell was a devoted mother who suffered a sudden and severe breakdown.

“Mrs Ruddell’s family, friends and the officers involved over the course of these two days reported how caring she was to Christy. There was never any indication of a threat to Christy.

“The officers who visited Mrs Ruddell showed care and compassion and assisted as much as they could. Nobody could have predicted that the events would have such a tragic conclusion.”

The IPCC examined all police interaction with Ms Ruddell between Saturday, August 7, and Monday, August 9, 2010.

Ms Ruddell, from Castle Eden in County Durham, contacted Northumbria Police on August 7, to make a series of allegations. Officers from the Durham and Northumbria police forces had face-to-face dealings with her and her family over the weekend.

However, the IPCC found two telephone calls during the course of the weekend – one handled by a Cleveland Police call handler and one by a Durham Police call handler – to have been dealt with unprofessionally and inappropriately.

Action was taken against the call handlers in question.

Mrs Ruddell was detained under the Mental Health Act after admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.