Gaia Pope-Sutherland’s household criticise police for failures after inquest ends

The household of Gaia Pope-Sutherland have criticised the police after an inquest discovered she had died from hypothermia hours after operating away from her dwelling whereas struggling a psychological well being disaster.

They stated Dorset Police had failed {the teenager} when she reported she had been raped and likewise failed her within the first two days after she went lacking in Swanage in November 2017.

The 19-year-old’s household blamed a decade of austerity cuts and referred to as for the pressure to create a specialist unit to research rape and critical sexual offences.

“For 2 years, they did nothing however fail Gaia. They didn’t prosecute her rapist. They didn’t deal with her with respect,” cousin Marienna Pope-Weidemann stated.

“They failed, as did Dorset Healthcare, to take safeguarding motion or provide help with persevering with harassment from the recognized baby intercourse offender she had reported for rape and threats to kill.

“Gaia’s story epitomises all that’s unsuitable with British policing and cuts to the center of why public confidence has by no means been so low.”

Dorset Coroner’s Courtroom heard Miss Pope-Sutherland, who suffered from extreme epilepsy, was reported lacking from her dwelling in Swanage on November 7 2017.

A search operation was launched and on November 18 her physique was discovered by police search groups in undergrowth between Dancing Ledge and Anvil Level, near the Swanage coastal path.

An inquest jury discovered she had died from hypothermia inside 18 hours of first operating away and that her psychological well being and psychological state on the day she disappeared “most likely prompted or contributed greater than minimally” to her dying.

The Pope-Sutherland household additionally criticised the choice of senior coroner Rachael Griffin to direct the jury to not take into account the accepted police failings as contributory components in her dying.

“It’s a surprising indictment of the inquest system that earlier than the inquest even began a lot of Gaia’s story was excluded after which later that almost all of proof heard by the jury, together with the police failures within the search, was taken off the desk for them to think about in any respect,” Miss Pope-Weidemann stated.

“We stay involved this was not the total and fearless investigation we had been promised, and maybe that’s the single biggest alternative, missed.

“A couple of missed alternatives may be human error, this many should not.

“This many can solely be seen because the wreckage left by an ideal storm of unchecked misogyny and a decade of austerity cuts, which have introduced our public companies to their knees.”

The coroner stated she can be writing stopping future dying experiences to the Well being Secretary and native NHS bosses together with her considerations about epilepsy care, resourcing and communications.

She may even be making a report back to Dorset Police together with her considerations about lacking particular person insurance policies and the usage of inside laptop methods.

The Faculty of Policing may even be contacted about considerations over coaching for officers coping with folks affected by epilepsy and psychological well being issues.

In the course of the 11-week inquest in Bournemouth, the court docket heard {the teenager} had been recognized with post-traumatic stress dysfunction after revealing she had been drugged and raped by a person when she was 16.

On the time of her disappearance, she was anxious about his imminent launch from jail for unconnected sexual offences.

The inquest heard police had accepted there have been a number of failings within the hunt for Miss Pope-Sutherland, similar to delays to logging her as lacking and grading her as “medium threat of hurt”.

Search information on the pressure’s laptop system had been additionally retrospectively altered.

The school scholar had spent a number of weeks in hospital in February and March 2017 – the place she was sexually harassed by a affected person – having been sectioned beneath the Psychological Well being Act.

She was additional assessed in Poole Hospital within the October after her psychological well being worsened however was later discharged and despatched dwelling with none group help.

Dorset Police stated it had sought to “determine and ship” enhancements in its organisation following Miss Pope-Sutherland’s dying.

Assistant chief constable Rachel Farrell stated: “We make a dedication immediately that we’ll act swiftly on any studying that has not already been a part of our enchancment programme.

“We recognise that as a pressure our quick response to the lacking particular person enquiry ought to have been higher managed.

“Gaia and her household didn’t obtain the service they need to have had after her disappearance. We should always have carried out a lot better particularly throughout these first 48 hours and for this we’re really sorry.”