Gaia Pope inquest: Dorset Police evidence so far

Ms Pope, 19, disappeared from Swanage on November 7, 2017, and was found 11 days later less than a mile away, in undergrowth on a clifftop near Dancing Ledge.

Concerns have been raised about the treatment for her epilepsy and mental health, as well as the police response to her disappearance.

Her inquest, which is being held at Bournemouth Town Hall and is set to last until July, previously heard how Ms Pope’s family had urged officers to search the area she was eventually found. A map was even drawn for police but was never filed.

As the inquest entered its fifth week, the jury heard from a number of officers involved in the search for Ms Pope.

PC Jon Kuspert said he was “on my own” searching for the teenager on November 7, the day she went missing.

READ MORE: Gaia Pope inquest: Police inspector says risk grading was wrong

Giving evidence on Monday, PC Scott Mesher, a tactical flight officer with NPAS, was commanding the flight that went out looking for Ms Pope and spoke to PC Kuspert before setting off.

“I was aware he had been allocated the initial inquiries for Gaia’s disappearance,” PC Mesher told the court.

“I can’t remember who phoned who, but we had a conversation in relation to can NPAS assist with the search for Gaia.

“At the time of speaking to him, he said, ‘I am literally on my own here trying to search everywhere can you help?’

“The initial request from Pc Kuspert was pretty much, ‘can you search the whole of the Purbecks?’

“The answer to that is no because it is not an achievable search area because it is just so large.

“I said the best option at the moment would be the coastal cliff paths surrounding Swanage.

“We agreed on Dancing Ledge all the way round to the Sandbanks chain ferry.”

Police inspector Andrew Alkins then told the court it was a mistake to grade Ms Pope as medium risk and raised the status as soon as he learnt of her disappearance.

He told jurors he learnt of her disappearance at 1.16am on November 8 and upgraded the risk eight minutes later.

He said: “I think there were a number of factors at the time. From memory, it was the medical records, the epilepsy, I was seeing mental health and I thought there was a lot of vulnerability within some of the stuff I was seeing within our systems.

“I would have given her high risk.”

He agreed the lower grading was a “missed opportunity” for senior officers to review Miss Pope-Sutherland’s case earlier.

READ MORE: Gaia Pope inquest: Dorset Police officer has 'huge regret'

On Wednesday, Detective Chief Inspector Jim Beashel spoke of his “huge regret” at not being able to “prtect and preserve” Ms Pope’s life.

He admitted by not grading her high-risk earlier, there were missed opportunities to earlier send out resources, keep on more resources overnight, make more enquiries generally and an earlier review by Police Search and Rescue. He said it delayed the response in searching for Ms Pope.

“Like all force incident commanders, I take my responsibilities very seriously in terms of what we are able to do and to deploy resources to help people when they are in need is a real privilege,” he said.

“It is of huge regret I was on duty at a time when I didn’t have the resources to be able to deploy in way that would have allowed us to locate Gaia a lot sooner.

“We all have our duties to protect and preserve life and when we are unable to fulfil (them) there is huge regret to me personally and, I know, my colleagues as well.”

The following day, the only officer who faced formal misconduct proceedings gave evidence.

READ MORE: Gaia Pope inquest: Dorset Police officer accepts failings

PC Sean Mallon was one of two officers working from Wareham and dealing with the search operation on November 7.

He accepted he “failed to satisfactorily hand over the missing person investigation to ensure appropriate progress, failed to inform the night shift sergeant based in Poole responsible for policing Swanage overnight that Ms Pope was missing and failed to task Wareham night shift officers with carrying out any attempt to locate Ms Pope”.

He also accepted there were “missed opportunities” because of the lack of direction during his shift, he didn’t review the case properly and didn’t form a strategy to help locate Ms Pope.

Finally, a police officer specially trained in carrying out searches said he was “not fully familiar” with the force’s missing person policy.

PC Tarik Dugri, who was part of the enhanced police team, was asked to “take a drive” in Swanage to look for Ms Pope at around 9pm on November 7.

Senior coroner for Dorset Rachael Griffin asked PC Dugri if he had seen the force’s missing person policy. He said he “would have seen” it but couldn’t recall exactly when. He added he was not “fully familiar” with the policy.

Police evidence is expected to continue next week. The inquest continues.