Gaia Pope: Delays by police before teen's death, inquest told

Police took more than two-and-a-half hours to create a missing person's report for a teenager later found dead despite several calls from her family, an inquest heard.

Gaia Pope was suffering with mental health problems and severe epilepsy when she was reported missing from her home in Swanage, Dorset, in 2017.

A police control room supervisor told Dorset Coroner's Court a report should have been filed within 10 minutes.

The 19-year-old died of hypothermia.

Miss Pope's aunt phoned Dorset Police at 15:41 GMT on 7 November 2017 to report her niece was "distressed" and had run away, the inquest in Bournemouth heard.

She made two further calls at 16:27 and 16:37, and the force also received an email from Surrey Police at 17:00 detailing a call about Miss Pope's disappearance from her mother, the court was told.

Control room dispatcher Lucinda Williams said there was an "expectation" Miss Pope would turn up for a scheduled GP appointment at 17:00.

A missing person's report was created at 18:15.

Under questioning, Andrew Mustoe, who was a control room supervisor at the time, said he would have created a missing person's report after the first call was made.

At 19:00, Miss Pope was graded by police as a "medium risk of harm" and in the early hours of the following day upgraded to "high risk".

Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC, representing the teenager's maternal family, asked: "Would you agree this was a key time to take urgent action to attempt to find Gaia before it has got dark and given her level of vulnerability?

Mr Mustoe replied: "Yes."

Asked about the "golden hour" for locating missing people, Mr Mustoe said: "We could have got her recorded as missing earlier."

Dorset Police did not make an official request to the HM Coastguard for a search of nearby coastline until 00:02 on 8 November - 18 hours after first logging the teenager as missing, the court heard.

Her disappearance prompted a major search operation and her body was found in undergrowth near a clifftop 11 days later.

The inquest was previously told that Miss Pope had been "anxious" before she went missing due to the imminent release from prison of a man she said had raped her.

The inquest continues.

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