Gaia Pope police conduct law proposed in parliament

A call to improve police investigations in the wake of the death of teenager Gaia Pope has been made in parliament.

The 19-year-old was found dead from hypothermia 11 days after disappearing from her home in Dorset in 2017.

In a debate on the Criminal Justice Bill, Labour MP Jess Phillips said Miss Pope was "devastated" when police did not charge a man with raping her.

However, the MP's call for greater accountability for police investigators was not put to a parliamentary vote.

The teenager was among a number of women and girls with cases against a known sex offender, Ms Phillips told the Criminal Justice Bill committee.

However, Ms Pope's allegation did not lead to a prosecution, the MP said.

"Her family believed that that was because her case was presented in isolation from all the other independent allegations of violence and abuse," Ms Phillips told MPs.

She said the teenager's family wanted a "Gaia Principle" to be added to the bill, stipulating that police investigators should consider suspects' previous convictions, reports or accusations and could be disciplined if they failed to do so.

However, the MP's amendment was not added to the draft legislation.

The teenager's cousin, Marienna Pope-Weidemann, said it could be reintroduced later in the bill's progress through parliament.

She said: "The Gaia Principle will ensure survivors are no longer denied justice and left in danger because police do not investigate a suspect properly.

"It offers accountability for those failed and abandoned, as Gaia was. We need this level of accountability in a country where less than 1.5% rape cases even result in a charge."

Miss Pope had reported being raped when she was 16 by a man who was later jailed for sexual offences against at least one other girl.

At the time of her disappearance, the teenager was anxious about her alleged attacker's release from prison, a coroner previously said.

Ms Pope's complaint about the police inquiry was investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which found "performance issues for four officers" but "no case to answer for misconduct".

A Home Office spokesperson said: "Our sympathies are with Gaia Pope's family and friends and we are taking strong action to peruse sexual abuse perpetrators to bring them to justice.

"The College of Policing published their Code of Ethics which states that officers are expected to gather, verify and assess all appropriate and available information including in rape and sexual assault cases, and failure to act diligently in their duties and responsibilities could lead to dismissal."

Dorset Police said it was unable to comment.

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