Face of the revenge porn convict who Gaia feared was about to be released
‘No one can hurt you any more’
GAIA Pope had told police she was sexually assaulted by a friend who is now in prison after he posted a ‘revenge porn’ video of another teenage girl online.
Friends of the 19-year-old student – who was found dead on a clifftop – said she feared that Connor Hayes, 24, could soon be freed from jail.
Yesterday Hayes’s mother, from Bournemouth, confirmed that Gaia had made an accusation about her son to the police – but said the complaint was not upheld.
In a statement, she said: ‘I am aware that my son had a brief friendship with Gaia Pope when she was 16 and had just started college. Within weeks of their friendship ending Gaia made an accusation to the police which was not upheld.
‘To the best of my knowledge my son has not had any contact with Gaia since their friendship ended at least two years ago.’
Hayes was jailed for two years in April for posting revenge porn involving a 17-yearold girl who was unconnected to Gaia.
But a college friend of Gaia’s told the Daily Mail: ‘There is a private Instagram [account] she has just with her friends and she said that she was nervous about Connor getting let out of prison.
‘She mentioned bits and pieces just after it happened but it was only made properly public much later on social media. I think her last post about it was around Halloween time.
‘She did let people know about the assault on Facebook and when she did it we told her it wasn’t safe and she should take it down. We told her to delete it because it was dangerous. I think she thought he might be released a bit early.’
Her friend Lucy Tuffin wrote on Facebook yesterday: ‘No one can hurt you any more Gaia, if I could have protected you from it all I would have.’
Gaia’s body was found on a Dorset clifftop on Saturday afternoon – 11 days after she went missing from her home in the nearby town of Swanage – just half a mile from where a pile of her clothes had been discovered two days earlier.
Her death is being treated as unexplained but detectives have admitted her injuries suggest no one else was involved in her death. Further tests are being carried out to determine the exact cause of Gaia’s death. Her family have said she was extremely vulnerable because of her severe epilepsy.
Marienna Pope-Weidemann, Gaia’s cousin, criticised the police inquiry last night, telling the BBC: ‘This is not something that should happen and it should not have taken 11 days to find her so close. And we need to know why.’
Three members of the same family who had been arrested on suspicion of Gaia’s murder may take legal action against Dorset Police over their handling of the investigation.
Rosemary Dinch, 71, her son Paul Elsey, 49, and her grandson Nathan Elsey, 19, were released from the investigation with no further action yesterday.
Mrs Dinch’s severe emphysema sees her relying on an oxygen tank. Nathan was a school friend of Gaia, and carpenter Paul Elsey was working 30 miles away at the time she disappeared.
Mrs Dinch’s ex-husband Greg Elsey, who has acted as the family’s spokesman, said: ‘I would like a letter of apology from Dorset Police, but I don’t think I will get one. I am considering legal action.’ Detective Superintendent Paul Kessell, of Dorset Police, said: ‘I appreciate our inquiries would have caused these individuals stress and anxiety, however we have an obligation in any missing person investigation to explore every possible line of inquiry.
‘The public would expect Dorset Police to fully investigate the sudden disappearance of a teenage girl.’
Gaia’s father, Richard Sutherland, told ITV News that when he last saw her just over a week before she went missing she was ‘in a happy mood’. He added: ‘We want to know more. I think we know that she was really struggling. A lot of issues and she clearly just couldn’t cope with that. With the epilepsy she was just struggling badly.
‘But right up into the end of her life there were still happy moments that she was having.’