Murdered girl’s mum: Investigate the police who failed my Becky
THE mother of murdered runaway Becky Godden last night called for an inquiry into police after they buried a dossier of evidence about her daughter’s killer.
Karen Edwards, 55, is furious that officers tried to shelve the probe into her daughter’s death – and into other potential victims of serial killer Christopher Halliwell – despite having evidence that he had buried Becky in a field.
Last week, Karen spoke movingly to The Mail on Sunday about her five-year fight to get justice for Becky, whose body was found by detectives hunting for missing nightclubber Sian O’Callaghan.
Halliwell led former Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher to the spot where he buried her, but the evidence was deemed inadmissible in court because Fulcher had failed to caution him beforehand. Halliwell later pleaded guilty to Sian’s murder and was sentenced to life. Police then abandoned their investigation into the minicab driver, who allegedly told Fulcher that ‘police want to interview me about eight murders’.
It was only three years later, after lobbying by Karen, of Swindon, that the case was reopened – and Halliwell’s confession was finally allowed in court. He was then given a full life sentence – the tariff reserved for the most dangerous criminals.
Now Karen has criticised Wiltshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service for failing to appeal against the initial ruling. ‘Wiltshire Police had a lot of evidence against Halliwell but they refused to pursue it after he was convicted of Sian’s murder,’ she says. ‘I only found out that Becky’s name had been dropped from the indictment 20 minutes before we went into court for the first hearing. Police told me they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him with Becky’s murder.
‘I remember going to Marlborough police station with my husband Char- li lie and being asked if we would be content if he went away for a long ti time for Sian’s murder and the charges against Becky were left on file. My answer t to that was, “Never.”’ Karen believes the police had enough evidence four years ago to charge Halliwell – even without his confession. As well as witnesses, she points out the shovel found in Halliwell’s shed was linked by forensics to the field where Becky was buried. She also claims that Wiltshire Police have failed to act on evidence that she has given them about the deaths of Sally-Ann John, who vanished in 1995; Linda Razzell, who went missing in 2002; and Claudia Lawrence, who disappeared in 2009. She is equally angry that dossiers Fulcher created in 2011 about Halliwell’s vehicles and associations were never distributed to the 43 police forces across the country.
She says: ‘They were meant to have been distributed to other police but were never given out. That is the real miscarriage of justice.’
Wiltshire Police said: ‘If there are further victims then our investigation will work tirelessly to bring justice for all concerned.
‘This investigation had unprecedented and complex legal issues which placed a huge responsibility on our teams to ensure the case wasn’t thrown out due to apparent breaches in legislation. This was rightfully the priority.’