Misconduct ruling over Shana officer

AFORMER police officer who accused teenager Shana Grice of wasting police time, five months before she was killed by her ex-boyfriend, has been found to have committed misconduct.

Trevor Godfrey was told he would not have been sacked even if he had not already retired over his involvement in the case of 19-year-old Ms Grice, pictured, and her violent coworker Michael Lane.

Ms Grice was murdered by Lane at her home in Brighton on August 25 2016. It later emerged Ms Grice reported her former boyfriend to police five times in six months but was fined for wasting officers’ time after it emerged she misled them in failing to disclose the pair had previously been in a relationship.

The case was closed before her pleas for help were properly investigated. A misconduct panel sitting in Lewes found Mr Godfrey failed to adequately investigate allegations of harassment and stalking, and failed to treat Ms Grice as a victim – which amounted to a breach of police rules. Recording the decision, panel chair Victoria Goodfellow said: “While clearly serious matters, they are not enough to mean gross misconduct.”

There was little emotion shown from either Mr Godfrey or Ms Grice’s family.

James Berry, presenting the case against Mr Godfrey, had accused the ex-officer of applying an inaccurate stereotype to Ms Grice that she could not be at risk from a man she was in a relationship with.

Lane, 27, was jailed for life after being convicted of Ms Grice’s murder.