Police shamed over missed chances to catch double killer
A CHIEF constable faces disciplinary action and his force has apologised to a murder victim’s mother after a report found it missed opportunities to arrest double killer Christopher Halliwell.
Chief Constable Kier Pritchard was criticised for his role in the botched Wiltshire Police investigation into the murder of Becky Godden.
Mr Pritchard, who was then a detective chief superintendent, could be disciplined for alleged misconduct after the police watchdog found lines of inquiry were not pursued and evidence was not forensically examined.
Miss Godden, 20, was strangled in January 2003, but her murder only came to light in March 2011, when taxi driver Halliwell was held for abducting and murdering Sian O’Callaghan, 22. Halliwell, of Swindon, admitted murdering Miss O’Callaghan and took Detective Superintendent Stephen Fulcher to her body.
However, he then told the officer about ‘another one’ and directed him to Miss Godden’s body in a Gloucestershire field.
He was sentenced to life in 2012 for murdering Miss O’Callaghan, but a judge ruled the confession he made about Miss Godden was inadmissible because Mr Fulcher interrogated him without legal representation.
It was not until 2016 that he was sentenced for Miss Godden’s murder after another judge decided that the confession he had made was in fact admissible.
Yesterday’s report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) followed a campaign by Miss Godden’s mother, Karen Edwards. It said serious flaws in the investigation prevented Halliwell from being caught sooner.
The report found there was no senior officer running the case between July 2011 and October 2012, and ‘oversight of the investi gation was at worst absent and at best patchy’. The force did not properly examine evidence in 2011 from a GP who treated Halliwell in January 2003 for facial scratches.
Soil taken from Halliwell’s spade in 2011 was not forensically examined for three years – when it was found to match rare soil from the field where Miss Godden was buried. A pond Halliwell used as a ‘trophy store’ of women’s clothing was not investigated until 2014, when the evidence had deteriorated.
Police did not take a statement until February 2015 from a gamekeeper who told them in 2011 he saw a taxi at the time and place Miss O’Callaghan was abducted.
Evidence from an RAC mechanic called to Halliwell’s broken- down vehicle on January 3 2003 was not thoroughly investigated until 2014.
Had prosecutors known of outstanding lines of inquiry, the judge might have reached a different decision on the admissibility of Halliwell’s confession, the watchdog said – and he might also have been prosecuted on the strength of the evidence against him without the jury even knowing of his confession.
The IOPC said the case stalled after Mr Fulcher – played by Martin Freeman in ITV’s dramatisation, A Confession – stepped down.
It said there was a case to answer for misconduct for Mr Pritchard, who admitted there had been ‘confusion’, adding: ‘I am really sorry.’
Mrs Edwards described the police failings as ‘unbelievable’.
‘Oversight was at worst absent’