Police were told where to look for missing Gaia

THE sister of missing teenager Gaia Pope-Sutherland repeatedly told police in the days after her disappearance to search the area where her body was later found, an inquest heard.

Clara Pope-Sutherland said she told three police officers to search the area around Dancing Ledge, close to the Swanage coastal path in Dorset, because her sister was known to go there.

The teenager, who suffered from severe epilepsy, was reported missing from her home in Swanage on November 7, 2017.

Dorset Coroner’s Court has heard the 19-year-old had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after revealing she had been raped by a man when she was 16. At the time of her disappearance, Miss PopeSutherland was worried about the man’s imminent release from prison and had also reported to police that she had received indecent images from a different man via Facebook.

A large search operation was launched in the Swanage area for the teenager, including police, HM Coastguard, National Police Air Service, Dorset Search and Rescue, and members of the public. On November 18, her body was found by police search teams in undergrowth between Dancing Ledge and Anvil Point.

Rachael Griffin, the senior coroner, told the inquest in Bournemouth that the PopeSutherland family had concerns that Dorset Police did not listen to the information provided to officers when the teenager disappeared. Giving evidence, Clara Pope-Sutherland, 25, said Dancing Ledge was a significant location for her sister as it was a favourite spot of her late grandfather.

“There were very specific comments and, in the interviews themselves, I distinctly remember the need to try and tell the officer everything I knew about Gaia’s mental health, and what she was going through, but also connections to where she could possibly be,” she said.

“We had racked our brains trying to think where she could possibly be. It didn’t seem like they were not listening – not at least to me – but there were certain aspects of the things they were saying and focusing on that didn’t make much sense to me, despite my comments.

“I had said on multiple times and commented on the significance of the Dancing Ledge walk. In my mind, it didn’t make much sense that she would be anywhere else other than trying to be there and being close with him, my grandfather. I drew a circle and said I am not a police officer, but this is the radius of where I would be searching. That diagram seems not to have been recorded.”

The inquest continues.