Gaia Pope inquest: Dorset Police officer has 'huge regret'

Detective Chief Inspector Jim Beashel said it was a “privilege” to oversee high priority incidents, but “regretted” not having the resources to better help 19-year-old Ms Pope when she went missing from Swanage on November 7, 2017.

DCI Beashel was the force incident commander during the night of November 7 to 8 and admitted Ms Pope should have been graded as a high-risk missing person as soon as she went missing.

READ MORE: Gaia Pope inquest: Police continue giving evidence

He told the inquest being held at Bournemouth Town Hall he was not given a handover when he started his shift as he was immediately responding to a firearms incident in Poole.

He finished the job at 1.05am when he then had a conversation with DI Andrew Alkins, both agreeing Ms Pope should be graded “high-risk”.

DCI Beashel told the hearing if he had done the initial assessment on November 7 he would have graded it as high-risk.

He added there was a lack of information left by the late team officers and it was “challenging having any idea where to start our search”.

"What was challenging is normally, if an officer has been on late and has been dealing with this and gone off duty, you'd expect a log saying these are the searches and areas we've checked,” he said.

“What made it challenging was not knowing what had been done from 6.55pm to us reviewing it at 1.30am.”

The officer admitted he didn’t know what addresses officers had searched and “presumed” they’d have the knowledge to go to Ms Pope’s aunt Talia’s address, where she had run from.

READ MORE: Police inspector says risk grading was wrong

The inquest also heard how DCI Beashel and DI Alkins made no record of what was happening during the night beyond some notes. DCI Beashel said this was due to an error on the system which meant his records didn’t save.

He admitted by not grading her high-risk earlier, there were missed opportunities to earlier send out resources, keep on more resources overnight, make more enquiries generally and an earlier review by Police Search and Rescue. He said it delayed the response in searching for Ms Pope.

Speaking of where Ms Pope was found on November 18, DCI Beashel said: “Bearing in mind how long it took to locate Gaia, sending officers up in the middle night, with torches, I don't think we would have found her.

“I wish we would have at least tried with the resources available to check areas that had been suggested.”

He added: “Like all force incident commanders, I take my responsibilities very seriously in terms of what we are able to do and to deploy resources to help people when they are in need is a real privilege.

“It is of huge regret I was on duty at a time when I didn’t have the resources to be able to deploy in way that would have allowed us to locate Gaia a lot sooner.

“We all have our duties to protect and preserve life and when we are unable to fulfil (them) there is huge regret to me personally and, I know, my colleagues as well.

The inquest continues.