Police apologise for delay in search for murdered teen

The search for a murdered teenager was delayed by four hours because there were no available officers, the police watchdog has found.

Student Ellen Higginbottom, 18, was reported missing at about 7pm on June 16 last year and her body was found at Orrell Water Park in Wigan in the early hours of the following morning.

Mark Buckley, 52, was jailed for a minimum of 31 years for the savage and brutal attack on the teenager, described by a judge at Manchester Crown Court as "frankly chilling".

An investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct found a lack of resources at Greater Manchester Police led to the search being delayed 13 times after she was reported missing by her father.

An IOPC spokesman said:

The investigation found the performance of three radio operators who failed to follow the force's escalation policy was "unsatisfactory", but there was insufficient evidence to prove misconduct.

GMP agreed with the findings of the report and made the decision not to conduct formal proceedings but to remind the call handlers of the policy.

IOPC regional director for the North West Amanda Rowe said:

Miss Higginbottom, a budding veterinary surgeon from Worsley, was dragged into bushes and attacked by Buckley while walking in the park.

The criminal investigation found she had already died by the time she was reported missing.

The court heard Buckley had earlier approached three female dog walkers and engaged them in conversation before he walked away.

After the murder, he returned to the park in the early hours of the following day and moved her body to a waist-height wheat field where he intended to bury her under the cover of darkness.

But he was thwarted as a police helicopter with heat-seeking equipment hovered overhead and he made off and left a spade at the scene before officers arrived on foot.