Inquest hears of senior police officer's 'regret' at not allocating Gaia Pope 'high risk'

The police officer in charge of the control room when Dorset teenager Gaia Pope went missing in November 2017 says he should have assessed her as being at high risk.

Retired Chief Inspector Stephen White told the inquest into Gaia's death that his decision to categorise the 19-year-old as medium risk was an error, and that high risk would have meant more resources to search for her much earlier. 

He also admitted that he did not read all the available information about her mental breakdown.

Stephen White told the inquest that he should have reviewed the content of all the logs that Dorset Police had created about Gaia's situation during the previous month.

These included a report that she had recently been sent indecent pictures on social media and that she was receiving counselling for an alleged rape when she was 16.

Gaia was also suffering from PTSD and was taking medication for severe epilepsy.

Stephen White said that he thought his decision at the time was correct but now he has regrets and he was 'misguided'.

On Tuesday the most senior police officer to give evidence at the inquest told the court that if she had been fully informed about the extent of the 19-year-old's mental health, then the missing persons investigation would have been given a higher priority. 

Superintendent Heather Dixey admitted that there was a potential 13 hour delay in allocating resources because Gaia was considered medium risk - which was later raised to high risk due to her severe epilepsy and PTSD.

The Inquest also heard that there were several delays in starting the initial search in the area where Gaia was last seen on the 7 November.  

Heather Dixey said that resourcing is a 'daily issue' and that on the morning of the 8 November she was also dealing with two firearms incidents. 

Following a huge search by the public and emergency services, Gaia's body was discovered near Swanage eleven days after she went missing in November 2017.

A post mortem found she died from Hypothermia.

Her family have attended every day of the inquest which is expected to continue until the end of June.