Grice Murder: Police criticised by family and judge

The judge who presided over the Shana Grice murder trial criticised Sussex police saying when she sought help "she received none."

Michael Lane must now serve a life sentence with a minimum term of 25 years.

Miss Grice, 19, was found with her throat slashed in her smoke-logged bedroom at the bungalow she shared with two housemates in Brighton.

Lane, 27, waited until she was home alone before murdering her last August 25.

It emerged during a two-week trial at Lewes Crown Court that police were told Lane pulled Miss Grice's hair and grabbed her mobile phone last March 24.

But while no further action was taken against him, Miss Grice received a fixed penalty notice for wasting police time after not disclosing she had been in a relationship with him.

The judge said the incident meant police treated all further complaints by Miss Grice with "scepticism".

When further stalking incidents took place, she felt her complaints would not be taken seriously by the police, he said.

Police received five reports about Lane's behaviour towards Miss Grice in the months before he killed her and then torched her room in Chrisdory Road, Brighton.

Miss Grice's mother Sharon Grice hit out at Sussex Police, saying she believed her daughter's murder could have been prevented if they had listened to her fears about him.

Sussex Police apologised to Miss Grice's family and referred themselves to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which has launched an inquiry.

A two-week trial heard Lane refused to accept the break-up with Miss Grice and decided no-one else could be with her, telling a friend: "She'll pay for what she's done."

In the months before she died, Lane stalked Miss Grice, the trial heard. He put a tracker device on her car and received notifications via a phone app every time it moved.

Mechanic Lane, of Thornhill Rise, Portslade, claimed he discovered her body then left in shock. But jurors convicted him of murder after just over two hours of deliberation on Wednesday.