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'We Let Georgia Down': Police Admit Failing Teen


The parents of a murdered teenager have labelled the findings of a serious case review into her death as "an embarrassment" to the police.
Steve and Lynnette Williams said the report showed that the killing of 17-year-old Georgia by Jamie Reynolds could have been prevented and that he was "a murderer in the making".
Reynolds is serving a whole life sentence after luring the teenager into his home in Wellington, Shropshire, in 2013, supposedly for a photoshoot.
He then killed Georgia in a meticulously planned trap, hanging her from a length of rope attached to the hatch of his loft.
Georgia Williams murder court case
It later emerged Reynolds had come to the attention of police five years earlier when he trapped another 16-year-old girl at his home and grabbed her around the throat in a "bizarre, potentially serious and unprovoked attack".
In a statement, Mr and Mrs Williams said: "Having lost Georgia to pure evil, we cried when we read this report and the failings of all agencies involved because it was so obvious that Reynolds was, if not one already, a murderer in the making.
"Georgia's death could have been prevented - learn if nothing else."
They have called on West Mercia Police to publish another report prepared by Devon and Cornwall Police which they said highlighted mistakes "10 times worse" than those flagged up by the serious case review.
The independent Devon and Cornwall report, given to the West Mercia force in March, led to misconduct proceedings against four officers and one civilian staff member who face a sanction stopping short of dismissal.
Mr Williams is himself a detective with West Mercia Police.
The serious case review raised "serious concerns about the quality of the investigation" into the 2008 incident, adding the police inquiry was "narrow in its perspective" and seemed "aimed at ensuring a speedy resolution".
Reynolds lured the girl to his home on the pretence of helping with a school project.
The incident was treated as an assault and officers gave Reynolds a final warning.
Weeks later, images of schoolgirls with nooses drawn around their necks were found in his bedroom and handed to police by his family.
A doctor assessed Reynolds and said he was a significant risk to others, "on the basis that he seemed to have progressed from viewing sexually violent pornography to acting upon it" when he attacked the teenager.
Eight agencies were involved after the incident, but there was a "confused and uncoordinated approach to the case" among the people looking after Reynolds, including mental health services, police, children's services and the probation trust.
In 2011, Reynolds was reported to police for reversing his car into that of a girl who had rejected his advances.
West Mercia Police Chief Constable David Shaw said: "We could and should have done better. It is as simple as that.
"We let Georgia down. We let Steve and Lynnette down.
"And as you'll see in the report - some other young people, we let them down as well.

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