Senior Shropshire police officer to face misconduct meeting over Georgia Williams' murderer
A senior Shropshire police officer is to face a misconduct panel over the handling of Jamie Reynolds, the murder of Telford teenager Georgia Williams.
Georgia's parents have welcomed the decision by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), after appealing for stronger action to be taken against officers over how Reynolds was handled by West Mercia Police before he killed the 17-year-old from Wellington in 2013.
Five years earlier Reynolds had been cautioned by officers for trying to strangle another teenage girl at his Telford home.
An independent report by Devon and Cornwall Police earlier this year found three officers and a member of police staff should face misconduct hearings for how Reynolds was dealt with.
The IPCC has now said a senior officer should face a misconduct meeting.
Georgia's mother Lynette said she was pleased with the decision.
"We were fine with the outcomes of the Devon and Cornwall investigation, but we wanted to to push for this particular officer to face a misconduct meeting," she said.
"It has taken three different reports to get them (the IPCC) to say we were correct and somebody should be held to account."
The IPCC said it did not believe the other four's failings were "serious enough to justify a case for gross misconduct against any of them", but one senior officer had a case to answer for misconduct.
"Given the experience of the officer and position of responsibility held at the time of the incident, we took the view that this individual should attend a misconduct meeting for a panel to decide the appropriate action," the IPCC said.
