Georgia Williams' family welcomes senior officer's misconduct hearing

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has ruled that a senior West Mercia Police officer should appear before the panel over the force's handling of Georgia's killer Jamie Reynolds.

The 17-year-old was killed by Reynolds in 2013, five years after he first came to the attention of the police.

But it was later revealed Reynolds had previously been questioned by the police concerning violence towards women dating back to 2008.

Multiple investigations have been carried out into how Reynolds was dealt with in the run-up to Georgia's death, with the 17-year-old's family pushing for officers to be held accountable for alleged failures.

Reynolds was cautioned by police in 2008 when, aged 17, he lured a girl to his house in Avondale Road, Wellington, five years before he hanged Georgia in a sexually motivated attack in May 2013.

An independent report by Devon and Cornwall Police earlier this year found three officers and a member of police staff should face misconduct hearings.

Georgia's family argued that officers should have done more at the time to ensure Reynolds' behaviour was monitored.

Her mother Lynnette and father Steve, himself a serving detective with West Mercia Police, said they felt officers at the time had failed to "give appropriate weight to the seriousness of what he had done".

Today they welcomed the IPCC ruling, which came after a separate probe by Devon and Cornwall Police had identified shortcomings by three officers and one civilian worker.

Mrs Williams said: "We were fine with the outcomes of the Devon and Cornwall investigation, but we wanted to push for this particular officer to face a misconduct hearing.

"It has taken three different reports to get the IPCC to say we were correct and somebody should be held to account.

"When the full reports are released we think the public will be shocked at events that led to our daughter Georgia's murder."

The senior officer recommended by the IPCC to face misconduct meetings has not been identified. He had previously only been told to have management advice.

An IPCC spokesman said: "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."

A spokesman for West Mercia Police said Devon and Cornwall Police was in the process of making contact with the complainants.

He said the force would then receive a formal handover from Devon and Cornwall Police.

He added: "At this point we will progress with the misconduct processes and the outcomes will be published on our website."

At his trial, Reynolds was described as a sexual deviant who had a "morbid fascination" with depictions of extreme violence and was deemed a potential serial killer.

At the time of his arrest, Reynolds had 16,800 images and 72 videos of extreme pornography on his computer. These included images of women he knew in which ropes had been digitally added around their necks.