Promotion of Georgia Williams probe police officer defended

Chief Constable of West Mercia Police David Shaw has defended the decision and said the officer in question would not face a reduction in rank over this issue and "fully deserved his promotion".

The officer is one of four who will face a misconduct meeting over their dealings with Jamie Reynolds in 2008, when he attempted to strangle a 16-year-old girl and was handed a warning.

None of the officers can be sacked as a result of the meetings, which will be held next month. An independent inquiry into how the force handled Reynolds held by Devon and Cornwall Police, and seen by the Shropshire Star, found that officers had committed no criminal offences and had not acted in a way that constituted gross misconduct.

But Georgia's mother Lynnette Williams, whose husband Steve is a serving police officer with the West Mercia force, has urged for more to be done as a serious case review found that Georgia's killer had been known to police and other agencies five years before he strangled her.

Those involved in dealing with Reynolds and monitoring his behaviour failed to act and a case file on him was closed in 2010.

Mr Shaw said: "They (the officers) have been investigated just about as thoroughly as they could have been and independently assessed and that is the judgement.

"We have to review our procedures and see how that (promotion) came around. Had we been in possession of all the information at the time, we may have made a different decision. The officer in the case thoroughly deserved it based on his overall performance but clearly that is a factor we need to consider.

"The power to reduce in rank is not available to the misconduct meeting."

Mr Shaw said the case had affected him personally, adding: "We let Georgia down, we let Steve and Lynette down. I have been a proud police officer for over 36 years and I have been part of a fantastic force, West Mercia, for over eight years.

"This probably ranks amongst the top two or three things I have ever had to deal with in terms of tragedy, impact upon the community but of course upon the family and friends of Georgia."

Mrs Williams said she understood it was "very difficult" for the force to dismiss an officer.

She said: "I have looked into how the HR process works within the police and we understand it's very difficult to sack or dismiss a police officer if they do a bad job.

"And to me there are a couple in that report that did an exceptionally bad job and if they were in any other profession they would have been dismissed and they should be ashamed.

"I have got the IPCC report that came back to us and the only reason they weren't given a gross misconduct charge was that they did their job but they did the minimum in that job."

Mr Shaw said: "Four officers face misconduct meetings and that does not include the power to dismiss them. The report said their future status of a police officer should not be in doubt."

Mr and Mrs Williams said the whole discipline process was "subjective" with some "grey areas".

Eight agencies were involved after the attack, but the report says there was a "confused and unco-ordinated approach to the case" among the people looking after Reynolds, including mental health services, police, children's services and the probation trust. "The work undertaken in respect of Reynolds following the offence in 2008 was disjointed, lacked focus, did not include a clear multi-agency risk management plan and was restricted to single agency, short-term perspectives," the report concluded.