Georgia Williams murder case: West Mercia Police will face no further action over witness naming

Two women, who were witnesses during his trial for killing Georgia Williams and who will remain anonymous, say they are "disappointed" with the decision that the force will face no action for revealing the names.

The women said: "We are disappointed as we could have been put in a life-threatening situation and we could have been exposed because of the police's incompetence."

It comes after Judge Jonathan Gosling ruled at Stafford Crown Court today that he had no power to take action after the publication.

Two names were published on the force's website in a report by Devon and Cornwall released as part of Operation Colombia, an investigation into failings made by the police in investigating Jamie Reynolds in the years before he murdered 17-year-old Georgia Williams in 2013.

The document was uploaded on November 23, and steps had been taken by the police to ensure protected names had been redacted.

But on November 25, it was noticed that one name was still visible.

The report was taken from the website and checked for any further oversights before being returned to the website.

However checks failed to find a second name, which remained on the document for a total of 11 days, during which time the website was accessed 197 times.

A court order was put in place by Mr Justice Wilkie following the trial of Reynolds in December 2013 to prevent the identification of any witnesses in the trail.

Judge Gosling described the breach as "careless in the extreme".

He said that prior to the hearing, he had received a letter from Karen Manners, deputy chief constable of West Mercia Police setting out the details of the breach and explaining that it had been in no way intentional.

He added: "But the court can not lawfully impose any punishment for the breach unless those responsible are shown to have breached the order with the intention of interfering with the administration of justice.

"Plainly no such intention is shown here."

Speaking after the hearing, Lynnette Williams, Georgia's mother, said: "I can't believe they are not going to do anything.

"It beggars belief.

"I'm disappointed and I'm feeling a bit let down again that no actions are being taken against the police even though the Judge very strongly said that it was negligent.

"Yes I understand they didn't do it on purpose but they've got to realise that victims didn't want to be named for specific reasons and through whatever reasons they couldn't manage to do it properly, twice.

"The girls are disappointed, they're bewildered because nothing is going to come out of this for them, no actions against the police and I think as victims they are probably feeling let down again."

West Mercia Police have apologised for the publication and say they take "full responsibility" for the mistake, putting it down to human error.

Chief Constable David Shaw said: "Following the errors, our first concern was to protect those affected, who we informed immediately as they were unaware of the error. We then put support in place around them according to their wishes.

"We also self–reported to the Information Commissioner and wrote to the trial Judge, Mr Justice Wilkie.

"West Mercia Police takes full responsibility for its actions and we would again like to extend our sincere apologies to those concerned."