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METROPOLITAN POLICE in London have issued a statement apologising to the mother of 12-year-old Tia Sharp for the delay in finding a body in the search for her missing daughter.
Commander Neil Basu has explained the circumstances under which a number of searches of the house where Tia was last seen last Friday – the home of her grandmother Christine Sharp, who has since been arrested on suspicion of murder along with her partner Stuart Hazell.
A 39 year old man – reported to be neighbour Paul Meehan – has been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.
Basu said that four scene examinations of the property in New Addington in south east London were carried out.
The initial examination was carried out when Tia was reported missing last Friday 4 August. That visit was not regarded as a full search of the property.
A second visit to conduct a full search of the property was conducted on 5 August, with the search lasting around two hours. Commander Basu said that all parts of the premises were searched including the location were a body was discovered yesterday, on 10 August.
A third visit involving the use of a body recovery dog took place on 8 August. As with the second visit, this was not a full search of the house.
Police have now admitted that following an early review of procedures, it is “clear that human error delayed the discovery of the body within the house”.
Following further investigation police decided that a further intrusive search of the property was necessary, and led to the discovery of a body.
Commander Basu said:
On behalf of the Metropolitan Police I apologise for the distress and concern this delay will have caused.
What a tragic story unbelievable what goes on in this world!! wtf poor soul killed by those she trusted most ! Words fail me
Jesus, how could they not find her :( where on earth was she ? Poor child :( RIP
Police are people too, mistakes happen.
Plenty of rumour on this but a theory doing the rounds is that the lofts of both houses were accessible to each other and that the body was moved in and out to hide from the search. The neighbour being arrested for helping an offender gives weight to it apparently. Beyond sick if this is true.
The poor child…..how could it take so long to find her body….the police weren’t searching for a needle in a haystack but a BODY in a house….may whoever did this to her rot!
This story took a long time to gather momentum with UK news media prioritising Olympic medal wins instead of the child’s disappearance. That in itself is shameful enough but for investigators to cock up on such a grand scale in relation to finding the body is gross imcompetence. The powers that be need to ensure, demand that the remainder of this investigation is conducted in a more professional and thorough manner lest the perpetrator(s) evade their just deserves.
It’s a lot you know about the inside of this operation.
I don’t have statistics but 1000′s of kids go missing in this country every year. The vast vast majority are found. I can only assume in the uk the figures are huge. Are we to assume each and every kid that’s reported missing a forensics team would be called in to search house ??
Silly and impractical. The second search as states searched where body was found. So this shows they were moving it but as the police were outside they could not get body out of house.
Unfortunately when your the police you can’t win you will always have know it alls. I don’t know how these investigations work but I accept there is a lot involved and as i don’t know I’m last to voice silly opinions on how they operate when I don’t know
You idiot! The media don’t solve crimes! It’s often better if they keep their snouts out of it anyway. They can do more harm than good. Read the theories below as to why the poor girl wasn’t found initially.
@ James: Couldn’t agree more. I wish all the people who know how to do police work better than the police would actually join the police.
As for the media coverage, like James said thousands of children go missing in the UK each year. The vast, vast majority of cases turn out differently.
The main thing is that the culprits have seemingly been caught.
James, your argument would carry some weight if the police hadn’t admitted to and apologised for their error. This is not about whether or not to initiate a forensic search, it’s very clear they deemed it necessary. It’s about the failure of those carrying out that search to uncover the body even if it was moved between properties. If evidence can be tampered with under the noses of investigators it leaves the gates wide open for any defence lawyer worth their salt secure an acquittal on that very basis. That is and would be unforgiveable in my opinion. We’re talking about a professional police force who deemed it necessary to carry out a forensic search of a potential crime scene in the investigation of the disappearance of a child who have admitted to an error. I know how I’d feel if it was my daughter!
Yeah actually I was just thinking about that before you posted that reply and the police like I said can’t win no matter what your not right therefore have to apologise.
Let me give you scenario child goes missing in ballymun tonight mom reports it child is 13 this happens everyday of the week. Should police rip house apart with forensics? Ireland is not csi we don’t have forensic officers that can be in 20 places at once
she would turn up but carry out search of normal haunts and friends she would visit etc and build it from there the girl will turn up. But let’s say she didn’t and there was a body. The police are blamed for not doing enough.
Wait for it you will see that the NHS will be blamed how social workers did not see this coming. At the end of the day the blame lays with the murderer who the police have in custody.
the second search (which was first proper search as first is to maybe look for suicide note or diary about running away) even if a dog was brought in to look for body believe it or not it’s not exact science I believe a body wrapped or covered can me missed by a dog unless really decomposing. Seems body was moved around
I personally think the police have nothing to say sorry for but in these PC days your damned if you do damned if you don’t
Words fail me too Debbie… heartbreaking stuff.
she was found in the loft somewhere. it’s not somewhere you’d look during the first search. I presume during the 2nd two hour search, they stuck their head up for a look and missed her. it probably took the cadaver dog to make them have another look up there. very sad. rip
God love the poor wee girl,
Hard to believe that there could have been so many searches in the house, to no avail. Awful that it seems there was more than one person involved in her murder.
cannot imagine what happened I just hope for Tia’s sake it was quick and painless. I also hope the delay did not result in her death, that would be heaping more tragedy on an already horrible situation for the family.
I was thinking yesterday that the lofts in terraced houses are often interconnected, so now the next door neighbour has been arrested they more than likely have been moving the poor crater between the loft spaces :(
In fairness they were probably watching Team GB’s best ever Olympics !! This storey was the 3rd storey on the news after a diver and a runner from Somalia !
Terrible story but that’s broken Brittan
It’s more evidence of a sub culture that has emerged into these reality shows
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