Police officers have since faced disciplinary charges after Shana Grice’s case
Shana Grice, a 19-year old receptionist from Portslade, reported her ex-boyfriend, Michael Lane, to the police five times in 2016 before he murdered her inside her home.
Grice reported Lane to Sussex police for repeatedly stalking her several times before she was murdered, however she was reportedly given a £90 fine for ‘wasting police time’.
Lane was reportedly obsessed with Grice after she ended their relationship, before rekindling her relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Ashley Cooke.
Weeks after Grice first contacted the police about Lane, he entered her bedroom and slit her throat, before setting fire to her bedroom.
In March 2017, Lane was convicted of Grice’s murder in Lewes Crown Court and sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 25 years.
Tom Milsom, from the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC), said in a new Sky documentary on the case, Murder in Slow Motion, that Sussex police failed to identify “the difference between a spat between two individuals and harassing behaviour.”
“You really need to listen to the victim and I don’t think that happened to Shana,” he added.
Forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes, who participated in the documentary, told the Sun: “This is such a tragic murder and all the more so because it was avoidable.
“The case typifies why women have little faith in the police and why they often don’t report incidents because they are not confident they will get the help that they need.”
As reported by the Guardian, Police officers faced disciplinary charges over the case.
Grice’s parents, Richard Green and Sharon Grice, said: “Our daughter took her concerns to the police and instead of being protected was treated like a criminal. She paid for the police’s lack of training, care and poor attitude with her life.
“It’s only right that the police make changes, but it’s too little, too late for Shana.
“Sussex Police should not be applauded for this,” they said.
NOW: Channel 4 News can confirm that disciplinary action has been recommended against six Sussex police officers following an independent investigation into a stalking case that ended in murder of teenager Shana Grice.
The IOPC are due to publish their investigation tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/pWkfQNkC03
— Hayley Barlow (@Hayley_Barlow) April 9, 2019
In a report that investigated the conduct of Sussex Police commissioned by the police and crime commissioner (PCC) in 2019, a spokesperson said: “Although we found some good examples of cases that the force had dealt with well, these were outweighed by the number of cases that it had not dealt with well enough.”
“Within these,” the report continued. “We found a small number of cases where we were not reassured that the force had properly safeguarded the victim as well as it could have done, and we asked the force to take immediate remedial action.”
The report found that harassment makes up 2 per cent of all crime nationally, whilst stalking makes up 0.1 percent of crime across the nation.
In Sussex, however, harassment makes up a shocking 9 per cent of crime, with stalking making up 2 per cent of all crime committed.
Following the horrific murder of Grice in 2016, Sussex police worked with a local stalking support service to give training to officers, the report said.
However, the report found that the training programme was actually never completed.
“In most of the cases we examined,” the report said. “The investigating officers had not received this training.”
