A teenager hanged by a man obsessed
with asphyxiating girls was failed by police and social services
assigned to her killer after an earlier attack.
Jamie Reynolds tried to strangle a girl in 2008 and went on to hang 17-year-old Georgia Williams in Telford in 2013.
Following a serious case review, a number of agencies jointly admitted a series of failures.
Her parents said: "If people had just done their jobs properly our daughter would still be alive."
Steve
and Lynnette Williams added: "Having lost Georgia to pure evil, we
cried when we read this report and the failings of all the agencies
involved, because it was so obvious that Reynolds was, if not one
already, a murderer in the making.
"Georgia's death could have been prevented." Image copyrightWest Mercia PoliceImage caption
Jamie Reynolds is serving a whole-life prison term for the murder of Georgia Williams
Chief Constable David Shaw, of West Mercia Police, said: "We could have and should have done better. We let Georgia down."
There
were "shortfalls" in the force's investigation of Reynolds' attempt to
strangle a 16-year-old girl at his home in 2008, the serious case review
found.
Police
treated what happened as an assault, the 16-year-old's injuries were
not photographed and neither she nor Reynolds were referred to a
forensic medical examiner.
Officers did not carry out a search of Reynolds' home, the report also stated.
Nooses and pornography
Reynolds'
stepfather had told the Justice Liaison Service he had discovered the
then teenager viewed images of naked women being strangled.
He also told the service Reynolds had photos of girls he knew with nooses drawn around their necks, the review team said.
The
Justice Liaison Service told Reynolds' stepfather to tell the police
about the pornography and doctored photographs, but the force did not
act on them, the report said.
"Further investigation may have led
to more information as to Reynolds' motivation and the risk he posed in
addition to further evidence to support an alternative charge," the
report stated.
Instead, Reynolds was given a final written warning by police.
He
was put in contact with the Children and Adolescent Mental Health
Service, Justice Liaison Service, the Youth Offending Service, and a
scheme for adolescent sex offenders run by the NSPCC.
Telford
& Wrekin Council's Children's Services was involved over concerns
about Reynolds and other possible victims who were all under 18 at the
time.
The review team stated a "flawed" decision was made by agencies not to tell the girls in the photographs about the images.
'Life in danger'
One
of them, Jadine Dunning, was only shown a photograph of herself with a
noose drawn around her neck after Georgia - who Ms Dunning knew - had
been murdered.
She waived her right to anonymity and said: "They couldn't have got it any more wrong.
"They've put my life in danger there. Not only my life, other young girls lives and I think that's completely wrong.
"If
jobs were done properly and right action was taken, not only from the
police but other authorities as well, I really do believe we could have
saved her life."
Image copyrightGeorgia Williams TrustGeorgia's father Steve, a detective constable with
West Mercia Police, said he felt an inner conflict as the review
highlighted "shortfalls" in the force's previous dealings with his
daughter's murderer.
Mr Williams has called for the publication of
an Independent Police Complaints Commission report into how his
colleagues investigated an attack by Jamie Reynolds in 2008.
But, he said he decided to stay with the force despite knowing the failings surrounding his daughter's killer.
The
report stated: "Although at least eight agencies... had involvement in
the case, at no time did all those agencies meet together and there was
no clear and co-ordinated approach to multi-agency working."
The
management of the case gave "too much weight" to potential impact on
Reynolds' future and "a relative lack of consideration for victims and
overall risk assessment and management," the review said
'Torn apart'
Laura
Johnston, director for children and family services at Telford &
Wrekin Council said: "Neither the council's practice or the Youth
Offending Service's practice was good enough in 2008."
She said questions were not asked, people were not professionally curious enough and they did not look at the bigger picture.
She
added: "In Telford we talk of Georgia and we want to keep talking of
Georgia to make sure the learning is very personal and powerful."
Mrs Williams said: "We want the public to realise how badly let down Georgia was.
"She wanted to do so much in life and we could have seen her doing all those things."
Remembering
his daughter, Mr Williams said: "We had saved money for them for their
weddings and stuff, and I cry when I think... I had to spend some of
that money on her funeral."
"It's torn me apart. I loved Georgia as any parent should.
"She was a friend and I miss her every second of the day."
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