A teenager who reported her stalker to police five times and was fined for wasting police time before being brutally murdered just five months later was ‘let down’ by the police, an operations manager for the Independent Office of Police Conduct has claimed.
Shana Grice reported her ex-partner Michael Lane, 27, to Sussex Police for stalking five times in six months before he cut her throat and tried to burn her body.
Instead of being treated as a victim Shana was handed a £90 fixed penalty notice for wasting police time and given ‘strong words of advice’.
Five months later, Shana, then 19, was murdered by Lane at her home in Brighton, East Sussex, on August 25 2016. He was jailed for a minimum of 25 years.
During Sky Crime documentary Murder in Slow Motion, which aired on Saturday, Tom Milsom from the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC), claimed that Sussex Police failed to understand ‘the difference between a spat between two individuals and harassing behaviour.’
He added: ‘You really need to listen to the victim and I don’t think that happened to Shana. She was let down.’
Forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes went on to explain how Shana’s tragic story exemplifies the problem with attitudes towards female victims, which often results in women being too scared to report crimes.
‘This is such a tragic murder and all the more so because it was avoidable,’ she said, speaking to The Sun.
Shana Grice (pictured) was 19 when she was killed by Michael Lane at her home in Brighton, East Sussex, in August 2016
A jury found her ex-boyfriend Michael Lane (pictured left) guilty of murder following trial at Lewes Crown Court in 2017 (pictured right, outside court)
‘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.’
It comes after calls to the National Stalking Helpline have doubled in a year, yet a record number of cases have been closed by police without being solved.
Aged 18, Shana Grice broke up with her long-term boyfriend Ashley Cooke and started dating Michael Lane for a few months in secret – but concerned at how possessive he became, she quickly called the relationship off.
Not willing to let it go – even after she reignited her relationship with Ashley – Michael continued to bombard Shana with messages, slashed her tyres and even vandalised Ashley’s car with a note which read: ‘Shana will always cheat on you. Happy New Year.’
Lane bought a tracker device and fitted it to the bumper of Shana’s car so he could follow her movements, stole her keys and hung around her home.
In February 2016, worried for her safety, Shana called the police and Lane was issued with a caution to stay away from her.
Then just one month later, Lane followed Shana, pulled her hair and tried to grab her phone – and she quickly made her way to Ashley’s house where she called the cops.
The teen reported Lane to Sussex Police five times but instead she was fined £90 for wasting police time. Jailing Lane in 2017, the sentencing judge said officers ‘stereotyped’ Ms Grice before her death and failed to take her reports seriously
However, when police arrived, she was interviewed in front of both Ashley and his parents, and made no mention of the previous fling.
Instead, officers issued Shana with a fixed penalty notice for wasting police time for failing to disclose she had been in a relationship with Lane.
‘Shana found herself in an embarrassing situation,’ explained Tom Milson in the documentary. ‘If Shana had been interviewed alone, she may have been more forthcoming around some of the details.’
Kerry went on to say how police brushed it off as nothing more than a ‘lover’s tiff’ – adding that she was stereotyped as a woman having an affair rather than one who was ‘trying desperately for help.’
She went on to say how they failed to consider the fact that someone could be in an on-off relationship and still be the victim of stalking.
On July 9, Shana told police that Lane had stolen a key to her home and let himself in, crept into her bedroom and checked to see if she was sleeping.
In the terrifying phone call recorded by Shana, which was played during the documentary, Lane explains: ‘I wanted to see you and I knew you wouldn’t let me in.’
‘I’m just not right in the head, otherwise I wouldn’t do it.’
Lane was arrested but despite their being evidence of a history of him stalking his ex-girlfriend, the police interview lasted just 12 minutes and ended with Lane being given a formal caution.
The following day Shana called police to report receiving around seven phone calls from a withheld number including one with ‘heavy breathing’.
She told officers: ‘I’m quite scared as is that just going to happen again. I have changed my route to work. I don’t want the same thing to happen tomorrow morning. I have to look up and down the road even before I go to my car.’
She was told the report would be left on file.
A month later, on August 25, 2016, Shana was found with her throat slashed in her smoke-logged bedroom at the bungalow she shared with two housemates in Brighton.
Lane waited until she was home alone before murdering her.
After evidence linked him to the scene, Lane tried to claim he went to her home on the day she died and found her dead, but didn’t raise the alarm because he feared he’d be blamed.
Lane was ordered to serve a minimum of 25 years in jail when he was sentenced last year. The judge criticised the police’s handling of the build-up to the murder.
Mr Justice Green said police ‘jumped to conclusions’ and ‘stereotyped’ Shana Grice as he jailed her jilted ex-boyfriend Michael Lane for life with a minimum term of 25 years.
When she sought help from Sussex Police ‘she received none’, he went on.
Just two of 14 officers and staff investigated by the IOPC over Ms Grice’s death were made the subject of publicly held disciplinary proceedings.
Both left Sussex Police before the hearings were due to take place.
One was found to have committed gross misconduct when he ignored Ms Grice’s repeated stalking reports and a less serious finding of misconduct was made against another in July last year.