Shana Grice

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Sorry if there is already a thread.

I'm horrified that the advice is not to fine women who report harassment rather than to actually investigate it properly and protect the victims

www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-sussex-49283730

Shocking case and depressing that an investigation needed to point out the bloody obvious in 2019.

WTAF? Geez, Sussex Police should hang their collective heads in shame. Who the fuck came up with the idea of these fines in the first place, because they are seriously misogynist and I would be investigating any policy decision they had had a hand in .

They simply don't have time to investigate violent men who are stalking women, OP.

So they fine the women so that these women know that they can never trust the police again.

Seem to make time to spray their cars rainbow and fuck about at Brighton Pride though.

This is really important from the brilliant Aurora New Dawn www.aurorand.org.uk/news/police-misconduct/

That's appalling and yes they do seem to have enough time to piss around with virtue signalling.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-49297674

That report is jaw dropping.

I knew about Michael Lane from earlier reports but didn't realise that he'd been arrested on suspicion of grooming a 14 year old previously. While he was a scout leader. Of course.

And it gets worse. It always gets worse.

"After his arrest on suspicion of grooming the 14-year-old via text and Facebook messages, Lane resigned from the Scouts.

He was told the allegation would be considered if he tried to re-join.

However, when he re-applied in 2015 a "temporary glitch in the IT system" meant he was not recognised as a past member and he volunteered for several months, the report said.

Sussex Police decided not to reveal allegations when a check was made by the Disclosure and Barring Scheme (DBS), concluding it would be "disproportionate".

"Police marked the arrest on his record, but this was apparently not noted six years later when Miss Grice accused him of harassment, a report said".

"Sussex Police said it thoroughly investigated the earlier report".

Lane killed Miss Grice then aged 27, at her home in Brighton, East Sussex, in August 2016.

The domestic homicide review found he harassed 12 other girls and young women between 2006 and 2016.

"The report said Lane had "used youth movements, which appealed to young women and girls, to allow him access to victims".

"Victims did not feel they could report their concerns, the report said".

Gosh, I wonder why? Perhaps the victims were intelligent enough to realise that the police would prosecute them instead of protecting them?

I've been aware of this case but reading the Aurora New Dawn post and the BBC link makes it even more horrific. This murderer deliberately targeted young women, had numerous previous issues yet the police evidently failed to exhibit any professional curiosity and actually investigate anything - just seeing poor Shana as a liar.
Completely avoidable. That poor girl.

Domestic Homicide Review about Shana in full in this link.

Makes very sobering reading.

He had form, he had previous, he was known to be a threat to women - yet the police failed to investigate and doubled down defensively after fining her for lying. Which of course was the same attitude to young women taken in Rotherham et al. That they were complicit in their own abuse, rapes and with Shana. murder.

And the police actually took positive steps to help Lane; they weren't just hapless bystanders.

When Lane rejoined the Scouts in 2015 as an assistant leader, the police took steps to give him a 'clear' DBS.

The initial check came back with a note of his arrest from 2010 for grooming a 14 year old girl in the Scouts, but Sussex Police made the assessment that Scouts should not know about this, so they gave Lane a clear DBS.

And there was a "technical glitch" which meant that the Scouts' own computer system did not recognise him as a past member who had resigned after being arrested for grooming a 14 year old girl at Scouts.

That Aurora New Dawn article is really good thanks. It lays out what happened in detail, shows what questions need to be asked and illustrates how totally and tragically inadequate the police response was to Shana.

Disappointingly slow was the conclusion from 2009 report Engendering Justice - From Policy to Practice. Ten years before Shana's case, this report highlights what needs to improve in police practice.
www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/engendering-justice-from-policy-to-practice

Institutional sexism is pervasive in the police and has not changed enough, or indeed at all 'if' the response to Shana Grice is indicative of wider practice. From the piss poor practice over Peter Suttcliffe in 70s to the 'bad apples' of the Sapphire Unit, from the state sponsored abuse of Spycops or deciding to release John Worboys through to the paltry sentance for the killer of Natalie Connolly. From disbelieving girls in Rotherham/Rochdale/Oxford etc through to locking up men with women the UK criminal justice system repeatedly and chronically fails women.

Really not good enough.

I don't understand the following aspect of the case:

Lane assaults Shana by snatching her phone and grabbing her hair

Shana reports this incident to the police, informing them that Lane is stalking her (but not that they were/had been in a relationship)

Lane's behaviour on this occasion meets the definition of common assault, he is arrested on suspicion of common assault.

In interview, he informs the police that they are/were in a relationship, showing texts from Shana signed off with xxx.

Police release him, brand Shana a liar for not disclosing she is/was in a relationship with the person who assaulted her and receives a £90 fine for wasting police time.

Why does a relationship between victim and perpetrator have a bearing on whether an assault is assault?

I understand common assault is often dealt with outside of the courts, with a caution for instance or a stern talking to (whatever that is worth). Bit nowhere in the law or the sentencing guidelines or anywhere could I find something that says "none of the above applies if victim and perpetrator are/were in a relationship" or "severity of sentencing escalates as degree of personal involvement between victim and perpetrator decreases".

Why does it remove the victim's right to report this incident to the police and instead transform the act of reporting it into unacceptable behaviour?

This was in 2016, the victim was 19, the police already well aware of the psychology of as well as the dynamics of power in domestic violence and coercive control cases, especially where the abused is a teen and the abuser almost a decade older.

This police officer had decades of experience. What would it have cost him to re-interview Shana in light of the information that she was/had been in a relationship with the person who assaulted her? To look up the guy's name in the police database?

He jumped straight to pissed off and annoyance with a "time waster". With terrible consequences.

So many mistakes and crappy decisions and an innocent teenager had to pay for them.