Family said police 'lied' after death of teenage rape victim Gaia Pope-Sutherland
13 October 2022, 11:53 | Updated: 13 October 2022, 14:17
The family of a young woman who died after running away from home said police "lied" about her disappearance.
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Gaia Pope-Sutherland, 19, ran away from home in 2017 after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) having reported that she was drugged and raped when she was 16.
Her family are calling for an independent review - and have claimed that police dismissed evidence that could have helped prosecute her alleged attacker.
Ms Pope-Sutherland reported the rape after suffering a mental health crisis that she said was triggered by the rape - but police chose not to pursue a prosecution, her cousin Marienna Pope-Weidemann said.
Hundreds Of Volunteers Search For Gaia Pope
She claimed that police were aware of several grooming allegations against the alleged rapist dating back to 2014.
But the cases were treated in isolation on a "he said, she said" basis, according to Ms Pope-Weidemann.
Now Ms Pope-Sutherland's family are calling for a "Gaia Principle" - meaning officers would have to check if suspected sex offenders are facing other similar allegations or disciplinary proceedings.
Her cousin said: "I think the decision to take no further action on Gaia's rape case was devastating for her and why she was so concerned about it was because we knew there were other victims."
Ms Pope-Sutherland died of hypothermia within 18 hours of going missing from her home in Swanage in Dorset, on November 7, 2017, an inquest found.
Her body was found 11 days later in undergrowth on the Dorset coast, in an area her family had urged police to search as it was a favourite place of her late grandfather.
A police search co-ordinator retrospectively altered search records relating to the disappearance, the inquest heard.
Human remains found by police searching for missing Leah Croucher
Ms Pope-Weidemann said: "By any common sense definition, what they did was tamper with evidence, they lied to the jury, they lied to the IOPC."
She said that the "litany" of errors included "[hanging] up" on Miss Pope-Sutherland when she called them on the day she went missing.
"Even on the very day Gaia went missing, she had contact with the police, she was showing clear signs of being in an acute mental health crisis," she said.
"Not only did they not take any action, they discriminated against and hung up on her."
Dorset Police apologised for mistakes it made in the investigation, but the coroner told the inquest jury not to consider the force's failings as factors in Ms Pope-Sutherland's death.
Ms Pope-Weidemann claimed the problem goes even deeper than her cousin's individual case, claiming that a "culture of misogyny" exists in some police forces - and even some NHS trusts.
"Right at the beginning when Gaia first disclosed the rape... doctors were already making notes about Gaia's so-called 'delusions' of sexual assault," she said.
"When she found that out it absolutely crushed her".
Ms Pope-Sutherland was "pathologised" and given personality diagnoses when she raised concerns about the assault.
"That's just a fancy way of saying 'the problem isn't what happened, what was done to you - it's in your head... It left her feeling very isolated, very afraid and very hopeless."
Ms Pope-Sutherland was repeatedly sexually harassed by a male patient while spending time on a mixed-gender ward, her cousin said.
"She disclosed that to staff, and not only did they fail to take appropriate safeguarding action, they didn't even log the incident.
"Two days later they discharged her back to the community with no follow-up care and no rape crisis support."
Her family have launched the Justice For Gaia campaign, which includes a manifesto for change across mental health and social support in Dorset and across the UK.
The family is encouraging supporters to sign a petition demanding better investment and training in the handling of sexual abuse allegations by health services and the police.
LBC has contacted Dorset Police for comment on the allegations.
