A top police chief has apologised to the family of murdered Becky Godden-Edwards after a watchdog found investigators missed significant opportunities to jail her killer Christopher Halliwell sooner. The watchdog found there was a “fog of confusion” over who was in command of the investigation after the first case collapsed.
One detective told Detective Supt Amanda Bell, who led the IOPC (Independent Office for Police Conduct) probe, that he thought he was just being asked to “babysit the inquiry”. She also learned that vital leads, such as searching the pond the killer used as a trophy store or talking to his GP about scratch marks on his face, were not followed up for years.
Wiltshire Police's Chief Constable Kier Pritchard has been heavily criticised for his role in the botched probe, after the IOPC found there was a case to answer for three counts of misconduct. After the report was released he gave a statement saying he he fully accepted the findings and wanted to "personally apologise" to Becky's loved ones, and that he had "voluntarily accepted management action".
