Thursday 23 June 2022 09:02 PM Detective who led search for missing Dorset teen stands by decision to arrest ... trends now
A senior police officer who led the controversial criminal investigation into the disappearance of Gaia Pope-Sutherland today said he stands by his decision to arrest three innocent people for her murder.
Neil Devoto, senior investigating officer at Dorset Police, also denied claims that he told the family of the missing teenager that he took over the investigation because it was badly run.
Mr Devoto admitted that officers had missed CCTV footage of the 19-year-old after she left the home of 71-year-old suspect Rosemary Dinch - the last person to see her alive.
The pensioner, her son, Paul Elsey, 49, and her grandson, Nathan Elsey, 19, who the teen had gone to see, were arrested on suspicion of murder.
Senior investigating officer, Neil Devoto (pictured), told an inquest he stands by his decision to arrest three innocent people in relation to the disappearance of Gaia Pope-Sutherland. CCTV footage discovered four days after they launched the murder inquiry and made arrests showed Ms Sutherland leaving the home of the three accused appearing unharmed
All three suspects were released without charge when Ms Sutherland's body was found in undergrowth 10 days after she disappeared.
The missed footage showed the teenager walking away from Mrs Dinch's home on the afternoon of November 7, 2017, suggesting she had left there unharmed.
This was not picked up by police until November 17 - four days after they launched a murder enquiry and made the arrests.
A post mortem revealed Ms Sutherland died from hypothermia close to the coastal beauty spot of Dancing Ledge, near Swanage, Dorset.
Speaking at her inquest in Bournemouth, Mr Devoto conceded that the CCTV would have changed their understanding of the last known whereabouts.
But he insisted the evidence against Mrs Dinch and her family had still been 'very powerful'.
Mr Devoto said it was his job 'to make hypothesis and use strategies to prove or disprove them'.
He told the inquest: 'I can only say that it (the CCTV) was missed. As far as the search was concerned, it would not have been affected.
'It would not have changed my decision to arrest the people I was investigating.
'There was a missed opportunity to give the family the information that they craved but it did not necessarily give me any clear evidence of her whereabouts.'
When asked whether the footage would have changed his decision to make arrests, he said it would not have.
He said: 'The trigger for my involvement in the case is that they (the police) came across individuals who gave accounts and described movements that raised suspicion.
'Nathan Elsey's accounts were suspicious and accounts of Paul Elsey's movements gave rise to suspicion. The evidence against all three suspects was very powerful.'
