Argonath RPG - A World of its own
Argonath RPG Community => Speakerbox => World and local news => Topic started by: Reece on August 10, 2012, 09:38:50 pm
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The week-long hunt for missing 12-year-old schoolgirl Tia Sharp has become a murder investigation after police discovered a body during a search of her grandmother's house.
Less than four hours after a Metropolitan police forensic team went into the property on the New Addington estate in south-east London, Scotland Yard revealed they had found a body. It is understood that it was discovered inside the house, not in the garden or an outbuilding.
The body has yet to be formally identified, but there is little doubt that it is that of the schoolgirl, a pupil at Raynes Park high school in the nearby borough of Merton. A postmortem is due to be carried out.
Tia's mother Natalie has been informed of the discovery.
A manhunt is now under way for Stuart Hazell, 37, who lived at the property with Tia's grandmother, Christine Sharp, 46. The public were warned not to approach Hazell, who has several convictions, including drugs offences and possession of an offensive weapon, but to phone 999 if he was seen.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: "A murder inquiry has been launched after a body was found at 20 The Lindens, New Addington. We are seeking to find Stuart Hazell to be interviewed in connection with this case."
The police are likely to face questions about why they did not mount a full search of the property earlier and how they allowed Hazell to vanish.
Sniffer dogs were used twice to examine the house, most recently on Friday morning but a full forensic search was only carried out on Friday afternoon. Christine Sharp was asked to leave the property and, by lunchtime, forensic teams were inside the house and made their discovery later in the afternoon.
Commander Neil Basu acknowledged that there would be many questions about the investigation. Speaking outside the house, he said: "When police investigate cases as difficult and challenging as this it is important that we do not just focus on one line of enquiry.
"A number of searches took place at the address. When Tia was first reported missing, officers searched her bedroom as is normal practice. A further search of the house took place in the early hours of Sunday morning ... this was then followed by specialist dogs on Wednesday lunchtime.
"What we now need to establish is how long the body has been in the place where it was found. It would be wrong to jump to any conclusions until all the facts have been established."
Hazell was thought to have been the last person to see Tia alive and there was always a suspicion that the schoolgirl had not gone far from the property.
But police were also following up two sightings of Tia which suggested she might have left the house, as Hazell had suggested, at noon last Friday.
As the inquiry went on, however, Hazell's claim that Tia had gone into Croydon to buy some flip-flops was not backed up by CCTV footage.
Examining hundreds of hours of tape, police failed to find any trace of Tia in the town and their focus returned more intently to the house in New Addington.
By Friday, a decision was made to search again, in a detailed and extensive way.
Police interviewed Hazell as a witness on Wednesday but released him without further action. He was never arrested.
In an interview with ITV News on Thursday, he denied any involvement in the disappearance of Tia.
"Did I do anything to Tia? No, I didn't. I love her to bits. She is like my own daughter," he said.
"I know deep down she walked out of here. I know deep down she walked down that path. What happened after that I don't know."
It was Hazell who led a candlelit vigil this week for the schoolgirl, wearing a white T-shirt with a picture of the missing girl and the words: "Find Tia" beneath it.
When asked earlier on Friday by reporters outside the house where Hazell was, Christine Sharp replied: "I don't know where Stuart is; he is out doing his own thing. He has had it hard – he knows the finger is being pointed at him."
Friends on the estate have been walking the streets all week, carrying posters of Tia and asking the public for help in finding her. Within minutes of the discovery of a body at the house, members of the local community arrived to express their sadness and shock, but there was also anger directed against the police.
Ginny Oteng, 46, a mother of three, said: "I have kids of my own the same age as Tia, and I was worried because I thought there was a child snatcher out there."
Alston Millington, 32, expressed the views of many when she said she had hoped Tia had been in trouble at home and had run off in an act of rebellion. "I was hoping she would be found somewhere with somebody," she said. "It's such sad news."
Eileen Minogue, 40, said: "I feel disgusted. It is heartbreaking. I feel for the genuine family, her mum Natalie, the cousins and aunts who have been in that house who have had sleepless nights waiting for Tia to come home. All the while her body was there."
The search for Tia has been the focus for much of the community on the New Addington estate for thepast week.
Gavin Barwell, MP for Croydon Central, wrote on his blog: "The police and forensic teams now have a serious job to do and I ask that we all please allow them to get on with trying to close a case which has, in such a short period of time, affected so many of us in Croydon and around the country.
"Despite the sad end to an emotional week, I want to praise the community in New Addington for their relentless dedication to trying to help their neighbour's family. So often in times of tragedy come inspirational displays of community."
More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/tia-sharp
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Grandmother of a 12-year old at 46 ?
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Grandmother of a 12-year old at 46 ?
Why not? First and second generation both have a child at 16, because you know, MTV insisted. And there you go.
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Two more arrests in Tia Sharp murder inquiry day after step-grandad was seen buying vodka during eight-hour manhunt
Stuart Hazell, 37, arrested eight hours after body of Tia Sharp is found in loft
After week-long hunt for girl by 100 police with dogs after reported missing
Questions asked about initial probe after police searched house three times
Detectives investigating whether body was moved between neighbours' lofts
Hazell seen in shop kept saying 'have you seen her - I want her back'
Detectives investigating the disappearance of Tia Sharp have made two further arrests.
A statement on the Metropolitan Police's website has confirmed a 46-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of murder yesterday, and that she has been taken to a south London police station where she remains in custody.
A 39-year-old man was also arrested yesterday, on suspicion of assisting an offender. He also remains in custody in a south London police station.
Police were accused of incredible blunders last night after the body of Tia Sharp was found hidden at her grandmother’s home.
They even allowed ‘step-grandfather’ Stuart Hazell to go missing for several hours before he was arrested following a tip-off from a member of the public.
He was being detained last night on suspicion of murder. Neighbours were left questioning why it took more than 100 officers seven days to locate Tia, 12, when her body had been in the house all along.
And last night police refused to discuss where in the property the discovery was made even though they used ladders to access the loft.
Three searches had already been carried out and detectives are investigating whether the 12-year-old’s body was moved between the roof spaces of neighbouring properties.
Hazell was arrested by officers on Cannon Hill Common in Morden, South-West London, at 8.25pm.
Sources said he was the subject of a ‘controlled arrest’ after a member of the public had alerted them.
The arrest brought a relatively swift end to a manhunt into which the Met had poured vast resources.
Witnesses claimed Hazell appeared to be drunk and was calling out ‘Have you seen Tia?’ before he was held.
Chloe Bird, 11, said Hazell was in a mini market on Cannon Hill Lane, beside a hairdressers, buying a small bottle of vodka.
She said: 'He was crying and looked drunk. He just kept saying 'have you seen her - I want her back, I miss her so much'.'
Chloe recognised Hazell from the news. After the encounter at around 5.30pm she ran home and told her stepfather Nick Keeley, 40, who called the police.
Bryoni Goodwin said Hazell walked into the salon where she worked smelling of alcohol saying a little girl was lost.
The hairdresser described the suspect, who was wearing a baseball hat, a white vest and a red jacket, as ‘all over the place’.
She said Hazell entered the Sculpture hair salon on Cannon Hill Lane at around 5.30pm, a short distance from the park where he was later arrested.
After walking into the salon he entered a neighbouring shop in which he was seen on CCTV buying a bottle of vodka and a lighter.
‘He came into the salon and my boss dealt with him. He said “Have you seen Tia?’’,’ said Miss Goodwin, 18.
‘He told us that he was her granddad and I did recognise him from the TV but at that stage I didn’t realise he was wanted. He said she was used to walking in the area as she went to school around here and that he was looking for her.
‘He had tears in his eyes the whole time but we thought that was normal. We told him we hadn’t seen her and then he walked out with tears in his eyes.’
Staff in the salon realised Hazell was wanted in connection with the incident only after a customer checked the news on her phone.
The owner of the salon then phoned the police who, Miss Goodwin said, arrived five minutes later.
Neighbours expressed disbelief that the 37-year-old was able to disappear in the middle of Britain’s highest profile missing person inquiry.
There are fears that the week’s delay in discovering Tia could mean vital evidence inside her grandmother Christine’s home has been lost.
Dozens of people, including relatives, friends, media and police, entered the small terrace council home during the search for the missing girl. The tragic discovery of her body ended hopes that the schoolgirl could still be found alive one week after she disappeared from New Addington, near Croydon in South London.
Police were alerted to the possible presence of a body when sniffer dogs trained to detect decomposition returned to her grandmother’s home early yesterday.
A forensic team was sent in as a cordon was erected around the shabby property, followed by large screens. Officers will now undertake a painstaking examination of the house before removing the body for a post-mortem examination.
A pathologist will be asked to determine how and when Tia died and whether she was physically or sexually assaulted.
It is understood that the roof spaces of the row of 1960s properties are only partially separated by dividing brick walls. Senior officers launched a huge manhunt when they realised Hazell was unaccounted for.
The jobless painter and decorator was last seen on Thursday evening after he fiercely denied harming Tia.
Senior officers held a series of emergency meetings as dozens of angry neighbours gathered around the house when news of the discovery spread.
Residents, including many who joined searches of streets and woodland, warned of a potential riot over police mistakes.
Ginny Oteng, 46, said: ‘I was praying their little girl would be found alive and well. I had suspicions but it is still such a shock.’
A former senior police officer also expressed his shock at the way the inquiry, a murder investigation in everything but name, was conducted. Colin Sutton, who caught Milly Dowler’s killer Levi Bellfield, said he was ‘surprised’ at how long the police operation had taken.
‘The first rule of a missing child inquiry is to search the home. I am desperately sad for the family and desperately angry the house wasn’t cleared earlier,’ he said.
Criminologist Professor David Wilson said he could not understand why the house was not treated as a crime scene from day one.
Former Met detective Kevin Hurley said he was concerned police were scared of ‘robustly’ investigating crimes and should be allowed to act on instinct without fear of repercussions. Police revealed they had searched Mrs Sharp’s home three times in the past seven days, including a detailed search of Tia’s bedroom.
Commander Neil Basu, of the Metropolitan Police, said last night he wanted to ‘clarify some of the speculation’ over how police missed the body, suggesting it had been moved.
'I loved her to bits, like she is my own daughter'
Only the day before Tia’s body was found, Stuart Hazell gave a TV interview insisting he was innocent.
He broke down on Thursday afternoon as he complained people were ‘pointing fingers’ at him and claimed he ‘loved her to bits’.
He said: ‘Did I do anything to Tia? No, I bloody didn’t. I’d never think of it, I loved her to bits like she is my own daughter. She wanted it, she got it. She has got a loving home. I know deep down she walked down that path. What happened after that I don’t know.’
Hazell, who was interviewed by detectives as a witness for two hours on Wednesday, pleaded: ‘Tia come home babe, come home – come back and eat your dinner. I want things back to normal.’
Hazell gave what he claimed was a step-by-step account of his movements in the hours before Tia left.
He described how after meeting Tia in Croydon on Thursday afternoon they travelled home by tram and spent the evening playing computer games together, while Mrs Sharp was working overnight as a carer.
The following morning he claimed he made coffee and did some chores and told Tia to put her phone on charge which is why she did not have it on her when she went out.
'She was telling me what she was doing but I wasn’t really logging it into my head,’ he told ITV News. According to Hazell, he was vacuuming at 12.10pm when Tia said goodbye to him.
‘I said, “Make sure you’re back at sixâ€ÂÂ, she went “yeah yeah yeah†and that was it and the door closed and she walks out.’
He said that Tia did not have a front door key or Oyster travel card and had instead gone into town using £10 he had given her for household chores and gardening.
Hazell, 37, added: ‘It’s not about me it’s about Tia – we have got to get her home.
‘She’s got no problems at all, she’s a happy go-lucky golden angel.
‘She’s perfect, there’s no arguments, nothing we can think of.’
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