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Becky Godden murder detective 'guilty of misconduct' | Becky Godden murder detective 'guilty of misconduct' |
(35 minutes later) | |
A detective who did not follow arrest guidelines in a double murder case has been found guilty of gross misconduct, the BBC has learned. | A detective who did not follow arrest guidelines in a double murder case has been found guilty of gross misconduct, the BBC has learned. |
Det Supt Steve Fulcher did not read Christopher Halliwell his rights before the former taxi driver led him to the body of Becky Godden in 2011. | Det Supt Steve Fulcher did not read Christopher Halliwell his rights before the former taxi driver led him to the body of Becky Godden in 2011. |
As a result, Halliwell was never charged over her death. | As a result, Halliwell was never charged over her death. |
In October 2012, Halliwell was jailed for life for the murder of 22-year-old Sian O'Callaghan. | In October 2012, Halliwell was jailed for life for the murder of 22-year-old Sian O'Callaghan. |
Mr Fulcher was brought before the formal misconduct hearing after an inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). | |
The IPCC found Mr Fulcher had breached the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (Pace) and it recommended Wiltshire Police should consider a charge of gross misconduct against Mr Fulcher. | |
The hearing is due to continue tomorrow. | |
'Irretrievable breaches' | |
Miss Godden was last seen alive by a police officer in Swindon in December 2002. | |
Halliwell led police to her body in a shallow grave in Eastleach, near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, in 2011, shortly after he confessed to killing 22-year-old Miss O'Callaghan, from Swindon. | |
In October 2012 the former taxi driver was jailed for life for Miss O'Callaghan's murder. | |
However, a High Court judge ruled his confessions over Miss Godden were inadmissible, as there had been "wholesale and irretrievable breaches" of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (Pace) guidelines. | |
Under Pace rules, which govern the questioning of suspects, Halliwell should have been cautioned several times during cross-examination. | |
But during a court hearing in 2012, Mr Fulcher, who advised officers across the country on how to conduct murder investigations, admitted he had not "considered it". | |
He added: "I believed that again, the right thing to do was take the information he was prepared to give, but I accept he was not cautioned at that time." | |
Mr Fulcher also admitted during cross-examination that he had become "frustrated" that Halliwell had refused to answer any more questions, having finally spoken to a solicitor. | |
"I thought it was utterly ridiculous that someone would take me, 12 other people and a surveillance helicopter to the deposition site of two bodies and then seek to find some loophole or quirk in the law to get away from the fact he was a multiple murderer," he said. |