A Brighton police officer faces a fresh misconduct hearing today three months after he was found guilty of gross misconduct in the case of murdered Portslade teenager Shana Grice.
Sussex Police said that PC Jon Mills would “answer allegations that his conduct amount to a breach of standards of professional behaviour”.
His conduct is alleged to have fallen short in respect of his honesty and integrity, his duties and responsibilities – and he is accused of discreditable conduct.
A “special case fast-track hearing” was due to take place at Sussex Police headquarters in Lewes this morning (Friday 30 August).
PC Mills was barred from policing for five years after being found guilty of gross misconduct in May.
He resigned from the force although if he had not resigned, he would have been dismissed.
The Brighton officer was found to have failed failing to investigate adequately a complaint made by 19-year-old Shana Grice on Saturday 9 July 2016.
She called the police after a work colleague and on-off boyfriend Michael Lane let himself into her house with a stolen key and entered her bedroom.
Lane was arrested but when PC Mills interviewed him he failed to ask about the many other incidents of stalking and harassment on his file because the officer did not review the case notes.
This was despite having been trained on stalking and harassment interviews just the day before.
Sussex Police laywer Louise Ravenscroft told the disciplinary panel that PC Mills had admitted giving Lane the “benefit of the doubt”.
The interview lasted just 12 minutes.
Miss Grice contacted Sussex Police again on Tuesday 12 July 2016 to try to report Lane again.
PC Mills was accused of failing to respond to her from Wednesday 13 July to Friday 15 July, not contacting her nor updating her about the matter.
Miss Grice reported Michael Lane to police for stalking five times in 2016.
Instead of stopping him, Sussex Police fined Miss Grice for wasting police time.
Lane, who briefly dated Shana when they worked together at Brighton Fire Alarms, went on to slit her throat at her home in Portslade in August 2016.
He tried to set fire to her body as part of his attempts to destroy the evidence of his crime.
It later emerged that 13 other women had reported him to police for stalking.
Lane was jailed for life in March 2017.
