Becky Godden-Edwards murder: Wiltshire police missed ‘significant opportunities’

IOPC report criticises detectives for failing to bring double killer Christopher Halliwell to justice sooner

Detectives in Wiltshire missed significant opportunities" to bring the double killer Christopher Halliwell to justice sooner for the murder of one of his victims and were slow to search a pond he used as a trophy store", an investigation managed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has found.

The current chief constable, Kier Pritchard, was criticised specifically for his role overseeing the flawed investigation into the death of Becky Godden-Edwards, which the report said was hampered by poor supervision, meaning good lines of inquiry were not immediately pursued and key evidence not forensically examined.

A soil sample from a spade belonging to Halliwell that was seized when he was arrested in 2011 not being forensically examined until three years later, when it was found to match the field where Godden-Edwards' body was discovered.

Evidence from an RAC recovery driver who attended to Halliwell's broken-down vehicle in the early hours of 3 January 2003, six miles from where Godden-Edwards' body was buried. Police knew of this in 2011 but details of it were established only three years later.

The testimony of a GP in April 2011 that Halliwell visited their surgery on 3 January 2003 with severe scratches to his face and damage to his hand, claiming he had been assaulted by a passenger in his taxi.