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Police call handler had no 101 training before taking calls from Gaia Pope's aunt, jury told

Police call handler had no 101 training before taking calls from Gaia Pope's aunt, jury told
Police call handler had no 101 training before taking calls from Gaia Pope's aunt, jury told

THE call handler who received 101 calls from Gaia Pope’s aunt after the teen went missing had no previous training handling such calls, an inquest heard.

Lucinda Williams, a call handler and dispatcher at Dorset Police, said “why would I want to do that” when asked why she didn’t search for Gaia Pope when her aunt Talia Pope phoned at 4.37pm on November 7, 2017.

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READ MORE: Gaia Pope inquest: Dorset Police evidence begins

Had she have done she would have found information from the 19-year-old’s calls on November 2 which would have helped her decide if Gaia Pope was a missing person or concern for welfare.

Instead, Ms Williams found logs from calls earlier that day on November 7 from Talia Pope and said it “wasn’t my job” to deal with the November 2 incident and only reported the teenager as a missing person when Talia Pope phoned again at 6.18pm.

Ms Williams was giving evidence at the inquest into the death of Gaia Pope, who went missing in Swanage on November 7, 2017, and was found in undergrowth on a clifftop less than a mile away 11 days later.

She said she was trained in handling 999 calls and would be expected to use that knowledge to handle 101 calls but hadn’t actually received any official training.

When Talia Pope phoned at 4.37pm to check if any officers were searching for her niece, Ms Williams found calls from earlier that day.

She didn’t deem Gaia Pope a missing person at this stage as she was due for a doctor’s appointment at 5pm and recorded it as a concern for welfare.

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“The impression I got was she was expected to turn up there,” she said.

The call handler told the hearing she just looked for incidents from November 7 by putting Talia Pope’s phone number in the search system, not Gaia Pope’s name.

"I only dealt with two calls on November 7, I wasn't aware of any others,” she continued.

“The system isn't very user friendly, while taking details of one call it's hard to switch screens and see about another one.”

When asked why she didn’t search for previous logs, Ms Williams replied: “Why would I want to do that?

“I looked and researched the call from earlier that day, I had nothing to do with the job on November 2.

“I was dealing with the job from November 7, I wouldn't have known to look for that.

“We just don't have the time to view every single incident on everybody when time is pressing, and we have calls stacking up.”

The inquest continues.