Georgina Gharsallah: ‘development’ in missing person case announced by family

Georgina was 30 when she was last seen at Clifton Food and Wine off licence store in Clifton Road, Worthing, at 9.30am on March 7, 2018.

Click here for the timeline of events.

In a press conference this morning, led by Georgina’s mother Andrea Gharsallah and journalist Donal MacIntyre, they said that a bank account linked to a Playstation device she owned was triggered in the last three weeks with a debit card payment of £7.99 made in July.

They said Sussex Police were waiting for Sony USA for more information.

This is the first new development in the case for months, with leads having run dry.

Former National Crime Agency detective Andy Crocker, who has lent his support to Georgina’s family’s own campaign, said this exposed failings in the police investigation.

If it was an automated annual payment, he asked ‘how [officers] had missed something so critical’ for the last two-and-a-half years.

Georgina’s identity ‘affected police response’, family said

Andrea and her family have been vocal critics of Sussex Police and its handling of the investigation.

They have launched their own campaign to find her, and Donal and producer Steve Langridge are working on a podcast and documentary on her disappearance.

In the press conference, Andrea and Donal both said that race, class, and gender had played a role in the allocation of police resources to finding Georgina, who lived what Donal described as an ‘unconventional lifestyle’.

But Sussex Police said it ‘refuted any suggestion of racial bias in this case’.

Andrea said: ““If she was called ‘Georgina Brown’, I think personally she would have got a better treatment in the case.”

Among those supporting Andrea’s campaign to find Georgina and featuring in the podcast is former DCI Clive Driscoll, the man that solved the murder of Stephen Lawrence, who was killed in a racially-motivated attack in 1993.

In a statement read out during the conference, he said the ‘police investigation needs to be completely re-commissioned from start to finish’. He added: “It appears that some of the mistakes made by the Metropolitan Police Service highlighted in the McPherson review [of the Stephen Lawrence murder case] have been made the Sussex Police in this case.”

Andrea said: “In the beginning, they didn’t take it seriously. They thought Georgina had gone off on a ‘happy’ to have a good time somewhere.”

Andrea told to ‘seek professional help’ by officer, clairvoyant ‘taken more seriously than experts’

During the press conference, the family discussed some questionable moments in the police’s handling of the case.

From early in Georgina’s disappearance, Andrea and her friend Petra Edwards have been active on social media, running a missing persons page for sightings of Georgina that her mother would report to police.

But they claimed that ‘almost every shred of evidence’ they collected was dismissed by police without being followed up, and that one potentially major witness, who knew Georgina and claimed to have seen her on the night of March 7, 2018, was not taken seriously by the investigating team.

In one email from an officer in the case, Andrea recalled: “My continually contacting them with leads and information and questions was ‘overwhelming’ for them and ‘taking up too much time’ and ‘lessening the morale of their officers when they came into work after the weekend’, and I was told to seek some professional help, ie some therapy, which I thought was quite rude.”

Donal said that Clive Driscoll and Andy Crocker had offered to help with Sussex Police’s investigation, and publicly they said they were open to any possibilities.

But during private interactions with the latter, the force told him they were content with their own experts.

Donal compared these events with a lead – presented by Andrea to police – where a clairvoyant had found some items she thought had belonged to Georgina, including a biscuit wrapper with the missing mother’s name on it, in Hollingbury Woods, and officers visited the site.

‘Catalogue of failings’ exposed in internal police review

According to Donal and Andrea, on September 8, the family were invited by Sussex Police to a review of the force’s investigation into Georgina’s disappearance. This was held at The Field Place Manor House and Barns, a business and entertainment venue in Worthing, and attended by the family, including Andrea, Georgina’s sisters Sonia, 28, and Arij, 28, and Georgina’s father Gasem, 62.

The meeting included three members of the Sussex force, including Michaela Haddock, a family liaison officer and Emma Heater, Chief of Major Crime at Sussex Police and the reviewing officer, former police officer, David Hills, they said.

The family’s legal advisor, Matt Goode of ABR Solicitors who was also present, said: “David said this was the worst review he had ever come across.”

The press conference heard that police admitted 27 key failings in the investigation had been uncovered ‘which had seriously compromised the investigation’, including issues with the organisation of the officers involved, ‘key CCTV footage related to the disappearance of Georgina was not reviewed until a year after her disappearance’ and ‘nine potentially significant segments of CCTV were also lost by the force without explanation’.

But Sussex police refuted this, saying the review did not find 27 failings. Instead, ‘a number of recommendations were made and these included areas of good practice and areas for learning, including the one significant missed opportunity in the CCTV investigative strand’, police said.

Other failings mentioned in the press conference included Georgina not being placed on the Interpol watch list for more than 18 months after her disappearance – which the family were told had happened.

No apology was offered by Sussex Police at the meeting, the family said.

According to them, the review has been passed to Sussex Police’s professional standards department and a meeting has been arranged to meet the Chief Constable, Jo Shiner, at Police Headquarters on October 2 to discuss the investigation.

What does the family want?

The family made a list of demands following the review, including a full apology, and to release the full list of failings uncovered by the internal review – some of which were kept from them as the investigation was ongoing, they claimed.

They also wanted all officers from the original investigative unit to be replaced from the current team, and for the National Crime Agency to take over the investigation in full.

So lessons were learned, they wanted the chief constable of Sussex Police and Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne to investigate these failings, as well as the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

On a larger scale, they wanted Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary to investigate Sussex police’s handling of missing people cases and for the Commission for Racial Equality to investigate this case and the role that colour, ethnicity and class plays in the allocation of resources in missing people cases.

A police spokesman said: “Sussex Police will consider a voluntary referral to the IOPC after discussing this matter further with Georgina’s family.”

Sussex Police’s response, in full

A full review of Sussex Police’s investigation into the disappearance of Georgina Gharsallah has been completed by the Surrey and Sussex Crime Review Team, and we have shared our findings and recommendations with Georgina’s family. The review was commissioned by Chief Constable Jo Shiner, then Deputy Chief Constable.

Georgina was last seen on March 7, 2018, and the review has examined the entire investigation from the day that Georgina was first reported missing to police 10 days later, on March 17. Her disappearance remains under active investigation by the Major Crime Team.

The review found that, whilst initial enquiries were proportionate and the investigation was escalated appropriately with comprehensive enquiries taking place, there were significant missed opportunities in one aspect, the investigation strand focusing on CCTV, with the parameters not being reviewed in the light of new information, some CCTV footage not being secured and some of the CCTV that was collected not being viewed in a timely manner. This means that some CCTV was not potentially secured or viewed in sufficient time and was then lost to the investigation.

It is impossible to say, with any certainty, whether or not this would have made a tangible difference to the progress of the investigation as the CCTV can no longer be viewed and we have been open and honest with Georgina’s family on this issue.

We acknowledge that this is a distressing time for Georgina’s family and remain absolutely committed to investigating Georgina’s disappearance and to finding the answers her family desperately need. The Chief Constable will personally meet with the family early next month.

We continue to appeal for people to come forward with any information that may assist in ascertaining what happened to Georgina and any viable lines of enquiry will be investigated. Anyone with any information should either report this online or call 101 quoting Operation Pavo.

Crimestoppers charity is offering a reward of up to £10,000 for information the charity exclusively receives. You can contact them via their website or call 0800 555 111.

Andrea Gharsallah’s conference speech in full:

Georgina my daughter has been missing for 132 weeks ago; 921 days to be precise.

It feels like a lifetime for us, especially Georgina’s children.

921 days of wondering what could have happened, how and where…

It’s a constant battle in our heads trying to keep positive, trying to kick out those thoughts and pictures in our minds.

We feel the devastation of what our lives have become…every single minute of each day feeling this overwhelming ambiguous loss.

Desperation… Despair…being in limbo…lost…overwhelmed with sadness… are just a few words to mention. Nothing can describe truly how this loss feels for us as a family.

From the very beginning of this awful nightmare, we created the Find Missing Georgina campaign via social media, posters, banners etc., which has been a 24hr/day mission over the past 2.6 years. It has kept us truly connected to Georgina.

Lockdown has had a huge impact over the last 6 months, limiting our physical campaign.

My fight to find answers has never waned. I have continually found strength through my love for my daughter Georgina to fight on.

Seeking , searching , looking and always thinking “what can we do next?“

The relationship with Sussex Police hasn’t always been smooth. I think they found my drive, passion and determination to find answers, my continuous questions demanding. But I felt I needed to remind them consistently I have a missing daughter who needs to be found! We have no idea if she is still alive; if she suffered. No idea where she may be lying (if that is the case ).

We put our faith in the Investigating team from the beginning, because that is what you do. It is like your handing over the care of your daughter to them. Trusting them to find answers, justice.

For the past 2.6 years I have constantly questioned the police team on things that had been done and what hadn’t been done and I have made multiple suggestions. Myself, my daughters’ and close friend felt like we were running this investigation, which I made the Police aware of. After about 6 months into the investigation I started feeling many decisions made early on by the team were wrong, but they were the professionals, or so we thought.

On September 8th 2020 upon hearing the results of a review meeting that was carried out by an independent reviewing officer, we learned that 27 failings were made in my daughter’s case by Sussex Police.

What a shocking thing to hear.

The police have clearly failed to take my daughter’s case seriously - carrying out a shambles of an investigation. The question is why?

Apart from the shock on hearing the findings of the review, we were left with overwhelming feelings of grief and distress. We are appalled and dismayed.

The majority of vital CCTV was lost, with some not even checked until 1 year later.

How can the police lose vital pieces of information I ask? Victim blaming, corruption?

We put our trust in Sussex Police, but they failed us. They neglected the investigation and failed Georgina and us, as her family.

The words “this is a learning curve for Sussex Police” mentioned repeatedly in the review meeting brings us no solace. My daughters’ investigation should never have been a learning curve for the Police.

Georgina is a person; a daughter; a sister and a mum to 2 young children.

The review exposed consequential failures in Sussex Police’s handling of this investigation and these systematic failures are totally unacceptable to us. My daughter’s entire case has been jeopardised so far. Perhaps the case could have been solved by now, if it was treated professionally from the start.

How was it allowed to happen that a team takes little care or responsibility for the investigation they were entrusted with? How is it that the review officer could not tell us who is responsible for this mess of an investigation? No apology either.

Not that an apology would suffice. It is unforgivable that the investigation team lied to us; repeatedly claiming they were doing everything possible to find Georgina.

The review by Sussex Police has shown the investigation team on Georgina’s case as unfit for purpose.

My family have lost any faith in the investigation and demand a re- investigation from the first day of reporting Georgina missing; stripping back and starting the investigation from scratch with a wholly new investigating team.

I will never give up finding the answers my family and I need.