Sussex Police chief apologises to Georgina Gharsallah’s family for investigation

The mum-of-two was 30 when she was last seen at the Clifton Food and Wine off licence store in Clifton Road, Worthing, at 9.30am on March 7, 2018.

Last month, her mother Andrea and investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre held a press conference in which they claimed the force had admitted key failings, particularly with checking CCTV footage, and called for the investigation to be redone.

A meeting was held on Friday between Georgina’s family and chief constable Jo Shiner to ‘reaffirm Sussex Police’s commitment to finding her and discuss their concerns on the police investigation’, a statement said.

Jo Shiner said she was ‘full of admiration for their dignity and persistence in pursuing all avenues to find out what happened’ to Georgina and ‘acknowledged their understandable grief’.

She had previously commissioned an internal review – the findings of which sparked the press conference – that found ‘significant mistakes in the early part of the investigation in 2018 relating to CCTV’, the chief constable said, adding: “I apologised to the family, on behalf of the force, for these mistakes and for any additional distress this has caused.”

In the investigation there have been over 70 sightings across the UK but only one confirmed sighting, nine scenes that have been examined, 27 areas searched, 89 statements, 472 officers reports and 484 actions raised, police said.

In response, Andrea said ‘no amount of apologies can make up for mistakes and failings’.

This comes after Sussex Police referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct regarding the case.

The family have also put in a complaint to the watchdog.