Cop keeps job over Genet Kidane murder case blunder

Genet Kidane died after falling from a footbridge over the city's ring road.

A POLICE officer has kept his job despite an investigation finding he made failings in events leading up to a high-profile murder.

The male constable, who has not been named, was the subject of a Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation into events leading up to the murder of Genet Kidane.

The 41-year-old, from Eritrea, was pushed to her death from a footbridge over the ring road by Yonas Beraki in January 2011.

Beraki, 32, admitted murder and was handed a minimum 15-year sentence at Birmingham Crown Court in November.

The IPCC - which investigates wrongdoing by police - found the officer in question could have done more to help after Ms Kidane's initial report of harassment in July 2010.

But, crucially, it concluded his actions had no ultimate bearing on her death months later and the officer was given management advice by a senior officer at West Midlands Police.

The force apologised for the mistakes and said it accepted the IPCC's findings.

The investigation found the constable, who first interviewed Ms Kidane, failed to make checks regarding Beraki's phone, failed to contact him again after he had put the phone down on him and made just one visit looking for him before failing to record the action.

It comes after Ms Kidane made a number of calls to police reporting harassment from Beraki including death threats.

She told police Beraki had said: "I will push you over from behind and I will kill you."

He was later deported to Italy after being arrested by Transport Police for a separate incident, but returned and was arrested once more after more allegations of harassment towards Ms Kidane.

He was sent to Italy again in October 2010 but was again back in the UK three months later.

On January 3, Ms Kidane reported to police someone was at her door trying to get in.

Police attended and officers took Ms Kidane to Primark - where she worked - before conducting a search of the area but to no avail.

It was the last contact she made with police. The mother-of-one was pushed off a footbridge onto St Nicholas Ringway by Beraki nine days later.

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