Police failures left sex predator to kill twice

An independent review found “more robust management” of Thomas Smith would have identified his “increasing risk” and, potentially, saved the lives of Diane, 43, and Holly Fallon.

Smith, 28, who had previously been jailed for six months for assaulting a child in England, moved into a flat next to the family in the small Ayrshire village of Cronberry, near Cumnock. The former soldier, who the victims’ family described as “evil personified” tied up his victims, raped Holly and bit Mrs Fallon’s body before strangling them.

The report by Robert Thomson, Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (Mappa) co-ordinator at Lothian and Borders Police, highlights a series of failures and missed opportunities.

“In my opinion more robust management of TBS (Thomas Bennie Smith) could have identified the increasing risk,” he said. “I cannot say that it would have prevented the murder of Diane and Holly Fallon, but potentially he may not have been in a position to commit these murders at that point in time.

“There were several missed investigative opportunities that should have resulted in TBS being subject to greater police scrutiny, which may have resulted in a return to custody.”

Mr Thomson made a series of recommendations, including that Strathclyde Police and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos) review and tighten up sex offender management programmes and training of officers.

He also urged the Scottish Government to give police new powers to search sex offenders’ homes and force them to hand over mobile phones, to assist in risk assessments.

Assistant Chief Constable George Hamilton, of Strathclyde Police, said “lessons have been learned and major improvements have been made” in the wake of the murders.

He said he had met the victims’ family and apologised personally to them.

The report revealed Smith always denied his previous offence and the author of a social inquiry report, written on his release from prison in September 2006, put his risk of conviction as low, his risk to children as medium, and his risk to the public as low.

“The last paragraph of the report lays great stress on TBS’s exemplary behaviour to date, and his very positive character references, but makes no reference to the fact he has just been convicted of a sexual offence against a child,” Mr Thomson said.

Despite this, Strathclyde Police did consider Smith to be “high risk”, but this was not reflected in their scrutiny of his movements.

Crucially, no risk assessment of his new address was carried out when Smith moved to Cronberry in February 2008.

Police are supposed to carry out cursory physical checks of the area, such as looking for toys in gardens or children’s clothes on washing lines, and also ascertain who a sex offender’s new neighbours are.

Smith had different police officers managing him before and after the change in address. Both denied being in charge when he actually moved, Mr Thomson said. Smith was not seen by any officer between 24 September, 2007, and 13 May, 2008 – three months after he had moved to Cronberry. Mr Thomson said this “highlights a lack of supervision within the offender management unit”.

An audit of Strathclyde Police records revealed they were called to 38 incidents in Cronberry while Smith was living in the village, but at no point called at his home.

Mr Thomson said there were “a number of opportunities for local officers to have given attention to the home address of TBS”.

Smith had two relationships during this time, including one with a 16-year-old girl he had met on an internet chatroom, who moved in with him. He violently assaulted her on several occasions, banned her from seeing her friends or phoning her mother, and even locked her in the house when he was out.

The other was with a mother-of-three from Kilmarnock, where he spent weekends in breach of his notification requirements.

Smith was also stopped and charged with speeding and driving a car without an MoT. But police failed to highlight that this was not the Renault Clio which he had disclosed to them.

He may have planned to use the alternative, undisclosed car to go out and prowl for victims.

“This was clearly an overt act on his part to deceive the police as to his use of transport,” Mr Thomson said.

Over the summer of 2008, police made five unsuccessful visits to his house and several unanswered phone calls. However, they decided “their duty of care to registered sex offenders and the possibility of disclosure to the community” meant they should not start to make discreet inquiries about his movements.

This was also condemned by Mr Thomson. “In my view the officers should have conducted discreet door to door inquiries in the three homes in the block of four occupied by TBS,” he said.

“It was a missed investigative opportunity that may have revealed his acquaintance with Diane and Holly Fallon.”

Later, Smith revealed to police that he had become best friends with a man who was the father of a young girl. Again, police failed to contact the family.

Mr Thomson said: “This was a clear investigative opportunity to gain information on TBS as to his lifestyle and relationships, which the police clearly lacked.

“Both officers relay they considered this was not necessary as they had made a child protection referral, which would be followed up by Children and Families.”

Mrs Fallon and her daughter were last seen on 28 March, 2009 – Smith’s 26th birthday. Their bodies were found on 8 April near the A70, just over a mile from their home.

After Smith was sentenced to a minimum of 32 years in prison last year, Mrs Fallon’s sister, Deborah Weir, said: “There are no words in the human vocabulary which can describe the evil that stood in the dock today. He is evil personified.”

Assistant Chief Constable George Hamilton said yesterday: “Thomas Smith is a despicable individual. He befriended, then brutally murdered Diane and Holly Fallon.”

He added: “Now that it is complete I can say that we have accepted every one of its findings and recommendations.

“It is our job to keep people safe. Doing this means that we have to manage people like Smith in our communities.

“I am sorry that he was able to murder Diane and Holly while we had responsibility for managing him. We fully accept what the report says and we have made a number of changes since the murders and as a result of the review process.”

Both the Scottish Government and Acpos promised to review the findings to see what improvements can be made to the management of sex offenders. A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We will read the report extremely carefully.Police already have powers to gain entry to offenders’ homes.