The victim was a 12-year-old girl, Tia Sharp, who was reported missing from and later found dead at her grandmother's home in New Addington, London, in August 2012.

[9] Stuart Hazell told police that Tia Sharp had left the house on 3 August 2012 to travel to Croydon, five miles away, to buy shoes in the Whitgift Centre.

[13] On 9 August, Hazell gave an interview to Mark Williams-Thomas for ITV News, denying that he had done anything to Sharp and praying for her safe return.

[15][16] Police launched a search for Hazell, and arrested him on suspicion of murder that evening at 8:25 p.m. at Cannon Hill Common, Morden, after a tip-off from a member of the public.

[19] Commander Neil Basu, the officer in charge of the investigation, apologised to Sharp's mother for the delay in finding her daughter's body.

[26] Nixon suggested that Hazell may have made sexual advances towards Tia, and murdered her when she rebuffed him and threatened to tell her mother.

He said the error could not be attributed to a single officer, and that he wanted to "understand what processes and management decisions we've made that led to that failure.

[37] In July 2013, Carter said he backed a plan for websites to be told to block certain search terms and warn people when they try to view illegal content.

[38] In June 2013, the home of Bicknell and Hazell, where Sharp was murdered, was demolished and in mid-2014, work began on new houses being built on the site.