Stuart Hazell charged with murder of his 'step-granddaughter' Tia SharpReported by Metro.co.uk on Sunday, 12 August 2012 (on August 12, 2012)
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*Stuart Hazell has been charged with murdering 12-year-old Tia Sharp after a body was found in her grandmother's house last week.*
Stuart Hazell has been charged with the murder of Tia Sharp (Picture: Getty)
Mr Hazell, 37, is the partner of Tia's grandmother Christine Sharp, 46, and lives at the house in the Lindens, New Addington, south London, where a body was discovered on Friday August 10.
Although the body has not yet been formally identified, Mr Hazell has been charged with murdering Tia and is due to appear before magistrates tomorrow.
Ms Sharp meanwhile has been bailed after being arrested on suspicion of murder, with her neighbour Paul Meehan was also bailed pending further inquiries after being arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.
Tia Sharp was reported missing on Friday August 3 (Picture: Getty)
'Although officers await formal identification of a body found at The Lindens on Friday August 10, the victim is named in the murder charge as 12-year-old Tia Sharp,' the Metropolitan police said.
'Two other people have been bailed to return to a south London police station.
'They are a 46-year-old woman who was arrested on suspicion of murder and a 39-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.'
Tia's grandmother Christine Sharp leaves her home in a police car with detectives (Picture: Getty)
A massive police operation was launched after Tia was reported missing over a week ago with more than 80 detectives involved and Olympic policing resources diverted to help find her.
Police have apologised however for not finding Tia's body sooner despite searching her grandmother's house, the last place she was seen, four times.
Questions have also been asked after Mr Hazell, previously interviewed as a witness, was able to go missing for several hours before being spotted by a schoolgirl who saw him buying alcohol in an off licence in Merton, south-west London.
Flowers are left outside a block of flats in Mitcham, south London, where Tia's mother Natalie Sharp lives (Picture: PA)
Metropolitan police south-east London area commander Neil Basu said 'human error' was to blame for failures in the searches of Ms Sharp's house.
'An early review has been conducted and it is now clear that human error delayed the discovery of the body within the house,' he said.
'We have apologised to Tia's mother [Natalie Sharp] that our procedures did not lead to the discovery of the body on this search.'
Tributes of poems, flowers, teddy bears and candles have been left outside the house in the Lindens and Raynes Park High School in Merton where Tia was a pupil.
'We will miss you so much,' one tribute said. 'School will never be the same without you.'
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