A police panel has found former Sussex Police officer Trevor Godfrey guilty of misconduct over his involvement in the case of 19-year-old Shana Grice, who was murdered by her violent ex-boyfriend in 2016.
Trevor Godfrey, who retired from Sussex Police in December 2017, said Ms Grice had initially lied about being in a secret relationship with older colleague Michael Lane as a "smokescreen" so her boyfriend Ashley Cooke did not find out.
It later emerged she had reported Lane to police five times in six months but was fined for wasting officers' time after she came clean about their tryst.
Lane, 27, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years after being convicted of her murder.
Mr Godfrey appeared before a disciplinary hearing in Lewes, East Sussex, to .
The panel heard he did not adequately investigate allegations of harassment and stalking made by Miss Grice.
And he failed to treat Miss Grice as an abuse victim.
Godfrey was told he would have been sacked had he not already retired over his involvement in the case.
Panel chairwoman Victoria Goodfellow said: "While clearly serious matters, they are not enough to mean gross misconduct.
"We do not attribute any blame on Shana."
There was little emotion shown from either Mr Godfrey or Ms Grice's family.
The hearing was told how Mr Godfrey was a police constable tasked with investigating an allegation of common assault on March 25 2016 after Ms Grice claimed Lane chased and made physical contact with her while taking her phone from her ear.
During an interview, Ms Grice made a number of other allegations against Lane, including that he had sent her unsolicited flowers and had made numerous attempts to contact her.
However, after being arrested, Lane told Mr Godfrey the pair were actually in a relationship - and provided details of mobile phone messages between the couple which backed his story.
James Berry, counsel presenting the case against Mr Godfrey, earlier accused the former police officer of applying a stereotype to the case.
Mr Berry said: "There is a stereotype that if Person A is in a relationship with Person B, one cannot be at risk from the other. Do you agree with that?"
Mr Godfrey replied: "No. It may be the case (applying stereotypes) for other people, I don't have those views."
Mr Godfrey also said there was therefore "no reason" to supply Ms Grice with safety advice regarding her relationship with Lane.
He said: "She was in an active relationship with him for six months. I can honestly say, hand on heart, there was nothing there to suggest she was in any form of danger whatsoever."
Summing up the case against Mr Godfrey, Mr Berry said the former officer "did not show the expected level of diligence" when dealing with Ms Grice's allegation against Lane.
He said there was a "serious failing" in Mr Godfrey not filling out a risk assessment form following this incident.
He added: "Mr Godfrey applied the stereotype (of a person in a relationship not being at risk of harm from the other) to Shana's statement because it affected how he viewed her, how he viewed her allegations, whether he thought he needed to carry out a risk assessment, and whether to give her safety advice.
"Mr Godfrey simply lost his impartiality and Lane became the victim and Shana became the wrong-doer.
"Everything Shana said carried no weight any more - even the things that were not in doubt.
"Mr Godfrey's handling of this case did not represent the impartiality expected of a police officer."
Representing Mr Godfrey, Mark Aldred said: "It is easy to lapse into: 'The officer should have done, ought to have done, could have done it differently...'
"This is about gross misconduct - so there must be evidence or a positive duty to do something in a particular way.
Godfrey could be placed on a barred list, meaning he cannot work for police again, if the panel finds allegations against him are proved.
In any case, he would still be allowed access to his pension unless in circumstances involving a criminal prosecution against him.
