Murder of Tia Sharp

Tia Christine Sharp was a 12-year-old schoolgirl from New Addington, in the London Borough of Croydon. In early August 2012 she was staying at her grandmother's home on the estate. She was reported missing on 2 August 2012, prompting a large police search and public appeals for information over the following week.

During the search, the man later convicted of her murder, Stuart Hazell — the partner of Tia's grandmother, who lived at the address — publicly denied any involvement and gave a television interview appealing for her return. On 10 August 2012, after earlier searches of the property, officers discovered Tia's body concealed in the loft of the home. The delay in finding her, despite repeated visits to the address, later drew an apology from the Metropolitan Police.

Hazell was arrested on the evening the body was found and was charged with murder on 12 August 2012. He initially claimed that Tia had left the house to travel to nearby Croydon and that any death had been accidental. When he was asked to enter a plea in March 2013 he denied the charge. His trial opened at the Central Criminal Court (the Old Bailey) on 7 May 2013 before Mr Justice Nicol. Five days into proceedings, on 13 May 2013, Hazell changed his plea to guilty.

On 14 May 2013 he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 38 years. In his sentencing remarks the judge concluded that Hazell had most likely smothered Tia before concealing her body, and set a term well above the usual starting point for such cases. Prosecutors stated that the killing was accompanied by a sexual motive and that Hazell had sexually assaulted Tia; material recovered during the investigation supported the prosecution case. A post-mortem examination was unable to establish a definitive medical cause of death.

The investigation also involved the arrest of other individuals connected to the household, but no one else was charged with Tia's murder, and prosecutors later confirmed that no further charges would be brought against a close family member. Tia's family, including her father and other relatives, took part in public appeals during the search and attended the trial; her father described the outcome as failing to deliver justice for his daughter.

A private family funeral was held in September 2012. In June 2013, shortly after the conviction, the house where Tia had died was demolished, and the site was later redeveloped. The case prompted scrutiny of the police search that had repeatedly missed her body and became one of the most widely reported child-homicide investigations in Britain that year. Tia Sharp is remembered by her family as a lively and outgoing girl whose life ended at the age of twelve.