Gaia: A Death on Dancing Ledge

Original version

BBC Three

Documentaries

Factual: Crime & Justice

Factual: Crime & Justice: True Crime

Zara McDermott explores the mysterious disappearance of 19-year-old Gaia Pope-Sutherland.

Series 1

BBC One

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Zara McDermott

Sam Whittaker

Lucy Hillman

Gaia: A Death on Dancing Ledge: Series 1: Episode 3

Episode 3

BBC Three - Gaia: A Death on Dancing Ledge, Series 1, Episode 3

Zara McDermott discovers the final pieces of the mystery surrounding Gaia’s death.

Gaia was experiencing a severe mental health crisis on the day she disappeared. Zara McDermott discovers the final pieces of the jigsaw in the mystery that surrounds her death.

Zara McDermott discovers that Gaia’s alleged attacker contacted her ten months before she went missing. As her older sister Clara says, the texts were 'inherently threatening' and triggered a mental health crisis. As her attempts to get a restraining order were declined, Gaia spiralled. 

Within a month of receiving the texts, Gaia was in hospital, sectioned under the Mental Health Act for her own safety. Though Gaia’s alleged rape was dropped by Dorset Police at the time due to a lack of evidence, Gaia’s alleged attacker was imprisoned for other child sex crimes. When Gaia hears that he might be imminently released, it triggers a final crisis, exacerbated by being sent indecent images by a stranger on social media.

During the episode, the inquest into Gaia’s death - one of the longest individual inquests in British history - starts to reveal vital clues into her final months and days, unearthing over 50 missed opportunities in her care and search for her.

Talking to a key independent mental health witness and the former Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset at the time of her death, Zara puts together the pieces of the jigsaw that led Gaia to run that day, what finally led to her tragic death on Dancing Ledge, and asks the family what needs to change in the future to better protect young women and girls.

Gaia: A Death on Dancing Ledge: Series 1

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Gaia: A Death on Dancing Ledge

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