Tia Sharp

A Family Betrayal

This is the shocking true story of how a step-grandfather murdered the young girl who trusted him. On  August 3, 2012, Tia Sharp, a 12-year-old school girl, was reported missing from her grandmother’s house in New Addington, South London. A call by her mother alerted the police to Tia’s disappearance, and a massive search operation began. A nationwide appeal was launched to find Tia and her family, including her step-grandfather, 37-year-old Stuart Hazell, made a public appeal to find her. It was reported that Tia had disappeared after being dropped off at a train station to go shopping, but in the days that followed a very different story emerged. Only seven days after Tia was reported missing the terrible news came that her body had been found wrapped in garbage bags and hidden in her grandmother’s attic. The truth that unfolded over the course of the day horrified the public; not only had the police searched the house on three separate occasions before discovering Tia’s body, late the following evening, but Stuart Hazell—the man who Tia trusted, the man who appealed for her return—was charged with murder. Nigel Cawthorne examines the appalling case of an evil step-grandfather who betrayed his family’s trust, deceived friends and neighbors, and cut short the life of a young, well-loved girl.