At last I can grieve for my husband

The 46-year-old widow said it was her "disgraceful" treatment at the hands of Sussex Police which stopped her coming to terms with the terrible events of December 10, 1996.

Detectives suspected Mrs Henderson and her daughter, Amanda London-Williams, of the killing from the outset and spent months monitoring their every movement, even bugging their home.

After the two women were found not guilty they decided to go to the Police Complaints Authority.

A probe into 32 areas of complaint led to one of the most critical reports ever produced by the authority, which accused Sussex Police of "systematic" failure when investigating the murder of Mr Watson outside the family home in East Grinstead.

Mrs Henderson sees the report as the conclusion of her long battle for justice.

She said: "The whole grieving process halted because of the way I was treated. I am still seeing a psychologist but now there is a conclusion I feel I can really start to properly grieve.

"When you have to fight for your life and particularly that of your child, you are forced to find hidden strength and cope but now what happened is beginning to creep up on me unawares."

The widow, a former Page 3 girl and Miss Scotland runner-up, feels the damning report, carried out by the Metropolitan Police, has vindicated her long fight to bring Sussex Police to account for the way she was treated.

She said: "It was hard to believe the injustice and the fact it was happening in Britain. I feel the way things were done was disgraceful, unprofessional and amateurish.

I do not have a problem with police in general, my criticism was with the senior officers who allowed this to happen and the abuse of power.

"The problem with Sussex Police is the fundamental training, the leadership and the fact there are far too many egos involved."

The 54-year-old businessman was gunned down as he parked his sports car outside the £400,000 family home in Holtye Road.

Mrs Watson and her daughter were charged with murder but the case collapsed and both were found not guilty when no evidence was put forward by the Crown Prosecution Service in 1998.

The report found the entire investigation was jeopardised by mistakes made in the immediate aftermath of the murder.

The two women waited in a state of shock inside the house before police arrived 45 minutes after the 999 call was made.

The report says: "The evidence found that potential forensic evidence may have been lost as a result of a lack of leadership and poor communication at the scene.

"Too much emphasis was put on the role of the scenes of crimes officers yet they were not sufficiently aware of their responsibilities. Supervision at the scene was also poor with no officer appearing to take command."

Officers developed tunnel vision and failed to properly investigate other lines of inquiry, causing the failure of the whole inquiry, it says.

Authority member Duncan Gear said: "The investigation, conducted by the Metropolitan Police and supervised by the authority, concluded that Sussex Police failed to investigate the murder properly. Therefore the junior officers cannot be blamed. The main responsibility for the errors identified must rest with the senior investigating officer, who has since retired."

Det Supt Paul Westwood, who led the investigation and chose not to help with the inquiry, and Det Insp Nicholas Siggs, who took over, have both retired and so cannot be disciplined.

Relationships between the police and family broke down to the extent that Mrs Henderson and her daughter were "ignored and not given vital information such as the date of the inquest".

From the outset, the investigation was biased towards proving the pair guilty and other suspects were not properly investigated, the report says.

Mr Watson had business links in Eastern Europe and one theory is a man seen speeding from the crime scene could have been a hit man hired by the Russian Mafia.

Mr Watson had also been attacked a month before his murder by two men with a cattle prod stun device.

The entire prosecution depended on the theory the two shots that killed Mr Watson were fired from the balcony of the house with help from those inside.

Mr Gear said: "The scenario claiming the shot came from the balcony was not justified by the evidence. Almost from the outset the investigation appeared to be skewed towards establishing the guilt of the wife and her daughter."

Every detail of Mrs Henderson and her daughter's lives were examined and they later found out their new home had been bugged when builders tried to apprehend officers they saw breaking into the property.

Their solicitor, Jeff Hide, said he was met with silence from officers when he tried to informally discuss with them the case and there had still been no apology.

Mr Hide said: "There are serious faults in the whole murder investigation system. There was tunnel vision by the two officers in charge of the inquiry and failure of force order.

"The way they dealt with initial inquiries at the scene was wrong and inhumane and the impact on Mrs Henderson and her daughter was catastrophic."

Graham Alexander, chairman of the Sussex Police Federation, said it was vital the force learned from its mistakes.

He said: "Reports of that magnitude are taken very seriously and we would hope the service would respond appropriately."

A spokesman for Sussex Police said the force was disappointed Det Supt Westwood had exercised his right not to co-operate with the inquiry.

The spokesman said: "We are concerned regarding comments about a 'systematic failure' in this investigation. We recognise that, in this instance, we have so far not brought whoever was responsible for the crime to account.

"The investigation of murder is one of the most complex and difficult tasks the police undertake, and Sussex Police has an outstanding record in the successful investigation of major crime.

"We accept there were serious shortcomings in aspects of the original investigation.

"We are constantly reviewing and developing our processes and procedures in the light of both past experience and best practice, and many have been updated since 1996."