A regional daily has published a special report into alleged police corruption after a year-long investigation by its journalists.
The Northern Echo has obtained confidential documents which allege Cleveland Police buried an accusation of historic child abuse made against the then chair of Cleveland Police Authority.
The documents also include claims authority chiefs failed to pass on legal advice about illegal bonus payments to a senior officer.
Four years ago the force’s chief constable, Sean Price, was sacked after a disciplinary hearing found he had asked a member of staff to enquire about a job for the former police authority chairman Dave McLuckie’s daughter, then denied doing so when he was investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
The documents obtained by the Echo, taken from a private meeting of senior force officials, contain strong accusations that Mr Price failed to act on an historic allegation of sex abuse by Mr McLuckie – a claim which is vehemently denied.
The Echo ran its story across five pages, as well as its front, pictured below, in Friday’s edition.
The Echo’s Teesside chief reporter Graeme Hetherington and social media editor Joe Willis have been working on the investigation for more than a year.
Editor Peter Barron, who is due to leave the Echo next Friday, wrote in an editorial: “We fully appreciate that these are historic matters but, given Cleveland Police’s track record, we believe there is a clear public interest in publishing the information contained in the documents which have never previously been open to public scrutiny.
“Why wasn’t the abuse allegation properly recorded and investigated? Why was there an apparent attempt to discredit the complainant?
“And why wasn’t important legal advice made available to the police authority? The questions about the way Cleveland Police operated at the time just keep coming.”
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Well done Northern Echo
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A massive thank you to Peter Barron for being an editor with the balls and the sense of doing the right thing. Great work by the two reporters.
When I was editor of the Hartlepool Mail we carried many exclusive stories on Cleveland Police. I was a constant thorn in their side. It has been a dysfunctional organisation riddled within corruption for at least 20 years.
I saw their ‘professional standards’ at first hand last year when I was arrested after I was the victim of a road rage attack. It took more than six months to get to court. The arresting officer was criticised by magistrates and my honesty was praised.
The Home Office should disband Cleveland Police. They should do it without delay.
Fabulous journalism. Northern Echo I salute you. Peter Barron will be sorely missed but this is a fitting tribute to a journalist I was privileged to work for.
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Cleveland has been a nest of police and political corruption for decades, and these two are just the prominent tip of the iceberg. Hopefully this expose will help prevent McUnlucky from having the brass neck to resurface in some highly inappropriate public position in the future.
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Fantastic work by the Northern Echo. We don’t yet know what maybe under the stone, but can i suggest there are some serious questions we should ask ourselves as professional journalists? For starters, how many papers have got enough staff left to put a couple of senior journos on such a story for more than a year? Not many I venture. Next, how many editors have got the balls, as Harry Blackwood says, to come out from their comfort zone to investigate such a story?
If anyone doubts why we need a free press they only have to think who else is going to investigate wrongdoing among the establishment. This very day comes the revelations about ‘the world’s elite’ and offshore tax havens. Thank goodness for the International body of Journalists which has now opened the can of worms. Now ask yourself who else could have done it. Your editor? the BBC? Even your Prime Minister? If you consider that the UK’s financial industry is now bigger that the whole of our manufacturing sector, I think you’ll have your answer. ‘Nuff said.
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Well done northern echo Graeme Peter and the team who have prayed this and brought it to the local publics attention, true investigative journalism
Those that have grandly titled ‘ investigation units ” please take note of how its done and the kind of real issues the community need to know about, and will no doubt buy papers to read about.
Good to see professional investigative journalism is alive and well in some parts of the regional press.
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‘Persued ‘ apologies
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http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/business-owner-furious-after-neighbour-11127530
Good at arresting innocent cyclists (me) but useless at catching burglars on the job.
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Great investigation; super-drab headline at the end of it. ‘Failure to act’? Yawn!
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Bob, you’re right mate. Bloody awful attempt at a headline.
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