Detectives accused of spying on Falklands hero’s sister are cleared
The sister of a Falklands hero who was unlawfully killed in a police cell reacted angrily yesterday after two officers accused of spying on her were cleared of gross misconduct.
A police disciplinary hearing found no case to answer against detectives accused of targeting Janet Alder while they were supposed to be monitoring activists disrupting her brother’s inquest.
Former paratrooper christopher Alder, 37, choked on his own blood and vomit at a police station in hull in 1998 while officers did nothing.
During an inquest into his death two years later it was alleged that a police surveillance team snooped on Miss Alder and her lawyer.
The policemen – referred to only as officer 1, a detective sergeant at the time, and officer 2, an acting detective sergeant – gave evidence behind screens during the four-day disciplinary hearing in Goole, east Yorkshire.
They were accused of following Miss Alder and barrister Leslie Thomas, now a Qc, during observations of protesters outside hull crown court during the inquest in July 2000. Both officers, whom the panel ruled could not be named, denied gross misconduct. After the decision, Miss Alder, 56, a mother-of-two from Leeds, said: ‘It is a total whitewash.
‘I have done nothing wrong. I never did anything but draw attention to what happened to christopher. I have been scared, petrified.
‘It established what I always thought: That the orders came from higher up. I did not believe a surveillance team would do this off their own bat. They never denied I had been spied on.
‘The secrecy surrounding the hearing has been absolutely appalling. I don’t think the answers are ever going to come out.’
Mr Alder was arrested and died in the custody suite at Queen’s Gardens police station in hull in April 1998 with officers nearby. An inquest ruled in 2000 that he was killed unlawfully.
officers 1 and 2 were not involved in his death. But the surveillance in 2000 was discovered by then home secretary Theresa May, who asked all police forces to check their records after learning that surveillance was carried out on the family of murdered schoolboy stephen Lawrence.
The surveillance of Miss Alder was said to have been ordered by a senior officer.
Jason Pitter, for officer 1, said: ‘The spotlight should not be on an individual officer who was brought into the investigation to perform his specific role under instruction.’
sam Green Qc, for the other officer, said: ‘he believed he was carrying out a lawful order.’
Detective chief superintendent Judi heaton, of humberside Police, said: ‘This has been a distressing time for Miss Alder. We do understand her frustration that the exact details around the case have not been able to be established.’