Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)

I just want the truth out there

Witness calls on aide to produce evidence She says cops didn’t investigat­e adequately

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PM’S decision to back Mr Cummings after it had been revealed he broke the Government’s rules, prompting public outcry and damaging confidence in lockdown restrictio­ns. Clare and Dave reported their alleged sighting – which they say was at around 11am – to Durham police in May and signed witness statements. Since then the other new witness – which brings the total number of witnesses to four – claims to have seen Mr Cummings and his wife Mary Wakefield walking between the beauty spot and the family home that morning between 11.15 and 11.30.

Another person then said they think they saw Mr Cummings on Hampstead Heath in North London that afternoon, four hours later at 3.30pm.

A test-drive of the route on a quiet Sunday after lockdown took three hours and 35 minutes. Mr Cummings denies he was in Durham on April 19

MARGARET Thatcher’s former press secretary has branded Dominic Cummings a “malevolent presence”.

Sir Bernard Ingham said Whitehall had been left “demoralise­d” by the way senior mandarins had been and officers say they have not seen sufficient evidence to support the allegation that he was there.

Durham police said he may have committed a “minor breach” of the rules when he drove to Barnard Castle on April 12 – his wife’s birthday – but no further action would be taken.

Clare, a nurse and care home worker for 35 years, and Tory-voting husband Dave, who works in manufactur­ing, have put in a Subject Access Request to establish how the force had handled

removed at Mr Cummings’ behest. In the Yorkshire Post, Sir Bernard said Cummings “thinks the Civil Service is pretty useless and the machine would be better in the hands of weirdos like himself”. their personal informatio­n, which they hoped might reveal how their complaint was followed up.

The details, heavily redacted and marked “official-sensitive”, arrived last week but the pair felt it showed their claims were not taken seriously. In their letter of complaint to the IOPC, they told the watchdog: “Given the high profile nature of this issue it is inconceiva­ble that this matter has not been followed up thoroughly. “We have no personal issue with Mr Cummings or his family, but we do feel that Durham Police’s handling of our complaint is below the standard we would expect.” Durham Constabula­ry said: “As outlined in our statement of May 28, [we] carried out an investigat­ion into this matter led by a

 ??  ?? CONVINCED Clare Edwards
CONVINCED Clare Edwards
 ??  ?? CRITIC Sir Bernard
CRITIC Sir Bernard

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