A worrying lack of transparency

I READ with dismay, but no real surprise, that the hearing into alleged misconduct by Acting Assistant Chief Constable Marc Budden and Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Warrender, as well as Chief Inspector Paul Staniforth, is to be held in the near future with both press and public excluded.

It was reported that the officers, as well as Gwent Police, made an application to the chairman of the upcoming hearing for this exclusion, which he granted. It would appear that the main reason given was to preserve the anonymity of the complainant.

Consider this. Had the Crown Prosecution Service decided, after examining the evidence submitted to them by the investigators of Avon and Somerset Constabulary, that a criminal prosecution was appropriate, then that would have taken place in open court with the identity of the complainant (of sexual assault) protected by law. The press is well used to such legal process, which I understand also applies to such hearings.

But from the beginning this case has been shown to be very different from others involving alleged misconduct by more junior police officers. From the sheer length of time it has taken (almost three years) to now arrive at this perverse decision and appears to be proceeding towards the hearing without any meaningful challenge.

Gwent Police has been very forthright in the past in publicising the intimate, toe-curling detail of the misdeeds of junior officers which have been presented in misconduct hearings that have been open to both the press and public.

In fact I have never heard of one where a decision to exclude has been made. Some of the cases have made the national press, who have reported all the gory details, with Gwent Police confirming loudly that all misconduct will be dealt with robustly.

I would have thought that an application for a judicial review would have been forthcoming from the Police Federation, given how some of their members’ misdeeds have been publicly aired far and wide, even allowing for the fact that one of the accused officers is of federated rank.

But as has been demonstrated, this case has been dealt with very differently and the way these officers have been treated is very far removed from the norm.

The principle that “every person is equal under the law” seems not to apply in the hallowed halls of Gwent.

“Fiat justitia ruat caelum – let justice be done though the heavens fall.”

Roger J Duffy Cardiff