Police to face hearing over watch on dead man’s sister
TWO POLICE officers will appear before a misconduct hearing over surveillance carried out on the sister of a former paratrooper who died in custody.
A hearing has been scheduled for between February 26 and March 2 in relation to alleged misconduct over the surveillance of Janet Alder.
Ms Alder’s brother Christopher, 37, died in the custody suite in Queens Gardens police station in Hull in 1998. An inquest found he died unlawfully.
Humberside Police said that in July 2000, the officers involved were the operations commander and the deputy operations commander on the force surveillance team “when surveillance was undertaken on a member of the deceased’s family and her legal representative from about 3.20pm until about 5.13pm.”
The force said in a statement: “The deployment of the surveillance team at short notice was sanctioned by the officers and their role included satisfying themselves that surveillance was lawful, proportionate and necessary before instructing the surveillance team on their tasks and permitting any surveillance to take place.
“They also failed to question the purposes of the surveillance and any authorisation for it in order to satisfy themselves that any authority to conduct the surveillance was lawful, proportionate and necessary.
“As the deputy operations commander, and members of the surveillance team, the officers carried out the surveillance on 28 July 2000, without appropriate authorisation and justification.
“It was intrusive and involved following the family member and her legal representative away from the Court to the Kingston Theatre Hotel and Lowgate car park and attempting to listen to conversations between them.
“Those conversations are likely to have been (or included matters which were) private, confidential and subject to legal professional privilege.”
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) directed Humberside Police to hold gross misconduct hearings for two police officers following an investigation.
It followed a referral by the force in August 2013, after a request from the Home Secretary that police forces check their records for evidence of surveillance relating to the investigation into the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence and the inquiry into his death.
Humberside Police did not discover any such evidence but their searches revealed evidence of surveillance into Ms Alder and another person.
The misconduct hearing will take place at the Magistrates’ Court Building in Goole, Humberside Police said.