Victim’s sister tells of shock as spying case closed

THE SISTER of a former paratrooper who died in police custody said she was “shattered” to discover she and her barrister had been subjects of an unauthorised police surveillance operation nearly 17 years ago.

Janet Alder said she “couldn’t find words strong enough” to describe the fear she felt upon finding police were spying on her and Leslie Thomas QC, the only Afro-Caribbean barrister at the inquest on her brother, Christopher.

Ms Alder, whose brother was found to have been unlawfully killed by the inquest jury in 2000, said, in a statement she was disgusted that while listening to “heartwrenching evidence and slurs” on his character and “attempts on the side of Humberside Police to justify his inhumane treatment and debasement, decisions were being made to spy on me”.

Mr Alder choked to death while handcuffed on the floor of a police station in Hull in 1998.

His sister spoke out after a panel yesterday concluded there was no case to answer against two police officers accused of gross misconduct over the unauthorised July 28, 2000.

The defence argued the officers – who did not give evidence – would have been acting on the orders of more senior officers, and the spotlight should not have been on them in the first place.

Chairwoman Louisa Cieciora said: “The panel is not satisfied that any misconduct panel properly directed could find the allegations proven.”

But Ms Alder said unanswered questions remained – as there had been about her brother’s death and how his body came to be discovered in a mortuary 11 years after supposedly being buried.

She said: “I always believed this would be a whitewash and I was proved right.” The hearing focused on a period of less than two hours – yet there had been two periods of authorised surveillance starting on July 3, 2000, and ending in January 2001. The first allowed observations outside the court, the second “public-place surveillance,” including “mobile, foot and technical” in all areas covered by Humberside Police.

Despite this, no evidence has been found of any surveillance other than on July 28, 2000, which Ms Alder said she finds impossible to believe. surveillance on

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