Sex offenders’ dossier left by skip

A HIGHLY sensitive police dossier containing names of paedophiles along with details about their victims was found dumped in a street.

A dog walker came across the restricted, 20-page document detailing around 15 different sex cases dating back to 2016 scattered by a skip in Hartlepool.

The alarming breach could potentially have exposed abuse victims as well as encouraging possible vigilante violence against their attackers. The dog walker, who did not want to be named, said: ‘I saw the pages with “sex offender” on and a police logo and traced them back to an overflowing skip where this blue book was lying on the ground.’

The file was handed back to Cleveland Police, which is being investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.