Disciplinary charges dropped in case of two men said to have snooped on Janet Alder

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Two police officers accused of spying on the sister of a former paratrooper who was unlawfully killed in police custody have been cleared by a disciplinary panel.

The two officers, who were given anonymity, had been accused of running an unauthorised and intrusive surveillance operation against Janet Alder during an inquest into the death of her brother Christopher.

The pair were alleged to have followed Alder and her barrister Leslie Thomas “without appropriate authorisation and justification” to a hotel and car park and attempted to listen in to their private and legally protected conversations.

On Thursday, a disciplinary panel dismissed the gross misconduct charges against the two officers on the fourth day of the hearing, ruling that they had no case to answer.

Alder criticised the verdict, saying it was “an insulting cover-up” and the police were “hiding the truth of what happened”.

She said: “I still don’t know why I was followed. And those who authorised the surveillance have evaded responsibility.”

She said it was another instance of the police burying evidence since she began seeking to find out how Christopher Alder, 37, died in a Hull police station in 1998. He choked to death as a group of officers gave him no help, believing that he was play-acting.

She said she has feared that the police have been spying on her since his death, which has made her “very nervous and scared”.

Ruth Bundey, Alder’s solicitor, said: “This entire process marginalised and disrespected Janet. Humberside police ignored her rights as an interested party and declined to communicate with us.”



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The inquest in 2000 concluded that the Falklands veteran and father of two had been unlawfully killed.

It later emerged that up to 14 officers were involved in the surveillance operation on 28 July 2000 during the inquest.

The misconduct charges were brought against the operations commander and deputy operations commander who were alleged to have gone “far beyond the strictly limited terms” of what had been authorised.

Barristers for the men denied misconduct, arguing that culpability lay with their superiors as they believed they were carrying out lawful orders. The pair, who held the rank of detective sergeant and acting detective sergeant in 2000, did not dispute that the surveillance had taken place.

Sam Green, QC for one of the officers, told the hearing that the name of the senior officer who had approved the surveillance had not been identified, adding that somebody in Humberside police, who was either retired or still employed, was “squirming silently”, hoping their identity was not revealed.

Police had only been authorised to carry out surveillance on Alder’s supporters, who had gathered outside Hull crown court during the inquest.

Humberside police had been ordered to hold the misconduct hearing by the watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which had investigated the surveillance after it came to light in 2013.

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After the panel dismissed the case, DCS Judi Heaton of Humberside police said: “We know that this has been a distressing time for Ms Alder and her family. We do understand her frustration that the exact details around the case have not been able to be established.”

In one of the most controversial deaths in police custody, police officers had stood by chatting and joking as Alder struggled for breath for 11 minutes. An audio tape recorded someone making monkey noises as he lay dead.



In 2011, the government formally apologised to the family for the failures in the investigation into his death.