Prosecutors examining claims that police spied on sister after death of her brother
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Version 0 of 1. Prosecutors are examining allegations that police improperly monitored the sister of a former paratrooper who died on the floor of a police station. The allegations have been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service by the police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, following a two-year investigation. In 2013, Humberside police announced that they had uncovered evidence of potentially improper surveillance of Janet Alder, the sister of Christopher who choked to death in the police station. For more than a decade, she has been campaigning to find out what happened to her brother. The surveillance of her and her barrister is alleged to have taken place at the time of the inquest that found that Christopher had been unlawfully killed in April 1998. As we have reported here, “CCTV footage showed the 37-year-old father-of-two gasping for breath as officers chatted and joked around him. “The film showed that while he was fighting for his life, he received no help from five officers, who believed that he was play-acting. “It took 11 minutes for him to stop breathing. As he lay dead, monkey-like noises could be heard on an audio tape.” This story here describes how his family later discovered they had buried the wrong person when his body was found in a hospital mortuary. His body had been left there for years as a 77-year-old woman had been mistakenly buried in his place. The Hull Daily Mail first reported that the allegations of improper surveillance had been referred to the CPS. Janet has previously told the paper : “There is no explanation for why the police carried out this surveillance undercover. “This investigation has taken two years and I still have no idea what all this surveillance was about.” An IPCC spokesman said: “The IPCC has concluded its investigation into potential improper surveillance conducted by Humberside Police on Janet Alder and another person. “The IPCC has decided to refer its report to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration of whether any individuals may have committed a criminal offence. It would be inappropriate for the IPCC to comment further at this stage.” |