Pit strike policing probe call

Written By Unknown on Senin, 22 Oktober 2012 | 15.36

21 October 2012 Last updated at 21:57 ET

A Nottinghamshire MP is to call for an inquiry into alleged manipulation of evidence by South Yorkshire Police during the miners' strike.

John Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw, said claims made in a BBC Inside Out programme relating to the so-called Battle of Orgreave must be examined.

The claims, that junior officers were told what to write in their statements, were "very convincing", said Mr Mann.

South Yorkshire Police said it would consider whether a review was needed.

Mr Mann is due to make the call later during a Commons debate into the Hillsborough disaster.

'Brought to account'

In September, the Hillsborough Independent Panel revealed that 164 South Yorkshire Police statements had been altered after the disaster in April 1989 in which 96 Liverpool fans died.

Continue reading the main story

Dan Johnson BBC News, Yorkshire


Orgreave has always carried a sense of injustice among miners, feelings that have been re-awakened with the revelations of a cover-up after Hillsborough.

No doubt there was violence from miners that day. But they've always felt the action of the police was over the top.

Evidence that statements were moulded by senior officers will come as no surprise to those who were put on trial accused of riot.

But in the light of what we now know about Hillsborough there's hope these issues will be re-examined.

There was no miscarriage of justice - the Orgreave miners were all acquitted. But no action was ever taken against the police.

There's a suggestion if it had, the culture of cover-up that existed in 1989 could have been dealt with long before disaster unfolded at Hillsborough.

Twenty eight years on, South Yorkshire Police is a very different organisation. But the actions of the force in the 1980s are now under far closer scrutiny than they ever were at the time.

Mr Mann said this seemed "similar in process" to allegations that police statements were manipulated after clashes between police and pickets at British Steel's Orgreave coking plant in June 1984.

"We need to ensure that no wrongdoing has taken place and, if there has been wrongdoing, those responsible need to be brought to account," he said.

In the Inside Out programme, to be broadcast at 19:30 BST on BBC One, Vera Baird, Solicitor General during the last Labour government, said police officers at Orgreave were asked by South Yorkshire Police detectives to describe in their statements "scenes they'd simply never seen".

A barrister at the time, Ms Baird first heard the claims while defending a number of the 93 Orgreave pickets during their trial in Sheffield in 1985.

The trial collapsed after 16 weeks when it became clear police evidence was unreliable. One officer admitted that much of his statement had been narrated to him.

"You can see in a way that they were merely trying to set the scenario, but actually what they were doing was 'teeing up', perverting the course of justice," said Ms Baird.

A South Yorkshire Police spokesman has told the BBC that the force was "not aware of any adverse comments about statements made during the trial".

"If concerns existed then normal practice would have been for the judge to raise them at the time," he said.

'Widespread collusion'

About 100 statements by police officers who were at Orgreave, which have been obtained by the BBC, have been examined by Sheffield barrister Mark George QC.

The documents revealed "several dozen" examples of officers using exactly the same phrases, signifying "widespread collusion", said Mr George.

"You can't get statements in the way they have been done here - by police officers from different forces involved in different arrests - and find such a degree of similarity between those statements without there being some degree of collusion."

The "clear plan" by senior officers was to make the charges faced by pickets as serious as possible, said Ms Baird.

While pickets found guilty of a public order offence would most likely have to pay a fine, those who faced the more serious charge of riot could be jailed for life.

Norman Taylor, a detective with the Northumbria force who was on duty at Orgreave, said he was told by a plain clothes policeman what to write as part of his witness statement.

"He was reading from some paper, a paragraph or so, and he asked people to use that as their starting paragraph," said Mr Taylor.

However, Bob Bird, a former officer from the West Midlands force who was also on duty at Orgreave that day, told the BBC he was "not dictated to".

Mr Mann said all these claims should be properly examined as "the reputation of police in South Yorkshire needs to be protected".


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