Explosive report could put Yorkshire's largest police force in the dock

The Operation Lamp dossier into the case of Danny Major, who was convicted in 2006 of the attack, could see Yorkshire’s biggest police force made subject to a criminal inquiry.

According to the Wakefield father-of-two’s representative, a senior Police Federation official, the failings highlighted in the report are so stark that in his view “one has to now question the motivation of the people involved”.

Mr Major was convicted by a jury on two counts of common assault after being accused of attacking a drunken 18-year-old in custody following his arrest at Millgarth police station in Leeds in 2003.

He and his family have been campaigning to have his conviction overturned since he was released from jail in 2007. Challenges at the Court of Appeal and with the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) were unsuccessful.

The Operation Lamp report, a result of a two-year investigation by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) detectives, has unearthed fresh evidence casting doubt on the safety of his conviction for the assault of Sean Rimington.

Mr Major’s case could be looked at again by the CCRC, the body which investigates suspected miscarriages of justice, and West Yorkshire Police could be the subject of a fresh criminal investigation into conduct.

The report said the jury which convicted Mr Major would have based their decision on the evidence presented by the prosecution, which stated Mr Major pulled Mr Rimington out of a police van face first at the Bridewell custody suite in Leeds and punched him three times in the face.

The prosecution also claimed Mr Major later repeatedly punched the teenager in the face while he was handcuffed in a police cell. Mr Major denied both allegations.

The report’s authors found new witnesses whose evidence undermined the prosecution’s claims and suggested Mr Major’s version of events was “factually more reliable”.

GMP detectives were also told that the pattern of blood found on the defendant’s clothes did not tally with an account of the alleged police cell assault.

The 500-page report is heavily critical of the investigation carried out by West Yorkshire Police’s professional standards department that resulted in Mr Major’s conviction after a re-trial.

It said potentially vital evidence was not disclosed to the defence team or was sent over too late.

Of the six VHS cassettes showing CCTV footage of the areas where the alleged assaults took place, only two were examined.

Operation Lamp’s authors recommended that West Yorkshire Police’s chief officers should consider referring the case to the CCRC and also consider commissioning a criminal inquiry into the conduct of those involved in the original investigation.

Mr Major was convicted in November 2006 on two counts of assault, but cleared of a third count of battery, after an earlier trial ended with a hung jury. He served four months of his 15-month sentence.

The judge at Bradford Crown Court was highly critical of the force during his trial, calling the station where the incident occurred “not fit for purpose” and the custody set-up a “shambles”.

He said Mr Rimington had effectively become a “non-person” for about 40 minutes because no proper custody records had been kept for that time.

Operation Lamp was commissioned by West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson in 2013 and looked into an “alleged conspiracy to pervert the course of justice”.

Any new decision to overturn the original conviction would be made by the Court of Appeal after being referred by the CCRC.

Ian Hanson, chairman of the Greater Manchester Police Federation, who is representing the Major family, described Operation Lamp as being “an explosive report the like of which I have never seen in 28 years in policing”.

He said: “It is a very thorough job by the investigators from Greater Manchester Police.

“What really jumps out at me is the wholesale unprofessionalism that the report has highlighted. Basic investigative processes were ignored and one has to now question the motivation of the people involved.

“There are two distinct issues that arise. First, it is beholden on the decision-makers to get this to the CCRC and to the Court of Appeal as a matter of urgency to right what has been a 12-year wrong.

“There must also be a thorough and tenacious investigation into what happened, who did this and why. The Major family not only expect this but are entitled to it.

“This is not just about the Major family but the wider community, if the police can do this to one of their own it will send rumblings throughout West Yorkshire.

“(In my opinion)...at best this is abject incompetence on a scale I have never seen before, at worst there could be criminal offences here. Any inquiry has got to establish where on that scale the failings apply.

“Danny can’t in any way celebrate this. He has gone through 12 years of hell for something he didn’t do. Most people in the establishment until very recently didn’t believe what he was saying.

“It is only recently that they have woken up to what has gone on. He can’t celebrate this because all it is, is an endorsement of what he has been saying.

“We have got to remember that this is not over yet. They have got to get to the Court of Appeal and they have got to quash his conviction. I would call on everyone who can have a hand in expediting that process to pull out all the stops and right what has been an aberration for West Yorkshire Police.”

West Yorkshire Police Temporary Chief Constable Dee Collins said her force had been given the Operation Lamp report by police and crime commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson in December.

She said: “West Yorkshire Police examined its findings and as a result on 18 January 2016, referred the matter to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

“Included in the referral was a request that the IPCC consider an independent Force to deal with the issues raised within the report.”