Pc’s family hope for justice in ‘cover-up’ inquiry

Danny Major, a former constable with West Yorkshire Police, was jailed for 15 months after being found guilty of assaulting a drunken teenager in custody three years earlier.

The county’s police and crime commissioner agreed to refer the case for an independent investigation after claims that officers’ testimonies were unreliable and that key evidence was withheld from the defence.

The force leading the new investigation, Greater Manchester Police (GMP), are now looking at an “alleged conspiracy to pervert the course of justice” by the officers who gave evidence against Major at his trial.

The 35-year-old, from Wakefield, was convicted, at a retrial, of assaulting Sean Rimmington, then 18, who he had just arrested at Millgarth police station in Leeds.

A jury failed to reach a verdict in April 2006, but Major, whose father Eric served for 31 years with West Yorkshire Police, was convicted at a retrial the same year. 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 Rimmington had effectively become a “non-person” for about 40 minutes because no proper custody records had been kept for that time.

Major’s 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 were unsuccessful.

His mother Bernadette, 58, said she was sure her son would be cleared as a result of the new review into what police say are “specific aspects of the West Yorkshire Police investigation”.

A document setting out the terms of reference for the probe agreed by GMP, West Yorkshire Police and Major’s family, and seen by the Yorkshire Post, says the evidence of three key witnesses will be reviewed.

It said: “Danny Major and his family have steadfastly maintained his innocence to this date, that key evidence and material has been withheld or disregarded and the issues of concern have not been thoroughly investigated.”

The review will also “examine the parameters” of the CCTV and forensic evidence considered as part of the original investigation.

Mrs Major said: “We are a decent hard-working family to whom the justice system has inflicted a terrible wrong.

“We have never wavered in our belief in our son’s innocence and even more since viewing the CCTV footage that was wrongly withheld from our son’s defence team.

“I am confident that the road back to the appeal court and the quashing of Danny’s conviction will be relatively straightforward.”

West Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson agreed in January to ask for another force to be appointed to look into the case.

A joint statement by the commissioner’s office and West Yorkshire Police said: “This matter has been investigated by the force and reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, but following representations by the Major family to the Police and Crime Commissioner, Greater Manchester Police have been appointed to look at specific aspects of the West Yorkshire Police investigation.”