More worrying question marks over the police

The case of Eddie Gilfoyle, in jail since 1993 for the murder of his pregnant wife, is the latest example of a very disturbing pattern which seems to run through Britain's police forces.

Paula Gilfoyle was found hanged in her garage with a suicide note nearby. The prosecution had alleged that Gilfoyle tricked his wife into signing the note before arranging her death.



There have been a number of investigations into the case and suggestions of a miscarriage of justice but now some facts seem to have emerged. Merseyside police denied the existence of certain notes taken during the investigation which would have made their case against Gilfoyle harder to prove. One was that the time of death determined by the police surgeon who examined the body would have placed Eddie Gilfoyle at work, with an alibi, at the time of his wife's death. These times were never revealed to the defence or to the jury. Existence of any notes which might have supported Mr Gilfoyle's evidence were suppressed and their existence denied until Patricia Gallan, a deputy Chief Constable with Merseyside police, admitted them. Three officers were subsequently internally investigated for withholding evidence, two being cleared by their Chief Constable and the other having 'retired'.

It's far from the first time - and won't be the last - that the police have been accused of withholding or manipulating evidence in order to support their own case. I don't know the truth about Gilfoyle, or half a dozen other cases across the country where evidence has subsequently been proved to have been suppressed or tampered with, but one thing is clear. As long as this continues to go, with, it seems, relative impunity, any claim that we have the best legal system in the world is a joke.

I don't believe that, in general, the police want to lock up the innocent to achieve targets or make themselves look good. I do believe, though, that the police are often so frustrated by the legal red tape in which their investigations are hampered (in their eyes) that if they believe they have the right person, there is often a deliberate intent to 'get a result' regardless of whether that means some sleight of hand or deception.

When this kind of thing is discovered there appears to be all too little done about it. I accept that the police have a difficult job. I accept that the government is worried about cracking down too hard on a force which already suffers from a morale problem. But this kind of thing cannot be allowed to go on. There surely HAS to be covert support from the top officers for this kind of misplacing of information and denials to be sustained. It happens too often. And the oft used explanation that such-and-such an officer has 'retired' should not spare him or her from the full weight of the law that officer was once paid to execute. Too easy.

When someone is deprived of their liberty for a crime they did not commit, there should always be a thorough and exhaustive investigation by an independent body of how that investigation was conducted. The fact that so many of these cases keep coming to light shows that something is rotten and there are insufficient penalties to deter it.