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Truth was the first casualty

01 March 1993

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Three Chief Constables admitted on BBC's Panorama on 5 April that forces in which they had served had used physical intimidation, planted evidence and fabrication of notes to secure convictions. The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Paul Condon, said: "quite often truth was the first casualty...I think there was a time when a minority of officers were prepared to bend the rules". Charles Pollard, Chief Constable of Thames Valley, said: "Everyone knew it happened like that - judges, magistrates, the whole criminal justice system had a sort of conspiracy that...if you didn't do it that way, you couldn't actually convict guilty people". Mr Condon said that where confessions had been the centrepiece of police investigation they were now developing "new professionalisms like surveillance, targeting intelligence and informants".

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