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Deliberate or reasonably avoidable non-disclosure should be a criminal offence. That's the only way the police will stop their self-interested misbehaviour, and a financial penalty will not suffice - it will be paid with OUR money, which is already the case with civil damages awarded against State agencies. A case should have to be signed off by at least a superintendent, who will automatically be liable, unless a judge decides otherwise in a particular case. Anyway, should police not have to pass ALL evidence to both sides? After all that has happened over the last 50 years, why do we still allow the police to consider they are masters of all they behold? It is inconceivable that anyone (like me on the Clapham omnibus) could fail to see the relevance of some of the phone/computer messages belatedly released a few weeks ago.

And, never mind the police, how is it that the same fault was committed by the lawyers of the CPS - supposedly disinterested, I was told in long-ago youth (in contrast to US prosecutors who revel in hounding minors and mental incompetents)? Or, for that matter, if they knew/suspected before they were warned, why did they pursue the case? This makes it even more difficult to understand how lawyers' can be considered entirely honest.