Former SOCO officer `lied and mishandled evidence` says IPCC

A scenes of crime officer employed by Cleveland Police and Staffordshire Police lied about his qualifications, mishandled evidence and generally handled investigations poorly, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has concluded.

Stephen Beattie served with Staffordshire Police from 1996 to 2002 and with Cleveland between 2002 and 2011. He also spent three months on a short-term contract with Northumbria Police.

He joined Cleveland while under investigation by Staffordshire Police for performance issues at the scene of a murder. Cleveland Police were never informed of this, despite references being received.

The IPCC concluded Mr Beattie, who claimed to be a “level 2 fire investigator”, had no academic qualifications in the field of arson investigation and that he was guilty of regular poor performance and exaggeration about his level of expertise.

Mr Beattie resigned from Cleveland Police in August 2011 while under investigation for fraud and perverting the court of justice. In 2012 he received an official caution in relation to a fraud offence.

Since this date vetting departments across all forces now work alongside the Professional Standards departments, who record all discipline matters, including on-going investigations.

Both forces conducted independent investigations – managed by the IPCC – over allegations relating to Mr Beattie’s handling of evidence, general investigative practices and that he exaggerated qualifications.

It also noted that he did not handle exhibits correctly at the scenes of suspicious or unexplained deaths.

The investigation’s reports, published on November 10, detail hundreds of cases that Mr Beattie had been involved in. There was no evidence that his activities had impacted on any criminal cases and, as a result, there have been no referrals to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

The investigation into Mr Beattie’s work for Cleveland Police concluded that if he was still employed he would have a case to answer for gross misconduct. The Staffordshire investigation concluded he would have a case to answer for misconduct.

IPCC Commissioner Cindy Butts said: “Stephen Beattie repeatedly lied about his qualifications and made judgements in cases that were both outside his remit and his level of expertise. Cleveland Police and Staffordshire Police have conducted meticulous investigations examining hundreds of cases and we know that, thankfully, his poor performance did not have a significant impact on the cases he was involved in.”

John Beckwith head of Staffordshire Police`s Forensic Services said there has been a great deal of change to the way the force lead, supervise, review and manage the work of Forensic Investigators since Mr Beattie`s departure.

“Staffordshire Police forensics now operates within a quality standards framework and the department is accredited to international standards. This involves a vision of total quality management and continuous improvement.

“The emphasis is on ensuring all forensic practitioners are competent and fully conversant with their responsibilities to both integrity of evidence and the justice system.”

Head of Cleveland Police Standards Department Detective Superintendent Jon Green said: “We are certain that no criminal investigations were affected and that something like this could not happen again. We are pleased that the report has now been published, however, we must express our disappointment that it has taken this length of time for the IPCC to publish it.”

Responding to the criticisms over delays, an IPCC spokesperson said: “We have published the reports because we believe it is important to be open and transparent about the investigations we do. There have been delays in the publication process, but some of these were unavoidable, including requests for delays from Cleveland Police themselves.”