This article is more than 1 year old

Manchester fuzz 'truly sorry' for 'accidentally' hacking phone of whistleblower cop's girlf

Yes, he's a policeman and he blew a whistle, we know

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has issued an apology to a senior police officer's partner whose phone was "accidentally hacked while in an evidence bag."

The GMP incident report into the hacking was obtained by the Manchester Evening News, which reported that the BlackBerry owner remains furious over the hack, despite GMP's apology, and is challenging the incident report's conclusion that it was accidental.

The phone was seized by GMP's Counter Corruption Unit (CCU) during an investigation into Chief Inspector John Buttress.

It took a jury just 20 minutes to clear Buttress of fraud earlier this year, after what he termed a "malicious" three-year investigation.

At the time, the MEN reported that Buttress "claimed he was targeted after writing a 13-page grievance report alleging corruption, cronyism and bullying among some top officers."

GMP's investigation into the phone hacking noted that a voicemail had been accessed illegally, although it concludes that it was not possible to prove "beyond all reasonable doubt" whether any CCU officers had broken the law.

Regarding the technicalities of the "accident", the report states that "at least two and possibly three buttons had to be pressed to explain how the voicemail was accessed".

Experts analysed the phone for the police and found that the '1' key would have had to be pressed and held down to access the voicemail and then, during that call, the adjacent '#' key had to be pressed to connect to the person who had left the message, as happened on this occasion.

The conclusion of the report stated that the force "should never have allowed the phone, whatever the reason, to connect to voicemail. It has caused distress and for that GMP is truly sorry."

No disciplinary action was taken against any of the counter corruption bobbies, although two officers were reportedly "given 'words of advice' about slipshod paperwork."

The MEN added: "The latest hacking incident is among a series of allegations of GMP corruption made by Chf Insp Buttress now being investigated by the deputy chief constable of Kent Police, Paul Brandon."

Deputy Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, of Greater Manchester Police, said: "Chief Inspector Buttress has made a number of allegations both of a criminal and a non-criminal nature following his acquittal at Crown Court earlier this year. I have asked Kent Police to independently investigate the allegations and I am therefore unable to comment further at this stage." ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like