Stockton on Tees famous as the "Shit Hole" of the north

[Spanish-Inquisition]

Stockton on Tees renamed: The Shit Hole

Officially renamed in the House of Commons

Stockton on Tees is a shit hole

Home secretary described Stockton-on-Tees as ‘shit-hole’, MP claims
Alex Cunningham, MP for Stockton North, claims James Cleverly made comment during Wednesday’s PMQs

Ben Quinn Political correspondent Wed 22 Nov 2023

A Labour MP has claimed that his constituency was described as a “shit-hole” by the home secretary, James Cleverly, during prime minister’s questions.

Alex Cunningham said Cleverly had uttered the phrase when the Labour MP for Stockton North asked: “Why are 34% of children in my constituency living in poverty?”

After standing up later in parliament to raise a point of order with the deputy speaker Eleanor Laing, Cunningham said of Cleverly: “He was seen and heard to say, ‘Because it’s a shit-hole’,” Cunningham said, to gasps from fellow Labour MPs.

Cunningham said he had contacted Cleverly’s office and told them that he was planning to name him but the minister had “sadly” chosen not to be in the chamber.

Cleverly has denied to the Guardian that he said the word.

Cunningham added: “I know he is denying being the culprit but, Madam Deputy Speaker, the audio is clear and has been checked and checked and checked again. There is no doubt that these comments shame the home secretary, this rotten government and the Tory party.”

Cunningham asked how an apology could be secured from the home secretary, who was appointed last month, for the “insult and foul language”.

Laing said her understanding was that the Commons speaker did not hear any remark of the kind earlier and that the alleged words were not actually used “although I appreciate what the honourable gentleman says”.

“I think we all know it’s very difficult in the noisy atmosphere of prime minister’s questions to discern exactly what someone says so I can make no judgment here from the chair as to what was said or wasn’t said, but I can understand the honourable gentleman’s concern,” she said.

“I would remind honourable members of the need for good temper and moderation in the language they use in this chamber and that those rules of decency should be observed in particular when referring to other honourable members, their constituents and the constituencies they represent.”

Laing said she was sure an apology would be issued if one was necessary.

A spokesperson for Cleverly said the home secretary “did not and would not say” the words Cunningham had accused him of saying. “He’s disappointed anyone would accuse him of doing so,” the spokesperson added.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -mp-claims

Meanwhile in the Empire of Evil:

Rooney “the loony” and Len Junier continue to shame the south of the river Tees as Middlesbrough the Empire of Evil

https://www.middlesbrough-council.com/a ... arles2.mp4

Ray Mallon is crazy..... to fly

https://middlesbrough-council.com/lens/ ... -crazy.mp4

Middlesbrough love don't live here anymore.... well not after Ray Mallon was Mayor of the Empire of Evil

https://middlesbrough-council.com/lens/ ... award1.mp4

Middlesbrough Gresham the plan of how to create mayhem

https://middlesbrough-council.com/lens/ ... arkHD2.mp4

[Spanish-Inquisition]

Ray Mallon time line



Extraordinary twists and turns of the Mallon affair

November 20, 1996 . . . Ray Mallon becomes the new head of Middlesbrough CID and takes the extra-ordinary step of pledging to quit if he fails to slash the crime rate by 20 per cent.

January 8, 1997 . . . His confrontational style of policing, known as Zero Tolerance, wins the backing of Labour leader Tony Blair.

March 31, 1997 . . . No better example of his tough style is shown when he spots two men trying to steal his car, chases them across fields and arrests them.

August 6, 1997 . . . NINE months into the job and his pledge to cut crime appears to be working as figures plummet towards the key 20 per cent mark.

October 27, 1997 . . . The first hint of trouble in the force emerges when a court case collapses because evidence has come from a suspended officer.

December 1, 1997 . . . DETECTIVE Superintendent Mallon is suspended by Assistant Chief Constable Robert Turnbull, the force's disciplinary officer. He vows to clear his name after allegations he leaked information about a police corruption investigation Operation Lancet and engaged in alleged activities which could be construed as criminal conduct.

December 6, 1997 . . . Supporters launch a petition demanding Det Supt Mallon's reinstatement.

December 8, 1997 . . . Det Supt Mallon clears his desk.

December 10, 1997 . . . He is replaced by Superintendent Adrian Roberts.

December 12, 1997 . . . DETECTIVE Sergeant John McPherson, 51, Det Supt Mallon's right-hand man, is transferred to uniform.

February 3, 1998 . . . A 30,000-name petition demand-ing the reinstatement of Det Supt Mallon is handed to the Home Office.

February 5, 1998 . . . A detective is arrested over theft allegations following an internal investigation into alleged thefts from Middlesbrough police station's stolen property store. The same day, another detective is suspend-ed without pay after quitting his job for a new life in Australia, without telling his bosses.

February 7, 1998 . . . Police question journalists working for The Northern Echo as part of their invest-igation into internal corrupt-ion claims.

February 23, 1998 . . . Home Secretary Jack Straw pledges his continuing sup-port for Zero Tolerance, but he says he cannot intervene on Det Supt Mallon's behalf.

March 12, 1998 . . . Cleveland Police launches a new inquiry into Det Supt Mallon over his expenses and movements since his suspension on December 1.

March 25, 1998 . . . Cleveland Police is rocked when a man wins £1,400 after being assaulted by officers.

April 3, 1998 . . . Det Sgt John McPherson is exonerated after an investigation into allegations against him of improper conduct.

April 16, 1998 . . . A vote of no-confidence is passed in Cleveland's Chief Constable Barry Shaw over his handling of the Mallon saga, at a packed public meeting in Middlesbrough.

September 25, 1998 . . . Files about the Teesside police officers being investigated in the anti-corruption inquiry are passed to criminal lawyers.

November 24, 1998 . . . The investigation takes a dramatic twist when Det Supt Mallon is cleared of fiddling his expenses.

December 1, 1998 . . . Police reveal the full list of accusations facing Det Supt Mallon after questioning him for the first time. Allegations include: conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and related matters; suppressing evidence; failing to conduct appropriate inquiries; disobeying the orders of senior police officers; acting in an oppressive manner to junior officers.

December 12, 1998 . . . Jack Straw again refuses to intervene.

January 26, 1999 . . . The man who suspended Det Supt Ray Mallon announces his retirement. Assistant Chief Constable of Cleveland, Robert Turnbull, has served just 19 months of a five-year contract with the Cleveland force.

February 19, 1999 . . . Two detectives are charged with stealing from a police station. One, 39-year-old Det Insp Russ Daglish, is suspended. The other is Brendon Whitehead.

April 15, 1999 . . . It is revealed that Robert Turnbull is to become deputy commissioner of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands police.

April 16, 1999 . . . Hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money is wasted after senior officers at Cleveland Police libel three of their uniformed men.

April 20, 1999 . . . Det Supt Mallon is cleared of wrong-doing in his relationship with the media.

July 9, 1999 . . . Calls are made for the police corruption inquiry to be wound up after it is revealed that some of the investigating officers are under investigation them-selves. Officers from two outside forces are brought in to look into the alleged activities of a small number of Teesside detectives on the Operation Lancet team. Ashok Kumar, MP for South Middlesbrough and East Cleveland, says the situation is turning into farce with public credibility in Cleveland Police now seriously at risk.

September 14, 1999 . . . Allegations are made against the man heading the Lancet investigation. Andrew Timpson, Chief Constable of Warwickshire, goes on sick leave. However, the investigation into Mr Timpson is said to be unconnected with Operation Lancet. Mr Timpson is replaced on the Lancet inquiry by Lloyd Clarke, Deputy Chief Constable of West Yorkshire.

November 4, 1999 . . . Richard Brunstrom, assistant Chief Constable with Cleveland Police, quits and moves to North Wales Police.

December 1, 1999 . . . Det Supt Mallon marks the second anniversary of his suspension with a scathing attack on the Police Complaints Authority which, he claims, smeared him. He predicts the investigation will end without criminal charges being laid against him, and he calls on Jack Straw to instigate a public inquiry so that the main players can be called to account.

February 10, 2000 . . . Det Supt Mallon acknowledges that he may never be allowed to return to policing, even if he is cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. Andrew Timpson retires.

March 6, 2000 . . . Cleveland's acting Deputy Chief Constable David Earnshaw retires while he is the subject of a Police Complaints Authority investigation.

March 14, 2000 . . . A decision on whether the first police officers were to be prosecuted as part of Operation Lancet was to be announced later this month. But Solicitor General Ross Cranston warned that further files relating to the inquiry have yet to be considered.

April 1, 2000 . . . It is announced that there are no grounds for disciplinary action against Cleveland's Acting Deputy Chief Constable David Earnshaw.

June 13, 2000 . . . Public inquiry demanded into Operation Lancet by MP Ashok Kumar amid fears the cost of the probe have run to nearly £5m.

June 15, 2000 . . . MP Dari Taylor, member for Stockton South, claims Cleveland Police is losing public support.

June 20, 2000 . . . Crown Prosecution Service announces there will be no prosecution of Det Supt Mallon as there is insufficient evidence.

June 23, 2000 . . . Det Supt Mallon challenges his bosses to reinstate him.

June 24, 2000 . . . Chief Constable Barry Shaw faces calls to quit after a judge says a "catalogue of errors" turned an inquiry into the alleged police theft of a £20 boiler into a £500,000 farce. Judges Henriques was so angered by the collapse of the case against Det Insp Russ Daglish and Det Con Whitehead that he ordered Chief Supt Kevin Pitt to appear before him.

July 18, 2000 . . . Chief Supt Kevin Pitt becomes the fifth senior Lancet officer not to see the corruption inquiry through.

August 8, 2000 . . . Det Supt Mallon makes a formal complaint to the Home Secretary that senior officers have conspired to pervert the course of justice. He asks solicitors to write to Jack Straw alleging the conspiracy against him. Members of Det Supt Mallon's legal team say they have compiled evidence to back the claims.

September 12, 2000 . . . Cleveland Police are accused of "scraping the barrel" to find 14 disciplinary charges against Det Supt Mallon. The Police Complaints Authority reveals it will charge Det Supt Mallon with 14 unspecified offences later in the week.

December 5, 2000 . . . The Crown Prosecution Service says "there is insufficient evidence" to bring a prosecution against ex-assistant Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom.

December 22, 2000 . . . The CPS reveals there will be no criminal charges arising from Operation Dollar, an investigation into Cleveland Police by West Yorkshire Police, into allegations made by Det Supt Mallon.

February 13, 2001 . . . Barry Shaw hints that the inquiry will end with all 393 criminal allegations being thrown out.

February 22, 2001 . . . Official confirmation is given that Operation Lancet is over and no charges are to be brought.

March 30, 2001 . . . The first of the officers suspended as part of the controversial Operation Lancet investigat-ion return to work.

March 31, 2001 . . . CALLS for a Home Office inquiry into Operation Lancet are growing following a £1.9m Government donation to help meet mounting costs.

April 4, 2001 . . . THE former chief constable who headed Britain's biggest corruption investigation 30 years ago is asked to lead a Home Office investigation into the inquiry. Sir John Hoddinott - dubbed "Untouchable" by fellow offic-ers for rooting out corruption - was chosen by Jack Straw.

April 7, 2001 . . . Operation Dollar, set up to examine allegations made by Det Supt Mallon, ends with just one officer facing a disciplinary hearing.

June 7, 2001 . . . The Cleveland officer whose allegations triggered the suspension of Det Supt Mallon is dismissed. Det Insp Russ Daglish, together with Det Con Brendon Whitehead, was sacked following a disciplin-ary hearing.

June 29, 2001 . . . Det Supt Mallon is described as "a prisoner of the police complaints system" as it becomes obvious he will not be returning to work until the disciplinary hearing.

July 10, 2001 . . . A LEADING member of Cleveland Police Authority quits in frustration at the "serious flaws" exposed by one of Britain's biggest anti-corruption inquiries. Barry Foxton stands down only weeks after the Home Secretary ordered a review of Operation Lancet.

July 11, 2001 . . . Police Complaints Authority warns its report on Lancet may be delayed for fear of prejudicing future hearings.

July 13, 2001 . . . Cleveland Police Authority suggests the Government introduces new powers to prevent criticism of long running anti-corruption inquiries.

August 10, 2001 . . . Ray Mallon announces his intention to quit and seek election as Mayor of Middlesbrough.

August 17, 2001 . . . Det Supt Mallon is told he cannot quit until the disciplinary hearing is finished.

September 22, 2001 . . . A ninth officer is to face disciplinary charges as a result of Lancet.

September 28, 2001 . . . A new man is appointed to head the Operation Lancet Home Office inquiry. Former Chief Inspector Bill Taylor takes over after Sir John Hoddinott is found dead in his hotel room.

October 22, 2001 . . . Det Supt Mallon disciplinary hearing begins.

December 20, 2001 . . . Det Supt Mallon voices fears the hearing may prevent him from standing as Mayor.

January 3, 2002 . . . Det Supt Mallon is named Man of the Year 2001 by listeners of Radio Cleveland

Februar7 6, 2002 . . . Det Supt Mallon announces he is to plead guilty to disciplinary charges so he can be free of Cleveland Police.

February 12, 2002 . . . MR Mallon walks away from his police career - but the bitterness and recriminations are far from over

[Spanish-Inquisition]

Revealed: 'Evil Empire' of corrupt police boss

Ray Mallon wants the public to be his judge and jury. But secret documents seen by David Rose detail the drug dealing, cover-ups and lies that made a mockery of 'zero tolerance' policing

The Observer, Sunday February 17, 2002

After weeks of surveillance and intelligence-gathering, the Cleveland Police Organised Crime Group were ready to make their move. Their target, Michael Richardson, was believed to be one of Teesside's most prolific drug dealers, turning over cocaine and heroin worth thousands of pounds each week. Not a user himself, he tried to avoid carrying drugs on his person, leaving his 'joeys' - addicted minions paid in fixes - to run the risks.

It was 1.30pm on 1 May 1997, and the police had been told by a reliable source that Richardson had had a recent delivery: inside his flat in the Middlesbrough suburb of Marton were substantial amounts of heroin. Eight officers smashed their way through the three mortice locks securing the front door, and while Richardson and two associates looked on, searched every inch of the property. They found nothing.

It wasn't poor intelligence which foiled the operation, but police corruption. Less than an hour before Richardson had his door kicked in, he received a phone call warning him what was about to happen. He used the time to seal the heroin in plastic and 'plug' it - hide it in his rectum. Later, the police discovered who gave him the tip-off - Brendon Whitehead, a serving detective in Middlesbrough CID, who has since been sacked.

The abortive raid on Richardson and the subsequent attempted cover-up formed just part of the case against Detective Superintendent Ray 'Robocop' Mallon, the flamboyant former Middlesbrough CID chief and arch-prophet of 'zero tolerance' policing, who was once held out as a national role model by the media, by the former Home Secretaries Michael Howard and Jack Straw, and by Tony Blair.

Last week, more than four years after being suspended from duty, Mallon pleaded guilty to 14 disciplinary charges, admitting that he repeatedly lied, deliberately withheld evidence from senior officers, and turned a blind eye to detectives who took and dealt hard drugs, and supplied them to vulnerable suspects in custody. Paul Acres, the Hertfordshire Chief Constable who presided over Mallon's police tribunal, ruled that no fewer than 11 charges were individually serious enough to require his resignation.

In a dramatic confrontation at Wednesday's meeting of the Cleveland Police Authority, Barry Shaw, the chief constable, looked a defiant Mallon directly in the eye as he publicly accused him of being at the centre of an 'empire of evil'. Mallon, he said, had done all in his power to try to suppress the truth, and had waged 'an unrelenting campaign to vilify those seeking justice'. Shaking with anger, Shaw quoted Ian Bynoe, deputy chairman of the independent Police Complaints Authority, who supervised the Mallon investigation. The charges he had admitted 'cannot be dismissed as the odd error of judgment or excusable mistake'. Instead, they were 'wholly incompatible with the standards required of even the most junior of police staff'.

Aware that any comment he made might be considered prejudicial, Shaw has waited since Mallon's suspension in November 1997 to have his say. At 61 he is Britain's oldest chief constable, and has delayed his retirement by at least two years, determined to conclude a case he views as a vital test for the future of ethical policing, and fearful that any successor might let the matter drop. Throughout that time he has endured attacks by Mallon's powerful allies: the Labour peer Lord MacKenzie of Framwellgate, a close personal friend of Mallon and the former chairman of the Police Superintendents' Association, who has claimed time and again that the allegations were 'trivial'; the MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Ashok Kumar, who asked almost 50 parliamentary questions and demanded Shaw's resignation; some of his own officers; and numerous journalists in the local and national media.

The Observer has learnt that Mallon did not plead guilty once but twice. After first admitting the charges on 4 February, Acres ordered he return to the tribunal two days later and repeat the exercise, and provide a firm assurance that he offered his pleas as an unequivocal acceptance of guilt. In the privacy of the closed tribunal, Mallon meekly complied. In public, last week he proved his assurance had been worthless, telling reporters he was not really guilty at all. He had only pleaded guilty in order to be sacked, he claimed, so he could leave the police in time to stand in May as Middlesbrough's first elected mayor. Then, he insisted, the city's people would be his 'judge and jury'.

Despite its length, the details of Operation Lancet, the codename for the Mallon inquiry, have until today remained secret. However, The Observer has now seen hundreds of pages of documents compiled by the investigators, and can sketch its principal contours for the first time.

Ray Mallon moved to Middlesbrough in 1996, after a posting in Hartlepool widely considered a stunning success. With his gym-honed physique and sharp-shouldered suits, he was an exceptional motivator of staff, exhorting them to still greater efforts in the war against crime with the passion of a revivalist preacher. Mallon threw himself into the job with gusto. If he did not manage to cut crime by 20% in his first year, he told the media, he would resign.

Despite his evident enthusiasm, there was unease among his colleagues at one of his first acts. Two years earlier, a Middlesbrough detective had been transferred to uniform for acting improperly with one of his informants. Even before Mallon began his new posting, the man was earnestly lobbying him to allow him back in the CID. Mallon agreed, appointing him to a new 'intelligence unit'. That officer was Brendon Whitehead.

At Mallon's weekly motivational sessions, he used to praise Whitehead to his plainclothes and uniformed colleagues as a 'risk taker,' precisely the kind of officer Middlesbrough needed to get the desired results. In fact, as Mallon became increasingly aware, he was a reckless cocaine user, whose relationships with criminals went far beyond the proper legal boundaries governing contact between detectives and informants. Operation Lancet took several statements from officers and civilians who reported Whitehead taking drugs in local pubs, at least once snorting cocaine directly from the bar.

In March 1997, evidence surfaced that another detective - who cannot be named for legal reasons - had given a female prisoner heroin. On 23 May, still more serious claims emerged. Statements in the Lancet dossier describe how Whitehead and two colleagues took a prisoner, Peter Matthews, out of the police station for a drive. Matthews was a known heroin addict, who had been arrested for burglary and theft. The ostensible purpose of taking him out was to gather 'intelligence'.

Later, Matthews told Lancet what happened. Whitehead, he said, told him he was going to take him 'off station and buy me a pint and get me some gear. By this I mean heroin. When we left the police station DC Whitehead was driving the car, we went to a garage not far from the police station'. One of the other officers got out 'and said he was going for the gear ... we got to a pub somewhere. I had been given the gear, which I took.' He was taken inside the pub and given two pints of lager. In his drugged state, he was told to 'write something on official paper and I signed this. I believe it was admissions to offences.'

However, on this occasion, the detectives' behaviour was impossible to ignore. As Matthews was being led back to his cell, a uniformed officer spotted a cigarette packet in his shirt pocket. Inside were the remains of the heroin, and the rolled aluminium foil which he had used to smoke it inside the detectives' car.

An official inquiry began, but Mallon said nothing of the concerns he already had about Whitehead and his colleagues, and even arranged for one of the officers to visit the cells in the middle of the night and talk to Matthews again. A few days later he held a meeting for the CID. According to the Lancet dossier, he told Whitehead: 'The biggest thing you did wrong was getting caught.' Matthews, however, was a criminal, 'and no one would believe him'. He told the three detectives to say nothing.

The following week he held his regular motivational gathering. A uniformed PC, who like most of those present knew all about the discovery of Matthews's heroin, described Mallon's speech: 'He stated he liked officers who were what he described as "troublemakers". He said if they had problems they were to go and see him and he would sort out their problems. He then singled out each of the three officers who had been involved with Matthews and got each to confirm his comments that he helped officers in times of trouble. I was flabbergasted.'

The raid on Michael Richardson was not the only major drugs operation foiled by a tip-off from Middlesbrough police station which came to light during Lancet. But the relationship which emerged between the trafficker and the CID was extraordinary. Here too Mallon has pleaded guilty to what amounts to a cynical cover-up. His role in this case became the trigger for his suspension.

It was 6 October 1997: in the wake of the Matthews case, Lancet was already under way, and suspicion over what had happened before Richardson's door went in was running high. A pale, thin, sobbing girl, aged 16, presented herself at the station, the supposed national centre of zero tolerance policing. She said that she had been brutally beaten and raped by her former boyfriend, Michael Richardson.

Over the next few hours, officers trained in coaxing statements from the victims of sexual assaults took down her harrowing story. As they did so, a parallel horror became apparent: that Richardson had been protected for months by at least two detectives. One of them, she said, was Whitehead, who had given Richardson a police-issue CS gas cannister to use against rival criminals; had taken cocaine with him; had bought heroin from him to give to prisoners in exchange for information; had arranged for addicts who owed Richardson money to be arrested; and had phoned him from the police station before the 1 May raid. She had been present, and had seen Richardson stuff the drugs into his anus.

The girl was plainly terrified. A uniformed inspector took charge of the case, and she told him 'she feared that if CID officers became involved their association with Richardson would result in his release'. Next morning, the inspector took her and her mother to see Mallon.

'Robocop' had been at the gym, and was dressed in a tracksuit; as the meeting began, he was towel-drying his hair. He listened to the girl's story with apparent sympathy. According to her statement, before she left his office, 'Mr Mallon took my hand and kissed it and said something like, "It's a pity Michael did not kiss you like that."'

Mallon's subsequent actions - all of which he has admitted - belied that inappropriately affectionate attitude. The uniformed inspector had drawn up a report, setting out the girl's allegations about Richardson's relationship with detectives, and recommending an immediate inquiry. Mallon sat beside him and scored out all the most incriminating details, ordering him to produce an alternative, diluted version. They did not need to be investigated, Mallon said, because they amounted merely to 'hearsay'. Unfortunately for Mallon, the inspector kept the original, and supplied it to Operation Lancet. As the disciplinary tribunal was much later to comment, the deleted allegations 'were of a serious nature, well capable of investigation and [must be] viewed as a further attempt to thwart a proper investigation'.

Forced to stay silent by the rules of subjudice, Barry Shaw has not found the past 51 months easy. He has endured anonymous death threats, seemingly endless leaks to the media, and above all, further lies. For example, Mallon claimed repeatedly that he was never formally interviewed by Operation Lancet, protesting he was only too ready to answer all the allegations if only he were given a chance. In fact, he was interviewed twice, and on both occasions he exercised his right to make no comment.

'Zero tolerance sent a powerful message to the people of Teesside,' Shaw said yesterday, 'to people who badly needed hope and encouragement. That's why I endorsed it. But what happened was a total betrayal of what zero tolerance stood for. Custody areas should be among the safest places in the country. In Middlesbrough, they were a place where corrupt detectives supplied hard drugs. If one isn't prepared to tackle this kind of issue with whatever it takes, one shouldn't be a chief constable.'

Lancet uncovered many unpleasant facts. But there was one question, Shaw said, to which it had no answer. 'The thing I'll never know is why. If only he'd come to me and said, "Chief, I'm out of my depth here, I've got officers taking and supplying drugs, I may have made a few mistakes, I'm sorry and let's do something about it." Instead he stuck to his lies and cover-ups and fought and fought. Until quite a late stage he might have backed out of it. For whatever reason, he chose not to.'

[Spanish-Inquisition]

The Kingdom of Cleveland

https://althistory.fandom.com/wiki/King ... Doomsday)

Read it and weep