POLICE CONDUCT

During Thomas’s trial, Detective Superintendent Rodney Whitfield Murray retired from the force at the age of forty-eight.  Shortly after the trial, Detective Chief Inspector John David Richardson also retired from the force.

One of the witnesses at the trial, a radio journalist who was walking past Chestergate Autos when the murderer drove out, gave his evidence.  After giving evidence he spoke to DCI Richardson whom he knew well. He told him that the man in the dock was not he man that he saw driving away from the murder scene.  As far as we are aware, DCI Richardson did not record this information and did not pass it on to the defence team.  We only found out about it years later when Bob Duffield, who originally researched the case for TVs Trial and Error programme, went to talk to the witness.

The bulk of the investigation into the murders was carried out by Detective Inspector Kenny Caldwell

DI Kenny Caldwell, as has been proven over the past several years, is one of the most corrupt individuals ever to have served in the police force.  It was said by his own internal investigating officers during interview with Caldwell in 2002, “Under your command, your officers have shown a total and complete disregard for the laws and procedures that govern how the police service should operate.  There appears within that team a complete lack of honesty and integrity.  The actions of your staff have precluded any thorough investigation and the true offenders will never face justice”.  They continue, “In Harvey v Gifford in 1994, it was held that a police enquiry is a course of justice and you and all your staff have effectively perverted the course of justice in excess of 600 occasions”.   This resulted in J Division, Stockport being disbanded by the Chief Constable of Manchester.

Several of these junior officers were part of the squad who investigated the MOT murders.  This in itself explains the corrupt nature of the investigation. Quite incredibly, DS Damian Moran, one of Caldwell’s junior officers involved in the murder investigation, was the senior officer responsible for correlating evidence for the prosecution for the leave to appeal hearing in October 2007. 

When Caldwell was asked by the prosecuting counsel for the leave to appeal hearing to make a statement with regards to covert taping and whether or not he was the senior officer who went with Mr Peter Openshaw QC to see the trial judge, he refused to do so and said any further contact should be made through his solicitor.