THE one hope against hope concerning Operation Lancet was that, for all its bitter recriminations, excessive cost and attendant embarrassments, it would one day tell us indisputably the rights and wrongs of a case that has blighted an entire police force.

Yesterday, Lancet failed, collapsing into vague inconclusiveness. Ray Mallon has his wish, free to fight the mayoral elections, but does he still have his name?

His accusers also have their wish: his admission of guilt. But what is this worth when the public can see that, through lack of time and money, he was forced into it?

Yesterday, the Police Complaints Authority issued an extraordinarily damning condemnation of Mr Mallon. Yet for this "dereliction in duty", Mr Mallon was neither sacked nor punished, merely "required to resign" as part of a secret deal. How can we square the two and form any conclusion about the rights and wrongs of Operation Lancet?

Lancet has dragged on for four-and-a-half years and has cost £7m, so it really pains us to say that an independent Governmental inquiry is the only way that the people of Cleveland will get any satisfactory answers or returns on their £7m. But it is.

That inquiry must look at how police officers investigate other police officers. It must look at the role of the chief constable and the local police authority; it must assess the performance of the PCA and the guilt of Mr Mallon himself. It must also look wider than Operation Lancet, for the allegations and counter-allegations that started to go hand-in-hand with the embarrassments that culminated so recently beside the presidential palace in Lithuania. What sort of malaise infects this force, sapping both the morale of the majority of decent, hard-working officers and the confidence of the public who pay for it and expect to be protected by it?

And it must also ensure that justice is done and is seen to be done. That's justice for Mr Mallon, justice for Chief Constable Barry Shaw and, just as importantly, justice for the people of Cleveland who have paid so much money to be left with no conclusions.

Police forces are supposed to uphold justice. If justice is mocked within a police force, what worth is it?