Another policeman to face charges in corruption probe

The Cleveland Police Constable, who has not been suspended, will face two disciplinary charges alleging neglect of duty following the Operation Lancet inquiry.

The officer will be legally represented at the hearing, which will be led by a chief constable from another force, but no date has yet been fixed, a PCA spokesman said today.

The four-and-half-year inquiry Operation Lancet is estimated to have already cost around £6 million.

The announcement was described as "a bolt out of the blue" by Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, tonight.

He wants Cleveland Police Authority to ask detailed searching questions about this latest development at their meeting next week.

The PCA said the charges had been put to the detective in agreement with Cleveland Police who are refusing to comment about this latest embarrassment.

Two superintendents, including Ray Mallon, the suspended former head of Middlesbrough CID, are facing between them, a total of 18 charges. Six lower ranking officers between them face 38 disciplinary charges.

News of charges against a ninth police officer comes on the eve of the fourth anniversary of Lancet, which came to an end earlier this year, but for the internal disciplinary hearings at Force HQ.

Dr Kumar said: "I just don't understand what is going on, although I think most people have now switched off in regard to Cleveland Police and what is happening systematically to one officer after another.

"I am most surprised that every other officer has been suspended in the past and here we have a new case. "I think Chief Constable Barry Shaw has some explaining to do regarding this matter as to why when previously officers have been suspended from duty, this one has not. We were told Operation Lancet was completed - over - but here is an example that it is not complete, but alive and kicking."

Read more about Operation Lancet here.