OPERATION Lancet must have some kind of evil curse upon it. Seemingly, every police officer, and many civilians, who have come into contact with it have ended up as its victims.

From Cleveland Chief Constable Barry Shaw, whose distinguished career was drawing to a close before he encountered widescale criticism for his handling of it and is now himself under investigation, down to Detective Superintendent Ray Mallon, who has become so sick of it that he is trying to pursue a career in politics!

From the press office civilian on sick leave because of stress to Chief Constable Andrew Timpson who headed Lancet for two years before resigning amid allegations from his own force in Warwickshire.

And, not least, the Cleveland taxpayer who, nearly four years on, is footing the £7m bill - a bill that's still rising without satisfactory results in sight.

The latest victim of this malign spell is Sir John Hoddinott - or "The Untouchable" as he was nicknamed in the 1970s when he rooted out police corruption in the seedy world of Soho pornography. Aged just 56, he was found dead in his bed in Middlesbrough yesterday as he prepared to start to work on unravelling the mess.

Our thoughts go out to his family.

Even the previous Home Secretary, Jack Straw, suffered at Lancet's hands. Despite demands for him to become directly involved, or at least to institute some sort of inquiry, he held out until the 11th hour, appointing Sir John shortly before the General Election was due to be held in May.

Now it falls to Mr Straw's successor, David Blunkett, to decide the new direction in which Lancet will lurch. In his short time in the Home Office, Mr Blunkett has shown commendable bluntness in trying to bring order to the police - witness his intervention in Sussex which saw the quick removal of the chief constable there.

Somehow, Mr Blunkett must devise a independent inquiry which looks at the local circumstances in Cleveland while learning the national lessons of how police investigations are run - and it must do it speedily.

Sadly, the best option is not open to Mr Blunkett, for not even he can turn the clock back four years and prevent the cursed Lancet from beginning