Prosecution ‘did not review full footage of Christopher Alder’s death until police trial started’

UNLAWFULLY KILLED: Christopher Alder

By Simon Bristow, Co-Editor

Prosecutors did not fully investigate CCTV footage from the police station where Christopher Alder died until the trial of five officers charged over the incident had already begun, it has been claimed.

When two independent experts commissioned by the Crown Prosecution Service reviewed the footage they found evidence of suspected racism in the audio, but it was too late to introduce into the proceedings, it is claimed.

The CPS later accepted a police transcript of the audio which found no evidence of racism and alternative explanations for comments made, Christopher’s sister Janet Alder says.

Janet uncovered the alleged failings while researching Defiance, a book about the case which is being launched in Hull tomorrow.

Christopher, a Black former paratrooper and father-of-two, was 37 when he died on the floor of the custody suite at Queens Gardens police station in Hull on April 1, 1998. He choked to death with his arms handcuffed behind his back and his trousers around his ankles. An inquest jury found he was unlawfully killed.

Janet says that before the trial of the five officers in 2002 she was only shown 11 minutes of the footage from when Christopher was brought into the custody suite at 3.46am. This did not contain any of the alleged racism by officers.

But she claims alleged racism was identified in the longer footage reviewed for the CPS, which it is claimed included “monkey noises”, a reference to eye-holes in hoods, and “I’m not going on that f****** banana boat”.

Janet says the CPS later accepted the police version of the audio, which said the phrase used was “banana boots” in a reference to yellow paper forensic shoes worn by police.

She said the longer version of the footage was only reviewed after she put pressure on prosecutors during the trial.

Janet told The Hull Story: “Before the trial they said they were going to leave the issue [of racism] open. But then the two people they sent the footage to said there was definitely evidence of these comments. I didn’t understand at the time it could not be introduced at the trial because they had not disclosed it to the defence.

“The CPS basically dismissed their own evidence in favour of the police.”

Five Humberside Police officers had been charged with manslaughter and misconduct in public office, but the trial collapsed when the jury was directed to find them not guilty on the orders of the judge.

The Alder family suffered further anguish in November 2011 when it was revealed Christopher’s body was in the mortuary at Hull Royal Infirmary, 11 years after his family thought they had buried him. Grace Kamara, a 77-year-old Nigerian woman, had been buried in his grave. This only came to light when Grace’s family arrived to prepare her body for burial and were told it could not be found.

A 15-month investigation into the burial scandal by South Yorkshire Police did not lead to any prosecution.

In 2018, two Humberside Police officers accused of spying on Janet and her barrister at the inquest into Christopher’s death were cleared of gross misconduct after a panel at a police tribunal found there was no case to answer.

As well as the focus on Christopher’s death and events surrounding his case, the book is also part autobiography. Janet is one of five children to Herbert Ade Alder and Christine Love Alder, who emigrated to the UK from Nigeria. All the children were brought up in care after Christine was deported to Nigeria after being treated in a psychiatric hospital. Janet was never told where and does not know if she is still alive.

Of her other siblings, Emmanuel, 65, died in a Blackburn care home from Covid in 2022; Stephen, 56, died after collapsing in psychiatric hospital in Hull in 2022; and Richard is 64. Christopher would have been 63.

Herbert, a former merchant seaman who also worked at BAE Systems and Reckitt Benckiser, died in 1981 aged 65.

Janet says of this aspect of her book: “I wanted to show why my brother was in psychiatric hospital and why I fight so hard to be allowed to exist with equality. The state basically failed my family from day one.”

She is proud of what she has accomplished in the book, which is written with Dan Glazebrook.

“I feel very honoured to have been able to put it all together,” said Janet, 62. “So many things have happened. I feel sad but good in a way because I’ve been able to put it together.

“It’s made me realise who I am as a person. The whole fight. I’ve had to juggle myself about and find out who I am. I’ve got more confidence now than when I was younger. Despite all the questions I’ve had from people I know who I am so I don’t have to answer to anybody.”

She added: “I can’t believe so many people have had their hands on it [the case] but nobody’s had the courage to do anything about it. They were quite willing to put it all on me. They put a gagging order on me and said just leave it. Well I can’t do that.”

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: “This was a deeply tragic case and we recognise the pain felt by Mr Alder’s loved ones. The CPS charged a number of police officers in connection to the death of Christopher Alder but their trial in 2002 was stopped, and the jury was directed to find them not guilty.

“Our thoughts remain with Mr Alder’s family for the loss they endured.”

At the time the CPS expressed disappointment at the outcome of the trial of the officers but said it respected the judge’s decision. The CPS said it cannot review detailed claims about the original prosecution as it does not retain historic case files as a security measure.

• Defiance is published by Dialogue / Hachette UK and will be launched at Hull Afro Caribbean Association in Park Street at 6.30pm on Saturday, October 19