Questions over Sussex Police's role in helping retired top-cop deal with whistleblower in new job

Two officers from the force travelled thousands of miles to St Helena in the South Pacific at the request of the island's then chief of police, Peter Coll, to investigate an officer who had raised concerns with an MP.

They found the officer had broken the island's police regulations by breaching confidence.

But the Sussex Police officers' findings have now been overturned by another force, a new report has revealed.

The report, commissioned by the Foreign Office, also found the whistleblower, Michael Anderson, had no support during his hearing with the Sussex officers, as was his right.

Investigators, led by Sacha Wass QC, found that Sussex Police’s enquiries “did no more than seek to justify the decision that had already been taken" by the St Helena Government and agreed with Mr Coll, to persuade Mr Anderson to resign.

Their report added that Mr Coll, a former Sussex chief superintendent, was “unwise” in getting officers from his former force to investigate, due to the perception of bias.

The report also looked into Mr Coll's handling of a separate case in which he was accused of failing to properly heed a warning that a man called Jeromy Cairns-Wicks was a danger to children.

It was found he could have had a case to answer for neglect of duty after he gave the man, who has since been jailed for 11 years, a job in the police.

In the report Mr Coll said he hired Cairns-Wicks as it was “better to have him where we can keep an eye on him."

With regards Mr Anderson, investigators said officers were not asked to look into the substance of allegations he had made to the MP.

Those included that the public had no faith in the police on the British Overseas Territory, that Mr Coll said he viewed the post as a “holiday” and that there was an accepted culture of older men having sexual relations with young girls.

Some of his allegations were found to be untrue.

But Northumbria Police, who were sent in to investigate after a charity alleged the island was ridden with sexual abuse and police corruption, said his motives were honourable, and that he had no personal axe to grind.

The report said: “Investigators consider his actions came within the orbit of a person reporting potential wrongdoing formerly referred to as a ‘whistleblower’ and that he should have been treated as such.”

Mr Anderson told The Argus on Thursday he had yet to receive the apology the Wass report recommends, and believed Sussex’s involvement did not meet police regulations on sending officers overseas.

On Thursday Jonathan Hartley, from the advocacy service Whistleblower.co.uk, said: “Mr Anderson went through all the correct channels to make a complaint.

“Again the whistleblower became the target rather than the alleged misdemeanours that they are complaining about.

“Sussex Police was far too close to have led that investigation. The public perception will be that they are not totally independent.”

Peter Coll defended the use of his former force, arguing the link was officially recommended.

Sussex Police said its involvement was agreed in principle with the then chief constable, Martin Richards.

A spokesman added: "At the time, Sussex Police was not aware of the formal authorisation required for sending officers to assist overseas police forces, but subsequently liaised with the Home Office who provided the necessary information and documentation."

The Wass report found there was no evidence of the endemic sexual abuse or police corruption on the island that had been alleged by the Lucy Faithfull Foundation charity’s report, which was leaked to the media last August.

It said the charity had been misled by two social workers trying to bring an employment tribunal against the Foreign Office.

A WHISTLEBLOWER WRONGED

ST HELENA is one of the most remote islands in the world.

Reached by a Royal Mail ship over four nights from Cape Town, it has a population of fewer than 5,000.

Yet over the past two to three years, the tiny British Overseas Territory has been visited by numerous investigators drawn by allegations of endemic child abuse and corruption.

Those claims “grossly and unfairly tarnished” the South Atlantic island, a recent enquiry found, even if there were serious gaps in safeguarding.

For Peter Coll, the move to St Helena followed a distinguished career in Sussex Police, in which he reached the rank of chief superintendent.

In October 2012 Michael Anderson, a retired UK officer who had joined St Helena Police Service in 2011, wrote anonymously to a Hampshire MP.

He raised concerns, telling Mark Hoban that people on St Helena had no faith in the police, that Peter Coll “boasted he was only on St Helena for a holiday” and that people in power were immune from prosecution.

Among other matters, he added it was considered acceptable on St Helena for older men to engage in sexual activity with young girls and that there was no sex offenders’ register.

His letter was well intentioned even if not all the claims turned out to be accurate, the latest inquiry led by Sacha Wass QC found.

But she concluded that what happened next to Mr Anderson was neither fair nor proper.

According to the report, on November 27, administrator Colin Wells told the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that “Coll was going to talk Anderson through the letter and bring him into a position where he will admit responsibility and seek a dignified and quick exit from Ascension”.

He noted Anderson only had months left on his contract, and said: “Coll seemed confident that Anderson would go… Coll is going to have his work cut out getting this right,” according to the Wass report.

Mr Anderson resigned on November 28, the day after meeting with Mr Coll and denying sending the letter to the MP. That was technically true as his wife had sent it. He was due to leave the island on December 8.

Shortly after, officers from Sussex Police, an external force chosen by Mr Coll, arrived on the island tasked with investigating Mr Anderson for leaking information – but with no mandate to explore the concerns he raised.

They carried out a disciplinary interview with Mr Anderson on December 5, but he was unable to nominate at short notice a “police friend” to support him, as was his right, and chose not to answer any questions.

He was not given the opportunity to reconvene and instead, the Wass inquiry said, Sussex investigators “went straight on to submit their report on the basis of the information available to them, concluding that on the balance of probabilities Mr Anderson had committed a breach of confidence”.

It was not until July 2013 that Northumbria Police looked again at Mr Anderson’s case, finding that he should have been treated as a whistleblower.

Their officers found Mr Coll’s response “unusual”, noting it “contrasts very starkly with his approach when matters relating to the alleged shortcomings of policing in St Helena were raised”.

The Wass inquiry said it fully supported Northumbria’s findings, adding that Mr Coll’s reaction was “ill judged” and his choice of Sussex police to investigate was “bound to create a perception of bias”.

It was only after Mr Anderson left that the St Helena government properly turned to the truth of Mr Anderson’s allegations, the Wass inquiry says. A report by the Southern Oceans law enforcement adviser concluded that he made some founded and some unfounded allegations, according to the Wass report. It was true there was no sex offenders’ register and child protection was an ongoing issue.

But his concerns were not malicious and he had gone about raising them in an acceptable way, investigators found.

By contrast, the Wass inquiry said a report by the Lucy Faithfull Foundation charity, which alleged police corruption and endemic child abuse, had been compromised by two social workers on the island retaliating against accusations of incompetence.

In an email to The Argus last week, Mr Coll said he welcomed that the Wass enquiry “found absolutely no evidence of corruption”.

He added it “clarified and put an end to many of the unhelpful rumours and factual inaccuracies that had been previously reported in the press regarding St Helena”.

“We were committed to doing all we could for those victims with the resources and skills available to us,” he continued. “I am pleased that the Wass inquiry recognises the positive record of prosecutions and convictions for sexual offences during that time.”

Investigators strongly criticised the social workers, Claire Gannon and Martin Warsama, for misleading the charity report.

But they said Mr Anderson was treated neither “fairly or properly by the St Helena Police Service or the St Helena government” and deserved an apology. He has yet to receive one.

COLL: I DID NOT NEGLECT DUTY

Peter Coll started as Chief of Police in St Helena after leaving Sussex Police in 2009. He left the post in November 2013. 

PETER COLL could have had a case to answer for neglect of duty for failing to properly heed a warning that a man was a danger to children, an investigation has found.

Mr Coll hired Jeromy Cairns-Wicks as a police officer on St Helena and promoted him to sergeant, claiming it was “better to have him where we can keep an eye on him”, the investigation found.

Cairns-Wicks was jailed in 2013 for 11 years after being convicted of child pornography and firearms offences, according to a report commissioned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

Northumbria Police, investigating several matters on St Helena at the request of the FCO, found Mr Coll should have investigated misgivings about Cairns-Wicks when they were first raised to him in 2010.

They found: “Whatever the exact terms of the warnings and misgivings confided to chief of police Peter Coll and whatever his verbal responses were, they clearly should have merited proper investigation and inquiry.

“On more than the balance of probabilities, in fact to a standard of beyond reasonable doubt, chief of police Coll would have had a case to answer under the police disciplinary ordinance of St Helena for the disciplinary offence of ‘neglect of duty’.”

The report added that since former Mr Coll is now retired, no proceedings for disciplinary offence are either possible or justified.

Mr Coll, a former Sussex superintendent, said he “strongly refutes” he neglected his duty and said he fully co-operated with Northumbria officers.

He told investigators he had approached Cairns-Wicks’ former boss in social services after hearing the misgivings in 2010 and was told she did not have any concerns.

According to the report, he then told the adult who had raised the concerns: “It’s better to have him where we can keep an eye on him. We will put him in a back room where he can do no harm.”

The Wass inquiry also found that Northumbria Police’s investigation into Mr Coll’s handling of the Cairns-Wicks case should have been made public.