Orgreave papers destroyed by police thought to incorporate report on infamous truncheon beating | The miners’ strike 1984-85

Paperwork destroyed by police regarding operations at Orgreave in the course of the miners’ strike in 1984 are believed to incorporate a report on a infamous incident by which an officer beat a person over the top with a truncheon.

Within the ITV Information at 10 report on the violent scenes at Orgreave, the officer, PC Martin of Northumbria police, was seen hitting the miner, Russell Broomhead, a number of instances along with his truncheon.

Northumbria police have been extensively criticised since confirming that in April final yr they destroyed two bins of paperwork regarding the strike and the Orgreave operation. That was simply months earlier than a common election that the Labour celebration, which had a longstanding pledge to carry an inquiry into what occurred at Orgreave, was anticipated to win.

The timing led to accusations that the power had destroyed the paperwork to keep away from scrutiny of its officers’ actions.

On the Orgreave coking plant on 18 June 1984 an estimated 8,000 miners assembled for a mass picket known as by the Nationwide Union of Mineworkers, met by 4,500 cops from forces nationwide, led by South Yorkshire police.

The violence that came about, with police charging on horseback and hitting miners with truncheons, is remembered as a landmark confrontation of the bitter 1984-85 strike. A legal prosecution of 95 miners for riot and illegal meeting collapsed a yr later after the miners’ barristers repeatedly accused cops of mendacity and malpractice.

The Orgreave Fact and Justice Marketing campaign (OTJC) has for years known as for an inquiry into the police operation and the failed prosecutions. Northumbria police beforehand confirmed that they held paperwork related to the policing at Orgreave, together with a report by a superintendent who was the liaison officer for 92 officers despatched to South Yorkshire.

In 2016 Northumbria’s then chief constable, Steve Ashman, wrote to Yvette Cooper, then the chair of the house affairs choose committee, explaining that the superintendent’s report detailed an incident involving a police constable.

“This officer was believed to have been concerned in placing a ‘picket’ along with his truncheon,” Ashman wrote. “This incident is recognized as been [sic] the topic of tv information reporting … the superintendent’s report particulars how [the PC] was ‘reported’ for the offence of assault to the director of public prosecutions (DPP). The report additional outlines that the DPP subsequently determined there could be no legal prosecution within the case.”

Joe Diviney, a historian on the College of Sheffield who’s researching a PhD on the Orgreave occasions, identified that this appeared clearly to be the PC Martin incident. Martin was recognized, together with in police paperwork, because the officer who struck Broomhead, and a report was despatched to the DPP who determined, on the identical day Martin was interviewed, to not carry costs.

Throughout an interview beneath warning, Martin denied wrongdoing, and mentioned of the Orgreave policing: “It’s not a case of me going off half cock. The senior officers, supers and chief supers had been there and getting caught in too – they had been encouraging the lads and I feel their angle to the state of affairs affected what all of us did.”

Broomhead advised the Guardian: “I’d nonetheless like fact and accountability for what occurred. If one thing is improper, it stays improper. I by no means knew in all these years {that a} superintendent had written a report on the incident that concerned me. It’s unbelievable that the police can throw that doc away, with out asking me and other people it impacts.”

Kate Flannery, secretary of the OTJC, mentioned: “It now appears extremely probably that one of many paperwork destroyed by Northumbria police may relate to the PC Martin assault. Any destruction of necessary data regarding violent police assaults on placing miners signifies that essential proof is not out there to an Orgreave inquiry.

“This all provides to the numerous issues we have now about police cover-ups and justice being denied.”

A Northumbria police spokesperson mentioned final month that the paperwork had been “disposed of … in keeping with power coverage and the Information Safety Act 2018”.

After criticism, together with by the Labour MP Ian Lavery, the power has since mentioned it’s investigating its personal decision-making. “We very a lot recognise the power of feeling and concern inside our communities on the disposal of data regarding the miners’ strike,” a spokesperson mentioned. “We are able to affirm, we’re finishing up an investigation into the circumstances across the disposal of the fabric.”

The Archives and Information Affiliation is asking for police paperwork to be preserved by legislation. The affiliation’s chair, Ruth MacLeod, mentioned: “Many individuals don’t know that police information, that are necessary for accountability, could be so simply destroyed. There must be laws to guard them, and stop the type of destruction that has occurred in Northumbria.”