An MP hit out today after a report into North Yorkshire's police sexual harassment scandal was kept under wraps.

Assistant chief constable Peter Walker is refusing to let North Yorkshire Police Authority see the report by Nottinghamshire Chief Constable Colin Bailey into the involvement of junior officers in the canteen culture at Harrogate police station in the early 1990s.

Mr Walker says that, after taking independent legal advice, he believes it would be "inappropriate" at this stage to share the report with the authority - which commissioned the report in the first place.

He says he has taken this decision particularly in the light of the need to protect the interests of the individuals concerned, and to ensure that any steps he takes in response to the report are not compromised and open to legal challenge.

He says that, once the procedure has been completed, he will brief the authority on the issues in the report and make its contents available for inspection.

Another report by Mr Bailey, commissioned by Staffordshire Police Authority to look into North Yorkshire's former assistant chief constable John Giffard's handling of sexual harassment matters, is also being withheld by Staffordshire from the North Yorkshire authority, because of the presumption of confidentiality.

But Harrogate MP Phil Willis today attacked the two decisions, saying: "It is incomprehensible that, after all the public concern about the sexual harassment of policewomen in Harrogate and the massive pay-outs of taxpayers' money, we can still have a cloak of secrecy placed around these events.

"What are the North Yorkshire police trying to hide?"

But authority chairwoman Angela Harris said today she fully backed Mr Walker's decision, even though the situation was frustrating. Chief Constable David Kenworthy said today: "I am not hiding anything at all, merely following the law, as I am sure a Member of Parliament would expect me to do".

Dave Merrett, a member of the North Yorkshire authority until earlier this year, said he recognised it was important not to compromise any necessary disciplinary action against the individuals concerned but it was absolutely essential that the police authority and the public were told at the appropriate point what had been going on.

see COMMENT 'Secrecy harms Police image'

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