Kevin Nunes: Top cop admits regret over Staffordshire Police mistakes in botched inquiry
A top police officer embroiled in the botched Kevin Nunes murder inquiry has spoken of her 'regret' over mistakes made by the force on the case.
Staffordshire Chief Constable Jane Sawyers, who retires this Sunday, was one of 14 officers investigated by the police watchdog after five Black Country gangsters jailed for the 2002 firing squad-style killing successfully challenged their convictions amid a series of police failings.
She was officially cleared of any wrongdoing last year. The probe recommended she had a case to answer for gross misconduct over the case but this was rejected by Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis.
In her first interview over the Nunes scandal, Mrs Sawyers - who was in charge of professional standards at the time of the original bungled murder investigation - admitted 'mistakes had been made' by her force but strenuously denied there was ever a conspiracy.
She said: "The simple fact is, and this has now found to be the case, mistakes were made that should not have been made by Staffordshire Police during the investigation.
"Nobody is or ever has denied that. What there was not was a conspiracy or any form of intention and again that is what has been found following a very lengthy investigation.
"Unfortunately police officers are as fallible as anyone else and mistakes can get made, it is just sometimes they have serious consequences.
"But that is what happened, mistakes were made. Nearly four and a half years of investigation and a very lengthy and detailed investigation found no evidence whatsoever, either criminally or misconduct wise, of any intention to conspire or deceive. I cannot really put it any other way."
Mrs Sawyers, who spent 33 years with Staffordshire Police, acknowledged the impact the case has had on Kevin Nunes' family, saying: "I have said during this investigation that we should never ever lose sight of the fact that a man lost his life and a family lost their loved one.
"We have never lost sight of that fact. Staffordshire Police absolutely accepts that mistakes were made during the investigation and regrets those mistakes. In fact I will go further, I regret any mistakes that were made by Staffordshire Police that led to the family feeling that they have not received justice."
Kevin Nunes, 20, of Whitmore Reans, was killed in a gangland drugs turf war and his body was found in a country lane in Pattingham in 2002.
He was a promising footballer at Stafford Rangers and had been on the books of Tottenham Hotspur.
Five men were jailed for life in 2008 for the murder of Nunes but their convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal in 2012 after serious police failings were revealed - including a damning dossier that was never disclosed to the court during the original trial.
The dossier, named the Costello Report, included revelations that detectives accompanied the case's star witness to bars and drunk alcohol with him, that detectives failed to record the fact the witness stole £320 of police funds, and that a detective had stayed at hotels with another officer he was having an affair with while on protected witness duties.
The Costello Report was made public in January after the Express & Star won a year-long Freedom of Information battle.
But the names of police officers who worked on the case were removed.
On top of this an Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation into fourteen officers in the case has still not published its full report two-and-half years after its inquiry was concluded.
The IPCC ruled there was no evidence of a cover-up or of wilful omission by senior officers but its chief investigator recommended three Chief Constables and an Assistant Chief Constable, including Mrs Sawyers, had cases to answer for gross misconduct. But these never happened as they were rejected by various police and crime commissioners.
Asked about releasing the IPCC report and a non-redacted version of the Costello Report, Mrs Sawyers said: "It is difficult for me to comment on the reports. I never have and never will be in charge of what the family do and do not see. It is not us holding anything back.
"The things that are being redacted are not evidence in relation to the investigation, they are names and the like which could compromise individuals or sensitive policing tactics. There is not anything held back about what went wrong that is in the report."
