Legal action may be taken after former South Yorkshire Police detective is forced to attend misconduct hearing

The South Yorkshire branch of the Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said it will be examining the case against former Detective Sergeant Dave Walker, claiming proceedings against him should not have gone ahead.

Mr Walker was cleared yesterday of allegations that he failed to act on tip-offs about grooming gangs in Rotherham.

A misconduct panel concluded that Mr Walker had not taken any action which fell ‘below the accepted practice at the time’.

The panel noted that Mr Walker, who was head of a South Yorkshire Police unit tasked with investigating child sexual abuse in Rotherham between 2009 and 2012, had been ‘hardworking, diligent and professional in his approach to his work’.

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He faced misconduct proceedings following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct into claims he failed to record concerns made in emails from Jayne Senior, who ran the Risky Business youth project in Rotherham.

The emails included information that a teenage girl had been raped, that one suspect threatened young girls with a gun and that a man who had been arrested for sex offences was encouraging girls as young as 10 to visit his home.

The panel said there was ‘no dispute that the emails were sent nor that the information is not recorded on relevant systems’, and in some instances the information had already been given to other police officers and so he was under ‘no obligation’ to pass it on.

In others, the panel said it would have been ‘inappropriate’ for him to record the information due to the force’s procedures on logging allegations without named victims, and on one occasion Mr Walker was asked to interview a potential victim who had already been interviewed.

Another of the allegations brought against Mr Walker was that he failed to act on claims that teenage sisters were being abused by men working at a car wash.

The panel found that the sisters were not were not ‘willing to engage with officers’ and it ‘was not appropriate for this officer to seek to speak to the children’.

Mr Walker’s hearing was the final set of proceedings against 47 officers and former officers who have been investigated by the IOPC in the wake of the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal.

An independent report found that 1,400 children were abused by men of predominantly Pakistani heritage between 1997 and 2013 while those in authority failed to act.

Steve Kent, chairman of the Police Federation in South Yorkshire, said: “We are all pleased that Dave Walker has been exonerated in this hearing. It is encouraging to hear that he received praise from the panel.

“This sadly is another example of an IOPC led investigation that should not have got to this stage for a case which has had no merit.

“It is also yet another example of a significant waste in taxpayers’ money.

“What is not recognised it that this has had a significant impact on Dave and his family and for that reason South Yorkshire Police Federation will be examining the findings of the panel in great detail and consulting with our legal advisors before deciding on any further action that needs to be taken.”

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