South Yorkshire’s cold case team to be re-established

BUDGET cuts have left the people of South Yorkshire in jeopardy as serious offenders escape justice, the local Federation has warned.

The cold case review team – which had secured 11 convictions and sentences of 107 years in its first three years – was disbanded two years ago because the force could not afford to keep it going.

But it is to be re-established as the “Major Incident Review Team” to examine 26 unsolved murders in South Yorkshire – at a cost of £321,000 a year.

Neil Bowles, Chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said: “The return of a ‘cold case’ review team is just another example of the blind budget cuts that South Yorkshire Police have undergone in the past six years.

“No thought was given to the consequences of salami cuts, the threat and risk ignored.

“We welcome the team’s return, because serious offenders have to be brought to justice, or else they may go on and commit further serious offences.

“This is one of the areas that our members and middle management warned the senior command team about, mentioned in the recent Peer Review Report, but it fell on deaf ears.”

Dr Alan Billings, Policing and Crime Commissioner, said: “These, as yet unsolved crimes were very serious and we owe it to the victims and their families to continue the work of bringing the perpetrators to justice.”

“Both SYP senior officers or I as PCC believe that a new initiative to tackle some unsolved homicides was essential. We owe it to the bereaved families to do this.”