SO we now have the full adjudication from senior judges on Cleveland Police's scandalous abuse of the law in monitoring the phones of journalists at The Northern Echo during my time as editor.

It makes disturbing reading. In a cack-handed, arrogant and out of control attempt to nail a whistle-blower suspected of leaking embarrassing information to the press, the disgraced force seized data from three journalists, a solicitor, and two police officers.

They used RIPA legislation designed to catch terrorists and other major criminals "without any consideration or legal advice". They were bulls in a china shop, barging around, in the hope of finding something.

More than a million minutes' worth of data was collected during four months of fruitless investigation, according to the judges sitting in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.

Granted, we've had public apologies from current Chief Constable Iain Spittal, who inherited this latest mess. Cleveland Police has created a lot of mess in its recent history and there's always someone new who has to try to clean it up. Mr Spittal's predecessor, Jacqui Cheer, was trying to clean up the mess left by Sean Price, who was kicked out of the force for gross misconduct. Mr Price had been trying to repair the damage from the hugely expensive Operation Lancet corruption inquiry. Now it's Mr Spittal's turn.

Jacqui Cheer, who was in command when the unlawful phone monitoring took place, has gone on to be the national lead on police ethics. You really couldn't make it up.

Anyway, big questions remain and I hope they will be pursued vigorously:

  •  Will anyone from Cleveland Police face prosecution for abusing the law in such a cavalier fashion?

What we know so far is that Cleveland Police is bringing in another force to investigate whether there were any criminal or misconduct matters.

  •  How much has this pointless and unlawful investigation cost because it is absolutely in the public interest for taxpayers to be told.

I've had a response from Cleveland Police to confirm that their legal costs involved in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal has so far come to £6,879.66. But what about the cost of officer time over the four months of unlawful phone monitoring? What about the inevitable compensation payments to the victims? And what about the ongoing costs of the further investigation by an outside force to assess whether charges should be brought? I've been promised answers further down the line.

That leaves us with the overriding question: With trust in Cleveland Police at the lowest point possible after successive scandals, how can the force carry on under its current name and structure?

This should certainly not be the end of the matter.

TALKING of bulls in china shops, Donald Trump is just a few weeks into his presidency and the tone is already set.

But there is a huge positive to be found in the way people around the world, including thousands here in the North-East, have turned out in force to protest against his bigotry. Long may those peaceful demonstrations continue.

IT may not be of Trumpesque proportions but there was discrimination close to home last week.

My wife received an email from Amazon, asking her to take part in one of those on-line surveys. It would only take 15 minutes, they promised, and the feedback would be greatly appreciated.

She doesn't normally respond to such requests but she does a fair bit of shopping on Amazon so, against her better judgement, she decided to take part.

The first question was: "Are you or any members of your family involved in the following professions?" One such profession was "media" and when she ticked the box, there was an instant reply: "That's all the questions we have for you."

Amazon can do without feedback from those pesky journalists. Well, we're not proper people, are we?

THAT said, I fully accept that journalists don't always cover themselves in glory...

Last week, the stars of football turned out for the funeral of former England, Watford and Aston Villa manager Graham Taylor.

The overwhelming response to his death at 72 has been that he was genuinely one of the most decent and honourable people in the game.

I was lucky enough to meet Graham when I worked on my first paper, the Scunthorpe Telegraph, where his dad, Tom, was sports editor. Father and son were lovely, down to earth, friendly men.

I wonder if those journalists responsible for the humiliating front page of The Sun, depicting Graham as a turnip, now feel a bit guilty.

ALL of which reminds me of the time I was in the press box at Scunthorpe's Old Showground in the early 80s and Tom Taylor was doing a spot of freelance broadcasting during a night match.

Scunny were playing Burnley and the away team had scored after about ten minutes. Tom, however, went live on radio 20 or so minutes into the match and, to the horror of his colleagues, began his bulletin by reporting: "Still stalemate here at The Old Showground - Scunthorpe nil, Burnley nil..."

Frantically, someone scribbled on a piece of paper the news that there had indeed been a goal, along with the name of the scorer, and a description of the shot that went in off the post.

Without batting an eye-lid, and as if it had only just happened, Tom blurted out: "And it's a goal!"