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

The detail beggars belief. In a cack-handed, arrogant attempt to nail a whistle-blower who they suspected was leaking embarrassing information to the press, the disgraced force seized data from three journalists, a solicitor, and two police officers.

They used legislation designed to catch terrorists "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. That adds up to four months of investigation. Yes, that's right, four months.

OK, we've had the apologies from 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.

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

  • Why is no one facing prosecution for breaking the law so blatantly?
  • Why is a stronger message not being sent that police officers are not above the law?
  • How much did this pointless and unlawful investigation cost a) in officer time and b) in the inevitable compensation payments which will have to be made to those whose privacy was invaded? It is absolutely in the public interest for those costs to be known to taxpayers, whether it takes a Freedom of Information request or not.
  • And with trust in Cleveland Police at the lowest point possible, how can it carry on under its current name and structure?

This should not be the end of the matter.