Christopher Alder: 20 years on

His sister, Janet Alder, has spent the subsequent years campaigning to bring the circumstances of his death to light. She has, as a consequence, been the victim of police surveillance by Humberside police. It was only officially confirmed to Janet that she had been under surveillance after the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) (now the Independent Office for Police Conduct) investigated the matter in 2013.

Rob Lyons reported in The Guardian last week that in 2015 the IPCC had admitted, in an unpublished report, that the decision to put Janet Alder under surveillance was likely motivated by racism.

The renewed interest in the unlawful killing of Christopher Alder, and the unauthorised police surveillance of Janet Alder and her barrister, Leslie Thomas, has been spurred on by the gross misconduct hearing which began on 26 February.

Despite concluding that the surveillance was unlawful, the hearing concluded there was no case to answer for the police officers involved. 

In 2015 Janet Alder spoke at a conference we co-organised. Watch the video here:

18. What's the Worst That Could Happen from Jagdish Patel on Vimeo.