Police 'agreed not to arrest bomb suspect'

A court has heard how British police investigating the Manchester bombing agreed to a secret request from the RUC not to arrest and interview a prime suspect.

A file that was being prepared for the Crown Prosecution Service over the 1996 outrage was not forwarded for another 16 months as a result, a hearing has been told.

A former head of Britain's Greater Manchester Police Special Branch told Manchester Crown Court officers investigating the city centre lorry bomb were given a cover story to account for the fact that no arrest was taking place.

The former Special Branch chief, who retired in July last year, was giving evidence at the trial of Detective Chief Inspector Gordon Mutch, who denies leaking details of the investigation, including the identity of a prime suspect, to a Manchester Evening News crime reporter in 1999.

Mutch, 51, pleads not guilty to misconduct in a public office.

The witness, giving evidence from behind a curtain, under an assumed name and through a voice distortion machine, was identified in court as Mr Bernard.

He said at a meeting in Manchester in March 1997 he and former Assistant Chief Constable Colin Phillips were asked by a senior RUC officer not to arrest and interview a suspect. As a result a file they were preparing for the CPS, which could have advised that the arrest should go ahead, was not sent.

An agreement was drawn up and signed by Mr Phillips and later by Greater Manchester Chief Constable David Wilmot. Mr Bernard said the only copy was locked in his safe.

"No copies were ever taken of that agreement because of its sensitive nature," said the witness.

"Without over-dramatising, lives would have been at risk if the IRA had known what was in that agreement."