'Police were vilified' says former Orgreave officer

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has said it will not investigate the way South Yorkshire police handled clashes during the miners' strike at Orgreave coking plant near Rotherham in 1984.

The decision comes more than two years after the force referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

More than 120 police officers and pickets were injured.

Bob Bird, a former police officer at Orgreave, said the police were ''vilified'' after the event.

  • UK