Greater Manchester Police denies withholding detention footage

Three women have made claims about Greater Manchester Police

Police have not "deliberately" withheld CCTV footage related to allegations that women faced unjustified strip-searches, a senior officer has said.

Three women have made claims about Greater Manchester Police (GMP), with one saying she was drugged and sexually assaulted during her detention in 2021.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has ordered a review of their cases.

In a statement, Deputy Chief Constable Terry Woods said GMP would "positively engage" with any review.

Mr Burnham, who also acts as the area's police and crime commissioner, previously confirmed there were two hours of police footage "missing" from the period of the detention of one of the women.

He said he has asked the former victims' commissioner Dame Vera Baird - who is also a lawyer - to investigate further, after Sky News broadcast allegations of police misconduct by the three women.

GMP previously said it had twice referred the allegations to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

Mr Woods said the force were trying to establish if the "outstanding hours" could be recovered by "digital forensics professionals"

In a statement, Mr Woods said the IOPC was "continuing to assess" the second referral made by GMP in relation to the woman's complaint and the force's professional standards branch had made contact with her.

"The force will positively engage with Dame Vera Baird's independent review," he said.

He said the force was "obviously aware of and understand the concerns" regarding the allegations that it was "withholding footage so I would like to provide reassurance".

"At this time, we have been unable to recover two one-hour segments of the CCTV footage from the custody cell," he said.

"It is not the case that we are withholding this deliberately."

He said the footage was "burnt on to four discs in hour-long segments" and one disc had "corrupted, but files were recovered by the digital investigation unit".

He said it was "identified that two hours were missing", but by the time that was understood, "the parent footage on the servers had been overwritten" as per normal procedures.

However, he said the force had "recovered and secured the servers" and were now trying to establish if the "outstanding hours" could be recovered by "digital forensics professionals".