Ely riot: Police commissioner defends chase comments

Riots in Ely last may saw 15 officers hurt and 27 arrested.

South Wales' Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) says he acted "with integrity" when he said police had not chased the two boys killed in a bike crash in Cardiff.

The police later confirmed that officers were following the two boys.

In the Commons on Wednesday Alun Michael said he had responded with the best of his knowledge.

The crash sparked riots in Ely last May which saw 15 officers hurt and 27 people arrested.

Following the deaths of Harvey Evans, 15, and Kyrees Sullivan, 16, word spread online that a marked police van had tailed them before the crash.

At the time of the incident, Alun Michael had said that the link between the crash and the disorder was unclear.

"It would appear that there were rumours, and those rumours became rife, of a police chase - which wasn't the case," Alun Michael said in May.

Mr Michael was quizzed by the Welsh Affairs Select Committee group of MPs in Westminster on Wednesday.

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The chair of the committee, Conservative MP Stephen Crabb, accused him of blurring the line between the PCC and operational matters "when you go on national media and start talking about a live operation".

Mr Michael replied: "I am satisfied that what I did was done appropriately at the time and with integrity.

"I responded to questions from the media about an operation on the previous evening and responded to the best of my knowledge because I thought it was very important for the public to know what the current status of knowledge and information was.

"Please bear in mind that the previous riots in Ely in the 1990s had gone on for about three days and it was quite important to give as much information as possible to the public."

The PCC added: "I commented in response to questions asked by the media to the best of my knowledge, in my role as the link between the public and the police, not speaking on behalf of the police or speaking on behalf of the chief constable."

The Independent Office of Police Conduct is holding its own investigation into the nature of the police interaction with the two boys before the crash.

Mr Michael said the findings will be "hopefully... with us shortly".

"The IOPC has said it'll take between three and six months to reach its conclusions and six months will be the end of this month," he added.