‘Public face of police brutality’ fights to clear name

Bernadette Major looks me straight in the eye and says: “Everybody knows he didn’t do it.” Tears stream down her face, and her husband, Eric, leans in to console her.

“We’re at the point of breaking,” says Eric, “as you can see.”

In front of us on the kitchen table stands a model depicting the inside of a police station in Leeds, painstakingly recreated by Bernadette. Everything is in black and white, except for a room marked “Cell #9”, which has been shaded in blood red.

“This is where they said Danny attacked him,” says Bernadette.

Bloodied and beaten

Cell number nine at Leeds Bridewell police station is where an 18-year-old man was found bloodied and beaten in custody, one night in September 2003.

PC Danny Major was the arresting officer. He was later convicted of violent assault, sent to prison and sacked. His parents believe he was framed.

Nobody doubts that a young man was assaulted in custody that night. But for 10 years, Bernadette and Eric have argued their son was not responsible. In all that time, this is their first television interview.

“The simple truth would have brought West Yorkshire Police and the people wearing the uniform of that police force under very close scrutiny,” says Eric, a former officer himself.

An hour later, I’m standing alongside Danny Major outside the police station in Leeds where he worked his last shift on the frontline. He’s dressed smartly in suit and tie. Although he now works in a call centre on minimum wage, his words still have the ring of a police officer.

‘Spearing him to the ground’

“I was accused of taking the person I arrested out of the police van and spearing him to the ground, while he was handcuffed to the rear,” says Danny, pointing to the area behind us where police vans park up. “As though I picked him up and threw him into the ground head first from the back of the van.”

“As well as the spearing, it was alleged I kneed him in the face, punched him several times, then took him in to the Bridewell, took him to a police cell and, while searching him, continued to punch him in the face another five or six times.”

For a while Danny was the public face of police brutality. At his trial, the judge was scathing in his criticism – not just of Danny but a custody suite he branded “a shambles”.

Danny appealed, and lost. A criminal case review also found against him. And yet he and his family have persevered with their campaign, examining every piece of available evidence.

“Evidence that was requested that would have cleared my name has either disappeared or not been collected, or has been destroyed,” says Danny. “With my case, that list of evidence is as long as my arm. Potential video footage, digital evidence that would have cleared my name has disappeared.”

Channel 4 News put these allegations to West Yorkshire Police. A statement from the Deputy Chief Constable, Dean Collins, said it would be “inappropriate to comment at this time” as an investigation is ongoing.

The Major family say they’re frustrated with West Yorkshire Police’s silence. But they cannot hide their delight that 11 years on, the case has been reopened.

The original investigation, conducted by Danny’s own force, is now itself the subject of a probe by Greater Manchester Police, at the request of West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Burns-Williamson.

‘No need to hide anything’

“This is a force with no need to hide anything. It’s not been involved at any stage. It’s a neutral referee as it were,” says Eric.

Greater Manchester Police also refused to comment while their investigation is ongoing. But for once, Danny Major is hopeful.

“I’m sure the first thing that will come out of it will be to clear my name,” he says.

If it doesn’t, I point out, the record will still show that Danny Major is a violent criminal.

“If people trust the criminal justice system to be one hundred per cent right, then they’re very naïve,” he says. “The system is designed and run with people involved so there are always going to be mistakes.”

The outcome of the latest investigation won’t be known for several months. Either it will make difficult reading for Danny Major and his family, or it will invite considerable scrutiny of West Yorkshire Police.