CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

POLICE SERGEANT PETER SOLLEY

37.1 Police Sergeant Peter Solley has been Community Divisional Liaison Officer for the Plumstead Police Division for about 10 years. His role has developed as time has passed. When he first undertook the role he managed local beat officers in the Division, and he had responsibility for Neighbourhood Watch liaison and for general community matters. The role has developed since then and in particular it encompasses line management of the Racial Incident Unit which was established in December 1990.

37.2 As we know that Unit was involved with the investigation and the recording of all but the most serious of racist incidents reported in the Plumstead Police Division. PSgt Solley's task was to oversee the work done by the two officers in the Racial Incident Unit. PSgt Solley worked directly to Chief Superintendent Philpott, and he had regular meetings with Mr Philpott in connection with all aspects of community liaison.

37.3 We should say at the outset that we formed a favourable view of PSgt Solley. He was a thorough and sympathetic man, and we are sure that within his powers he would have done all that was possible to further good relations in the community.

37.4 We have already given an account of the formation of the Racial Incident Unit and of its activities. PSgt Solley in his evidence elaborated upon the evidence already given and spoke of the co-operation which should have taken place between the Racial Incident Unit and those who were investigating racist incidents in the CID. Plainly the system was not well developed by 1993, but PSgt Solley believed that it performed a useful function.

37.5 On 23 April 1993 Mr Philpott telephoned PSgt Solley at home and informed him of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence. Mr Philpott said that he had contacted the leader of the Council and others. PSgt Solley was instructed to get in early and to ensure that everyone else who needed to be informed was informed. PSgt Solley himself believes that he spoke to the Greenwich Council for Racial Equality, and to GACARA, and probably to Harcourt Alleyne who was, and still is, Chief Race Adviser to the Greenwich Council.

37.6 PC Fisher was allocated to the murder investigation team from about 05:00 on 23 April, so that PSgt Solley believed that any relevant liaison with the Racial Incident Unit would be performed simply because of that connection. PSgt Solley's role was a wider one under Mr Philpott's direction and he was certainly partly responsible for the organisation of a meeting which took place on the evening of 23 April at which leaders of the community were present.

37.7 PSgt Solley pointed out, as had Mr Philpott, that the index and card system of the Racial Incident Unit was of course not foolproof or wholly complete, but he also indicated that at least the Racial Incident Unit had given a start to the necessary attention to racist incidents in the Plumstead area.

37.8 As to the connection with the Lawrence family, PSgt Solley had no direct role to play in this regard. However on the day after Stephen's murder he was instructed to go to the family home to arrange for an alarm to be installed within the house. Mr & Mrs Lawrence were there, but PSgt Solley did not actually speak to them. He indicated that there were many other people in the house at the time, and that he had simply one specific task to perform. Thereafter PSgt Solley did meet Mr & Mrs Lawrence when they came to the police station to meet regularly with Mr Ilsley. He was the officer at the front counter who escorted them up to Mr Ilsley's office. He had thus met both Mr & Mrs Lawrence, but was plainly not closely involved with family liaison or indeed with the murder investigation.

37.9 Later on, probably in September 1993, PSgt Solley did meet Mrs Lawrence at her home when he had a substantial conversation with her. Apparently Mr & Mrs Lawrence were moving house and there was a need for some steps to be taken in connection with the security of their new home. PSgt Solley had a general conversation with Mrs Lawrence, discussing their family and the pressures and stresses that there had been on the Lawrence family since the murder of Stephen. He discovered during that meeting that Mrs Lawrence's complaint was that the police officers with whom she had contact were insensitive. Sometimes they were not available when they were needed. On one occasion she had telephoned in the early hours of the morning when she needed help and advice, and it was not forthcoming. The conversation also turned to discussion of the immediate hours after the murder, and to the part played by PC Geddis and his wife. PSgt Solley told us that Mrs Lawrence asked him to thank PC Geddis for what he had done.

37.10 PSgt Solley had little to add in his primary evidence, but he did indicate that he had always treated the murder of Stephen Lawrence as a racist murder. He had no specific training in his role as Community Liaison Officer, but he had developed local knowledge through his involvement with local minority ethnic leaders and community groups and he was well aware of the impact of racist incidents upon the black community.

37.11 But for the arrival on the scene of a somewhat remarkable document produced by PSgt Solley his evidence might well have been anodyne. He was plainly a man with sensitive intentions so far as community liaison was concerned. It seemed unlikely that there would be any contest as to the part played by him on the fringes of the Stephen Lawrence investigation. The only criticism there could be was of the scale and ambit and perhaps the amateurism of the operation of the index kept by the Racial Incident Unit. There seemed to be no prospect of personal criticism of PSgt Solley.

37.12 No notice of any kind was given to PSgt Solley that he would be criticised, or that he would be the subject of hostile examination by any of the Counsel involved in the case. At the end of his questioning by Miss Weekes, Junior Counsel to the Inquiry, we adjourned because we were told that something had arisen which had to be considered before further questioning of PSgt Solley.

37.13 What had happened was that a document had been produced by Mr & Mrs Lawrence's legal team, and in particular by Mr Kamlish, which Mr Kamlish wished to use in cross-examination. There is no doubt but that this document was produced by PSgt Solley himself. He produced it on his word processor at work. The eight page document set out a series of questions which might be asked at the Inquiry, together with proposed answers. The questions were set out in an interrogative manner, for example, "Did your relationship with the family break down?" Answer: "Say that you would not describe it as a breakdown of relationship ..... etc". The answers were done in various colours. It was certainly an unusual document. As to how the document got into Mr Kamlish's hands PSgt Solley said that a copy was taken without his knowledge by a friend "not ... with any malice", but without his knowledge.

37.14 Exactly how and when it was obtained should not be explored here. Once it was in the hands of legal representatives it seemed purposeless to say that it could not be used. The result of this was that much time was taken up by Mr Kamlish and others in questioning PSgt Solley about the nature of the document, and indeed in challenging him as to its objective and its effect.

37.15 PSgt Solley firmly said that there was no question of any outside "coaching" in connection with his evidence. He said that the document was produced by himself, but that its contents had been discussed with others including members of the Greenwich Council. PSgt Solley named a number of people with whom he had discussed the questions which were posed in the document, and he said that the answers produced were in a sense an amalgam of the views and ideas which those persons, both friends and community connections, had given to him. PSgt Solley also discussed the evidence that he was to give before the Inquiry with his wife.

37.16 More than once it was suggested to PSgt Solley that "this was a script, provided to you by others". PSgt Solley firmly denied that this was so, and we accept his evidence.

37.17 PSgt Solley's evidence was largely uncontroversial, and many of the answers which he gave were in fact favourable to the case put forward by Mr & Mrs Lawrence and others. PSgt Solley came through his ordeal in the witness box, because that is what it was, with distinction. Indeed the result of the questioning of PSgt Solley strengthened our view that he was both a useful and a sympathetic and a well motivated officer. He plainly did wish to improve relationships between the black community and the police, and he was an asset to Mr Philpott and to those with whom he came into contact.

37.18 To his credit PSgt Solley agreed during his questioning that officers in the police force were inclined to stereotype those with whom they had contact in the community. He accepted that the perception was that officers were often involved in confrontational situations which led to stereotyping. He also accepted the criticism that is available about the stop and search statistics, which show that black people are more often stopped and searched in the street than white people.

37.19 In this respect PSgt Solley indicated that concerns over stop and search had to a considerable extent been responsible within the Greenwich Borough for the setting up in about 1995 of a police/community multi-agency forum which had provided the opportunity to discuss openly and frankly issues of concern, including stop and search.

37.20 PSgt Solley was plainly alive to the problems which have bedevilled relationships between the black community and the police service, and he was and still is a part of the developing Racial Incident Unit and of the community efforts which involve liaison and combination with representatives of the Greenwich Borough Council.

37.21 Indeed the Racial Incident Unit in the area now consists of a combined Unit with officers from Greenwich and Plumstead Divisions, with a civilian input from the Greenwich Borough Council. The arrangement is still by no means perfect, but it is a developing scene and one which has within it prospects of success.

37.22 We took the opportunity after PSgt Solley had finished his evidence to indicate there and then that we had received no evidence to suggest that PSgt Solley's document was the product of outside coaching by police or lawyers or anybody on the outside. The document was certainly unusual, and perhaps a little bizarre, but we have no reason to doubt that it was produced in the way which he had described to us. There is no reason why somebody who is to be called before an Inquiry should not discuss with others the content of his evidence. In the end he must give his own views and his own answers.

37.23 We do not believe that he trimmed his evidence or dishonestly altered any part of his testimony which would otherwise have been different.

37.24 PSgt Solley accepted that there was a "canteen culture" of racism within the MPS, but he indicated that it is his belief that things were changing considerably from the situation of the '70s and '80s. PSgt Solley appreciated that the perception within the black community was that the culture still rules. Of all the officers of his rank and below seen by this Inquiry we believe that PSgt Solley was the most committed to work which would improve the situation. As we have already said he is a sympathetic and well intentioned man. Plainly there are limits to what he can himself perform. His value to Mr Philpott and to the community was and is in our opinion considerable.

37.25 In answer to Mr Panton, PSgt Solley agreed that the relationship between the MPS and Greenwich Council was good, and the Council and the Police have, as we have indicated, co-operated in the development of the Racial Incident Unit.

37.26 Mr Gompertz asked PSgt Solley a series of questions about the document which had been produced by Mr Kamlish, and there is no doubt but that the answers given by PSgt Solley to Mr Gompertz reinforced our view that the document was not a dramatic or deceitful attempt to mislead the Inquiry at all.

37.27 PSgt Solley is still in post as Community Liaison Officer in Plumstead. No doubt he will continue to be used in future as the Racial Incident Unit develops and enlarges. His contribution will, as it seems to us, be considerable and beneficial.

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