Chief Inspector Alison Fossey said that the team working on Operation Rectangle – the 2008 police investigation into child abuse – were ‘pariahs of the force’ and had been ‘ostracised’ because nobody wanted to be associated with the case.
She told the inquiry that senior investigating officer Lenny Harper and Superintendent Mick Gradwell – who later took over the investigation – would often clash which led to the investigating team being stuck in the middle.
