Two officers jailed over blackmail and assault

Two police officers were jailed yesterday following separate court cases involving corruption and gross malpractice.

A sergeant who posed as a vice squad officer to blackmail two prostitutes was jailed for eight years for what the judge described as the worst case of its kind.

Ian Vale, 37, of Claygate, Surrey, was so anxious for the prostitute to make as much money as possible from clients, he arranged for some of her whips and canes, seized during a police raid, to be returned.

The prostitute, who told Knightsbridge Crown Court in London she had "feared for her life" at Vale's hands, said she handed him an initial pounds 5,000 "protection money" during a meeting at Kensington police station where he worked.

She also recalled the officer telling her all the local "working girls" were giving him regular amounts.

The officer, who had once served in the Police Complaints Investigation Bureau, will now be dismissed.

In the second case, PC Mark Davis, 41, was jailed for 12 months for indecently assaulting a teenage model.

The Metropolitan police officer stroked the 18-year-old and tried to kiss her while taking a statement at her home after she was a victim of a assault by another woman, London's Southwark Crown Court was told.

Meanwhile, it was disclosed yesterday that a six-year inquiry into the way police handled a child abuse investigation cost taxpayers pounds 3m and resulted in no charges being brought against officers.

The inquiry was launched in 1991 after a member of the public complained that officers from Humberside had not investigated correctly allegations of paedophilia and ritual satanic abuse in East Hull in 1987.

The Police Complaints Authority identified 140 alleged criminal offences against 20 officers.

But the Crown Prosecution Service said yesterday that "despite the wide ranging inquiry there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction against any individual".