FOI 0484-2025/26- Investigations
Request:
This request for information concerns the involvement of North Yorkshire Police (NYP) and the CCRU it operates jointly with the Cleveland police force in investigations into the death of Mr Barry Oldham in May 1987 insofar as these have been the subject of a Firecracker production broadcast by the BBC in late 2024 and subsequently in early 2025.
The late REDACTED. formerly Head of North Yorkshire CID, featured prominently in the series, via media interviews apparently given in 2001, as did REDACTED of the Cleveland & North Yorkshire CCRU, apparently speaking more recently. The Firecracker production remains available to the public via the BBC iPlayer service.
[1] Please provide all and any information held by your authority in relation to the involvement by REDACTED in the 2001 interviews that have more recently been re broadcast by the BBC. This request includes information concerning the governance of the force to the extent that approval was sought and given for the broadcast of the views and comments of the former Head of CID and the employment status within NYP of REDACTED at the time of participating in the interviews.
[2] Please provide a11 and any information held by your authority in relation to the inclusion by Firecracker in its 2024 production, 'Limbs in the Loch: Catching a Killer of the interviews previously given by REDACTED and apparently recorded in 2001. This request includes information held within physical or electronic documents comprising communications between the force and the series producers, as well as internal communications within the force engaging with the external governance of the force or with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
[3] Please provide all and any information held by your authority in relation to the participation by REDACTED in the 2024 Firecracker production. including information concerning permissions granted via the governance mechanisms of the force for such participation. [4] Please provide all and any information held by your authority concerning the involvement by REDACTED in the firecracker· production such as may be held within physical or electronic documents comprising communications-between the force and the producers of the series or communications between the force and the CPS.
[5] In the course of an interview with REDACTED apparently given during 2001, the former NYP Head of CID states: "We. . concentrated our effort on speaking to people at the Rockshots nightclub ... and a picture began to emerge of a young Irishman who was - eh - picking up gay men - sleeping with them and - eh - when they were asleep during the night - em - they were being awakened by this young Irishman cutting them with a razor blade ..." [Episode 3 I+ 15:34].
Bearing in mind what was said by the Court of Appeal Criminal Division (CACD} in the case of R v Beggs (66/D2/88] insofar as the witness REDACTED was concerned (6A-C], how many patrons of the Rockshots nightclub made statements to NYP {or that were provided to your force) in the terms suggested by REDACTED in the above excerpt> excluding the witness REDACTED for the reasons explained by the Trial Judge and CACD in that case?
[6] In the fourth episode of the Firecracker series REDACTED (apparently speaking in 2001) is noted as having commented: 11I think the Court of Appeal made a mistake
... almost a perverse mistake ...11 [12:32]. ln view of those comments, please confirm the extent to which the former Head of NYP CID was speaking to the media on behalf of your force at the time of that interview (to the extent that your force retains information about his participation in that and any other media exercise},. and provide all and any other information held by your force relative to more recent public expressions of opinion relative to this case on the part of your force or on the part of current or former employees.
[7] In view of the participation of REDACTED in the Firecracker series, and REDACTED comments, please confirm the extent to which your force and the CCRU concerned have obtained further information in relation to the circumstances of the death of Mr Oldham since 1 July 1989.
Response:
Extent of Searches to Locate Information
Following receipt of your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police to locate relevant information.
Decision
Your request for information below has now been considered. In respect of Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) we can neither confirm nor deny if North Yorkshire Police does or does not hold the information you have requested. It is estimated that the cost of complying with your request for information would exceed the “appropriate costs limit” under Section 12(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Section 12 (2) allows a public authority to refuse a request where it estimates that it would exceed to appropriate limit to either comply with the request in its entirety or confirm or deny whether the requested information is held.
Due to the nature of our recording systems; the information requested, if held, is not in an easily retrievable format. To establish if any information relevant to your request is held by North Yorkshire Police, a manual review of paper files/documents would be required, to be able to obtain the requested information. It is not known whether the information retrieved, if possible, would be an accurate representation or reliable set of data.
Pursuant to Section 17(5) of the Freedom of Information Act this letter acts as a Refusal Notice.
Pursuant to Section 16 of the Act I am required to offer you advice and assistance with regarding to refining your request to within the ‘appropriate limit’ (time/cost limit). However, we may be able to provide some information for parts 3, 4 and 7 if you specify what it is you are requesting. If you wish to discuss this please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.