Surrey Police has today published an independent report commissioned to learn lessons about why a non-recent sexual abuse trial collapsed in the summer of 2018.

The report commissioned by the Force and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey, was completed by the national body for the coordination of high-profile sexual abuse investigations – Operation Hydrant.

The four-year investigation, Operation Ravine, looked into a series of allegations against former DJ Jonathan King. The subsequent trial was stopped in August 2018 following disclosure issues.

In total, 27 recommendations have been made in the conclusion of the report, which is available via this link.

Surrey Police’s T/Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp said: “The primary reason that we jointly commissioned this independent report was to establish what lessons could be learnt from why this case concluded the way it did.

“In summary a series of organisational failures, principally with the disclosure process and appropriate resourcing of the investigation team led to its demise.

“We are sorry for the impact this has had on victims and those involved in the case. I hope that our desire to commission this report to understand what happened and openly share the learning is reassurance of just how seriously we have taken this matter.

“At the heart of all this are a number of victims whose evidence was regrettably never tested in court.

“The independent report has highlighted that the team working on this case were highly dedicated and sought to investigate the truth of these allegations.

“It is critical that we learn from these recommendations for future cases so that it doesn’t happen again, and are grateful to the Hydrant team for their support on this.”

To read a response to the report from Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner, David Munro, please visit the OPCC’s website here.