Former boss’s gag stands

Press, 1 July 1983, Page 6

Former boss’s gag stands

NZPA London Top British police officers who, it is believed, will be criticised in the “Ripper blunders” report to be published today were ordered not to speak about the case by the former West Yorkshire Chief Constable, Ronald Gregory. An order that he issued in January, 1981, warning officers about publishing their memoirs, is still in force.

Yesterday Mr Gregory,

who is reported to have sold his story to the “Mail on Sunday” for £40,000 ($92,000), faced mounting anger from his former colleagues who accused him of double standards.

They are annoyed because they cannot reply to his criticisms of them and because Mr Gregory conducted much of the research for his articles while still serving as Chief constable. Three of the officers, Assistant Chief Constable

George Oldfield, Detective Superintendent Jim Hobson, and Detective Superintendent Dick Holland, are known to have registered their bitterness with colleagues. Mr Gregory named them in his memoirs and it is also believed that their roles in the five-year-long hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper are featured in the report of an internal inquiry into the affair due to be released today by the West Yorkshire Police Authority. The report was compiled

by the new Chief Constable, Mr Colin Sampson. It was confirmed yesterday that the order issued by Mr Gregory headed “Ripper Investigation and Copyright,” had not been rescinded. In it he said that members of the force had intimated their intention to publish books and articles about the Ripper investigation, and warned them that copyright on all material remained with the Chief Constable.