SUZANNE HOLDSWORTH RETRIAL; PART TWENTY-SEVEN; THE POLICE RESPONSE: (SHOCK, SHOCK!) "MY OFFICERS WERE ONLY DOING THEIR JOB";

"THE Chief Constable of Cleveland Police last night defended his force for taking the Suzanne Holdsworth case to trial," a news report by reporter Dani Webb, published on December 20, 2008. begins;

"Sean Price spoke out after the BBC’s Newsnight programme on Thursday night criticised the people working on the case of the Hartlepool babysitter," the report continues;

"Miss Holdsworth was cleared of murdering twoyear- old Kyle Fisher at her home in 2004, by a jury at Teesside Crown Court.

It was the second time she had been tried for his murder after the Appeal Court overturned her first conviction when her legal team proved they had new medical evidence showing the toddler had brain abnormalities.

Mr Price said: “Cleveland Police were a little disappointed at the one-sided nature of the presentation in the programme. There were a number of issues we spoke to Newsnight about earlier in the week.

Nonetheless, they went ahead unchanged.

“In order to get to court, we have to go through the Crown Prosecution Service.

We gather the evidence, we don’t decide if it should go to court.

“Newsnight said we did not look at pre-existing conditions, that is completely untrue. The Home Office pathologist works out the cause of death and anything that may have caused it.

“Our inquiries go from there.

“The pathologist was very clear with the injuries and he had full knowledge of his medical records and pre-existing conditions. It was a very tragic death.”

Mother-of-two Miss Holdsworth was accused of repeatedly ramming Kyle’s head into the banister at her home in Mill Close, Hartlepool.

However, she always maintained that she did not harm him and said he appeared to have an epileptic fit before falling unconscious.

Cleveland Police say the pathologist died before the appeal hearing and the retrial, so for that reason they could not contradict the evidence given by experts by the defence.

Mr Price said: “Medical evidence was the key part of the first trial. We investigated this case like we would any other.

“I can’t criticise my officers for doing their job. The reason we have jury trials is so they can decide when they have heard all the facts.”

Mr Price said there were no plans by Cleveland Police to reopen the case at the present time.

He said he could understand if people had concerns, but that they would continue to investigate cases properly.

He said that Miss Holdsworth would not be getting an apology.

“I don’t really have any intention of speaking to Suzanne Holdsworth and she probably just wants to be allowed to get on with things now,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the BBC said: “We gave Cleveland Police the opportunity to be interviewed or give a statement and this was reflected in the piece.”"

Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;