PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In the lead up to criminal trials, police and prosecutors have a duty to disclose evidence that might either assist the defence case or undermine the prosecution. But the recent collapse of several rape cases has heightened concerns that evidence is not being disclosed early enough, and that the rules are not being followed. The trial of student Liam Allan, 22, who was charged with six counts of rape, was halted by a judge after it emerged his accuser had sent hundreds of messages to friends that would have cleared him. The case against an Oxford student accused of rape was dropped days before he was due to stand trial after evidence including his accuser's diary was uncovered. Yesterday it was announced by Scotland Yard that officers would be abandoning the policy of automatically believing victims of rape."

STORY: "Police are 'trained to deliberately hide evidence they don't want defence to see' finds report exposing full extent of disclosure failures after collapse of a series of rape trials," by reporter Alexander Robertson, published by The Daily Mail on April 3, 2018.

KEY POINTS: " Documents show how police employ tactics to stop handing over vital evidence; Dossier reveals how officers and prosecutors hide some materials on a secret list; Other accusations include officers being reluctant to record witness statements;  Revelations come after collapse of several rape cases over handling of evidence.

GIST: "Police officers are trained to hide evidence that would undermine their investigations in court, a damning dossier reveals. Documents show how police and prosecutors employ certain tactics to stop defence teams from seeing materials that could help their client during their trial. Other accusations include officers being reluctant to record witness statements that hurt their case or presenting vital evidence to lawyers at the last second. The revelations come after the recent collapse of several rape cases, leading to heightened concerns that evidence is not being disclosed properly. The case against Liam Allan (pictured), who was accused of rape, was dropped days before he was due to stand trial after evidence including his accuser's diary was uncovered. One ploy used by police is to put evidence 'on the MG6D', which refers to a list of sensitive unused material which a defendant's legal team does not have access to. Examples of legitimate materials which may be put on the MG6D include those relating to the interest of national security or information about an undercover officer. According to The Times, the dossier is compiled from reports of 14 focus groups of police officers, judges and prosecutors. One comment in the file read: 'In even quite serious cases, officers have admitted to deliberately withholding sensitive material from us and they frequently approach us only a week before trial. 'Officers are reluctant to investigate a defence or take statements that might assist the defence or undermine our case.'  Referring to the practice of exploiting the MG6D, an inspector said that officers  are'trained to put items on there that they do not want disclosed to the defence'. Scotland Yard commissioner Cressida Dick  said officers must investigate rather than blindly believe allegations and should keep an open mind when a victim has come forward The revealing dossier was obtained under a freedom of information act request by charity the Centre for Criminal Appeals. More than 900 suspects had charges dropped last year because police and prosecutors failed to hand evidence to defence lawyers. In the lead up to criminal trials, police and prosecutors have a duty to disclose evidence that might either assist the defence case or undermine the prosecution. But the recent collapse of several rape cases has heightened concerns that evidence is not being disclosed early enough, and that the rules are not being followed. The trial of student Liam Allan, 22, who was charged with six counts of rape, was halted by a judge after it emerged his accuser had sent hundreds of messages to friends that would have cleared him. The case against an Oxford student accused of rape was dropped days before he was due to stand trial after evidence including his accuser's diary was uncovered. Yesterday it was announced by Scotland Yard that officers would be abandoning the policy of automatically believing victims of rape. Commissioner Cressida Dick    said officers must investigate rather than blindly believe allegations, and should keep an open mind when a victim has come forward.  Failure to disclose evidence has led to a series of collapsed cases. The issue of disclosure of evidence has been at the centre of a series of sex offence trials which have collapsed in recent months. More than 900 criminal cases were dropped last year due to a failure by police or prosecutors to disclose evidence. The series of failures led former Lord Chief Justice, Igor Judge, to warn that juries may start to think they have not been shown all the evidence, and victims to not come forward. In December, Isaac Itiary was released from prison after it emerged his alleged victim posed as a 19-year-old woman and lied about her age. Police officers had texts which showed the girl was lying about her age but only released them after he had spent four months in custody awaiting his trial. In February, the case against Samson Makele, 28, was halted after his defence team unearthed vital photographs from his mobile phone which had not been made available. Mr Makele was accused of raping a woman after they met at Notting Hill Carnival in 2016 but he always claimed the sex was consensual. His case, which was due to begin in March, was thrown out after more than a dozen photographs were found which showed the pair naked and cuddling in bed. Oxford student Oliver Mears, 19, spent two years on bail accused of raping and indecently assaulting a woman in July 2015. But the CPS decided to offer no evidence against him in February on the basis of fresh evidence, including a diary that supported his case, which was passed to the CPS just a week earlier."