UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News
A police force is investigating claims by The Times that it bungled an inquiry into alleged sex abuse at a school.
It centres around the case of Paul Sheppard who was cleared last year of indecently assaulting a boy in 1989 at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire.
The Times says North Yorkshire Police failed to speak to two ex-pupils whose accounts could have led to Dr Sheppard being questioned about other child sex offences.
He denies any wrongdoing.
The force has asked the newspaper for details of the two former pupils.
The Times also says former pupils, who were told at the 11th hour they would not be giving evidence against Dr Sheppard, were falsely assured by police they were not required in court because their written statements had been accepted by the defence.
That explanation was not true, the paper says, while the former pupils claim the way the case was conducted by police and the prosecution was “shambolic”.
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