COLLEAGUES of a York policeman blamed for bungling serious investigations say they were not receiving enough support and raised concerns over training.

The revelations came as an independent panel holds a nine day hearing into allegations of gross misconduct against Detective Constable Nick Lane in the Serious Sexual offences unit of North Yorkshire Police.

It is claimed he was involved in multiple failures and discreditable conduct including some which led to severe criticism of the force when a rape case collapsed.

For DC Lane, barrister Steven Crossley said the officer was not given the training, the supervision or the resources to do his job by North Yorkshire police. He said the Force's own policy on rape cases was that it should be at Detective Sergeant level.

The allegations go back to July 2014. DC Lane has been a police officer for 15 years but was not made a detective until 2013. Mr Crossley said there were also problems with the workload.

He read out comments from officers about the unit at the time, expressing grave concerns.

York Press:

One said: "It is only by the grace of God that the wheels don’t come off.

Another added: "Some staff aren’t trained properly, something down the line is going to go wrong, we are just trying to keep our heads above water.”

Another warned: “We are investigating the worst type of offending here, child rape and rape cases, the most complex cases you could imagine, and I have got my hands up saying help, and I don’t get it.”

Mr Crossley said the officer had considerable issues in scheduling and appropriate lines of inquiry in cases of rape and sexual offences, and record keeping, but argued these did not amount to gross misconduct.

The hearing had been told the officer, based in York, failed to release key documents, this contributing to the acquittal of a rape suspect.

An appeal court judge later condemned the force over the most “total and abject failure to deal with disclosure” he had seen in 50 years.”

George Thomas for the police said there were “really basic investigative failures, blindingly obvious things were missed, there were really basic errors.

"Date errors were corrected over four consecutive dates.”

“One of the most important failures was failing to record why a witness wanted to withdraw their evidence,” he added.

The hearing, which is being held at Newby Wiske, near Northallerton is due to deliver its decision on Tuesday.