IOPC investigation into child sex abuse complaints about former SYP officers to be carried out by NCA

The Independent Office for Police Conduct’s directed investigation into non-recent child sex abuse complaints from victim-survivors against former South Yorkshire Police (SYP) officers will now be carried out by the National Crime Agency (NCA), under our direction and control.

Our investigation – which began after SYP first referred a complaint to us in October 2024 - was being carried out by officers from SYP’s major crime unit under our direction. These complaints have been treated extremely seriously with a significant amount of work undertaken by the SYP investigating officers, resulting in the arrests of three former officers.

In response to external concerns about SYP’s involvement and a perception of a conflict of interest, we have been liaising closely with SYP and a joint decision was made to ask the NCA to take over the investigation, under our direction and control. A formal request was made by SYP yesterday, which was agreed by the NCA.

While we remain satisfied there was no conflict of interest with SYP, given none of the investigating officers worked with any of those under investigation nor were themselves investigated as part of Operation Linden, we believe that transferring the investigation to the NCA may provide further reassurance to victim-survivors.

The NCA have been providing support to SYP during this investigation and we will be working with SYP and the NCA to ensure the investigation handover does not cause unnecessary delays.

The victim-survivors involved have been informed and will continue to be updated on the progress of this investigation. We encourage any victim-survivors or witnesses, who are yet to come forward, to contact the IOPC or NCA.

IOPC Director Emily Barry said: “Victim-survivors are always at the centre of our investigations and it’s extremely important that they have trust and confidence in the investigation. We recognise the concerns that have been raised by some about SYP investigating serious complaints relating to former SYP officers and we want to ensure that any victim-survivors feel able to come forward with complaints about former SYP officers.”