PCSO denies leaking case files ahead of Bradford machete attack trial
A police community support officer told Bradford Crown Court she accessed investigation files for operational reasons, not to tip off a suspect. Alice Dobson, 30, denies conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
PCSO denies sharing police intelligence with machete attack suspect
A police community support officer (PCSO) has told Bradford Crown Court she did not pass confidential investigation details to a man accused of involvement in a machete attack that left one victim with a severed hand and a partially amputated leg, ca.news.yahoo.com reports.
Alice Dobson, 30, from Baildon, is charged alongside Rahees Khan, 42, of no fixed abode, with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Both deny the charge.
Giving evidence on Monday, Dobson said she had accessed police files on the incident multiple times in the days following the attack, but for operational reasons. "It was a massive incident in the BD3 postcode area I worked in," she told the court.
Attack on Tickhill Street
Prosecutors allege five male defendants attacked two men on Tickhill Street in Bradford on 11 May 2025. One victim suffered a severed hand and a partially amputated leg; the other was struck in the neck with a machete but managed to escape. Four of the accused have been named: Rahees Khan, Waqqas Khan, 27, of Folkestone Street, Bradford, Hanzalah Saladin, 27, of no fixed abode, and Adam Takolia, 29, of no fixed abode. A fifth defendant cannot be named for legal reasons. All five deny conspiracy to murder as well as alternative charges of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.
Officer's explanation
Dobson, who attended the crime scene immediately after the attack, said she reviewed the investigation logs to identify potential suspects and develop community intelligence leads. "I wanted to see if there were any suspects I needed to be aware of, or any lines of inquiry I could develop," she said.
Call records presented to the court showed Dobson had exchanged numerous calls and messages with Rahees Khan around the same periods she accessed the files. Dobson said she had contacted Khan to encourage another man, then suspected of involvement in the incident, to turn himself in to police. She denied passing any intelligence to Khan or to anyone else.
When asked whether she had suspected Khan of involvement at the time, Dobson replied: "No." Asked whether she had disclosed what she had seen in the logs to Khan or her partner, she again replied: "No."
Previous guilty plea
Under cross-examination, Dobson confirmed she had previously pleaded guilty to a separate count of perverting the course of justice. That charge related to an investigation into a racially aggravated assault on three children, in which Dobson encouraged the suspect — who was at her home — to leave in order to avoid arrest, and exchanged messages with her about CCTV footage of the incident.
Dobson told the court she had "tried to take responsibility" for that conduct, but denied allegations that the community regarded her as having been corrupted. She said the woman had not sought her assistance on those grounds.
The trial continues at Bradford Crown Court.
Source: Google News CA — Crime (EN)