Cleveland police: PC Saddique wins racist claim

PC Nadeem Saddique has won a long running battle against a group of racist colleagues in the Cleveland police force who sought to make his life a misery with extreme levels of racial abuse and campaign to undermine his work.

At the time Saddique was a prominent officer who guarded Tony Blair and members of the royal family. He has finally won his case and has been awarded a payout of £457,000 for this campaign of racial hatred towards him.

That campaign included fellow officers trying to get him thrown out of the firearms team labelling him.

Saddique claimed a sergeant confided in him at a gym in 2008 or 2009 that an inspector had told another officer: “I’ll get that black cunt out off firearms, watch.” The officer apparently agreed and allegedly replied: “Who does he think he is, he is just a Paki.”

PC Nadeem Saddique, 45, has been unable to return to work after a long-running battle with his employers, Cleveland police.

Speaking after the ruling, Saddique said:

This has been a lengthy and extremely difficult process, which has taken a serious toll on my health and my family. I never wanted it to go as far as a tribunal, but after experiencing problems with discrimination for a number of years within the force and exhausting all avenues internally without success, I had to do something."

It is no surprise that Saddique has left Cleveland police, not least because many of the same officers who persecuted him are still there. As far as we know none have been held to account, although the Independent Police Complaints Commission said:

The IPCC [Independent Police Complaints Commission] investigation into the case is continuing, therefore it would be inappropriate to comment on this aspect of the case at this stage.”

It is deeply troubling that any individual should have to wait some 7 years for some justice, whilst his perpetrators are still in policing and no doubt delivering a public service with a racist mindset.

Simon Woolley