Neil Wilby Media

Late last year, in a Neil Wilby Media exclusive, the full text of the confession of a high profile bent cop was published (read in full here).

Former West Yorkshire Police detective inspector, Cedric Christie, admitted a series of offences committed both before and during the time he was a cadet and then a warranted police officer. A period of over 30 years. 

The admitted transgressions included shoplifting, making off, aiding and abetting assault, multiple perjury, pervert course of justice and conspiracy offences, including repeated events of evidence tampering to ‘fit-up’ suspects at court.  

He was also aware of a number of his colleagues who were also ‘bent’ and failed to challenge or report them. Indeed, he was a party to at least some of their criminal offences.

His confession doesn’t make clear if he has now ceased offending and, if so, when did he take up honesty as a life concept.

Cedric achieved notable fame in 2012 when he stood for election to Police and Crime Commissioner in the same county, and very nearly succeeded in taking office. Not least, because his single platform was rooting out corruption in WYP, repeated many times on network television and in the local, regional and national press. 

The previous Cedric Christie article signed off by positing that if the bent cop confession is full, genuine and contrite – and on all subsequent evidence it is not – where is the admission that he was, through the eyes of innocence campaigners working with Ralph Christie, who was found guilty on five of nineteen charges following the biggest failed fraud prosecution in the history of the British police service, instrumental in turning those committed to the defence of the charges against Ralph into prosecution witnesses? Helping to send one’s own brother to prison for seven years is something from which he should urgently seek absolution.

As one who was completely duped by Cedric’s ‘honest cop’ deceit, acting as his campaign manager in the aforementioned PCC campaign, the author of this article, Neil Wilby, puts these questions in the form of an open letter to him:

Dear Cedric

It’s been some years since we last met or spoke.

We need to talk.

There are some crucial public interest matters that need addressing:

What was the trigger for the confession?

Why does it appear to be incomplete?

Why was its circulation so limited?

Why have key misdemeanours been omitted?

Why did you not turn yourself in at your local police station?

What restitution will you make to your victims?

Why have you gone into hiding and refusing to face your victims?

Why have you declined your right of reply to the previous articles on this topic?

Yours in truth

Neil Wilby

In the meantime, efforts will be renewed to arrange a meeting between the two former anti-corruption allies, failing which the exercise of a journalist’s prerogative to doorstep Cedric is likely to be exercised. 

The great likelihood, however, is that WYP (and the Crown Prosecution Service – about whom more will be heard in a forthcoming article), in order to avoid a massive scandal and potential inquiry into deep-rooted corruption within their force, have told Cedric Christie to keep his head down, mouth shut and, in return, they won’t prosecute him.

Victims of Cedric Christie’s criminality have come forward to express more bewilderment and shock than anger. But justice and restitution of funds is definitely front of mind. 

Peter Raistrick, a retired fire officer who invested in Plakias Palace, a 19 million euros hotel re-development and one of Ralph Christie’s most ambitious projects, says:

“It came as a shock about Ced been a criminal as I thought he was as straight as a die, let’s hope justice prevails.”

David and Helen Foakes are also Plakias Palace shareholders and say:

“Along with a number of others, we invested in the Plakias Palace venture. To this date we have not received anything back from our original investment. A sad stare if affairs!”

Another investor, David Campion, also a former England international squash player and now a national coach, has made his views known: 

“Cedric Christie – A bent copper (by his own admission) came a very close second in the election to be the police commissioner of West Yorkshire in 2012. Wow, thats a shocking thought!”

A restauranteur in Sowerby Bridge, David Johnston, also invested in the scheme that was set to attract huge Invest In Greece funding:

“I invested in Plakias Palace around 2006 to 2009. The police began investigating Ralph and I got a phone call from DCI Taylor who was trying to make me admit that Ralph had stolen my investment and would I make a statement relating to his bad character, which I refused to do. The WYP freezing of the bank accounts totally stopped any investments and to this point has been the cause of the loss of all my investment. But at no point did I believe Ralph to be running a ponzi scheme or even being fraudulent. I hope this goes some distance to helping the innocence campaign.”

Gita Gavare Marotis-Lanas (pictured below) says, with feeling, as she is Ralph Christie’s present life and business partner:

“I have met Cedric a few times and he comes along as a kind but troubled man, on the run and a searching for something.

“He seems stuck in his ways and not willing or able to look at facts, only caring about justifying his wrongdoings against his brother Ralph and others.”

But the last words in this article go to his principal victim, Ralph Christie, who says: 

“Cedric’s confession, although not entirely unexpected, has obviously caused serious damage within our family.

“From October, 2013, when I was cleared in the Greek courts of much the same charges as I was convicted of in Bradford in March, 2015, Ced was the only family member, friend or business associate that did not celebrate wildly. He was up to something untoward from that point onwards.

“From being my biggest supporter and lead innocence campaigner, he turned turtle and started covertly working against me.

“The evidence points to him being ‘got at’ by senior police officers and prosecutors. A reasonable assumption is that they found out he was corrupt, before any of the rest of us did, and used that as leverage to turn him against me and send him out to Crete to do a ‘bogus’ investigation which resulted in fourteen extra charges against me in Bradford Crown Court.

“Having made the initial confession – which is obviously far from his full tariff of criminality I beg him, yet again, to do the decent thing, help clear my name and assist West Yorkshire Police in making full restitution to all those.investors so badly affected.

“More importantly it will help bring our family back to the close-knit, mutually supportive unit it always was before all this blew up in our faces.”

Over to you, Cedric.

Page last updated: Tuesday 6th February 2024 at 1925 hours

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