Neil Wilby Media

A Neil Wilby Media exclusive, published on 5th February, 2024 (read in full here), has encouraged more victims of a self-admitted bent cop to come forward.

But, by way of balance and despite the seriousness of the confession in terms of the offending, the ‘bad apple’ is not without support amongst his own family and friends. 

Briefly, a former West Yorkshire Police detective inspector, Cedric Christie, has admitted, in writing, to a life of crime, beginning even before he became a police cadet in or around 1980 and continuing throughout his 30 year police service as a warranted officer. Including a spell with the elite Regional Crime Squad as it was known then (later the Serious and Organised Crime Agency and now the National Crime Agency). 

It is alleged by his older brother, Ralph Christie, supported by a great deal of circumstantial evidence and inference, that a corrupt investigation carried out by Cedric in 2014 led to Ralph’s convictions and a seven year prison sentence the following year (read full account here).

In 2012, Cedric Christie stood and, with the notable support of George Galloway’s Respect Party, was almost elected as Police and Crime Commissioner for his home county on a single platform: An honest ex-cop driving out corruption in his former force. At that time, he told The Guardian newspaper:

“West Yorkshire is a wonderful county with lots of fantastic people living here, lots of different diverse communities, and what we have to do is make sure that all those communities have trust and faith in the police.”

In the preceding Neil Wilby Media article, a number of victims gave accounts of how they had been affected by Cedric’s flawed investigation. This has resulted in other stakeholders in this almost surreal true crime drama coming forward:

Retired headmaster (of three different schools), Geoff Brown, was a live witness for the defence at the criminal trial of Ralph Christie in Chania, Crete in October, 2013 at which he was cleared by three senior Greek judges on much the same fraud allegations as the later trial in Bradford Crown Court, where convictions were brought in by a jury on five of nineteen charges.

Geoff, an investor in one of Ralph’s most ambitious property schemes, a 19 million euro hotel re-development known as Plakias Palace (pictured above), was an unused defence witness at the latter and says:

“I have known Ralph for over 20 years and during that time he has tried his very, very best to utilise the opportunities in Crete for the benefit of those he cared for. In that time, I have never, ever felt or believed that he was trying to mislead or “con” anyone. He has forever tried to find financial situations that would benefit both him and his friends, associates. He has never sought to take advantage of them or abuse them, but to find a route to mutually benefit both parties.

“I have never witnessed any dishonesty or malpratcice. Perhaps Ralph just tried too hard to make everyone win big! But never, ever tried to deceive or mislead them. Ralph Christie was an honest man who tried his very best to bring joy to all. He is not, and never was a criminal.”

John Warwick, another retired headmaster now running a Crete property letting business, and a walking football colleague of Ralph Christie, offers an important viewpoint:

“You should send the most recent article plus all the other connected articles about Ralph’s wrongful conviction to ALL media channels (look what happened when the sub-postmaster Post Office Scandal was shown on TV!). His case is so worthy of TV coverage to help him reach a conclusion. It’s gone on far too long.”

John’s views reflect those of most of the rest of the Kalyves Titans football team, an international collection of high achievers, either in business or professionally. 

Veterinary surgeon, Ian Kippax, another Plakias Palace investor, along with his wife Ali, say:

“We believe that Sue Watt, a former co-director and fundraiser in Ralph Christie’s property business (for further background please read a previous article headlined ‘Watt A Carry On’ here) has played a major role in causing the losses we have suffered from our investments with them in Crete.

John Elam, whose own miscarriage of justice case has been raised in Parliament by his then MP, Gerry Sutcliffe, a former Justice Minister (read more here), has strong views about Cedric Christie:

“When we met at Gerry Sutcliffe’s office in Bradford, not long after my case had been debated in Parliament, I recognised him and knew he’d been involved in one of the two main investigations into serious crimes that the police found, after six years of intensive surveillance, that I hadn’t committed. He denied it at the time, but Neil Wilby later uncovered a document, signed by Cedric, in an Operation Primary case file disclosed to us by the Crown Prosecution Service, that proved he had. 

“Cedric later turned up for meetings wired up with a concealed microphone and tape recorder, thinking I didn’t know. Or that I didn’t work out that the bloke across the street from my local, trying to look invisible, was his mate. 

“But most concerning of all to me and other miscarriage of justice victims I’ve met or spoken with is that Cedric was pretending to help us win the fight against West Yorkshire Police whilst, at the same time, reporting back to their senior officers DCI Simon Bottomley and C/Supt Andy Brennan on what he thought he had found out.”

“They got absolutely nothing useful from me. I made sure of that. But a missed opportunity all the same as Cedric could have given us a lot of help in identifying other bent cops who worked on my case and uncovering the new evidence we needed to take my appeal further forward.”

But Cedric is not without support, either within his own family or on the idyllic island of Crete, the location upon which much of this miscarriage of justice is grounded. Brother Lance Christie, a forthright, wealthy and former leading light in the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church before he was ex-communicated by the cult in 2017, is unbending in his support of Cedric (and the desire to keep Ralph criminalised):

Joan Bruhier, a former overseas missionary and charity worker who now runs Alpha House, a highly rated guest house set in a tranquil backwater away from the island’s popular resorts, whilst also working for The Greek Reporter, takes a similar stance. Interestingly both Cedric Christie and Neil Wilby, the author of this article, have been hosted by Joan in Kampia, albeit some months apart. She says:

“The article describing Cedric as a ‘bent cop’ is unfair. His confession of relatively minor misdemeanours shows his real honesty and repentance. If only more people were as honest about the things that are wrong in their lives, and the things they have done wrong.”

Joan and Lance, both largely, and understandably, unfamiliar with the criminal justice system, appear not to have grasped the seriousness of the Cedric Christie confession or the fact that it is, as yet, palpably incomplete.

Taking just three of the offences to which he has admitted – perjury, pervert course of justice and misconduct in public office – could mean that he could spend many years in prison if the matters went to court, particularly as he was a serving police officer when committing those crimes on multiple occasions. Two of those three offences carry a maximum term of life imprisonment. Perjury just seven years maximum in jail.

Coincidentally the same term to which Ralph was sentenced for the five counts of fraud by false representation, at the Crown Court in Bradford, which remain at the heart of his miscarriage of justice campaign and the pursuit of civil remedy.

As in the previous article, the last words go to Ralph Christie:

“My eldest brother Lance was previously a major proponent and funder of my innocence claim. One of many family and friends who celebrated my acquittal in Chania courthouse in October, 2013. He has never explained why he has changed sides – or why he wants me to remain convicted – whilst praising our youngest brother, Cedric, for a life of crime for which our sibling could well find himself in prison for many years.

“Joan Bruhier is a close friend and, of course, as a public school-educated Yorkshire girl at heart, independent minded. In March, 2022, my partner, Gita, and I went for a meal with Cedric and Joan at a local taverna. She told my brother that I was one of the most honest men she had ever met. Cedric has not been back to stay at Alpha House or in this Principality since.”

UPDATE:

A former colleague in the Leeds District of West Yorkshire Police has come forward and offered these comments by way of background. For very valid reasons the whistleblower’s identity remains concealed:

“I never actually worked shifts with Ced, but he always had an aura of aloofness.

“Always on some specialised team or another, but I do recall he was a money grabber and more than happy to put on his uniform to get the ‘container’ duties at the Bridewell”.

Page last updated: Monday 12th February 2024 at 1225 hours

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