Two South Wales detectives disciplined after Sean Wall, 17, was given alcohol and interviewed about Cardiff raids
Two police detectives have been disciplined after a 17-year-old boy was allegedly plied with cider before being questioned about a series of burglaries.
Sean Wall admitted involvement in the raids even though he could not possibly have committed some of them because he was in custody at the time.
One of the South Wales police officers was given a final written warning and the other a written warning, it has emerged.
Wall's solicitor, Nadeem Majid, told the Guardian the detectives collected Wall from Parc young offenders' institution in Bridgend, where he was being held awaiting sentence on other matters.
Majid said he was picked up at 9am, driven around Cardiff and given two bottles of "strong cider" as the officers pointed out locations where burglaries had been carried out.
They then took Wall to Cardiff Bay police station and allegedly encouraged him to confess to the raids, telling him that admitting the crimes would not increase his sentence when he appeared before a crown court judge.
Majid said he presumed the police wanted to boost its detection rate by getting Wall to admit to unsolved burglaries.
Wall was interviewed at about 7pm at Cardiff Bay that day, Majid said, and admitted to 11 burglaries.
Shortly before midnight Wall spoke to his solicitor and told him he had been given alcohol. Majid asked the custody sergeant to breathalyse Wall and he was found to be over the drink-drive limit.
Majid said that at the time Wall was interviewed – almost five hours before – he must have been "steaming". "It's frightening to think what his reading would have been at the time of the interview."
The solicitor said: "Getting my client to admit things he hadn't done in the hope it will improve crime figures takes policing back 25 years. It's likely in his condition he'd have agreed to anything. This goes as a warning that such behaviour will not be tolerated."
Wall's mother, Angela Rosier, said: "I think it is disgusting, how can they keep their jobs? They're definitely in the wrong career. Sean cannot believe how they are allowed to stay.
"I'm not leaving it like this, I am going to take this as far I can and am currently talking to my solicitor about further action."
The incident took place in 2010. A disciplinary hearing was held last week.
There was no immediate comment from South Wales police.
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