London Evening Standard/London

Police have accused a Mail on Sunday (MoS) reporter of criminal voyeurism after he exposed a top children’s doctor who was abusing Class A drugs just before he went on duty at an NHS hospital.
The award-winning journalist set up hidden cameras that captured Dr Colin Ferrie snorting cocaine and an illegal party drug. But despite the reporter handing the footage over to detectives and offering to help with their case, West Yorkshire Police last week called him in for questioning as a suspect.
He was interviewed under caution at a police station on suspicion of voyeurism and supplying drugs, and even asked if he had made the secret film for his own sexual gratification. The journalist denies the allegations.
Experts said the highly unusual interrogation – which involved 107 questions – was an affront to press freedom and warned it would have a chilling effect on future undercover investigations.
Senior Labour MP Keith Vaz, whose Home Affairs Committee has criticised police surveillance of journalists, said: “It is important that safeguards be given to journalists when they are acting in the public interest.” And Bob Satchwell, chairman of the Society of Editors, added: “It is perfectly legitimate and reasonable for journalists to investigate wrong-doing. The police should support them in these endeavours.”
The Mail on Sunday’s lawyers have written to the director of public prosecutions (DPP) Alison Saunders and West Yorkshire chief constable Mark Gilmore to express their ‘grave concerns’ about their handling of the case.
The DPP is already under fire over her failed £20mn prosecution of journalists whose newspapers had paid for stories.
The lawyers told the DPP: “It is intimidating to journalists and can only have a chilling impact on how they conduct their investigations, to the detriment of the public interest.”
The reporter’s caution comes after police used anti-terror laws to access the MoS’s phone records after an expose on former Cabinet minister Chris Huhne’s attempt to evade justice for a speeding fine.
Ferrie, a consultant paediatric neurologist, had his drug habit uncovered after a MoS reporter was approached late last year by one of the medic’s acquaintances, who said they had met 20 times in a few months and consumed mind-altering substances each time.
The reporter was told that the senior doctor was going to visit a house in Bradford for a drugs binge one midweek afternoon, just hours before he began an on-call shift at Leeds General Infirmary where he would be giving crucial advice to other medical staff about how to treat seriously ill young people.
After The Mail on Sunday took legal advice, video cameras were placed in the home where the drugs were to be taken, with the full co-operation of the residents who were concerned that his illegal behaviour would impair his judgment when treating young patients.
Dr Ferrie, an expert in epilepsy, was filmed taking nearly three grams of cocaine with an acquaintance and multiple doses of the addictive ‘date rape’ sedative GHB.
He could be heard declaring ‘looking good, that’ after snorting a long line of cocaine.
After the story was published in January, Dr Ferrie was suspended by the NHS trust, and West Yorkshire Police launched an investigation.
When detectives contacted the MoS, the newspaper offered to co-operate fully in their investigation, while protecting the sources.
Police said the move was suggested by the Crown Prosecution Service but the CPS denied this.
Although the reporter was not arrested and was told he could leave the interview at any time, he was questioned under caution after being read his rights – stating that anything he said could later be used as evidence against him.
Incredibly, he was told that he was being accused of supplying drugs and the ‘Peeping Tom’ offence of voyeurism – on the grounds that the hidden cameras may also have recorded Dr Ferrie having sex.
During a 90-minute interview in Leeds last Wednesday, the journalist was asked: ‘The camera was installed in the bedroom… was that done in any way for the purpose of your own gratification?’
A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police confirmed the interview was carried out under caution, adding: “This is an ongoing investigation and we are not in a position to comment further.”

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