PCSO denies passing information to attack suspect

A police community support officer (PCSO) has denied passing on information to a man suspected of being involved in a machete attack on two victims.

Alice Dobson, 30, is accused of sharing confidential details of the police investigation into the incident with Rahees Khan, 42.

Giving evidence she told Bradford Crown Court she had only accessed files about the attack to see if she could "develop" any leads on the case.

Dobson, from Baildon, and Rahees Khan, of no fixed abode, deny a charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, while five other defendants, including Khan, deny conspiring to murder the two injured men.

Prosecutors allege the five male defendants attacked the two men in Tickhill Street, in Bradford, on 11 May 2025.

One of the victims was left with a severed hand and a partially amputated leg, while the other was struck in the neck with the machete but managed to escape.

On Monday, Dobson confirmed she had accessed police files relating to the attack on multiple occasions in the days afterwards

But she said she had done so for operational reasons because it a "massive" incident in the BD3 postcode area she worked in.

Call records read to the court showed that around the same time she viewed the records she had exchanged numerous calls and messages with Rahees Khan, as well as with her partner.

Dobson said she had spoken to Rahees Khan to encourage another man, who was at the time suspected of having been involved in the incident, to hand himself in.

The officer, who attended the crime scene immediately after the attack, denied passing intelligence onto anyone else.

Asked by her barrister why she had accessed the logs on one particular occasion a few days after the attack, Dobson said: "It was still on my mind. I wanted to see if there were any suspects that I needed to be aware of, or if there were any lines of inquiry I could develop through community intelligence."

Asked if she suspected at that time that Rahees Khan had been involved in the attack, Dobson replied: "No."

Asked if she had told him and her partner what she had seen on the logs, Dobson again replied: "No."

Under cross examination, Dobson confirmed she had previously pleaded guilty to a separate charge of perverting the course of justice, which related to her trying to influence an investigation into a racially-aggravated assault against three children.

The court heard Dobson had encouraged the suspect to leave her home to avoid being arrested and exchanged messages with her about CCTV of the incident.

The defendant told the court she had "tried to take responsibility for what she had done" but denied the woman had asked for her help because the community believed she "had been corrupted".

Rahees Khan is on trial along side Waqqas Khan, 27, of Folkestone Street, Bradford, Hanzalah Saladin, 27, of no fixed abode, Adam Takolia, 29, of no fixed abode, and another man who cannot be named for legal reasons.

All five deny conspiracy to murder, as well as alternative charges of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.

The trial continues.

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