The Independent Police Complaints Commission has concluded that Northumbria Police acted appropriately in its dealings with Mrs Barbara Yusuf-Porter, the mother of Lee Phipps.

Mr Phipps was murdered in South Shields on 2 March 2006 and Mrs Yusuf-Porter, during the course of the police investigation made allegations that Northumbria Police had not responded effectively to what she believed had been a campaign of harassment against her and her son. Whilst no formal complaint was received by the force, given the nature of the allegations and the significant public interest in the case, Northumbria Police voluntarily referred the matter to the IPCC.

A Senior IPCC investigator was appointed to manage the investigation by Northumbria Police's Professional Standards Department.

The investigation examined a huge amount of evidence to help determine whether Northumbria Police could or should have done more in response to Mrs Yusuf-Porter's allegations. This evidence included 1600 hours of video and audio tape recording taken at Mrs Yusuf-Porter's home during the period 1 January 2003 to 2 March 2006. From these recordings 374 incidents of interest were identified. Some of these incidents did contain examples of racist abuse but were of very poor quality and therefore of no evidential value.

The investigation also looked closely at all contact between Northumbria Police and Mrs Yusuf-Porter, including telephone conversations and some covert taping of officers that Mrs Yusuf-Porter had made at her home.

There was nothing in any of the evidence collected to substantiate any of the allegations that Northumbria Police had failed to deal appropriately with Mrs Yusuf-Porter and her son.

The extensive investigation concluded that:

.There was no substance to the allegation that individual police officers from Northumbria Police behaved in a racist manner in any of the dealings with Mrs Yusuf-Porter or Lee Phipps between 1 January 2003 and 2 March 2006;

.There was no substance to the allegation that Northumbria Police as an organisation behaved in an institutionally racist manner in any of the dealings with Mrs Yusuf-Porter or Lee Phipps;

.There was nothing in the findings of this inquiry that suggests Lee Phipp's murder could have been prevented by an alternative police response.

Gary Garland, IPCC Commissioner for the North East, said: "This was a very difficult investigation to conduct. There was a huge amount of information that we had to collate and sift through. However, I am satisfied that from all the information and evidence collected by the investigation it is clear that Northumbria Police handled all the allegations by Mrs Yusuf-Porter in a professional and conscientious manner.

"There is no doubt that some of the CCTV recordings we have been given access to contain examples of racist abuse. This type of activity must be deplored wherever it occurs and has no place in a civilised society.

"However, it must also be recognised that the recordings are of such poor quality that the police would find it impossible to use them to make a case against anyone. There is also no doubt that there are incidents which show abuse coming from Mrs Yusuf-Porter's house aimed at people who do not seem to have done anything to warrant that abuse.

"From the enquiries made as part of this investigation it is clear that tensions did exist between Mrs Yusuf-Porter and her neighbours, but there is no evidence to suggest that there were offences committed by any neighbour."

Mr Garland added: "The murder of Mr Phipps was a horrific tragedy and a waste of a young life. Northumbria Police have pursued their investigation into this diligently resulting in Scott Nichols pleading guilty to murder at Newcastle Crown Court.

"The parallel IPCC managed investigation has demonstrated that Northumbria Police acted appropriately, and in my view, the police devoted a considerable amount of time and police resources to her problems, much of which went above and beyond what would be expected of them.

"I am further satisfied that the events complained of by Mrs Yusuf- Porter had nothing at all to do with the tragedy that befell Lee Phipps, this view being reinforced by the Crown's concession in the case against Mr Nichols that the death had no racial motive."