Revealed: Britain's racist police

The Scotsman has learned that the officer, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, is one of several recruits at Bruche National Police Training Centre near Warrington, one of Britain’s largest and most respected police training centres, implicated in a BBC documentary.

The evidence has been gathered by Mark Daly, a former journalist for The Scotsman, who went undercover as a probationary constable with Greater Manchester Police.

Mr Daly filmed his police colleagues for almost seven months, compiling what the BBC claims is evidence of institutionalised racism within not just Greater Manchester Police, but at least two other forces.

The Scotsman, which has viewed the BBC’s documentary, has seen evidence of police recruits at Bruche fantasising about lynching the only Asian officer in the same training intake.

In one scene, secretly filmed in the undercover reporter’s room at Bruche, the police officer seen wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood unwittingly addresses the camera and threatens to single out the Asian recruit for special treatment. He states: "I haven’t even f****** started with him yet. He’ll regret the day he was ever born a Paki."

When asked later by Mr Daly what his ultimate aim was, the same officer disturbingly replies: "To eradicate the whole f****** country of people like him."

Another police officer boasts to his colleagues in the bar of Bruche how he had fantasised about killing the Asian officer in question, stating: "I’d kill him. I’d pull my f****** hood on my head and chase him down the road."

The Scotsman understands that all the constables implicated in the documentary are serving police officers working in three major forces, including Greater Manchester Police.

The BBC’s undercover operation had been planned since 2000.

Mr Daly, 28, joined the force in January this year, after successfully passing through the rigorous selection procedure and spending five and a half months at Bruche.

Over the same period, he had secretly filmed his colleagues, uncovering what the BBC claims is "damning evidence" of racism.

In August, Mr Daly was arrested by the Manchester force after they received an anonymous tip-off telling them an undercover journalist had joined its ranks. The journalist, who at the time was working in the force’s Stockport Division, was suspected of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception and damaging police property. He is expected to answer police bail next month.

The BBC said any pay Mr Daly had received had been kept in a separate account and was to be returned to the force at the end of the investigation. The corporation has also offered to pay for damage caused to Mr Daly’s bullet-proof vest, which was altered to hold a pinhole camera and battery pack.

The BBC went to great lengths to record police activities covertly, placing pinhole cameras in Mr Daly’s police uniform and the dashboard of his private car.

Cameras were also hidden in Mr Daly’s briefcase and in the stereo in his room at Bruche National Police Training Centre.

The Scotsman understands that Michael Todd, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, recently held talks with Greg Dyke, the BBC’s director general, to try to establish details of what was contained in the programme.

Mr Daly told The Scotsman: "The police are accountable to the public like any government organisation and, in an open society, should not themselves be free from scrutiny.

"I believe what we have done will be beneficial not just for the public but in the long run, for the police forces themselves."

Last night, a spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police said: "We remain concerned about how the material for this programme was obtained and we await the full screening on Tuesday before we make any specific comment."