Thank you.

Yes, it was, sir, yes.

Okay. What we were seeking to do is to facilitate -- link that reward in with the work Crimestoppers were doing and to have a single point of contact for information. I think initially there were difficulties and challenges around that, and I think initially the Sun wanted telephone calls to ...

Which was £50,000.

Yes, I do, sir. I think very early on in the investigation there was initially a £10,000 reward offered by Crimestoppers. Some time in early January, I think around about 7 January -- could have been earlier than that -- the Sun offered a reward.

Thank you.

The Gold Group, sir, was comprised of the Chief Constable, the gold commander was the Assistant Chief Constable for Protective Services, and the head of corporate communications, and they would meet daily. So they had an overview of the media interest and they were able to manage and deal with ...

It did. It was an unrelenting media interest from the point that Joanna was reported missing, but I think the important point to make is that the support that I got from my corporate communications department and indeed from the Gold Group -- because they basically took the brunt of the ...

I think when it becomes at a national high-profile investigation, then clearly the volume and the demands upon us from the media is significant. Also, the time of year when this took place, there was a lack of continuity in terms of journalists, and what we found is that outside ...

Yes, sir.

I do, and I understand that, sir. In hindsight, yes, we probably could have released more information, but the most important information to release was that he was no longer a suspect in the investigation and that he'd been released without charge.

My recollection of when we released him from his bail, he was notified immediately and then I believe there was a media or press release that was circulated from our corporate communications department saying that -- and bear in mind that we'd never confirmed his name or didn't confirm ...

Okay. When Vincent Tabak was interviewed, he gave "no comment" in interview. It was only a very small area around a mobile phone which he was willing to talk about. One of the topics in that interview concerned Mr Jefferies, to which he declined -- he again made no comment. Mr ...

Yes, sir.

No, I didn't, sir, no.

I think the chronology -- let's go back to the chronology of 2 January. As I said, I received a telephone call that contact had been made by a Daily Mail journalist to our corporate communications department around the nature of a story that they intended to release. We initially ...

Um ...

I've never had any role in the actual -- that PSD investigation itself, and as Mr Port said earlier, that is still an ongoing investigation.

Yes.

It could have done, yes.

Precisely within the investigation, I can't recollect, but there would have been other agencies involved in the actual forensic process that would have been aware also.

Yes, sir. I mean, my reaction when I was told -- and I said in my statement it was a feeling of deflation that that information was known outside of the investigation.

There was, sir, yes.

That's right, sir, yes.

That's correct, sir, yes.

That's correct, sir, yes. That was what instigated that. That was on 2 January. On 4 January I made a report to our Professional Standards Department, because I wanted to -- you know, I wanted it to be proactively and robustly investigated. It did cause me concern.

It came about because of the Daily Mail on the -- when I was notified of -- the low copy DNA Daily Mail possible story which we were notified of.

No, that's not right.

It was successful. If I can kind of explain the layout at Canynge Road. There were permanently at least four television crews with satellite vans parked outside 44 Canynge Road, which was the address where Ms Yeates lived. So they were there 24 hours a day.

When I took the ...

Yes.

Yes, sir.

That's right, sir.

Perhaps I could clarify that, sir. Yes, there was evidence, yes. But what I will say is not evidence -- they were not witnesses in the trial.

There was an indication that I'm aware of that there were some -- certainly some residents in Canynge Road that may have received money from the media.

Yes. It -- there were -- for example, in Canynge Road itself, we were aware that there were residents that we would visit as part of our enquiries who had already been visited by journalists or they were attending the address when we were. I think a really good example of this ...

Just reiterating, really, with staff during briefings around confidentiality. We did have some concerns early on, but we ensured that staff were aware of confidentiality and I think also, as the investigation progressed, when there was sensitive information, we ensured that it was kept to a very small number of ...

Sorry, with regard to the integrity?

Exactly, sir, yes.

Yes. I felt, during the investigation, we had -- you know, I had a real grip around the disclosure of information. We were really, really tight around that, as best we possibly could, and of course my concern was I didn't want that to impact -- any, you know, release of ...

Yes.

Absolutely.

We had requests before the trial for pre-trial briefings from the media. I discussed it with my corporate communications department and my decision was that we weren't going to hold any pre-trial briefings. There were a number of reasons for that decision. I think the experience of the investigation ...

That's correct, yes.

Absolutely, yes.

Well, I don't believe there were any off-the-record briefings. It certainly wasn't myself and I don't know who would have conducted those off-the-record briefings. Had there been any intention to do that, then I would have expected somebody would have told me, yes. But that wasn't ...

None at all, sir.

Absolutely, sir, yes.

Well, I think it's a balanced approach. In any investigation, there will be a degree of media speculation and sometimes you can respond to that appropriately. I think in this particular case, in the Joanna Yeates investigation, there was so much speculation from the media -- and I would describe ...

Yes. In essence, sir, this was, if you like, documenting the investigative media strategy. It had been implemented at the very early stages when this was a missing person investigation, which was back on 20, 21 December 2010. So it was just a combination of -- that investigative media strategy had ...

Yes.