The Police remained tight-lipped yesterday over how a dossier detailing allegations about key Government figures relating to the Bermuda Housing Corporation affair went missing.

The Police have admitted the master copies of the dossier went missing after the BHC probe concluded in 2004.

Extracts were carried by ZBM News and the Mid Ocean News earlier this year.

Among the revelations was news that Premier Dr. Ewart Brown and former Premier Jennifer Smith were among the public figures investigated by Police examining allegations of corruption at the public housing quango.

The Police investigation sparked by the media leak has seen three arrests, but no-one charged.

All three people arrested — including Auditor General Larry Dennis and 'Son of the Soil' Harold Darrell — have since had their bail lifted by the Police.

After their bail was lifted The Royal Gazette put a series of questions to the Police asking about the investigation. They included:

• Has the Police Service ascertained how the leak came about and whether the dossier was stolen or simply copied and disseminated?

• Has the US Secret Service returned the test results. What did they indicate?

• Do the Police know how the documents they recovered from the storage room at Cavendish Heights Apartments got there?

• How many suspects are there in this case? Are any of them serving or former Police officers?

• Are any charges expected in relation to this investigation?

A Police spokesman put the questions to senior officers, who responded yesterday that: "The investigation continues."

Asked why no further details were forthcoming, the spokesman said: "We would never discuss anything as it relates to an investigation. It's just not standard practice."

Unusually for a Bermuda Police Service investigation, details came into the public domain by way of affidavits sworn by Police Commissioner George Jackson during his failed bid — in conjunction with Government — to gag the media from reporting more from the leaked dossier.

On October 29 Bermuda's highest court of appeal, the Privy Council in London, ruled in favour of the media.

Prior to that, Mr. Jackson had told the Privy Council 246 documents appearing to be the source for media stories were recovered from a utility room at Cavendish Apartments, Devonshire, on June 11.

They were at that time being examined in America by the Secret Service, as were copies of BHC inquiry documents handed over to detectives by the Auditor General's wife after his arrest in June, he said.

In testimony to an earlier hearing at the Supreme Court in June, Mr. Jackson outlined how nine containers of files were deposited at the conclusion of the two-year investigation at AF Smith Central Filing Services in Paget in April 2006.

He told the court some "sensitive files", the documents upon which he believes the media articles were based, were stored prior to this by a former Police officer who has since left Bermuda.

The files, stored by the officer in a safe in offices in Burnaby Street, Hamilton in preparation for being sent to AF Smith, were the investigating officers' working papers including policy decisions and intelligence documents, Mr. Jackson claimed in his statement.

"The sensitive files were not subsequently deposited by the Police at AF Smith Central Filing. It is unknown where they are currently located," he told the Supreme Court in a sworn statement on June 12.

He said that on June 11 the Police recovered documents believed to be photocopies of the original documents which were maintained and stored by the former Police officer.

"After an initial examination of these documents, I am of the belief that they or copies of them are the documents from which the various articles in the media have been sourced," said Mr. Jackson.

"I am also of the belief that the information circulated by the defendants (the media organisations) together or collectively was not reproduced in its entirety in any place outside the sensitive files.

"We are vigorously pursuing lines of inquiry to establish the source of these documents. We believe the original documents continue to be unlawfully held by an unknown source."

Mr. Jackson also noted that officers had been brought in from Kent Police in England to review the inquiry.

Mr. Darrell identified himself in the Mid-Ocean News as the whistle-blower, reportedly saying: "I gave parts of the Police dossier to the Press so that they could inform the public of two things the Government officials identified by the Police as the wrongdoers in this scandal, and also the apparent cover-up of the investigation by higher authorities."

He has refused to comment on how the documents came into his possession.

Since the BHC scandal — which is believed to have cost taxpayers $8 million — one person has been convicted. Terrence Smith, a BHC officer, was jailed last year on 41 counts of fraud. He successfully appealed his conviction, and is awaiting a re-trial.