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The chief constable of Avon and Somerset police has strongly denied claims that the force gave off-the-record briefings to the press about Christopher Jefferies, the Bristol landlord wrongly arrested over the murder of Joanna Yeates.

Colin Port told the Leveson inquiry today that a comment made in written evidence by Daily Mirror editor Richard Wallace that "police … were confident Mr Jefferies was their man" was "absolutely outrageous".

Wallace's evidence said: "The police give more general guidance to the press. When Mr Jefferies was arrested on 30 December [2010] the content desk informed me that (off-the-record) the police were saying that they were confident Mr Jefferies was their man."

Port told the inquiry today: "It's not my job to pass opinion. We don't give off the record briefings. To behave in a collusive manner is abhorrent."

He said the Avon and Somerset police press officers received a large number of "speculative enquiries" from journalists covering Yeates' disappearance, and were careful not to provide any information that would allow jigsaw identification or potentially prejudice a trial.

Giving evidence to the Leveson inquiry in January, Wallace expressed "sincere regret" about the paper's coverage of the Jefferies arrest, saying it was "very much a black mark on my editing record".

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Paul McNally

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