Overview
This dossier contains confidential records for Superintendent Colin Mercer.
Material is provisional, cross-referenced from recovered files, protected records, and field notes.
COT / MI5 Case File
Restricted
Eyes Only
Maritime Evidence Dossier
Superintendent Colin Mercer
Subject: Superintendent Colin Mercer
FORMAL SAFETY INTERVIEW RECORD
SUBJECT: Superintendent Colin Mercer
CLASSIFICATION: OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE // SAFETY INVESTIGATION
REFERENCE: CONTROLLED COPY // COT/MARINE/2035/CTC056
Document control
CASE REFERENCE: COT/MARINE/2035/CTC056
SUBJECT: Superintendent Colin Mercer
CENTRAL RECORD: COT05E0601B185CB
RANK / APPOINTMENT: Superintendent
ORGANISATION: Police / Hull CID
DATE OF BIRTH: 1981-03-02
PLACE / NATIONALITY: Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, British
INTERVIEW STATUS: Witness / account holder
LOCATION: Secure interview suite — location withheld
DATE: 19 September 2035
LEAD AUTHORITY: Marine Accident Investigation Branch
RECORDING MEDIA: Two sealed digital masters and one independent evidential hash
DISTRIBUTION: Named recipients only. No automated onward distribution.
NOTE: Handling notice. This document contains operational, personal and evidential material. It may be read only by a person with both the required clearance and a recorded need to know. Extraction of images, transcript segments or metadata creates a new controlled copy.
Identity and visual evidence control
VISUAL ASSET STATUS: Passport image: attached; dossier image frames available: 3; surveillance frames available: 0; identity match: matched by subject/asset map.
Reason for interview or reconstruction
This record concerns the subject's knowledge of Al Bahr Logistics, MI5, Home Office; and associated decisions, communications and evidence handling. The scope of this record is confined to the matters set out above and to evidence formally introduced during the session.
Preliminary investigator note
The subject was cooperative on chronology and guarded on attribution. Answers became more exact when the interviewers distinguished direct observation from later analysis.
Recorded interview transcript
LEAD INSPECTOR: State your full name for the record.
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: Superintendent Colin Mercer
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you understand the status of this interview and the limits placed on distribution?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: I understand the status. I do not accept that the distribution is as limited as the header suggests.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Have you been offered the representation, legal advice or staff support applicable to this procedure?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: I have, and I reserve the right to stop if the questioning moves outside them.
DOCUMENTARY EXHIBIT D-01 Retained extract: He reached Superintendent Colin Mercer’s office and didn’t bother knocking. Associated persons: Daniel Sykes, Jack — Argus duty officer Relevant systems or locations: Al Bahr Logistics, MI5
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you accept that this extract accurately records an event in which you were involved?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: The timing is supportable. Attribution is not. Check Al Bahr Logistics against the unprocessed record before you accept the later label.
LEAD INSPECTOR: What did you understand at that moment, before later analysis supplied a larger explanation?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: The timing is supportable. Attribution is not. Check Al Bahr Logistics against the unprocessed record before you accept the later label.
DOCUMENTARY EXHIBIT D-02 Retained extract: The papers inside spilled slightly, but Mercer made no move to pick them up. Associated persons: Daniel Sykes, Jack — Argus duty officer Relevant systems or locations: MI5, Home Office
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you accept that this extract accurately records an event in which you were involved?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: I preserved the raw state before testing the explanation. Anything else would have changed the evidence. My answer is limited to what I personally saw, heard or ordered.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Who else was physically present and capable of confirming your account without relying on the same electronic record?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: The timing is supportable. Attribution is not. If the original is no longer available, that absence should remain part of your finding.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Are you saying the official record is wrong?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: I am saying it may be accurate about the event and wrong about the cause.
DOCUMENTARY EXHIBIT D-03 Retained extract: And that’s not even the worst part—" Mercer held up a hand. Associated persons: Daniel Sykes, Jack — Argus duty officer Relevant systems or locations: Home Office
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you accept that this extract accurately records an event in which you were involved?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: The timing is supportable. Attribution is not. The missing interval matters more than the wording placed around it afterwards.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Why was the matter not escalated through the ordinary reporting route?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: The values agree with one another. Agreement is not proof that they describe the real world. If the original is no longer available, that absence should remain part of your finding.
DOCUMENTARY EXHIBIT D-04 Retained extract: Mercer’s expression didn’t change, but there was the slightest hesitation. Associated persons: Daniel Sykes
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you accept that this extract accurately records an event in which you were involved?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: That is what the system reported. It is not necessarily what the equipment physically did. My answer is limited to what I personally saw, heard or ordered.
LEAD INSPECTOR: What part of the retained record is incomplete or misleading?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: The timing is supportable. Attribution is not. My answer is limited to what I personally saw, heard or ordered.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Are you saying the official record is wrong?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: I am saying the record should remain evidence, not become an alibi for the system that produced it.
DOCUMENTARY EXHIBIT D-05 Retained extract: We let it slide?" Mercer held his gaze for a long time. Associated persons: Daniel Sykes
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you accept that this extract accurately records an event in which you were involved?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: That is what the system reported. It is not necessarily what the equipment physically did. My answer is limited to what I personally saw, heard or ordered.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Which physical record should be examined before this account is treated as settled?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: The values agree with one another. Agreement is not proof that they describe the real world. I will not improve my memory to make the chronology easier.
DOCUMENTARY EXHIBIT D-06 Retained extract: Mercer had stonewalled him. Associated persons: Fiona Ward Relevant systems or locations: MI5
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you accept that this extract accurately records an event in which you were involved?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: I preserved the raw state before testing the explanation. Anything else would have changed the evidence. I will not improve my memory to make the chronology easier.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Did anyone instruct you to describe the incident differently afterwards?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: The timing is supportable. Attribution is not. My answer is limited to what I personally saw, heard or ordered.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Are you saying the official record is wrong?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: I am saying it may be accurate about the event and wrong about the cause.
[Exhibit S-01 introduced. Subject permitted to inspect the displayed copy without handling the source medium.]
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you identify the person shown as yourself?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: I identify myself in the frame. I cannot authenticate the date from the crop alone.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Can you establish the location or date from anything visible in the frame?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: The location is supportable from the surroundings. The purpose you are implying is not.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Were you aware that the image was being made?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: I was not aware of the camera at the time shown.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Who had advance knowledge of your presence at that location?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: That depends on whether the source is an official system, a copied feed or a separate observer.
LEAD INSPECTOR: What does this image prove, and what does it not prove?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: Preserve the frames before and after it. A single image is a fact about light, not a complete account of conduct.
[Exhibit S-02 introduced. Subject permitted to inspect the displayed copy without handling the source medium.]
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you identify the person shown as yourself?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: I identify myself in the frame. I cannot authenticate the date from the crop alone.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Can you establish the location or date from anything visible in the frame?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: The location is supportable from the surroundings. The purpose you are implying is not.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Were you aware that the image was being made?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: I was not aware of the camera at the time shown.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Who had advance knowledge of your presence at that location?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: That depends on whether the source is an official system, a copied feed or a separate observer.
LEAD INSPECTOR: What does this image prove, and what does it not prove?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: Preserve the frames before and after it. A single image is a fact about light, not a complete account of conduct.
[Exhibit S-03 introduced. Subject permitted to inspect the displayed copy without handling the source medium.]
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you identify the person shown as yourself?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: I identify myself in the frame. I cannot authenticate the date from the crop alone.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Can you establish the location or date from anything visible in the frame?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: The location is supportable from the surroundings. The purpose you are implying is not.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Were you aware that the image was being made?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: I was not aware of the camera at the time shown.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Who had advance knowledge of your presence at that location?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: That depends on whether the source is an official system, a copied feed or a separate observer.
LEAD INSPECTOR: What does this image prove, and what does it not prove?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: Preserve the frames before and after it. A single image is a fact about light, not a complete account of conduct.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Is there any material fact you have withheld because you consider this recording or its distribution unsafe?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: No fact material to immediate safety. Other matters require a narrower compartment.
LEAD INSPECTOR: What is the single next action this investigation should take?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: Compare the surveillance timeline with access, maintenance and movement records before drawing a conclusion.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you wish to add or correct anything before the recording is suspended?
SUPERINTENDENT COLIN MERCER: Yes. Do not improve the certainty of my answers in the written summary.
[Recording suspended. Source media sealed. Any resumed session requires a new opening declaration and exhibit schedule.]
Confidential investigator assessment
The interview produced useful corroboration points and several testable contradictions. It did not establish final responsibility for the events examined.
Actions and inconsistencies outstanding
- Obtain or compare the independent account of Daniel Sykes; do not disclose this transcript before their unaided account is fixed.
- Obtain or compare the independent account of Jack — Argus duty officer; do not disclose this transcript before their unaided account is fixed.
- Obtain or compare the independent account of Fiona Ward; do not disclose this transcript before their unaided account is fixed.
- Preserve and independently verify the original record associated with MI5, including audit history and physical custody.
- Preserve and independently verify the original record associated with Home Office, including audit history and physical custody.
- Preserve and independently verify the original record associated with Al Bahr Logistics, including audit history and physical custody.
NOTE: Finding limit. Nothing in this record establishes guilt, operational direction or final causation unless expressly stated as a supported finding. A valid credential, image or system entry proves only what that item can independently support.
LEAD INSPECTOR — sealed electronic signature held separately
Evidence custodian — receipt and hash recorded
END OF CONTROLLED RECORD — CTC-056