Surrey Police have said that "a series of organisational failures" led to the collapse of an historical sexual abuse trial.

Operation Ravine was an investigation conducted by Surrey Police beginning in 2014, and concluding with the unsuccessful prosecution of Kenneth George King (aka DJ Jonathan King) in August 2018.

The focus of the investigation related to allegations of sexual abuse against boys under the age of 16 years by a number of person of public prominence associated with the music industry and discotheque known as The Walton Hop.

The allegations of abuse spanned decades from the 1970s to the 1980s.

The statement by Surrey Police comes following the publication of an independent report commissioned to learn lessons about why the case collapsed.

The report commissioned by the Force and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey, was completed by the national body for the coordination of high-profile sexual abuse investigations – Operation Hydrant.

Surrey Police’s T/Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp said: “The primary reason that we jointly commissioned this independent report was to establish what lessons could be learnt from why this case concluded the way it did.

“In summary a series of organisational failures, principally with the disclosure process and appropriate resourcing of the investigation team led to its demise.

“We are sorry for the impact this has had on victims and those involved in the case. I hope that our desire to commission this report to understand what happened and openly share the learning is reassurance of just how seriously we have taken this matter."

In total, 27 recommendations have been made in the conclusion of the report.

“At the heart of all this are a number of victims whose evidence was regrettably never tested in court," T/Deputy Chief Constable Kemp added.

“The independent report has highlighted that the team working on this case were highly dedicated and sought to investigate the truth of these allegations.

“It is critical that we learn from these recommendations for future cases so that it doesn’t happen again, and are grateful to the Hydrant team for their support on this.”