False Witness

On a lonely road one hot summer afternoon, two police officers carry out a routine vehicle check, not knowing the car has been stolen by career criminal Karl Smithson. In his anxiety to avoid arrest, Smithson launches a vicious knife attack on them, resulting in Constable Steve Brown being stabbed to death and Inspector Richard Wade being wounded. The officers are taken completely by surprise, having no idea why Smithson would react in such an extreme manner.
Only two men know the truth of what happened that day. Wade who has been praised as a hero and richly rewarded, largely as a result of his account of events. The other, Karl Smithson, who is rightly serving a life sentence, has so far refused to speak. As doubts emerge about Wade's story, obstructed by senior police officers and politicians in their attempts to expose the truth, Superintendent Munro and his handpicked team, seeing no other option, seek a more dangerous path, risking their own careers to do so.
When the truth is revealed, an angry press demand answers from the police and politicians, all of whom attempt to distance themselves from Wade and his actions. The scandal reaches to the top of the police service and even the government. When their incompetence, cost-cutting, and complacency come out, a number of people will go to any lengths to protect themselves and their careers. Scruples and personal principles are cast aside like dirty laundry in the name of ambition and self-preservation.