WEST Yorkshire’s first Polish-speaking police officer showed Polish students around the Bradford’s police museum.

Stanislaw Matejak, 68, gave the group of 25 youngsters, aged between 13 and 18, a tour of the building based in City Hall.

The teenagers, from Kety in Poland, were given an hour-long tour of the police museum’s exhibits including its cells and old courtroom.

Mr Matejak is a former police constable in Bradford who was on duty between 1968 and 1990 and was the first Polish speaking officer to join the force.

He transferred from the West Yorkshire Constabulary to Bradford City Police in 1970 and, after a brief spell as a Pc in Halifax, he returned to the district to work the beat from Odsal Police Station.

When he left the force, Mr Matejak went on to work as a senior officer in the prison service, based in Thorp Arch.

Dominika Marcinkowska, project co-ordinator, said the teens had benefitted from having Mr Matejak as their tour guide yesterday.

She said: “It was a really good tour and everyone absolutely loved it.

“It was great that Stan translated for us too.”

Mr Matejak, of Wibsey, further showed his commitment to Poland when he had the eagle from the country’s flag tattooed on his right arm on Wednesday.

He said: “It was good to have the youngsters here today.

“It is a long time since I have associated with Polish-speaking youngsters.

“There was a large Polish population when I arrived here in Bradford.

“There were not too many ex-police officers who are Polish in Bradford. There was no racism directed at me when I was a police officer. People just had a problem with the pronouncement of my name. People called me Mr instead.

“I was born over here in Halifax. I don’t know much about my childhood really. My first language until I went to school was Polish. I did not speak English until I went to primary school.

“I go back to Poland every year and see my family there. My father was born in Warsaw.

“Everything started coming back to me when I started to speak Polish to the group.

“I stayed as a Pc throughout my career.

“I have worked as a guide at the police museum for the last two years.”

The Polish contingent’s visit was part of the Erasmus + exchange project, which also saw a group of English students travel to Auschwitz last month.

Erasmus sees groups of people aged between 13 and 30 organise a youth exchange with other young people from one or more EU country lasting five to 21 days.