Judge accuses police of lying about mine massacre September 21, 2013 Police surround the bodies of striking miners after the clash at the Lonmin Platinum Mine near Rustenburg, South Africa. Johannesburg: The judge leading a public inquiry into the fatal shooting of 34 striking mine workers by South African police last year has caused a sensation by accusing officers of lying. Judge Ian Farlam halted the hearing on Thursday, insisting that statements from the South African Police Service (SAPS) about events on August 16 were "not the truth." He claimed evidence had come to light of documents that police had previously said did not exist, while other reports appeared to have been tampered with. "We do not make this statement lightly," Mr Farlam said. We have to say that absent a convincing explanation, the material which we have found has serious consequences for the further conduct of the work of this commission. Dispute about the statements follows protests over the state's refusal to continue funding lawyers acting on behalf of 270 injured miners and others who were arrested and detained after the shooting. Police claimed their officers were forced to open fire when armed protesters charged them after days of clashes which resulted in the deaths of 10 people including two police officers who were hacked to death. The first moments of the massacre at the Lonmin platinum mine were captured on film and led to an international outcry. Evidence later suggested that police chased protesters to a nearby hill where it is claimed they were shot in cold blood. The new evidence appears to have come from a police officer's computer hard drive. Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan Scott's computer became the hub for the police evidence of what happened in the days that followed, including video and photographs of the events taken by police officers. Lawyers for the commission suggested this week that there was evidence on the hard drive that was not in the supposedly complete police files handed to them by SAPS lawyers. The evidence reportedly includes a video from August 18, two days after the shootings, showing a senior officer briefing staff and telling them they should co-operate "100 per cent" with the public inquiry. But the video appears to contradict the testimony of police commissioner Riah Phiyega, who said in April: "There was a plan ... The plan was disrupted."