SHAMING OF THE YARD
Judge condemns police handling of sex abuse fantasist case
THE appalling failures of one of Scotland Yard’s most disgraceful investigations were laid bare yesterday. A damning report by a High Court judge documented how the force wasted £2.5million probing bogus claims of VIP child abuse.
Yet Steve Rodhouse, the officer who oversaw the shambles, remains in his £240,000-a-year job at the National Crime Agency.
It means none of the five key officers involved in Operation Midland – an inquiry into child sex and murder allegations made by ‘Nick’ fantasist Carl Beech – has faced disciplinary
or criminal charges. Mr Rodhouse, who was described as an ‘embarassment’ by a senior Home Office official, was cleared without even being interviewed.
The decision by the Independent Office for Police Misconduct to exonerate all five officers looked even more extraordinary yesterday following the publication of the previously heavily redacted report by Sir Richard Henriques.
It exposed 43 critical police blunders and revealed Mr Rodhouse thought parts of Nick’s account may have been fabricated yet still kept to a strategy of declaring publicly that police believed him.
Sir Richard concluded: ‘Since he had formed the view that Nick may have fabricated some or all of this allegation, I am unable to see how he could properly formulate a decision to inform the public that “we believe Nick”.’
In a police log just before raids on the homes of VIP ‘suspects’, Mr Rodhouse said ‘despite a lack of corroboration the investigation has not revealed any cause to disbelieve
‘Distress and embarrassment’
Nick’. He also expressed concern that the searches cause public distress and embarrassment for the named subjects and their families’.
The raids on the homes of former armed forces chief Lord Bramall, the widow of former Home Secretary Leon Brittan and Tory ex-MP Harvey Proctor still went ahead, with devastating consequences.
Mr Proctor, falsely accused of being a serial child killer by Beech, said: ‘ Those who enforce the law should not be seen to be above it. The public can finally see for itself the truly disgraceful conduct of Operation Midland which has ruined the lives and reputations of so many people.
‘It is outrageous that Steve Rodhouse remains in post. Will no one take the blame for the worst police and criminal justice scandal in decades?’
Mr Proctor’s counsel, Geoffrey Robertson QC, said the Henriques Report revealed that ‘Operation Midland was conducted incompetently, negligently and almost with institutional stupidity’.
Paul Settle, a former detective chief inspector who raised concerns about Beech’s credibility, said: ‘I am astounded that even after all this time the Metropolitan Police continue with their pitiful attempt at trying to protect senior officers. Today we have seen the level of incompetence which permeated right to the very top, and we have to ask are these people fit to lead what was the greatest force in the world?’
Sir Richard said in his 2016 report, released in a fuller version yesterday after a campaign by the Mail, that:
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson ‘created further pressure’ to probe Beech’s claims;
Officers could have closed down Operation Midland within weeks, yet it lasted 16 months;
Detectives failed to properly investigate Beech’s credibility at the start of the probe;
A senior officer’s use of the phrase ‘credible and true’ to describe Beech was inappropriate and misleading;
The search warrants were obtained unlawfully.
D-Day hero Lord Bramall’s son Nick said: ‘ Operation Midland and the extraordinary incompetence, insensitivity and damaging way in which it was handled has finally been laid bare.
‘Good men through absolutely no fault of their own have been publicly vilified and taken to the darkest of places.
‘The Metropolitan Police were simply seduced by the idea of a VIP paedophile ring and failed utterly in their duty to properly investigate.
‘They resorted to search warrants that were illegal, raided homes with battering ram insensitivity and left my father to fend for himself while tainted with a veneer of guilt.’Mr Rodhouse apologised for the ‘distress’ caused by the operation, adding: ‘In hindsight I can see I did not ensure that we got the balance right.’
Scotland Yard’s Deputy Commissioner Sir Stephen House said in a statement: ‘Mistakes were made in Operation Midland and we have apologised for those. We apologise for them again today.’
A Downing Street spokesman said last night: ‘This is a deeply concerning case. The trial of Carl Beech raised serious issues over the Metropolitan Police response. We welcome the decision to publish further detail.
‘That is why the Home Secretary has asked Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services to follow up on the report’s findings and ensure the necessary improvements have been made and continue to be made.’
Convicted paedophile Beech, 51, was jailed for 18 years in July for his VIP abuse lies and other offences.
FOR three long years, the dossier written by Sir Richard henriques into the shambolic police investigation of a fictitious VIP paedophile ring operating out of Westminster has gathered dust on a shelf at Scotland Yard.
no one was under the slightest illusion that the esteemed retired high Court judge’s findings weren’t utterly excoriating.
But when the Metropolitan Police – under great sufferance – released the uncensored report even the most seasoned observers were shocked by the magnitude of Operation Midland’s botched failings. Simply put, it could not have painted a more devastating portrait of Britain’s premier police force.
In excruciating detail, Sir Richard lays bare a grotesque abuse of power.
Credulous to the point of negligence, senior officers swallowed the deranged delusions of ‘nick’ – real name Carl Beech – that distinguished public servants were part of an evil gang which raped and murdered children during the 1970s and 1980s. not a scrap of evidence ever emerged to support the lurid and malevolent allegations.
nevertheless, detectives shamefully treated the blameless men like common criminals – ruining their lives. ex- home Secretary Lord Brittan – hounded to his grave without his name being cleared. Lord Bramall, the country’s greatest living soldier, who saw his wife die with the vile slurs hanging over his head.
Did the police stop for a second to wonder the truth of such outlandish accusations? evidently not. The odds of such prominent establishment figures being part of the same child-sex gang? Trillions to one.
Sir Richard pulls no punches. Damningly, he finds officers perverted the course of justice, obtaining search warrants unlawfully. he reserves special contempt for police ignoring glaring inconsistencies and falling for Beech’s lies, notoriously describing them on TV as ‘credible and true’.
even a perfunctory inquiry would have revealed the smears were the figment of a warped imagination. Indeed, Beech was later exposed as a paedophile.
But by pursuing a cock- eyed policy of simply believing ‘victims’, the Met jettisoned all objectivity – and the inalienable right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Yes, the force says it has ‘learned lessons’. But didn’t they know that already? It’s a fundamental principle of criminal justice.
Senior officers were also obsessed with appeasing Labour deputy leader Tom Watson (a close Beech confidant). he peddled contemptible lies in what had all the hallmarks of a political vendetta.
Instead of showing him the door, the police bowed to his every whim – with dreadful consequences. Meanwhile, the BBC was condemned for giving the claims credibility and the oxygen of publicity.
With the spotlight shining again on Press freedoms, the Mail is proud of spearheading the campaign to bring those responsible to book – a reminder of the media’s crucial role in holding the powerful to account.
Disgracefully, not a soul has been punished over this black episode. There has barely even been a hint of remorse – just mealy-mouthed apologies.
ex-Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse, who ran Operation Midland, bleated he had shown ‘ honesty and integrity’. What a terrifying conclusion.
Mr Watson, again playing the victim despite publicly describing Lord Brittan as ‘close to evil’, complained the report contained ‘multiple inaccuracies’. Couldn’t he show an iota of dignity, stop snivelling and apologise? Civilisations will end first.
home Secretary Priti Patel has taken a welcome first step – asking the police watchdog to look at the Met’s response to the scandal. But we urge her to go further.
For if the police are not held to account for such abysmal failures, public trust will lie in tatters – exactly like the reputations of the innocent men they persecuted.