How Watson ‘put extra pressure on Met detectives’
LABOUR’S deputy leader Tom Watson ‘created further pressure’ on detectives investigating Nick’s allegations, Sir Richard’s report concluded.
The MP sent hundreds of pieces of information to the Metropolitan Police while it was probing false claims of a VIP child sex ring made by serial liar Carl Beech.
Mr Watson met Beech and encouraged him to go to the police before they launched the disastrous Operation Midland inquiry in November 2014.
The then backbench MP also took a keen interest in a bogus allegation of rape against Lord Brittan, the former home secretary, which was investigated in a parallel Met inquiry called Operation Vincente.
The two inquiries collapsed without arrests or convictions and Beech was jailed for 18 years for perverting the course of justice and other offences in July. The ex-High Court judge’s report concludes that ‘there can be no doubt that Tom Watson believed Nick’ and his interest in both cases ‘ created further pressure on Metropolitan Police officers’.
The rape inquiry into Lord Brittan had been closed down but was reopened on the day a letter from Mr Watson attacking the running of the probe was published on the now-defunct news website Exaro, whose reporters included Mark Conrad.
Sir Richard noted in his report that Beech had told police during interviews that Mr Watson had been part of ‘a little group that supported me… They did a piece on Dolphin Square [where he claimed he was abused]. I talked to Tom at some length and put together names [of suspects] with Conrad.’
Beech claimed he had been attacked more than a dozen times as a boy and Lord Brittan had witnessed the assaults.
Sir Richard wrote: ‘There can be no doubt that Tom Watson believed Nick and it should be stated that he had previously provided the MPS with information leading to convictions in other cases.
‘His interest, however, in both Operation Midland and Operation Vincente created further pressures upon MPS officers.’
Mr Watson said yesterday: ‘The police asked me to encourage the hundreds of people that came to me with stories of child abuse to report their stories to the police. That is what I did.’
He denied a letter he sent to the DPP in 2014, complaining about how a rape allegation against Lord Brittan had been handled, was to blame for police reopening the case.
He said of Sir Richard’s report: ‘It is unfortunate that this review, which contains multiple inaccuracies regarding myself, has been selectively leaked, seemingly to refocus criticism away from the Metropolitan Police.
‘The report doesn’t make clear the key point that Lord Brittan was interviewed by the police before they received my letter. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse has been clear the letter did not influence the investigation and ex-Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders publicly confirmed my letter was not received by police until after the interview. It therefore cannot be argued that it was pressure from me that led to Lord Brittan being interviewed.’