WHERE’S CRESSIDA?
Pressure grows on Yard Commissioner after her failure to publicly face music over VIP sex abuse scandal fallout
Dame Cressida Dick is under mounting pressure to make a full statement about her role in the bungled viP child abuse inquiry after ex-High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques said watchdogs should have interviewed her about it.
in today’s damning Mail commentary, Sir Richard insists the Scotland Yard chief should have been quizzed about her knowledge of the case.
His remarks came as criticism intensified over Dame Cressida’s role following Sir Richard’s scathing report into her force’s handling of the viP sex ring allegations.
Yesterday the Sunday Telegraph quoted a senior Government source as saying: ‘it’s clear that the report raises serious questions about leadership, yet the public have heard very little from Cressida Dick on this, which has worried people in senior levels of the Government.
‘There are concerns that she has washed her hands of this.’ The criticism was fuelled when the full humilialsoating details of Sir Richard’s 2016 report on Operation Midland were released on Friday and it was Dame Cressida’s deputy, Sir Stephen House, who made a Press statement about the case and fielded questions.
The Metropolitan Commissioner was at an annual memorial service for a murdered police officer elsewhere in London but sources pointed out that it was her force’s decision to release the report on Friday morning.
Dame Cressida was an Assistant Commissioner in charge of specialist crime and operations in the Met in October 2014 when ‘Nick’ – real name Carl Beech – was interviewed at length about outlandish allegations he made.
He claimed the heads of Mi5 and Mi6 used him as a human dartboard and that D-Day hero Lord Bramall fraternised with Jimmy Savile and ordered him to eat his own vomit.
He also falsely alleged former prime minister Ted Heath and ex-Home Secretary Leon Brittan were in a gang that murdered three boys.
Dame Cressida oversaw the setting up of Operation Midland under Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse in November 2014, and was in post a month later when a senior detective described Nick as giving a ‘credible and true’ account.
Scotland Yard confirmed Dame Cressida was not interviewed by Sir Richard as part of his 2016 investigation into Operation Midland.
He was not made aware of her crucial role overseeing the early stages of the investigation, as she had left to join the Foreign Office by the time he was commissioned to write his report. She rejoined the Met later.
Her name did not feature in his report and her involvement overseeing Operation Midland was not widely known until last month when the Daily Mail revealed it. Commenting on the police watchdog’s inquiry into Operation Midland officers, Sir Richard writes today: ‘emails between officers should have been examined. DAC Rodhouse’s immediate superiors – Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick and her successor Patricia Gallan – should have been interviewed about their roles in the investigation, the briefings they received and their responses.’
A Met spokesman confirmed she had received briefings on the operation. Former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, who was falsely accused of serial murder by Beech, 51, has alleged Dame Cressida neglected her duty. MPs on the home affairs committee have indicated they want to question her.