Anger at top detective promoted during Nick misconduct probe

MET chief Dame Cressida Dick is under pressure to explain why a senior detective at the centre of the ‘Nick’ scandal was promoted while under investigation for alleged misconduct in the case.

Former prime minister Sir Edward Heath’s godson Lincoln Seligman said the Commissioner must be held to account over her force’s decision to elevate Diane Tudway two years before she was cleared of wrongdoing in the VIP child sex abuse inquiry.

As anger mounts over how a number of senior officers involved in Operation Midland have escaped any form of sanction, Mr Seligman called for Dame Cressida to be questioned on how a string of bungling Nick detectives have been rewarded with gongs, promotions and bumper pension payouts.

He told the Mail: ‘It appears that the vital ingredient within the Met for achieving rapid promotion, a peerage or a hefty pension is incompetence, gullibility and severe lack of judgment. Cressida Dick… should be held to account for allowing these rewards for obvious failure.’

Last month former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, falsely accused by ‘Nick’ – real name Carl Beech – of being part of a VIP child sex ring, accused senior officers engulfed in the scandal of closing ranks and being part of a ‘self-preservation society’.

Mrs Tudway, lambasted in a judge-led official report into Operation Midland, was promoted from Detective Chief Inspector to Detective Superintendent in July 2017.

Her elevation came eight months after the police watchdog launched an inquiry into how she and two junior colleagues obtained search warrants to raid the homes of VIPs including ex-head of the Armed Forces Field Marshal Lord Bramall and former home secretary Leon Brittan.

Mrs Tudway’s promotion was confirmed three months after Dame Cressida, who authorised the setting up of Operation Midland in November 2014 and whose conduct in the case has been referred to watchdogs, took over as head of the Met.

Mrs Tudway had close dealings with Beech and spent 17 hours watching his interviews from ‘ beginning to end’ and ‘believed’ him, according to a withering report by ex- High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques.

Last July the Independent Office for Police Conduct announced Mrs Tudway had been cleared of misconduct in Operation Midland, saying there was nothing to suggest she ‘acted in bad faith or intentionally misled the judge’ who granted the search warrants.

The Met said promotion processes were based on merit and any decision was made by a panel through an assessment.