Anger as Met boss cleared in probe over murder case
THE family of a murdered private detective have slammed a ‘shabby’ police watchdog investigation after it cleared Cressida Dick of obstructing an inquiry into the case.
Daniel Morgan was killed with an axe in a pub car park in 1987 – but the crime has never been solved.
The Daniel Morgan Inquiry Panel (DMIP) was set up in 2013 to investigate police failures regarding the murder. It released its findings in June last year, labelling the Met as ‘institutionally corrupt’ and claiming Scotland Yard was more bothered about protecting its reputation than cracking the case.
The report also concluded Dame Cressida had placed ‘hurdles’ in the way of the search for the truth about the 37-year-old’s death
in south London. The Independent Office for Police Conduct looked at the conduct of 50 serving or former officers connected to the case after the withering DMIP report.
Releasing its own findings yesterday, it stated Dame Cressida may have ‘breached police standards of professional behaviour’.
But it said her failure to provide ‘full and exceptional disclosure’ to the DMIP sooner was ‘not to the extent that would justify disciplinary proceedings’.
The Morgan family said: ‘ What we find here is a rather shabby exercise by the IOPC to avoid the implications of the police corruption and criminality... the IOPC shows that it suffers the very sickness within its own ranks that it purports to diagnose within the Met.’
Former Scotland Yard chief Dame Cressida was finally forced to quit in February after a string of Met blunders.
Yesterday, she said: ‘ The IOPC recognise that everything I did was for a legitimate purpose. They also recognise that in providing “full and exceptional disclosure” to the panel I had to fulfil other legal responsibilities – most importantly, not to disclose inappropriately information that would put lives at risk.’
The IOPC said there were no new avenues for investigation that could result in criminal or disciplinary proceedings, adding that there was ‘no evidence’ Dame Cressida intended to protect corrupt officers.