MPs blast Met’s fear of bad publicity for Brittan family agony
tHE Metropolitan Police will be condemned by MPs today for hounding lord Brittan over a baseless rape allegation because of its fear of bad publicity.
in a damning report, the Commons home affairs committee will say the tory peer’s widow went through unnecessary anguish because of the way police handled the case.
its report criticises scotland Yard over suggestions it pressed the Crown Prosecution service to review the Brittan allegations because a decision to take no further action would have resulted in ‘media criticism and public cynicism’.
the report says: ‘this is not a proper basis for police decisions on whether to proceed with an investigation. the Met has a strong international reputation and in our system of policing by consent the police must command public confidence.
‘For it to be seen to be influenced by “media criticism and public cynicism” risks undermining the whole basis of its investigations and public confidence in the police.’
the MPs have accused police of making a series of ‘errors of judgment’ that meant lord Brittan died in January before he could be told he would not face action over the rape claim.
An allegation that he raped a 19-year-old woman known as ‘Jane’ in 1967 was first made to police in november 2012.
in August 2013 the CPs said there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to question lord Brittan. However, after labour MP tom Watson wrote to Alison saunders, the Director of Public Prosecutions, to complain about the Met’s inquiry, police reopened the case in April last year.
the Met submitted a file to the CPs last november but was told it would not be considered.
the force appealed against that decision and claimed that, even though it had concluded there was not a strong case against lord Brittan, he could not be informed that no action would be taken at that point.
Home affairs committee chairman Keith Vaz said: ‘We do not agree with the Metropolitan Police’s argument that lord Brittan could not have been informed about the status of the investigation by the time he died.
‘the only reason for the delay was the Met’s errors of judgment and insistence on appealing the CPs decision that the evidence file did not meet the necessary threshold.’
the committee also criticised Mr Watson. the MPs said he should apologise in writing to lady Brittan after he repeated claims that the former Conservative home secretary was ‘as close to evil as any human could get’.
Mr Watson apologised to lady Brittan for ‘the hurt caused’ to her when he gave evidence to the committee last month, but said last night he would heed the MPs’ advice and write to her.
the committee said: ‘it was not appropriate for tom Watson to have made the comments he did about lord Brittan in the Press, which could have impacted inquiries and only served to further impugn the name of the (by then deceased) lord Brittan.’
Police apologised to the peer’s widow last month and said she should have been informed there would not have been a prosecution had her husband lived.
But the committee said it did not regard the apology as sufficient, adding: ‘lady Brittan has had the anguish of seeing her husband die without him knowing he had been cleared.’
the report also praised Detective Chief inspector Paul settle, who was originally the lead investigating officer, saying his conduct in the case was exemplary.
tory MP David Morris has written to sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, asking him to investigate whether or not Mr Watson wasted police time with his allegations about lord Brittan.
‘Police errors of judgment’