NOW TURN FULL FORCE OF LAW ON ‘NICK’ POLICE
After judge’s bombshell intervention, victims of VIP abuse fantasist demand...
There was no secrecy for the true victims of ‘Nick’s’ vile lies. Now there should be none for the officers who trashed their good names in such cavalier fashion.
VICTIMS of VIP child abuse fantasist ‘Nick’ last night called for a fresh criminal probe into Scotland Yard’s bungled inquiry.
Their demand follows a sensational intervention from a retired High Court judge who said police may have broken the law with £2.5million Operation Midland.
Writing in yesterday’s Daily Mail, Sir Richard Henriques suggested detectives had used false evidence to obtain warrants to raid the homes of high-profile figures.
Harvey Proctor, who was accused by Nick, called for another force to investigate the Met’s actions.
The former Tory MP was backed yesterday by a string of politicians and Lord Macdonald, a former director of public prosecutions.
He called for a full investigation into how warrants were obtained against ‘highly distinguished and completely
innocent’ individuals. The Independent Office for Police Complaints was also under intense pressure last night for refusing to reopen its inquiry into five Scotland Yard officers involved in the case. It insisted it had already investigated them and found ‘no suspicion of criminality’.
New Home Secretary Priti Patel will haul in the head of the watchdog to demand answers about the case. Miss Patel will challenge Michael Lockwood, its £175,000 a-year director general ‘as soon as possible’, a source close to the Home Secretary said.
The scandal surrounding Scotland Yard’s investigation into Nick, real name Carl Beech, was dramatically reignited by Sir Richard’s broadside yesterday.
He said detectives did not have the right to search the properties of former armed forces chief Lord Bramall, the widow of ex home secretary Leon Brittan and Mr Proctor. This, he said, was because their description of Beech as a ‘consistent’ witness was false, effectively fooling a judge into granting the warrants.
Sir Richard, the author of a scathing review of Operation Midland for Scotland Yard in 2016, also alleged ‘the course of justice was perverted with shocking consequences’ during the investigation.
He said he found it astonishing no officer had been brought to book over the fiasco and that a ‘criminal investigation should surely follow’.
Beech was jailed for 18 years last week over his bogus claims of child rape and murder. With the Home Office under huge pressure to order a new probe:
Lord Bramall, Mr Proctor and the family of late Labour peer Greville Janner – also falsely accused – led furious calls for Scotland Yard to release the full, unredacted Henriques report;
But the Met again refused to do so, citing ‘the confidentiality of complainants, witnesses and those accused’;
Former Met commissioner
‘An attempt to pervert justice’
Lord Hogan-Howe, whose officers carried out unlawful raids on VIPs during Operation Midland, refused to answer questions from a Daily Mail reporter.
Mr Proctor said: ‘I take no satisfaction in having my view [confirmed] that the Metropolitan Police force were wrong in the way that they investigated Nick.’ Lord Macdonald QC told BBC Radio 4’s World at One that if ‘the courts were misled then criminal investigations should follow’.
He added: ‘The police didn’t set out to investigate Carl Beech’s allegations, they set out to prove them.
‘A cursory investigation of this man’s allegations at an earlier stage would have exposed him as a fantasist, as a liar, as someone who was engaged in an attempt to pervert justice.’
Scotland Yard said the IOPC had looked into allegations about how the search warrants were handled and it was found that the three officers involved had no case to answer.
This came after it had referred potential conduct matters relating to five officers which had been identified in Sir Richard’s report.
A spokesman said: ‘None of the five officers involved in the original referral or the three officers subject to investigation were found to have cases to answer in relation to any of the allegations.’
All those involved in the allegations which were referred to the IOPC have either retired or moved to other jobs and are no longer serving Met Police officers.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘The Home Secretary looks forward to meeting with a number of policing partners, including Michael Lockwood of the IOPC.
‘It is right that allegations relating to the seeking of warrants as part of Operation Midland were referred to the IOPC – the public need to have confidence that the police are exercising their powers in a correct and proportionate way.’
But Lincoln Seligman, godson of former PM Edward Heath who was also wrongly accused, said: ‘For so many senior and junior police to choose to believe Beech without corroboration or other evidence is astonishing.
‘It suggests a lack of education or training in both analysing evidence and in the importance of the presumption of innocence. Or a wilful and reckless disregard for both.
‘Given that the IOPC have already cleared every officer involved something stronger, genuinely independent and less myopic is needed.’ Comment – Page 18