10 QUESTIONS THAT HAVE TO BE ANSWERED
THE bombshell 1,200-word statement by former High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques, attacking Scotland Yard and police watchdogs included devastating allegations about the conduct of senior officers. Here are the key questions about Operation Midland that must now be answered:
1 Why did the Metropolitan Police Service take nine months to correct the use of the phrase ‘credible and true’ by a senior officer to describe Carl Beech – aka ‘Nick’ – at the start of Operation Midland?
The use of this phrase by Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald in December 2014 undermined the principle of ‘innocent before proven guilty’ and set the tone for the bungled investigation.
2 What role did ‘gold commander’ Steve Rodhouse, the Met deputy assistant commissioner in charge of Operation Midland, have in the decision to raid the homes of Lord Bramall, Lord Brittan and Harvey Proctor?
Sources say it is vital that there is transparency at Scotland Yard about the level of involvement by such a senior officer in the application for search warrants.
3 Was then Met chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe briefed ahead of the raids and did he raise any concerns?
The tough-talking Yorkshireman
has distanced himself from the running of Operation Midland but senior Yard sources say there needs to be clarity about what he knew and when about the unprecedented triple murder inquiry involving a former prime minister and home secretary.
4 Sir Richard Henriques said in his devastating article in the Daily Mail there were a number of major inconsistencies in Beech’s accounts which were contained in a police document prior to the application for the search warrants. Who compiled this document and who saw it?
This is a critical issue at the heart of Sir Richard’s claim that officers applying for search warrants did not act with due diligence and good faith.
5 Why, in the words of Sir Richard, was a ‘comparatively junior officer’ with limited knowledge of the investigation ‘detailed or required to sign the three applications’ for search warrants that portrayed Beech as a credible and consistent witness?
According to the former High Court judge, the officer – a detective sergeant – was
accompanied to court by his boss DCI Diane Tudway who had access to the document highlighting the fantasist’s ‘several inconsistencies’, but did not raise it with the district judge who granted the search warrants.
6 Why was Sir Richard not supplied with ‘all relevant documentation’ by the Met during his 2016 review of Operation Midland?
This is a potentially very serious matter, involving possible criminal conduct because Sir Richard said he was not given the three applications for search warrants and had to obtain them from court.
7 Why did the Independent Office for Police Conduct clear DAC Rodhouse and Det Supt McDonald of potential misconduct within a few months – all without interviewing them?
This is another critical issue which, according to critics, goes to the heart of whether the watchdog is fit for purpose.
8 Why did it take the IOPC two years to investigate the three officers accused of misleading a district judge over the application of the search warrants?
Critics claim this is fundamental
because all the officers under suspicion had retired by the time the watchdog inquiry had finished this month.
9 Why did a lowly detective constable, not a high-ranking officer, interview former head of the Armed Forces Lord Bramall under caution for 100 minutes?
An excruciating video of the DDay hero being asked a series of ridiculous questions – including whether he knew Jimmy Savile and whether he could swim – was played to jurors at Beech’s trial. Friends of Lord Bramall say the choice of junior interviewing officer, who appeared woefully out of his depth, heaped further humiliation on the Normandy veteran.
10 How on earth could the Met spend £2.5million investigating Beech’s murder and abuse allegations? These included ludicrous claims he was used as a ‘human dart-board’ by the heads of MI5 and MI6, had his dog kidnapped by a top spy, had his horse shot by the VIP paedophile gang, suffered snake and wasp torture and was forced by Lord Bramall to eat his vomit.
This is the most simple yet damning question of Operation Midland. A man whose fantastical claims would not have looked out of place on the front of the Sunday Sport newspaper in the 1980s, were probed by the Met for 16 months.