Met chief who led botched ‘Nick’ inquiry is on police ethics panel!
THE police chief who led the botched VIP child sex abuse investigation – in which officers allegedly broke the law – is on the ethics board at Britain’s version of the FBI, it has emerged.
Steve Rodhouse has landed the key position of head of operations at the elite National Crime Agency (NCA), where he provides advice on issues which present ‘ethical, moral or reputational concerns’.
It comes despite a string of high-profile controversies during his career. These include scathing criticism of his handling of the £2.5million Operation Midland investigation into an alleged Establishment paedophile ring following false allegations made by Carl Beech – the fantasist known as ‘Nick’ – who was jailed for 18 years last month.
And before joining the Met he oversaw a bungled Surrey Police probe into Jimmy Savile which failed to bring the paedophile TV presenter to justice before his death.
Mr Rodhouse is under intense pressure over his crucial role in the 16-month Operation Midland inquiry into false allegations made by Beech. It has been claimed his officers used false evidence to secure warrants to search the homes of high-profile figures, including former Armed Forces chief Lord Bramall, ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor and the widow of former home secretary Lord Brittan.
Lincoln Seligman, godson of Edward Heath, the former prime minister who was also falsely accused by Beech, said last night: ‘The unravelling of Carl Beech’s fantasies are beginning to look more like the beginning of a new scandal than the end of the one that has run for more than five years.
‘Those responsible, including police at every level, have somehow managed to avoid the spotlight until now.
‘Mr Rodhouse, the senior police officer in charge of Operation Midland, has been promoted to the second most senior role at the NCA – an organisation where judgment and integrity are crucial.
‘We need to be reassured that the NCA will not think that behaviour such as that exhibited by the police in Operation Midland will be tolerated at any level.’
Since Operation Midland collapsed, the former Met deputy assistant commissioner has been promoted to director general (operations) at the NCA on a salary of up to £175,000. There he is also described as the ‘ethics lead’ and sits on the NCA board which provides advice on issues which may present ‘ethical, moral or reputational concerns’. The board, called the Independent Reference Group, meets six times a year and gives advice to the main NCA board, on which Mr Rodhouse also sits.
The revelations will raise further questions about Mr Rodhouse’s suitability for one of the country’s top policing jobs, which has helped him amass a pension pot of almost £2million.
At the NCA he is currently overseeing Operation Stovewood, Britain’s biggest historic child sex investigation involving grooming gangs in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. He is also overseeing a long-running, multi-million-pound inquiry into alleged misconduct by four retired Met detectives over the first Stephen Lawrence murder investigation in 1993.
Details of Mr Rodhouse’s advisory role on ethics in the NCA emerged days after the Daily Mail exposed a damning document that showed police should never have raided the home of Lord Bramall, 95, over the false paedophile allegations made by Beech.
An investigation by this newspaper revealed that an application to a judge, seeking permission to search Lord Bramall’s home, was riddled with falsehoods.
When Operation Midland formally closed in March 2016, Mr Rodhouse insisted the investigation had been ‘handled well’. However, following a scathing report by retired High Court judge, Sir Richard Henriques, Mr Rodhouse was referred to the police watchdog for potential breaches of ‘duties and responsibilities’, but was cleared four months later.
Last week Sir Richard said officers used false evidence to obtain the search warrants to raid the homes of Lord Bramall and two other VIPs and should face a criminal investigation.
An NCA spokesman said: ‘The Independent Reference Group provides independent advice to the NCA board on ethical, moral and other matters.’
‘Organisation where judgment is crucial’