JUDGE’S VIP ‘ABUSE’ CASE SENSATION
Ex-chief magistrate who issued search warrants now says Met officers must face criminal probe
A FORMER judge today demanded a criminal inquiry into detectives who asked him to sign search warrants in the disastrous VIP child sex abuse inquiry.
In a dramatic intervention, Howard Riddle said there were ‘reasonable grounds to suspect a criminal offence’ has been committed.
He said that if police failed to reveal evidence undermining the credibility of their witness ‘Nick’, then the applications for search warrants would appear to amount to perverting the course of justice.
Scotland Yard detectives used the warrants to raid the homes of Lord Brittan’s widow and former Army chief Lord Bramall.
Mr Riddle said: ‘Perverting the course of justice is a serious criminal offence that almost always carries a prison sentence. Judges and magistrates issuing search warrants must be able to rely on the accuracy and the integrity of the information sworn on oath before them.
‘They must know that in the rare and exceptional case of being deliberately misled, then action will be taken for perverting the course of justice.’
Mr Riddle, who was senior district judge (chief magistrate) for england and Wales from 2010 to 2016, says an independent force should also investigate the work of the police watchdog that cleared the Operation Midland officers. He insists it did not carry out a ‘rigorous’ inquiry.
The false allegations from Nick – real name Carl Beech – led to the paedophile being jailed for 18 years for perverting the course of justice and other offences.
Mr Riddle was speaking out after a retired High Court judge urged the Home Secretary to order a probe into both the watchdog and the detectives.
In an open letter to Priti Patel, Sir Richard Henriques said confidence in the criminal justice system had been ‘gravely damaged’.
The Home Secretary insisted police ‘were not above the law’ and said she would consider his letter carefully.
Mr Riddle said he ‘wholeheartedly’ supports Sir Richard’s call for action. He said his judicial colleague has made a ‘clear and compelling case’ that an independent force should investigate the detectives and the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
Mr Riddle agrees with Sir Richard’s conclusion that he was misled by police when they applied to him in 2015 for permission to raid the homes of Field Marshal Lord Bramall, Lady Brittan and ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor.
Pointedly, he says the applications stated they had been ‘considered at Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC) level’ – a reference to the ‘gold commander’ of Operation Midland, Steve Rodhouse. He is now deputy head of the National Crime Agency, Britain’s version of the FBI, on a salary package of around £300,000.
Mr Riddle’s intervention raises serious questions as to how Mr Rodhouse can continue in his job under NCA director general Dame Lynne Owens, his old boss from Scotland Yard and Surrey Police.
He was cleared of misconduct in Operation Midland and over another bungled inquiry into Lord Brittan just four months after a watchdog inquiry was launched. Mr Rodhouse was not even interviewed.
Mr Riddle’s statement is also a damning indictment of the IOPC, led by ex-council chief Michael Lockwood whose work is currently being scrutinised by MPs. Sir Richard has been scathing of how the watchdog investigated Operation Midland.
Mr Riddle decided to comment on the shambolic VIP abuse inquiry after the Mail published the police warrant application to raid two homes of Lady Brittan six weeks after the death of her former home secretary husband.
It is understood that the widow’s interview with this newspaper ear
‘Rare case of being deliberately misled’ ‘Corruption at the highest level’
lier this month demonstrated to the former chief magistrate that officers had not acted with the sensitivity he had expected.
Sir Richard wrote a highly-critical 2016 review that identified 43 major blunders and called for five officers, including Mr Rodhouse and Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald, to be investigated for alleged misconduct.
In his letter to Miss Patel, Sir Richard said the ‘apparent condoning of police criminality by its notional watchdog, will inevitably give rise to allegations of political manipulation of the police ... an orchestrated cover-up ... and corruption at the highest level’.
Mr Riddle’s statement will place more pressure on the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, who sanctioned the creation of Operation Midland in November 2014.