Police had Green vendetta, says Boris
Backlash against officers who leaked details of porn on sacked minister’s computer
Kate Mccann, Martin Evans
Gordon Rayner
DAMIAN GREEN was the victim of a “vendetta” by retired police officers who leaked information about pornography found on an office computer, Boris Johnson claimed last night.
As the Metropolitan Police faced a growing Tory backlash over its role in the former first secretary of state’s downfall, Theresa May echoed the Foreign Secretary’s comments by saying she “shared the concerns” from “across the political spectrum” about the officers’ conduct.
The Prime Minister, who criticised Scotland Yard in her written response to Mr Green’s resignation letter, also put Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, under renewed pressure to make sure the leak was “taken seriously and properly looked at”.
The Met believes two former officers may have committed criminal offences which could lead to prosecutions and has referred them to the Information Commissioner’s Office over alleged breaches of data protection laws.
Mr Green was forced to resign on Wednesday night after he was found to have lied over what he knew about pornography being discovered during a raid on his office in 2008, though a Cabinet Office inquiry found no evidence to suggest he had viewed or downloaded the material.
The Met now says there are “grounds to suspect” that former assistant commissioner Bob Quick and former detective constable Neil Lewis may have broken the law. They could face unlimited fines if they are found to have leaked personal data to the media.
In other developments yesterday:
♦ Kate Maltby, the writer whose allegations about Mr Green’s behaviour triggered the inquiry, told The Daily Telegraph that a Downing Street aide said her claim fitted into a “pattern of behaviour” by the MP;
♦ Miss Maltby claimed the aide told her Mrs May was “aware” of the allegations against Mr Green last year but still appointed him as First Secretary of State;
♦ Miss Maltby claimed she had been through such a terrible ordeal since reporting the allegations that she would advise other women to stay silent;
♦ Friends said Mr Green’s relationship with Mrs May had cooled because he was unhappy with the way she dealt with the inquiry.
Pornography found on Mr Green’s office computer nine years ago was not illegal and had no relevance to the police’s inquiry at the time into Home Office leaks, but Mr Quick and Mr Lewis revealed details of the discovery to the media after the Cabinet Office began its investigation last month into Miss Maltby’s unrelated allegations.
Mr Lewis, who examined Mr Green’s computer, admitted he had made copies of material found, even though he was told to destroy it. He also kept his notebook relating to the case. If he and Mr Quick had been serving officers, they could have faced misconduct
charges, but as both are retired that avenue is not open to the Met.
Speaking on a visit to Russia, Mr Johnson said that while Mr Green had accepted he had broken the ministerial code of conduct with misleading statements about the pornography, “it was a bit whiffy, frankly, this business, whatever happened with the information from his computer. I don’t quite see why that was brought into the public domain in the way it was … I think it needs to be investigated further as the Prime Minister was saying earlier on, and you know it had the slight feeling of a vendetta, but there you go.”
Mr Johnson also became the first Cabinet minister to publicly call for Mr Green to be given a new role. He said: “I am very sad for Damian and I think he’s been a fine public servant and done a great job. Hopefully one day he will come back and continue to serve in other ways.” Friends of Mr Green said he was not intending to resign as an MP.
Mr Quick, the officer in charge of the 2008 investigation into Mr Green, and Mr Lewis have both denied any wrongdoing, but Elizabeth Denham, the Information Commissioner, confirmed the matter had been passed to her office by the Met. She said: “We’ll be looking at whether individuals acted unlawfully by retaining or disclosing personal data.”
Senior police officers and MPS have expressed deep concern over what they regard as a breach of professional confidentiality. Mrs May said: “I share the concerns that have been raised across the political spectrum about comments that were made by a former police officer and I expect that issue to be properly investigated, to be taken seriously and to be properly looked at.”
Ms Dick said: “We are disappointed to see that it appears that former colleagues have put into the public domain via the media material that they appear to have had access to as part of a confidential investigation.”
In his resignation letter, Mr Green denied claims that he downloaded or viewed the material found on his computer. However, the Cabinet Office inquiry found his earlier statements, in which he suggested he was not aware indecent material had been discovered, were “inaccurate and misleading”.