Police apologise for botched inquiry that allowed Jonathan King to walk free from court
POLICE have “wholeheartedly apologised” for repeated, serious failings in the sex abuse trial of Jonathan King that allowed the disgraced pop mogul to walk free from court.
King will not be retried over historical allegations after his trial collapsed.
And that was branded a “debacle” by Judge Deborah Taylor, who said Surrey Police made “numerous, repeated and compounded” errors over the course of its lengthy investigation into King, 73, primarily on disclosure.
She detailed the damning mistakes in a judgment released yesterday, weeks after she was forced to discharge the jury a fortnight into the trial at Southwark Crown Court.
Rather than undertake a detailed review of more than 4,500 documents relating to the case, Surrey Police con- ducted a simple “keyword search”, the judgment reveals. Several “clearly relevant” items were left off the trial schedules while other key material was missed due to inaccurate descriptions.
Logs of complaints made by witnesses were not kept and decisions were based on inaccurate material.
The judge said there had been a “widespread failure” to follow proper procedures and branded the approach taken by at least one officer “lamentable”. King had denied 23 serious sexual assault charges against boys aged 14 to 16, between 1970 and 1988.
He was found guilty in 2001 of sex offences against five boys in the Eighties and was released from jail in 2005 after serving half of a seven-year term.
Surrey Police said: “We recognise that there were serious organisational failings in the investigation, particularly in relation to disclosure process. We wholeheartedly apologise.” An independent review is expected and the Crown Prosecution Service said it would contact complainants to explain its decision not to appeal the ruling.
Birds solicitors, which represented King, said: “This case is yet another example of failings in the disclosure process.” King wrote on Twitter to confirm he had been found not guilty and he blasted the “false allegations”.