Met chief regrets not correcting ‘Nick’ claim
Commissioner says she should have corrected senior detective over ‘credible and true mistake’
Dame Cressida Dick has admitted she should have corrected a senior officer when he described Carl Beech’s claims of a Westminster paedophile ring as “credible and true”. The Met Police chief said she was immediately aware that the remark by Det Supt Kenny Mcdonald was a “mistake” but failed to correct it. Asked at the London Assembly yesterday if she had raised concerns with anyone about the comment, she said: “No, I didn’t ... in retrospect I could or should have.”
DAME CRESSIDA DICK has admitted she should have corrected a senior officer when he described Carl Beech’s claims of a Westminster paedophile ring as “credible and true”.
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, who had overall responsibility for Operation Midland at the time, said she was immediately aware that the remark, by Det Supt Kenny Mcdonald was a “mistake” but failed to take steps to correct it. Asked at the London Assembly yesterday whether she had raised concerns about the comment, she said: “No, I didn’t… and perhaps in retrospect I could or should have.”
Operation Midland was launched in 2014 when Beech – known by the pseudonym, Nick – told Scotland Yard detectives he had been raped and abused by politicians and high profile figures in the late Seventies and early Eighties.
The following month the Met held a press conference at which detectives appealed for other victims of the socalled Westminster paedophile ring to come forward. Mr Mcdonald told journalists: “Nick has been spoken to by experienced officers from the child abuse team and from the murder investigation team and they and I believe what Nick is saying is credible and true, hence why we are investigating the allegations that he has made.”
Harvey Proctor, the former Tory MP, who was one of those falsely accused of child sex abuse and even murder, said Dame Cressida’s failure to correct Mr Mcdonald’s “mistake” helped give the public the impression that what Beech was saying was actually true.
The Met spent 18 months investigating Beech’s claims, raiding the homes of some of those he had falsely accused, including Lord Brittan, the former home secretary, Lord Bramall, the former head of the Army and Mr Proctor.
Beech’s lies were exposed and in July he was jailed for 18 years on 12 counts of perverting the course of justice.
Dame Cressida, who was assistant commissioner at the time, said she had “endorsed” the establishment of Operation
Midland, but left the Met weeks later for a Foreign Office role. She was still in post when Mr Mcdonald said the allegations of “Nick” were “credible and true”.
She said: “I was the assistant commissioner. I therefore was the line manager for Steve Rodhouse, who was in command, a very senior officer, and the press conference took place I think on December 11 and I was in the process of handing over my responsibilities… I was not, for what it is worth, the assistant commissioner at the time of
‘ I have acknowledged, I acknowledge it again, perhaps in retrospect I should have said something’
the search warrants, the searches, the interviews, or throughout the whole of 2015 when the majority of the operation took place.
“But looking back, I have already acknowledged, I acknowledge it again, perhaps in retrospect I should have said something.”
She added: “I knew that Midland was starting as an investigation on the date that it was. It was Steve Rodhouse’s decision… to start the investigation, but of course I was aware, and I endorsed it and I think anybody else would do now. I would absolutely acknowledge that there are many lessons to be learned from Midland and that we could and should have reviewed more critically earlier, and perhaps that would have resulted in it finishing earlier.”