Police criticised over VIP sex abuse scandal
Report into Operation Midland expected to call for an end to assumption that allegations are true
Police should drop automatically believing alleged victims, a damning inquiry into Scotland Yard’s handling of the VIP sex abuse scandal is expected to recommend. The report, to be released on Friday, is understood to be scathing of the handling of false claims by Carl Beech – subsequently jailed for perverting the course of justice – over alleged child sex offences. It will criticise the Met for dragging its feet on implementing recommendations in the wake of Operation Midland.
POLICE should drop the practice of automatically believing alleged victims, a damning inquiry into the Metropolitan Police’s handling of the VIP sex abuse scandal is expected to recommend.
The report, to be published on Friday, is understood to be scathing of Scotland Yard’s handling of ludicrous and false claims made by Carl Beech, who was subsequently convicted of perverting the course of justice and child sex offences and jailed for 18 years.
It will also criticise the Metropolitan Police for dragging its feet over the implementation of a series of recommendations made by Sir Richard Henriques QC, whose own damning investigation into Operation Midland four years ago led to Beech’s conviction.
It is understood the latest inquiry by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) will also raise serious concerns that officers lost sight of the need to find evidence for Beech’s extraordinary claims because they were dazzled by the prospect of exposing a VIP paedophile ring whose members, Beech claimed, included Sir Edward Heath, Lord Brittan, Lord Bramall and the former heads of MI5 and MI6.
They were also under pressure from Tom Watson, the former Labour Party deputy leader, who had encouraged Beech to go to the police and who had insisted a Westminster paedophile ring had existed.
Scotland Yard ended up paying the widow of Lord Brittan, Lord Bramall and Harvey Proctor, the former Tory MP, hundreds of thousands of pounds in damages after their homes were wrongly raided.
Sir Richard’s report, which was handed to the Met Police in October 2016, made 25 recommendations including ending a policy that all victims of sexual abuse must be believed and that they are called victims rather than complainants.
The HMICFRS report is expected to recommend that the requirement to believe victims should be removed from police guidance when they record crimes.
Sir Richard, a former judge, told The Daily Telegraph yesterday: “As far as I know my recommendations have not been implemented including calling them victims rather than complainants. As far as the police are concerned Carl Beech is still a victim. The idea you call every single complainant a victim in the light of so many false complaints that we have had is just wrong.”
He pointed out he had lodged his report almost four years ago and questioned why it was taking so long to change basic policing policy.
Current policing guidance says that when an allegation is received, “police should believe this account and record it as a crime, unless there is credible evidence at the point the allegation is made that determines no crime has been committed”.
In an attempt to guarantee the “independence” of investigations, the College
‘The idea you call every single complainant a victim in the light of so many false complaints is just wrong’
of Policing amended the guidance to add a stipulation of impartiality in any subsequent inquiry.
The HMICFRS review was ordered by Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, after the furore over Beech’s conviction and a subsequent investigation by another watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which found no wrongdoing by officers.
That has led to accusations that the IOPC itself needs urgent reform and the HMICFRS review has also investigated its workings.
The Government will hope the Metropolitan Police, by far Britain’s biggest force, will learn the lessons and “move on”, according to well placed sources.
The furore over the aftermath of Operation Midland has dogged Dame Cressida Dick, the Met Commissioner. She was briefly in charge of Operation Midland at its outset in 2014 for a matter of weeks before taking up a role at the Foreign Office. She moved back to take charge of the Met in April 2017.