Police to stop t ak
Dramatic U- turn means off icers WON’T assume all victims tell truth, after abuse claims brought by ‘cranks and timewasters’
POLICE are to drop their controversial policy of automatically believing anyone who reports a crime, it can be revealed. A top-level report obtained by The Mail on Sunday says official guidance should be changed to tell detectives they must listen to victims and take them seriously – but not automatically assume they are telling the truth.
The dramatic move follows a series of flawed inquiries based on false allegations that left dozens of innocent people’s lives and reputations destroyed, including high- profile figures such as pop legend Sir Cliff Richard and DJ Paul Gambaccini.
In the most notorious case, Scotland Yard wrongly described as ‘credible and true’ a fantasist’s lurid claims of a VIP sex abuse ring in Westminster involving former Home Secretary Lord Brittan, war hero Lord Bramall and ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor.
The U-turn has been drawn up by the College of Policing, which sets national standards, and after being considered by chief constables last week it will be sent to Home Office Ministers to become official policy.
Last night, former Police Minister David Mellor, who served under Leon Brittan, told the MoS: ‘It’s been obvious for years that the policy of automatic belief invites time-wasters and it’s an invitation to cranks to come forward with ludicrous allegations.
‘Plainly if someone complains of a crime, that has got to be looked at, but the idea police should assume they’re telling the truth invites dreadful injustice. It meant a distinguished public servant like Leon Brittan went to his grave thinking his reputation had been trashed by an individual who retains his anonymity.’
However, the change will be fiercely opposed by some campaigners who say it will deter genuine rape victims from coming forward, for fear they will be disbelieved or ignored.
The report was written by Assistant Commissioner Rob Beckley – currently in charge of the new Hillsborough investigation – in a bid to end years of dispute over how police should approach crime i nvestigations, particularly allegations of rape and historical abuse where little forensic evidence exists.
After the Jimmy Savile scandal, it was widely accepted that police had not taken seriously many rape claims, particularly those made against the rich and famous, and had too much power to decide whether or not allegations should be investigated. So in 2014 the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary declared ‘the presumption that the victim should always be believed should be institutionalised’.
This led the following year to the Home Office writing into its rules on recording crime: ‘The intention is that victims are believed.’
Then in 2016, the head of the College of Policing wrote to all forces: ‘At the point when someone makes an
‘Recent policy has led to dreadful injustice’
allegation of crime, the police should believe the account given and a crime report should be completed.’
But the policy fell into disrepute as more and more people began reporting alleged sex abuse by prominent people, many of them elderly or dead. The Metropolitan Poli ce s pent