Brittan criticises police over ‘VIP’ inquiry

PUBLIC FIGURES caught up in a disastrous investigation into false claims of a VIP paedophile ring have still not received justice, the widow of former Home Secretary Lord Brittan has claimed.

Lady Diana Brittan was given compensation and an official apology from the Metropolitan Police after her homes in both London and Yorkshire were raided in 2015 as part of Operation Midland amid allegations against her late husband, the former MP for Richmond.

The 16-month inquiry, sparked by false accounts given by fantasist Carl Beech, saw raids on the homes of Lord Brittan, D-Day veteran Lord Bramall and ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor, who was born in Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

Operation Midland ended in 2016 without a single arrest, after Beech made a series of lurid claims, all later proved to be untrue, including three murders.

Lady Brittan told the Home Affairs Select Committee yesterday: “I perfectly accept that the (Met Police) Commissioner came and offered me a very fulsome apology. But in the end there are issues at the back of all of this as far as the moral compass of the police is concerned which I think have not been addressed.”

Lady Brittan, 80, whose homes were searched six weeks after her husband died, added: “I just feel that all these years on, and particularly for the family of Lord Bramall, because after all he has died, there hasn’t been much justice.”

The Metropolitan Police was heavily criticised for having believed Beech too readily despite inconsistencies in his evidence including naming witnesses that did not exist.

Lady Brittan, who was a magistrate for 26 years, said: “I find it quite extraordinary when you look at the unfolding of the events, in a funny way that anybody could have believed any of it at the very beginning.

“If you look at those who were accused, the fact that they were busy people at the top of their tree, and yet they were accused of finding time to have two hours off every afternoon doing what they shouldn’t be doing.

“I come to the view that none of the things that should have been done in order to try and test the evidence the other way were done.”

One of the most serious accusations levelled at investigators was that they allegedly misled a district judge when applying for search warrants. An independent review into the case by former High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques claimed that the judge had been knowingly misled.

Despite this, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) cleared the five officers involved in the application of any wrongdoing.

Lord Brittan was investigated under Operation Midland as well as a second allegation, Operation Vincente, that he had raped a 19-year-old woman in 1967.

Lady Brittan was later told that there would have been no case to answer for her late husband under either investigation.