Cocaine scandal peer won’t face drug charges
LORD Sewel was let off the hook last night over his cocaine and prostitutes shame without being interviewed by police.
Scotland Yard abandoned its inquiry into the 69-year- old’s degrading activities without arresting or interviewing him under caution.
Detectives claimed it would not be ‘proportionate’ to question the former deputy speaker of the House of Lords.
They said this was because they were unable to find any evidence of ‘ controlled substances’ at the Westminster flat where he was secretly filmed snorting drugs.
As a result they did not confront Sewel about his actions or even give him the chance to admit his guilt. This could have triggered a criminal
‘Insufficient evidence’
caution, which legal experts said was the most likely outcome for the offence of possessing cocaine.
The former Labour minister and ally of Tony Blair also avoided the ignominy of having his fingerprints, DNA and photograph added to criminal databases.
The decision to ditch the inquiry came just eight weeks after Sewel was engulfed in a national scandal. The senior peer, who was responsible for standards in the Lords, was caught on camera with two £200-anight prostitutes at his Dolphin Square flat.
He made a string of indiscreet comments about senior political figures and told the women he wanted to ‘be led astray’.
At one point he snorted cocaine off the chest of one of the women and could be seen smoking a cigarette while wearing a bra and leather jacket. When one of the escorts told him he was ‘such a party animal’, he replied: ‘I know. Disgusting, isn’t it?’
The House of Lords authorities immediately referred his case to police and dubbed the revelations ‘shocking and unacceptable’.
Sewel, who has not been seen in public since fleeing his home, faced a volley of calls to resign. He eventually stood down from his £84,525a-year role leading the Lords’ Privileges and Conduct Committee, the body that upholds standards of behaviour among peers.
But he refused to apologise for his behaviour and has retained his title while taking a leave of absence from the upper house.
Two days after the scandal emerged, a team of Scotland Yard officers armed with a battering ram and a sniffer dog raided his home.
They could be seen leaving the property with documents and other items wrapped in transparent evidence bags.
Sources signalled it would be extremely difficult to bring a case against Sewel because it would be impossible to prove what he was snorting. This is despite the presence of the two women witnessing him producing the cocaine and carving it up for snorting.
Sewel was even caught referring to the drug as ‘the big one’ and joking: ‘It comes in a can … it’s CocaCola – forget the cola.’
The treatment of the peer is in stark contrast to that of Kate Moss. The Met launched an identical inquiry when the model was secretly filmed snorting the class A drug. Even though four months had passed since the footage was filmed, she was interviewed under caution. A case file was sent to prosecutors but no charges were brought.
A Met spokesman said of Sewel: ‘Following a review of all the material, including a forensic examination of an address in central London, there is insufficient evidence to proceed with this investigation and the matter is now closed.’
The spokesman added that ‘no evidence could substantiate that any controlled substance was present, therefore it was not proportionate to arrest or interview an individual under caution.’