Ex police chief piles pressure on Met over hounded hero
SCOTLAND Yard came under further pressure to apologise to Lord Bramall yesterday after a former chief constable branded its investigation into him ‘disastrous’.
Lord Dear, a former head of West Midlands Police and an ex Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, gave a damning assessment of the Met’s handling of the case.
The respected peer is the latest senior public figure to lambast the Met’s shambolic inquiry into Lord Bramall, who spent ten months under investigation over baseless child sex allegations made by a suspected serial fantasist called ‘Nick’.
But Met boss Sir Bernard HoganHowe is defiantly refusing to say sorry to the D-Day hero. Lord Bramall, 92, was belatedly cleared a week ago – but Britain’s biggest force continues to resist calls to express sorrow for its allegedly ‘disproportionate’ investigation.
Lord Dear said the letter informing Lord Bramall of the inquiry’s end was a ‘demonstration of backcovering’. ‘The investigation into Lord Bramall is, as much as anything, about dignity. That shown by Lord Bramall – and the lack of it displayed by the Metropolitan Police,’ he said in a letter to The Times.
He added: ‘Throughout, Lord Bramall maintained a dignity and restraint that typified the best of his generation, in the face of intolerable innuendo and supposition.
‘In contrast the police investigation lurched from over-reaction to torpidity. On the basis of a complaint from one uncorroborated individual, citing events of 40 or more years ago, the police raided Lord Bramall’s house with a 20strong search team, and in a blaze of publicity. What could have been the purpose of that?
‘The ensuing inquiry moved for months at a snail’s pace. The letter to Lord Bramall’s solicitor declaring no further action was appalling.
‘Grudging and mealy-mouthed, it was a clear demonstration of backcovering when a simple message of “We had to do it, we took too long, we hope your life can now continue unblemished” would have been appropriate and the very least he could have expected.’
His letter went on to say: ‘All of this raises an obvious comparison: between the quality of the man hitherto under suspicion, and the quality of those who so disastrously mishandled the process.’
On Wednesday the Met issued an 891-word statement on the case – with no apology for their heavyhanded investigation into the hotly contested child sex allegations. Lord Bramall attacked the force’s move as self- serving and ‘ purely police justifying themselves’.
Britain’s most decorated living soldier had his home raided by police last March in the presence of his dying wife after Nick accused the peer of abusing him at a military base more than 30 years ago.
Nick has also claimed that a VIP paedophile ring, including ex-prime minister Edward Heath, former Tory home secretary Leon Brittan, and various ex-heads of the security services, killed three boys.
The investigation is about dignity. That shown by Lord Bramall — and the lack of it displayed by the Metropolitan Police
Lord Dear, former HM Inspector of Constabulary