Finally, Met chief does say sorry but it’s not enough Brittan’s widow demands answers to 30 key questions
SIR Bernard Hogan-Howe finally caved into pressure yesterday and made a ‘full’ personal apology to Leon Brittan’s widow Diana for pursuing a baseless rape claim against the late former Home Secretary.
The embattled Scotland Yard chief said sorry for how his force had handled the false sex allegation, which was hanging over the Tory peer’s head when he died from cancer 13 months ago aged 75.
His unreserved apology is understood to have surprised Lady Brittan, who is seeking ‘retrospective justice’ for her husband over the bogus rape claim and separate allegations of murder and abuse made by a suspected serial fantasist known as ‘Nick’.
She accepted Sir Bernard’s apology but asked the Met Commissioner to answer 30 key questions she put him at an 80-minute meeting at the Goring Hotel in Central London yesterday afternoon. He promised to answer them in writing in the coming weeks, after which Lady Brittan may make a further statement about her husband’s treatment at the hands of Scotland Yard.
The Brittan family made it clear they thought that Sir Bernard had apologised for how it handled both the rape case and Nick’s allegations against the peer.
But speaking after the meeting, the Yard boss indicated he had only said sorry for the way his force had dealt with the historical rape allegation against Lord Brittan. He conceded there would have been no chance of a successful prosecution in the case had the peer still been alive. Critics said Sir Bernard should also make a clear, full apology to Lady Brittan for the fiasco sur-
‘We had a private conversation’
rounding Operation Midland – the inquiry into allegations of a VIP paedophile ring. Sir Bernard is now under mounting pressure to make a full apology to ‘hounded’ war hero Lord Bramall, 92, who was cleared last month of bogus paedophile claims made by Nick following a ten-month investigation by Operation Midland officers.
In a statement, the Brittan family said: ‘Sir Bernard offered Lady Brittan a full apology on behalf of the force, which she accepted. Lady Brittan went on ask and table some 30 questions regarding the two police enquiries as they related to Lord Brittan. Sir Bernard promised to answer them in writing and Lady Brittan and the family await his response. Lady Brittan and the family have nothing further to add at least until they have received Sir Bernard’s written response.’
Later, Sir Bernard told BBC Radio London: ‘I have (apologised to Lord Brittan’s widow) this afternoon. We had a private conversation. It was a constructive one and I hope she found it helpful. I confirmed the apology that we made some months ago now.
‘It is an apology for not telling her at an early stage about the fact that Lord Brittan, who by that stage unfortunately had died, was not to be prosecuted in the future. There was no chance of successful prosecution.’
Asked if Lady Brittan accepted the apology, Sir Bernard replied: ‘I think you’ll have to ask her. I don’t think it’s fair for me to try and answer for her, but certainly she didn’t reject it. The only reason it’s not been made in person [before now] is because we couldn’t make the necessary arrangements for the meeting.
The Crown Prosecution Service advised the police in August 2013 that there was not enough evidence to prosecute Lord Brittan over claims he had raped a 19year-old female student in 1967, but the case was reopened less than a year later.
Under pressure from Labour MP Tom Watson, now the party’s deputy leader, detectives interviewed Lord Brittan in May 2014, but no charges were brought. Lord Brittan died in January 2015 without knowing there was no substance to the allegation. In a letter last October, Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse apologised to Lady Brittan, saying she should have been told earlier that, had he been alive, Lord Brittan would not have been prosecuted.
Investigating officers had told the complainant this in April 2015, but Lord Brittan’s legal team were not told.
At yesterday’s meeting, it is believed Lady Brittan’s widow asked Sir Bernard why her husband was ‘hounded in life and death’ by his force.
She demanded to know why detectives prolonged the investigation into a baseless rape claim made against her dying husband by a mentally ill Labour activist, known as Jane. And she also sought an explanation as to why 35 officers ransacked their two homes weeks after Lord Brittan’s death, in connection with the claims made by Nick.
Police searched their properties in London and Yorkshire, taking away the Tory peer’s clothes, diaries, computers, phones and family pictures.
Despite spending in excess of £2million, Operation Midland found no evidence to substantiate Nick’s triple murder and paedophile allegations against a VIP ring including Lord Brittan, former prime minister Edward Heath, two former spymasters and ex-MP Harvey Proctor.
Former Army chief Lord Bramall, 92, was cleared last month of child sex abuse claims made by Nick.
Sir Bernard said Operation Midland ‘has not yet been concluded’. But on Monday, the Guardian reported that no charges would be brought and suggested the inquiry was close to collapse.