It was on my watch, admits Cressida
BRITAIN’S top police chief has acknowledged her involvement in the disastrous VIP abuse inquiry by finally admitting: ‘For the first several weeks [Operation] Midland happened on my watch.’
Metropolitan Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has previously avoided questions about her role in the botched investigation.
But after the Daily Mail revealed last month that Dame Cressida, 58, had a key role in overseeing Operation Midland in its early stages, she came under mounting pressure to explain her position. Following Monday’s clearing of officers involved in the investigation, Dame Cressida said she was ‘deeply sorry’ for the mistakes made.
However, she did not make mention of her own involvement in the inquiry.
But in an interview with BBC News, she appeared to finally accepting partial responsibility for the scandal.
She said she would be happy to give evidence explaining decisions made but felt there was ‘no requirement’ for further investigation.
And she appeared to add implicit criticism of her force’s handling of the inquiry, admitting that sometimes it was ‘obvious’ when people are telling ‘a pack of lies’.
‘Sometimes complainants walk in and it’s very obvious it’s a pack of lies,’ she said.
‘We have people who walk in and say – as happened in 2014 – I’ve been raped by some pop star who died 30 years ago.
‘Of course you’re not going to believe them at that stage.’
Dame Cressida, who has been accused of ‘washing her hands’ of the scandal, was an assistant commissioner in charge of Specialist Crime and Operations when Operation Midland was set up in 2014. She received briefings on the allegations of an Establishment paedophile and murder ring.
She was assistant commissioner when Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald infamously told a press conference that the claims made by Carl Beech were ‘credible and true.’
Addressing the use of the phrase, Dame Cressida yesterday said the officer shouldn’t have used the expression, adding: ‘We didn’t put it right in the time I was there.’
She said that Beech was a ‘very convincing liar’ but he should have been scrutinised earlier.