Met’s head on block over VIP ‘abuse’ farce

EXTRACTING an unqualified apology from Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick about the appalling fiasco that was Operation Midland is like getting blood from a stone. Only harder.

In a rare comment on the Met’s botched inquiry into a non-existent VIP sex abuse ring, Dame Cressida tells the BBC that she is ‘sorry for the effect’ it had on those whose lives it ruined.

Notice that she is not sorry for what those under her command did. Not sorry that officers were stupid enough to believe the transparent lies of fantasist Carl Beech. Not sorry that warrants to search suspects’ homes were obtained by concealing from a judge the weakness of the available evidence. Not sorry, either, for the millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money wasted.

No, Dame Cressida contents herself with a half-hearted ‘we were just doing our job’ kind of sorry, dismissing the terrible impact of her force’s serial incompetence on Lord Bramall, Lord Brittan, Harvey Proctor and their relatives as regrettable but unavoidable. This is a shameless exercise in stonewalling. Dame Cressida admits that public confidence in the police has been damaged by Midland and understands why some want ‘heads to roll’. Does she really? Has she had her home raided at dawn and intimate records rifled through? Has she had her reputation dragged through the mud after being accused of horrific crimes?

The Commissioner is now the subject of an inquiry by the police watchdog into her handling of Midland. She has promised to be ‘extraordinarily co-operative’. We must hope she is a woman of her word. Or the head being called for will be hers.