Let off, police who bungled probe into VIP abuse claims
AN INQUIRY by the police watchdog that cleared a string of senior officers of blame over Scotland Yard’s disgraced investigation into VIP child abuse was branded a whitewash yesterday.
The release of the controversial findings on Budget day also brought claims that the Independent Police Complaints Commission was trying to manipulate the media.
Scotland Yard has already been accused of trying to bury news about Operation Midland after it published a scathing report on the fiasco on the day of the US presidential election last November.
However, the IPCC – which denies claims of media manipulation – announced yesterday that three senior officers had been cleared over their handling of allegations over a supposed VIP paedophile ring. The trio were among five referred to the IPCC in the wake of Sir Richard’s report.
Among those cleared of any wrongdoing is Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald, who at the outset of the £2.5million inquiry described allegations by a fantasist known as Nick, as ‘credible and true’.
The senior detective’s extraordinary comments, which critics said prejudiced Operation Midland, were not examined by the IPCC. A spokesman for the watchdog said Scotland Yard did not refer the remarks to it. The IPCC found that Operation Midland – which looked into Nick’s lurid claims against former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, exHome Secretary Leon Brittan, ex-Prime Minister Edward Heath and former Army chief Lord Bramall – was ‘extensive and carried out diligently’.
Mr Proctor, falsely accused of murder and child sex abuse by Nick, said the IPCC was part of a ‘cover-up’ of the inquiry’s failings.
‘No police officer will ever be held responsible for the bungled and disastrous Operation Midland that has ruined my life and left me destitute,’ he said. He added that the IPCC had produced a ‘brilliant whitewash’.
Asked to comment about the timing of its statement, the IPCC said: ‘The fact of Budget day played no part in the timing of our update.’
MAC IS AWAY