Scandal of Bramall inquiry

Litany of delays by police left innocent former Army chief living under a cloud of suspicion for almost a year

SCOTLAND YARD was last night under pressure to apologise to Lord Bramall after it emerged that a litany of delays and failures by the police meant the former head of the Army was forced to live under the suspicion of false child abuse allegations for almost a year.

Detectives investigating allegations that he raped and tortured young boys in the 1970s did not interview key witnesses for 11 months and also took more than five months to check some of the most basic facts in the case, a new documentary has revealed. The fundamen- tal failings in the inquiry are laid bare as Operation Midland, an investigation sparked by a single witness, is expected to be shut down by Scotland Yard later this month.

The closure of the investigation – which has lasted 15 months, diverted the attentions of scores of serious crime detectives, but resulted in no convictions – will be humiliating for Scotland Yard. It will also raise serious questions about Sir Bernard Hogan Howe, the Metropolitan Police commissioner.

Despite admitting that there is no evidence against Lord Bramall, Scotland Yard has repeatedly refused to apologise to the 92-year-old. Last night, Lord Bramall said he hoped there would now be an urgent review of the way such investigations are handled in the future.

He said: “This is much more important than just my case, this is a matter of national concern that these sorts of things could happen.”

The D-Day veteran found his reputation traduced when a single witness, known as “Nick”, came forward at the end of 2014, claiming to have been abused as a boy by a VIP paedophile ring, which included Lord Bramall, Ted Heath, the late former prime minister, and Harvey Proctor, a former Tory MP. According to an investigation by BBC Radio 4’s The Report programme, the alleged victim told police that his step-father, who was in the Army, had taken him to the then general’s office at Wilton Barracks in Wiltshire in the 1970s, where he had been molested.

He claimed that further abuse then followed, and even accused the paedophile ring of murdering three young-boys.

But despite the gravity of the allegations, detectives from Operation Midland appeared in no rush to speak to Lord Bramall’s former colleagues.

It was 10 months before police bothered to question Sir Peter Duffell, his former military assistant, and 11 months before they spoke to the soldier who acted as his aide de camp at the time.

After eventually interviewing the men, who both stated that they had never seen a boy near Lord Bramall’s office, the war hero was informed that the case against him had been dropped, but not before his wife had died.

The BBC documentary says detectives took five months to check if the stepfather had even been based at the same barracks as Lord Bramall in the 1970s.

It has also now emerged that other key witnesses in the case, including

the ex-wife of “Nick”, have still not been interviewed by police, despite the fact the £2 million investigation is now into its 15th month.

Lord Bramall said the allegations against him – including claims he raped a boy on Remembrance Sunday – were “absurd” from the outset because there was no corroboration. He told the BBC: “I just do not see how a level-headed policeman could have believed one word of it.”

David Burrowes MP, who serves on the Home Affairs select committee called for an immediate apology from the police.

Mr Burrowes, who is also a criminal defence solicitor, said: “Lord Bramall has clearly been the victim of serious delays. Scotland Yard should not now compound this injustice further by delaying any apology.”

Sir Peter Duffell, who spoke to the BBC, said he was baffled why it had taken so long for police to contact him about the allegations. He said: “I couldn’t understand why they hadn’t seen me earlier because it seemed to me that you know I was closest to the general at the time these allegations were made and I could describe not only the general’s character, but more … much more forensically the layout of the office and how impossible it was for a boy – and I may say I never ever saw a boy enter the commander-in-chief ’s office – how impossible it was for such an incident to have happened.”

“I don’t think the police quite real- ised the impact of this considerable delay, this sluggishness has on those that are accused and therefore I regard the investigation as somewhat inept.”

Mr Proctor is now the only living person who remains under investigation by Operation Midland.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan police has insisted that the investigation is ongoing and inquiries continue.