Green to learn fate within 48 hours
DAMIAN GREEN is likely to learn the outcome of an inquiry into allegations of misconduct within the next 48 hours amid suggestions it will focus on his outright denial that pornography was found on his office computer.
Mr Green, the First Secretary of State and Theresa May’s de facto deputy, was accused by former police officers of having thousands of pornographic images on his office computer. He was also accused of making inappropriate advances to a female journalist.
There have been suggestions that Mr Green is likely to be cleared because the alleged incidents took place while he was not a minister, ruling out the possibility that he breached the ministerial code.
However, The Daily Telegraph understands that Sue Gray, director general of the propriety and ethics team, has focused significant attention on Mr Green’s response to the allegations.
On Nov 4, Mr Green issued a statement which said: “This story is completely untrue and comes from a tainted and untrustworthy source.
“The police have never suggested to me that improper material was found on my Parliamentary computer, nor did I have a ‘private’ computer as has been claimed. The allegations about the material and computer, now nine years old, are false, disreputable smears.”
He appeared to shift ground after Sir Paul Stephenson, the former Met Police Commissioner, confirmed that he was informed detectives had found pornographic material on a work computer in Mr Green’s office.
Mr Green subsequently issued a second statement, this time appearing to concede that porn had been found on the computer, but denying that he had downloaded it or viewed it at all.
He said: “As I have said throughout, I did not put or view pornography on the computers taken from my office.” It is understood Mr Green maintains he has not changed his position on the matter. The ministerial code requires ministers to “behave in a way that upholds the highest standards of propriety”.
Earlier this month, a former Scotland Yard detective who seized a computer from Mr Green’s office in a police raid in 2008 said he had “absolutely no doubt whatsoever” that the Tory MP had accessed pornographic images on it. Neil Lewis, the man who examined Mr Green’s parliamentary computer, said it would be “ridiculous to suggest that anybody else could have done it”.
Mr Lewis claimed that he had found “thousands” of images on the computer. Asked how he could be sure that Mr Green had accessed the material, he told the BBC: “The computer was in Mr Green’s office, on his desk, logged in, it is his account, his name, in between browsing pornography he was sending emails from his account and it was ridiculous to suggest that anybody else could have done it.”
A spokesman for the First Secretary of State said: “It would be inappropriate for Mr Green to comment on these allegations while the Cabinet Office investigation is ongoing; however, from the outset he has been very clear that he never watched or downloaded pornography on the computers seized from his office. He maintains his innocence of these charges and awaits the outcome of the investigation.”