Watchdog clears five officers of any wrongdoing despite multiple failings of inquiry
COMING just days after Sir Richard Henriques’s damning report into the actions of the police officers involved in Operation Midland, the findings of the Independent Office for Police Conduct will do little to convince people that the watchdog is fit for purpose.
While identifying “shortcomings and organisational failures”, the 152page IOPC report found no evidence of any misconduct by the five officers under investigation.
Those officers – Dept Asst Commissioner Steve Rodhouse, Det Supt Kenny Mcdonald, Det Sgt Eric Sword, Det Insp Alison Hepworth and Det Chief Insp Diane Tudway – have been allowed to either retire or leave the Met for new roles and none has faced sanction.
Sir Richard identified 43 separate police failings during the 16-month VIP paedophile probe, but the IOPC found no evidence of deliberate wrongdoing.
Credibility of ‘Nick’ (Beech)
Sir Richard’s report was damning of the Met’s failure to test Carl Beech’s extraordinary claims that he had been raped and tortured for years by important public figures.
He was critical of the six-month delay in interviewing Beech’s mother Charmian, who told officers she had seen no evidence of abuse or injuries.
Detectives also failed to check with his schools, examine his medical records or seize his computers.
But the IOPC investigators did not conclude that this was a crucial oversight by the Operation Midland team.
The report said while it was clear that some lines of inquiry could have been “prioritised or completed sooner”, there was evidence to indicate that officers went to great lengths to investigate the allegations.
The report stated: “Indeed, a senior officer involved told Sir Richard … there was immense pressure to do the right thing, the motivation was to find the truth and decisions were brave and taken in good faith.”
The report stated: “The Investigator considered it highly unlikely that the officers would have gone to such lengths … had it not been with the intention of maintaining public confidence, particularly in view of the damaging impact of the Jimmy Savile and other high-profile cases.”
It concluded: “Based on the evidence reviewed, the Investigator did not find an indication that any officer had breached the standards of professional behaviour in relation to this allegation.”
Search warrants
Sir Richard said he believed the search warrants for raids on the homes of Lord Bramall, Lord Brittan and Harvey Proctor had been “obtained unlawfully” because the district judge had been “misled”.
Sir Richard pointed out that the written applications had wrongly stated that Beech’s accounts had been consistent throughout, when in fact he had been “demonstrably inconsistent”.
But the IOPC report stated: “The investigation found no evidence of an intention to mislead the court, nor did it find any information to suggest that the officers wilfully neglected their duties. “There is no evidence to suggest that the officers doubted ‘Nick’s’ credibility at this point, and although there were inconsistencies identified later on in the investigation, which resulted in charges being brought against ‘Nick’ for perverting the course of justice, it is important to note that at the time of the warrant applications, there is no evidence to suggest that this was something the officers believed to be the case.”
It went on: “There is no evidence to suggest that the officers had concluded or recognised that at this stage ‘Nick’ was not a credible witness.”
Sir Richard also criticised Mr Rodhouse and Mr Mcdonald, the case’s two senior officers, for failing to review the search warrant applications.
But the IOPC came to a different conclusion and said the failure to review the contents of the warrant applications did not constitute a breach of professional standards or behaviour.
‘Credible and true’
In December 2014, at the outset of the investigation, Mr Mcdonald said he believed Beech was “credible and true”.
Sir Richard’s report said rather than being an “off-the-cuff ” remark, the decision to say the police believed Beech had been made between Mr Rodhouse and Mr Mcdonald in December 2014.
Sir Richard said: “I cannot conceive that any fully informed officer could reasonably have believed ‘Nick’.”
He went on: “The use of the words ‘credible and true’ was therefore inappropriate, prejudicial to any suspect, and misleading to the public.”
But the IOPC report was more forgiving, declaring “the provision of information to the media was a judgment call made in good faith”.
Rather than blame the individual officers involved, the IOPC sought to criticise the policy of “believing all victims”.
The report stated: “There were undoubtedly mistakes and misjudgments made by the officers under investigation, influenced by the prevailing organisational culture and policing guidance of ‘believing victims’, which resulted in the search warrant applications not being as considered as they could have been.” In the last paragraph of his highly critical 346-page report, Sir Richard stated: “I formed the view that, notwithstanding the many mistakes I have enumerated above, the officers had conducted this investigation in a conscientious manner and with propriety and honesty.”
This phrase was repeated 11 times in the IOPC report, prompting the retired High Court judge to accuse the watchdog of taking the comment “out of context”.