A disgraceful case of incompetent policing

Few aspects of the criminal justice system have been left untarnished by the botched investigation into a nonexistent paedophile ring at the heart of the Establishment. The police have been castigated for believing the alleged victim Carl Beech, aka Nick, when the most basic of low-key inquiries would have established that he was a fantasist. Instead, they were under pressure from above – largely because of the mess they made of investigating Jimmy Savile – to begin with an assumption that all complainants must be treated as credible, however unlikely their stories.

Then there is the Crown Prosecution Service which now works in close proximity to the police to ensure they are sticking to legal guidelines. Why did it not question what was going on when Operation Midland was launched into a series of murders that simply never happened?

Now another element has been found wanting. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) was charged with investigating the officers most closely involved in the case to see whether they carried out their duties lawfully. The IOPC has exonerated five detectives from wrongdoing after an inquiry that was, to put it charitably, superficial. Incompetent would be a better description.

As Sir Richard Henriques QC, the judge who looked into this mess, has disclosed, the IOPC spent almost three years on an investigation that was “minimal, unprofessional and the decisionmaking was flawed”. This was despite the fact that Sir Richard had already concluded that the search warrants issued to raid the homes of Field Marshall Lord Bramall and ex-mp Harvey Proctor had been obtained unlawfully. False documentation was placed before a district judge on oath, in order to obtain the warrants.

The detectives in charge of the operation were never interviewed and replied to questions in writing with no cross-examination. Some blame the fact that the IOPC at the time was bedding in after its predecessor, the IPCC, was wound up. The aim was to make the system work better. It does not. This is arguably the most wilful attempt to demonstrate the guilt of innocent people in three decades and yet none of those involved has been held accountable. The most senior officers are now in new posts while the more junior have retired from policing. Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, needs to ensure that someone takes responsibility for this disgraceful episode.