Proctor withdraws complaint about Operation Midland after he ‘lost faith in police processes’ but seeks inquiry
THE last remaining complaint into the Metropolitan Police’s handling of the disastrous Operation Midland investigation has now been withdrawn after the victim said he had completely lost faith in the entire process.
Merseyside Police had been conducting an inquiry into why Scotland Yard failed to prosecute two alleged fantasists who came forward to corroborate Carl Beech’s lies that he had been abused by a VIP paedophile ring.
Harvey Proctor, the only surviving victim of Operation Midland, lodged a formal complaint demanding to know why the pair – known only as A and B – had not been charged with perverting the course of justice.
The Metropolitan Police asked the Merseyside force to look into the matter and report back. But months after the inquiry began, Mr Proctor has called a halt, after discovering that the investigation was far more limited than he had thought. The former Tory MP, who lost his home and job after being falsely accused of abuse by Beech, said it is the final straw and he no longer has any faith that the police can be trusted to mark their own homework.
He said his only hope of seeing the police held to account is for Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, to now order a root and branch inquiry into the police’s handling of Operation Midland.
Beech, a former nurse, went to the police in 2014 claiming to have been raped and abused by a paedophile ring which included Sir Edward Heath, Lord Brittan, Lord Bramall and Mr Proctor.
The Met described his claims as “credible and true”, launched Operation Midland and raided the homes of some of those falsely accused.
Following an 18-month investigation, however, the investigation was closed without a single arrest. In July 2019 Beech was jailed for 18 years for perverting the course of justice and fraud. But despite the blunders no police officer has been disciplined. Mr Proctor submitted a raft of formal complaints about police conduct but all except the matter relating to A and B were rejected. He said he had hoped the fact Merseyside Police had agreed to look into the matter meant somebody would finally be held to account.
But this week he learned that rather than Merseyside detectives looking into the Met’s failure to investigate A and B in 2016, they were in fact focused on a much narrower point about their failure to record the matter properly and appoint an outside force to examine the issue the following year.
He said he had now concluded that the exercise is a waste of public money and has now written to Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball, head of the Met’s professional standards department, informing her that he wishes to withdraw the complaint.
Mr Proctor told The Daily Telegraph: “I have been given the runaround by two police forces who are desperately trying to conceal the truth.
“Merseyside Police and the Metropolitan Police Service are covering each other’s backs within a police complaints process that is not fit for purpose.
“As the only surviving victim of Operation Midland I have been treated with despicable contempt.
“I urge the Home Secretary to act now in order to restore faith in the criminal justice system still wounded by the experiences of the victims of Operation Midland and beyond.
“The Home Secretary should establish an inquiry to consider all these issues in a completely independent manner.”
A spokesman for Merseyside Police said the investigation was continuing.