The Scottish Mail on Sunday

Top lawyer: Met was wrong to reject probe

- By Mark Hookham

A LEADING lawyer has described Scotland Yard’s decision not to launch a criminal probe into the Martin Bashir scandal as ‘mystifying’.

Quentin Hunt, a barrister who specialise­s in fraud and counterfei­ting cases, believes there is enough evidence in the public domain about the disgraced reporter’s activities for the Metropolit­an Police to investigat­e.

The Mail on Sunday revealed last week how Princess Diana’s brother Earl Spencer was so incensed by the decision that he is considerin­g mounting private criminal prosecutio­ns.

Mr Hunt believes there are ‘strong grounds’ for an investigat­ion into allegation­s of forgery and so-called ‘fraud by false representa­tion’.

On the Met’s decision, he said: ‘It’s mystifying, to be honest, because there’s prima facie evidence of illegality in the public domain.’

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