THE Home Secretary has asked a police watchdog to investigate Scotland Yard’s disastrous investigation into fabricated claims of a VIP paedophile ring in Westminster.
Priti Patel wrote to the Chief Inspector of Constabulary Tom Winsor yesterday, asking him to review the actions of the Metropolitan Police over Operation Midland.
Her letter asks him, as part of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), to examine the bungled probe a day before the force publishes more of an already heavily critical report into the same investigation.
The force is to today release further sections of a review by former High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques, who was called in after the 16-month operation ended in 2016 without a single arrest.
It saw the homes of D-Day veteran Lord Bramall; Lady Diana Brittan, widow of former home secretary Leon Brittan; and former Tory MP Harvey Proctor raided on the basis of false claims made by fantasist Carl Beech.
Beech is serving an 18-year jail term for fabricating claims of rape, torture and murder by innocent, well-known names from the military, security services and politics.
But Daniel Janner, the son of the late Labour MP Lord Janner who was one of Beech’s victims, said he was calling for a judge-led inquiry and said referring the Met to HMICFRS was “wholly inadequate”.
He added: “This scandal which goes to the very top of the police cries out for a full judicial inquiry to restore faith in the criminal justice system.”
Some details of Henriques’s report were released by the force three years ago, in which he criticised the Met for believing Beech for too long.
Then-force chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe made a series of extraordinary apologies over the disastrous investigation, which has to date cost the force around £4.5 million.
Five officers were referred to the police watchdog, but the body found no evidence of wrongdoing or criminality.
Patel also asked for the inspection to take into account this subsequent IOPC investigation, known as Operation Kentia.
The full report is yet to be published.
The Met has declined to publish other parts of the report because they do not relate to anyone like Beech who has been proved in court to be a liar.
The chapters that will remain secret relate to Operation Bixley – part of a larger investigation named Operation Fairbank into historical allegations of sexual abuse by politicians; four sections about Operation Yewtree into allegations of historical abuse by celebrities; and a further, separate inquiry into an allegation of abuse by a celebrity. HMICFRS is obligated to accept any commissions from the Home Secretary.
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