Met handling of Operation Midland sparks 'concern' in government

There is “concern and dissatisfaction” at senior levels of the government about the Metropolitan police leadership’s handling of the disastrous investigation into an alleged VIP paedophile ring, according to sources.

The furore forced the Met commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, to make her first remarks on the fallout from Operation Midland, and the police watchdog attracted intense criticism for a report clearing officers of deliberately misleading a judge to get search warrants and saying none deserved to face disciplinary action.

Dick’s position as commissioner had looked secure, but as the row has refused to die away, confidence in her has been shaken within Boris Johnson’s government, sources say.

The home secretary, Priti Patel, has already used her powers to “intervene” and order in inspectors to check up on Britain’s biggest force, concerned that public confidence was in jeopardy.

Operation Midland targeted establishment figures including Lord Brittan, the former military chief Lord Bramall and the former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor between 2014 and 2016. The Metropolitan police now accept that all three men are innocent and were falsely accused by Carl Beech, originally known as “Nick”, who in July was jailed for 18 years for his lies.

The criminal investigation into Beech and his claims began only after a report by Sir Richard Henriques on Midland, which the last Met commissioner, Lord Hogan-Howe, ordered when the £2.5m investigation collapsed.

Henriques called for action against officers over “misleading” a judge to gain warrants, but on Monday the watchdog, the IOPC, released a report rejecting the retired judge’s calls, triggering claims of a whitewash.

Dick retains the confidence of the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and is appointed on a joint decision between him and the home secretary. In her first comments since the furore intensified after a fuller version of Henriques’s report was released on Friday, Dick said her force had to learn lessons but remained committed to pursuing claims of sexual abuse.

Dick said: “It is imperative that police investigate child abuse, whether historical or contemporary, with confidence and professionalism. These are some of our toughest inquiries but we remain determined to approach them with absolute integrity.

“I recognise our mistakes will have a lasting effect on those who endured intrusive inquiries and were thrust into the spotlight. For some this is an issue that has fundamentally damaged their trust in us. This is a matter of great regret for me.

“But I am determined that, while learning from the past, our focus will not be distracted from the urgent policing challenges we face now and in the future.”

The IOPC report revealed that detectives believed their main witness was so credible that they wanted to arrest former home secretary Brittan.

What was Operation Midland?

Operation Midland was set up by the Metropolitan police in November 2014 to examine allegations of child sexual abuse and homicide. It was based on false claims by Carl Beech, known as "Nick", that he was abused by public figures of authority from 1975 to 1984, and witnessed the abuse of others.

He made widely reported false allegations about being taken to parties at exclusive private members’ clubs, in Dolphin Square in London and other locations – including swimming pools – attended by among others the former prime minister Sir Edward Heath, the former home secretary Leon Brittan, the then chief of defence staff Lord Bramall, the ex-MI5 chief Sir Michael Hanley, as well as the former Tory MP Harvey Proctor.

Operation MIdland was closed in March 2016 with no charges brought. Beech was jailed for 18 years in July 2019 for making the claims. He is appealing against the conviction and the sentence. 

A 2016 report into the investigation said it was ‘riddled with errors’, identifying 43 individual errors made by officers, that the team misled a judge to get search warrants, and finding that five officers, including four detectives and a deputy assistant commissioner, would be referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission for failings.

The report described how police came to apply for search warrants, leading to property linked to Brittan being raided after his death. Police were accused of misleading a judge to get the warrants by omitting mention of inconsistencies in Nick’s account.

The IOPC said a Met police chief, deputy assistant commissioner Steve Rodhouse, wrote that among reasons to apply for the warrants was “a perceived failure to investigate Nick’s allegations being damaging to the [Met] and the confidence of further victims”.

It revealed the decision log of DCI Diane Tudway, who wrote on 23 January 2015, the day after Brittan’s death: “Whilst he has now passed away, he remains a suspect for the purpose of this inquiry. Had he not passed away he would have been subject to a decision to arrest.”

The IOPC report showed Rodhouse approved the decision to seek search warrants. It said: “It is outlined that the purpose of the searches would be to locate and secure any evidence to ‘corroborate (or discredit)’ the allegations made by ‘Nick’.

“During the consideration of his decision, he wrote that, despite the lack of corroboration, the investigation had not revealed any cause to disbelieve ‘Nick’. DAC Rodhouse recorded that ‘Nick’ had remained consistent and detailed in his accounts and that he had been told that the inquiry team and his counsellor believed him to be credible.”

Related: The police watchdog’s inaction over the VIP child abuse inquiry is a disgrace | Simon Jenkins

The IOPC said it had found “shortcomings and organisational failings”, with 16 recommendations made to change policing practice.

The watchdog said during its inquiry the detectives could not remember why certain decisions were made and it was not clear whether those in command knew of an earlier complaint from Beech, made to Wiltshire police, which contained inconsistencies compared with what he told the Met two years later.

The IOPC inquiry began after the Metropolitan police referred five officers who had been involved in Operation Midland to the police watchdog. Only one answered questions face-to-face, two had retired, and Rodhouse and Det Supt Kenny McDonald were assessed by the IOPC as not requiring full investigation for any disciplinary or criminal matters.

The high-profile Met investigation targeted establishment figures alleged to have been involved in a child sexual abuse and murder ring, which turned out to be a fabrication from a fantasist. The investigation ended with no arrests.

Henriques’s report castigated the force and found 43 errors, the key one of which was said to be misleading the judge to get warrants to search the suspects’ homes.

The director general of the IOPC, Michael Lockwood, said: “Did the officers involved make mistakes? Yes. Could police processes have been improved? Almost certainly. But did they deliberately exclude information to secure the warrants? Our investigation found no evidence of that.”

Proctor criticised the watchdog’s findings, saying: “This report shows the IOPC is worse than useless. It actually defends the police against the authoritative findings of Henriques because they wanted to boost public confidence in themselves.

“The home secretary should remove the IOPC director general and the IOPC must be abolished and replaced by experts who are genuinely qualified to assess and to criticise police failings. We now know the police watchdog is blind.”