Operation Midland: Metropolitan Police refers itself to watchdog over Carl Beech blunders

Scotland Yard has again referred itself to the police watchdog over alleged blunders in its Operation Midland investigation.

The Met confirmed that it had made a voluntary referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) after complaints it had failed to fully investigate men for allegedly lying about being abused as children.

Operation Midland was launched in 2014 after Carl Beech - known as Nick - claimed he had been raped and tortured by a string of high profile politicians and public figures in the Seventies and Eighties.

During the lengthy multi-million-pound investigation, two other men also came forward to claim they had been the victims of similar abuse.

But the claims were later proved to be false and last summer Beech was jailed for 18 years for perverting the course of justice and fraud.

However the Met failed to investigate the other two men - known simply as A and B - for similar offences.

A previous IOPC report into Operation Midland, published in the autumn, cleared all Met officers involved in the case of any wrongdoing.

But in October last year Harvey Proctor, the former Tory MP, one of those falsely accused by Beech, lodged a string of fresh formal complaints against Scotland Yard.

Last night, the force confirmed that it had referred itself to the police watchdog.