UK police investigation into alleged VIP paedophile ring collapses without anyone charged
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 22 March, 2016, 2:48pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 22 March, 2016, 2:48pm
The Guardian
A £2 million police investigation into an alleged VIP paedophile ring accused of killing three children more than 30 years ago has collapsed amid calls for resignations from three of the UK’s most senior police officers.
The Metropolitan police said Operation Midland has been closed without any charges being brought against any of the former politicians, military officers or government officials said to be involved, after a 16-month inquiry involving 31 detectives.
The declaration came on Monday, an hour after the last living suspect in the inquiry said he had been told he would face no charges. Harvey Proctor, the former Conservative Party member of parliament (MP), was told after a conversation between his solicitors and a senior Met officer that there was insufficient evidence to pursue a case.
The decision to clear Proctor represents a humiliating retreat for the Met, one of whose officers had previously described his accuser’s allegations as “credible and true” – a claim that was subsequently withdrawn.
In his statement, Proctor called for the resignations of the senior officers involved in Operation Midland and an independent inquiry into the operation.
“I have been advised that the Metropolitan police service have informed my solicitors that they intend to take no further action.
“I consider that Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Patricia Gallan, Steve Rodhouse and Kenny McDonald should tender their resignations from the Metropolitan police service forthwith,” he said.
A statement from the Met said Proctor would not be charged, adding that other suspects who are now dead would not have been charged if they were alive.
“Operation Midland has now closed”, the statement said. “Deputy assistant commissioner Steve Rodhouse, the senior officer in charge of Operation Midland, has concluded that the threshold has not been met for the case to be referred for any charging decisions.
“Whilst investigations could not be completed into individuals who are no longer alive, sufficient evidence has not been found that would have led the MPS to refer the matter to the CPS if they were alive.”
Late British Prime Minister Edward Heath, who was one of the names linked to the investigation. Photo: SCMP Pictures
The closure of the high-profile investigation is being seen as a significant blow to the reputation of Scotland Yard and its commissioner, Hogan-Howe.
The high-profile investigation was based on claims from a single alleged victim known as Nick. He said he witnessed a group of powerful men in the 70s and 80s abusing young boys in central London locations, such as a flat in the Dolphin Square block near Westminster.
Nick’s allegations centred on a number of figures in the establishment at the time. These included Proctor; Leon Brittan, a former home secretary; Lord Bramall, a former head of the armed forces; Sir Edward Heath, the late prime minister; and the former heads of MI5 and MI6, all of whom were said to have been part of the savage paedophile ring that killed three boys.
Proctor has also called for his accuser and the news website Exaro, which published or sold stories based on many of the claims, to be prosecuted.
The former MP for Billericay and Basildon said MPs including Zac Goldsmith, Tom Watson and John Mann who made public comments implying the guilt of high-profile paedophiles should apologise on the floor of the House of Commons.
Proctor said the three MPs “should hang their heads in shame” for making “self-serving” comments on claims that a VIP child sex ring ran out of Westminster.
Goldsmith implied under the cloak of parliamentary privilege that a former cabinet minister, immediately identified on social media as Brittan, had been photographed in a compromising position with a young boy. Goldsmith has declined to withdraw the comments.
In October 2012, Watson made a speech in the Commons asking David Cameron about claims of a “powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10” and later met Nick. Mann handed detectives a dossier naming 22 politicians – including six serving MPs and members of the House of Lords – suspected of involvement in a Westminster paedophile ring.
Nick, a man in his 40s, first made allegations of child abuse to his local police in 2012, when he reported sexual and physical abuse by his stepfather, a military figure. Officers did not pursue the investigation because the man in question had died several years before.
He emerged as a complainant to the Met after Watson’s allegations in parliament in 2012. Contacted by Exaro, Nick made his allegations first on the news website, and later underwent three lengthy police interviews that led to the opening of Operation Midland in November 2014.
The inquiry examined Nick’s allegations that he and other young boys were sexually abused between 1975 and 1984 at various locations across London and the Home Counties, including military establishments. The venues included a flat in Dolphin Square.
As a result of Nick’s allegations officers opened murder inquiries into the killing of three young boys. But they never established the identities of the victims or recovered any bodies of young boys who had gone missing in the period in question.
In December 2014, Scotland Yard held a press conference in which they revealed they were investigating the murders of three young boys and the abuse of children which had taken place over a decade at the various locations. Most significantly a senior officer on the homicide command, Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald, said Nick’s claims were “credible and true”. The latter part of the statement was subsequently withdrawn.
Police acknowledged the investigation was complicated and difficult. It was also carried out in the public glare.
Police made co-ordinated raids involving up to 60 officers on the homes of Bramall, Brittan and Proctor last March. As officers searched his home, Proctor received a call from a journalist from Exaro asking him to confirm the raid.
The home of Brittan’s widow, Diana, was raided by more than 20 officers six weeks after her husband had died. Bramall’s home was raided as he cared for his wife who was suffering from dementia.
Proctor was personally accused by Nick of participating in two murders and aiding in a third murder of young boys, along with numerous other claims of torture and rape against Nick and other boys.
Nick’s credibility as a witness was questioned last year after the BBC’s Panorama disclosed that he had appeared anonymously on a television programme claiming to have been abused by Jimmy Savile, but had not mentioned his alleged abuse at the hands of the paedophile ring.
Operation Midland’s total cost was £1.7 million until November 2015, the Met confirmed. Final costs can expect to be in the region of £2 million, informed sources said.
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Two other witnesses came forward to the police inquiry and their claims were assessed, the Met statement said.
Rodhouse, the senior officer in charge of the investigation, defended the way it had been conducted and declined an opportunity to apologise to Proctor. “it is absolutely right that we assessed carefully the allegations made to us,” he said.
In the police statement, which ran to more than 1,000 words, the force said it “will not apologise for carrying out its duty to investigate serious allegations of non-recent abuse”.
It added: “The MPS recognise, however, how unpleasant it is for an individual to be investigated and to have their innocence publicly called into question. The MPS sympathises with those affected, including the families of those no longer alive, and regrets the distress they have felt.”
No evidence has been found to prove that detectives were knowingly misled by a complainant, the statement added.
Nick also told detectives that one of the potential homicide victims looked like 15-year-old Martin Allen, who vanished in November 1979, and a separate investigation will continue into his disappearance, police said.
An independent, judge-led inquiry has already been announced into how Scotland Yard has dealt with historical sex abuse investigations involving public figures.
The former High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques will examine a number of inquiries including Operation Midland.
The investigation into Nick’s allegations will be examined by the Goddard inquiry into sexual abuse in institutions, which is likely to call senior officers and others to what will be one of the first public hearings the inquiry carries out.
Goddard has said the investigation will be “an objective, fact-finding inquiry” focusing on high-profile allegations of child sexual abuse involving current or former members of parliament, senior civil servants, government advisers and members of the intelligence and security agencies.
Some have defended the approach of the Metropolitan police. Pete Saunders, from the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: “I have been dealing with the police for 20 years. They do get it wrong sometimes, we all do, but generally speaking they know when they are dealing with someone that is credible and they know when they are dealing with a liar.”
