Daily Mail - 13.08.2019

Page ^ Daily Mail, Tuesday, August 13, 2019

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‘Nick’ police chief

cleared of blame

without interview

By Stephen Wright

Associate News Editor

POLICE watchdogs have been

criticised for clearing a police

chief of any blame over Scotland

Yard’s shambolic VIP child sex

abuse inquiry – without even

interviewing him.

Former Tory MP Harvey Proctor,

who was falsely accused of being a

child killer by the fantasist known as

‘Nick’, reacted furiously after it was

confirmed that Steve Rodhouse was

never quizzed as a suspect during an

inquiry into possible misconduct.

Mr Proctor accused watchdogs of

engaging in ‘a circle of injustice and

deceit’. Mr Rodhouse was exonerated

within four months of investigators

being asked to consider his conduct in

the £2.5million Operation Midland

inquiry when he was a Met deputy assist-

ant commissioner (DAC).

Clarifications & corrections

All our journalists observe the

Editors’ Code of Practice and the Mail

is a member of the Independent

Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).

We aim to correct any errors as

promptly as possible.

n To report an inaccuracy, please

email [email protected].

To make a formal complaint go to

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You can also write to Readers’

Editor, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street,

London W8 5TT or contact IPSO

directly at ipso.co.uk

But sources said the officer

should have been questioned

as a suspect about his knowl-

edge of discrepancies in the

fabricated accounts given by

‘Nick’, real name Carl Beech,

concerning a Westminster

paedophile ring.

They added that Mr Rod-

house should also have been

asked about why one of his

most senior detectives pub-

licly described Beech as ‘cred-

ible and true’ and whether he

had read transcripts of police

interviews before officers

applied for search warrants.

Mr Rodhouse was cleared by

the then named Independent

Police Complaints Commis-

sion (IPCC) in March 2017.

Watchdogs interviewed him

as a ‘witness’ only as they

probed allegations that three

of his officers misled a judge

into granting search warrants

to carry out raids.

All three were also cleared of

any wrongdoing last month by

the watchdog, now called the

December 2014. It said: ‘Our

initial assessments, after

which we discontinued inves-

tigations into a DAC and a

Detective Supt were based on

the comprehensive accounts

they had provided to Sir Rich-

ard Henriques and contempo-

raneous records the officers

had made regarding the deci-

sions they’d taken.’

It added that the Met did

not refer ‘the conduct of an

officer for using the term cred-

ible and true during a news

conference’ to watchdog

investigators, but said: ‘We

did review the evidence in

relation to this and were satis-

fied the decision not to refer

the matter was correct.’

Mr Rodhouse has refused to

answer any questions from

the Daily Mail.

was controversially promoted

to Director General (Opera-

tions) of the National Crime

Agency, is facing an uncertain

future as Scotland Yard pre-

pares to release the unre-

dacted report into Operation

Midland by Sir Richard Hen-

riques. His 2016 report identi-

fied 43 key blunders by police.

The IOPC confirmed that Mr

Rodhouse was cleared with-

out being interviewed, along

with former Met detective

superintendent Kenny

McDonald, the senior officer

who described ‘Nick’s’ claims

as ‘credible and true’ in

Independent Office for Police

Conduct. Beech was jailed for

18 years last month for per-

verting the course of justice.

In a statement last night, Mr

Proctor said: ‘Having conven-

iently announced the “chief ”

did nothing wrong, reassuring

him he was in the clear, and

free of any misconduct or crim-

inal misdemeanours, the IPCC/

IOPC then interviewed him as

a witness to seek to absolve his

more junior officers of blame

and responsibility.

‘It is a circle of injustice and

deceit. It’s a monumental

cover-up.’ Mr Rodhouse, who

Cleared: Former chief Steve Rodhouse Jailed: Fantasist Carl Beech

From the Mail, July 31

PERVERSION

OF JUSTICE

NOW TURN FULL

FORCE OF LAW ON

‘NICK’ POLICE

‘NICK’ POLICE

SEARCHES

BROKE LAW

From the Mail, July 23 From the Mail, July 30

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