2 **^ Wednesday 7 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
Met to publish full VIP abuse report
By Martin Evans
CRIME CORRESPONDENT
SCOTLAND YARD has finally agreed to
publish the damning report into its
disastrous handling of the VIP
paedophile investigation.
The Met has been under intense
pressure to make public the findings of
Sir Richard Henriques’ review into
Operation Midland in 2016.
The report, which identified 43 fail-
ings during the investigation, was only
partially released due to the ongoing
investigation into Carl Beech, the fan-
tasist known by the pseudonym Nick.
But last month, that investigation
concluded when Beech, 51, was found
guilty of 12 counts of perverting the
course of justice and one count of fraud
and jailed for 18 months.
The Metropolitan Police Service
came in for severe criticism over its de-
cision to describe Beech as “credible
and true” and to raid the homes of those
he falsely accused including Lord Bra-
mall, Lord Brittan and Harvey Proctor.
Sir Richard said he believed those
raids were illegal and suggested the of-
ficers involved should be investigated
for perverting the course of justice.
The Met had refused to publish the
full report. But in a climbdown last
night, Sir Stephen House, the Deputy
Commissioner, said the force would
publish as full a report as possible assoon as possible. He said: “The impact
of Carl Beech’s false allegations and the
Operation Midland investigation on
many people has been truly dreadful
and damaging to them and their fami-
lies. The then commissioner, Sir Ber-
nard Hogan-Howe, apologised in
person to those most affected. We re-
main deeply sorry.
“The MPS commissioned Sir Richard
Henriques to undertake a review of
Operation Midland because we were
determined to learn lessons about our
handling of the investigation. The MPS
has already embedded the majority of
Sir Richard’s recommendations in our
working practices,” he said.
“The MPS has already published aredacted version of Sir Richard’s report
[and] we will publish as full a version of
the report as possible, as soon as we
can, now proceedings are complete.”
Operation Midland was launched in
November 2014, when Beech told offic-
ers he had been raped by a paedophile
gang. He named high profile figures,
including Sir Edward Heath and Lord
Bramall. The investigation was closed
without a single arrest being made and
Beech was himself investigated.
Five officers were referred to the po-
lice watchdog for investigation. All
five, including former Deputy Assistant
Commissioner Steve Roadhouse, were
cleared of wrong doing.
Last night it emerged that the Metro-politan Police paid almost £1 million to
another force to investigate Beech’s bo-
gus claims. Northumbria police have
revealed that its subsequent investiga-
tion into Beech’s lies cost £1,109,068.
According to The Times Scotland Yard
has reimbursed £951,982 of the total.
Lord Bramall’s son last night called
on the head of Scotland Yard to order
an independent criminal probe into al-
leged misconduct during the
Met’s inquiry.
Nick Bramall urged Met Commis-
sioner Cressida Dick to call in an out-
side force, saying her officers had
shown a “staggering level of incompe-
tence” in Operation Midland and also
appeared to have “acted illegally”.Top-ranking Asian police
officer: why must we hide?
Continued from Page 1
to carry out attacks were British born
or raised and therefore more needed to
be done to explore social problems
they were experiencing.
Rejecting the idea that British Mus-
lims needed to assimilate, Mr Basu,
who is of Indian heritage, said: “Assimi-
lation implies that I have to hide myself
in order to get on. We should not be a
society that accepts that. You should be
able to practise your culture or religion
openly and still be accepting of others,
and others be accepting of you. That is
a socially inclusive society.”
His comments come amid the ongo-
ing debate around the best way to
integrate Britain’s diverse population.
The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson,
recently said it was vital that immi-
grants who came to Britain learnt to
speak English.
Speaking during the Conservative
Party leadership campaign, Mr John-
son praised the “waves” of migrants
who had come to the UK and “bought
into our national culture”, but said too
many could not speak English.
He said: “I want everybody who
comes here and makes their lives here
to be and to feel British, that is the most
important thing. And to learn English.
“Too often there are parts of our
country ... where English is not spoken
by some people as their first language.
And that needs to be changed.”
In 2016, Dame Louise Casey, the
Government’s integration tsar, called
for a target to be set by which everyone
in the country could speak English.
There has also been a fierce debate
over the rights of Muslim women to
wear the full-face veil in public.
Mr Johnson came in for criticism
when he compared women who wear
burqas and niqabs to letter boxes, but
he also stressed he believed in the right
of people to wear what they wanted.
This week, Denmark took a stand
and banned the full-face veil in public,
arresting a woman when she refused to
remove her burka.Impact statements are being
ignored, says victims’ tsar
By Charles Hymas
HOME AFFAIRS EDITORVICTIMS of crime are being ignored
by police and judges who are “robbing”
them of the chance to tell courts about
the impact of offences on their lives,
says the victims’ commissioner.
In an article for today’s Daily Tele-
graph, Dame Vera Baird said only one
in seven victims claim to have been of-
fered the chance to make a personal
statement about the impact of a crime
even though it was their right to do so
under the Government’s victims code.
Of those who did, under half (46 per
cent) felt their statements had been
taken into account by the courts, the
lowest recorded proportion for five
years and down from more than two
thirds last year (68 per cent).
Dame Vera writes: “Victims are be-
ing robbed of the opportunity to have
their say in court.” She said there had
been cases where the lawyers for de-
fendants had been allowed by judges orcourts to rewrite victims’ statements,
while the independent charity Victim
Support said police actively discour-
aged some victims, “because it took too
long”. Dame Vera cited the case of a
family whose four-year-old daughter
had been killed by a driver speeding at
83mph in a 30mph zone and whose
statement had been redacted because
the defendant might find it “upsetting”.
She said: “It cannot be appropriate
for a defendant to edit out the bits he or
she does not want to hear. Victims must
be entitled to say what they have suf-
fered without interference.”
Dame Vera said there was evidence
that even when victims explicitly asked
for their statement to be read in court,
their request had been rejected.
Dame Vera is to raise her concerns
with the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
The Ministry of Justice is currently con-
sulting on a new streamlined victims’
code that may be enshrined in law.Dame Vera Baird: Page 16Danger subsides
The people who
were the last
residents to be
evacuated from
Whaley Bridge
amid fears the
town’s dam could
fail have been told
they can return to
their homes.
Around 1,
emergency
responders were
involved in an
operation to take
pressure off the
dam, which
partially collapsed
on Thursday
following heavy
rain, and stop the
leafy Derbyshire
town from being
flooded. Fire crews
used 23 high-
volume hoses to
extract 7,000 litres
a minute from
Toddbrook
Reservoir, which
held back
1.3 million tons of
water. Fears of a
dam collapse led to
1,500 people
being evacuated.
Last night
residents from
Horwich End,
where 55
properties were
evacuated on
Saturday, were
told they would be
allowed to return.CPL ROB TRAVIS RAF / MOD 2019News
Caffeine ‘does not
stop us getting a
good night’s sleep’
Continued from Page 1
sleep and the widespread use of alco-
hol, nicotine, and caffeine, relatively
few studies have thoroughly investi-
gated the association between evening
substance use and sleep parameters.
“This study represents one of the
largest longitudinal examinations of
the associations of evening use of
alcohol, caffeine and nicotine with
objectively-measured sleep outcomes.
“We did not observe an association
between ingestion of caffeine within
four hours of bed with any of the sleep
parameters. These findings support
the importance of sleep health recom-
mendations which promote the restric-
tion of evening nicotine and alcohol.”
A report by the Sleep Council found
70 per cent of adults in Britain get less
than seven hours’ sleep a night and
more than a quarter sleep poorly.
The NHS recommends cutting down
on tea, coffee, energy drinks or cola be-
fore bed as caffeine is thought to inter-
fere with the process of falling asleep.Subscribe today
and save 50%
for three monthsSEE PAGE 18 FOR DETAILSis a member of the
Independent
Press Standards
Organisation (IPSO) and we subscribe
to its Editors’ Code of Practice. If you
have a complaint about editorial
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co.uk/editorialcomplaints or write to
‘Editorial Complaints’ at our postal
address (see below). If you are not
satisfied with our response, you may
appeal to IPSO at http://www.ipso.co.uk.The Daily Telegraph, 111 Buckingham
Palace Road, London, SW1W 0DTNEWS BULLETIN
Body found of student
who jumped from planeLocals in Madagascar have found the
body of a Cambridge University
student who opened the door of a
Cessna 182 plane at 5,000ft and
plunged to her death 12 days ago, a
police chief has said.
Sinola Nomenjahary, who has been
coordinating the search for Alana
Cutland, 19, since July 25 with the help
of around 400 locals and 15 officers,
said: “The body was found. It was
recognised as being Alana from her
clothes, hair and shoes.
“The body has been wrapped in a
plastic sheet and will be flown to
Antananarivo tomorrow by helicopter.
“We have already informed the
British embassy of the discovery. The
villagers are happy that they have
done their obligations and they have
recovered the body.”Road rage driver is jailed
after pedestrian attack
A motorist who left a man of 80
unconscious in the street after shoving
him in the back during a road rage
attack has been jailed.
After a row John Dugdale, 56, of
Croydon, pushed Paul Eva into a brick
wall as he was crossing the road with
his wife in south-east London.
Mr Eva suffered “horrific injuries”,
police said.
After the attack in April, Dugdale
drove away from the scene but handed
himself in to police the following day.
He was sentenced at Croydon
Crown Court to 16 months in prison.Man arrested in London
for ‘stirring up race hate’
A man has been arrested on suspicion
of a string of offences including trying
to stir up racial hatred.
The 43-year-old was held by
counterterror police at an address in
south-east London at 6am yesterday,
while officers searched properties in
west London.
The man was accused of instigating
an act of terrorism as well as
publishing written material and
showing a recording to stir up racial
hatred. Scotland Yard said the arrest
was part of a “pre-planned
intelligence-led operation” and the
man was being held in custody at a
central London police station.Corrections and
Clarifications
David
McDonough
OBE
Monday’s report
“Aristocrat
caught in row
over sale of
Roman sculpture
abroad” was
erroneously
accompanied by
an image of David McDonough OBE
instead of James Charteris, 13th Earl
of Wemyss. We would like to make
it clear that Mr McDonough, above,
has nothing whatsoever to do with
the article or the sale of the Roman
Sculpture to the New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art. We
apologise to Mr McDonough for any
confusion our article may have caused.РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS