Daily Mail - 01.08.2019

(Jacob Rumans) #1
Page 10

COME CLEAN


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(^) Daily Mail, Thursday, August 1, 2019
‘NICK’ POLICE IN THE DOCK
Full report into
the police’s
bungled ‘Nick’
probe MUST be
released, warns
Lord Stevens
HARVEY Proctor has accused the BBC of
censoring his attempts to criticise the
way the corporation interviewed the
VIP child abuse fantasist ‘Nick’.
The former Tory MP claimed he was
blocked from fully answering a question
while being interviewed on the Victoria
Derbyshire programme yesterday.
In an astonishing broadside on live TV,
Mr Proctor said: ‘This is censorship by
the BBC. This is censorship on the BBC.’
He was invited on to the BBC2 show to
discuss the widespread calls for a crimi-
nal investigation into Scotland Yard’s
bungled inquiry into Nick.
While being interviewed by presenter
Victoria Fritz, Mr Proctor accused BBC
home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds
of trying to ‘manufacture news’.
The former MP criticised the reporter’s
2014 interview of Nick, whose real name
is Carl Beech. Mr Proctor said: ‘The last
time I was on this programme, you had
your home affairs correspondent Tom
Symonds in the studio and he got things
wrong then.
‘Tom Symonds tried to manufacture
news. He showed Mr Beech photographs
of children I am supposed to have mur-
dered. That is not proper journalism.’
Mr Proctor – who was accused of the
rape, torture and murder of two chil-
dren by Beech – then asked if he could
continue his assessment of Mr Symonds.
But Mrs Fritz cut him off and said: ‘I’m
going to have to stop you there if I may...’
Mr Proctor responded: ‘This is censor-
ship. I’m on a live programme and you
are not allowing me to give a correct
answer to your question.
‘You’re prepared to repeat the state-
ment that the BBC hierarchy have put
forward in their defence without allow-
ing me the privilege and the honour of
criticising the BBC. Censorship by the BBC,
I hope everyone takes note of that.’
Mrs Fritz insisted that the corporation
reported serious allegations which were
the basis of a police investigation and
which the police described as ‘credible
and true’. She added: ‘Carl Beech has
since been exposed as a fantasist and
serial liar, not least by an investigation
by the BBC’s own Panorama team.’
Cut short: Mr Proctor with interviewer Victoria Fritz yesterday, when he said he was prevented from criticising the BBC
By Arthur Martin
I’m being censored
by BBC, rages Proctor
Fantasist and liar: Carl Beech Speaking out: Lord Stevens
in Tuesday’s Daily Mail, Sir Rich-
ard suggested police may have
broken the law by using false evi-
dence to obtain warrants to raid
the homes of high-profile figures.
He said the detectives did not
have the right to search the prop-
erties because their description of
Nick – real name Carl Beech – as a
‘credible’ witness was false, effec-
tively fooling a judge into granting
the warrants.
Sir Richard’s 2016 probe into
Operation Midland, which closed
without any arrests or charges
after 16 months, identified 43
blunders as police investigated
Beech’s bogus allegations. But
more than 80 per cent of its 491
pages were redacted.
Speaking to the Daily Mail last
night, Lord Stevens – who remains
a hugely respected figure at the
Met – said of Sir Richard’s review:
‘A report like this needs to be
released in full because otherwise
people will get their hands on it
and bits will leak out. What needs
to happen is for the full truth to
come out. It’s as simple as that.
‘The best thing in these situa-
tions is to have full exposure and
transparency, especially with
something which has caused enor-
mous damage to the victims (of
Nick’s lies) and also to the reputa-
tion of the police service.
‘Lord Bramall has been mas-
sively damaged by it all. I know
that for a fact. I know that from
friends of his who talk to me about
it. I don’t think he will ever get
over it. What he said about being
hurt more by this than he was
during the war speaks for itself.’
He added he was ‘very sad’ about
the fierce criticism of his old force
in the case of serial liar Beech.
‘You always keep an open mind
in investigations but I have to say
that the instructions that came
from the Home Office, through
Theresa May, that officers should
treat every allegation, post Savile,
as an absolute fact goes totally
against the normal rules of inves-
tigation,’ the peer said.
‘This (case) is a clarion call to
ensure that experienced detec-
tives are used and further, that
proper training is given. You don’t
get proper training at universities,
you get proper training actually
on the job.
‘We need to get back to some
old-fashioned skills that all of us
learnt over the years.’
His remarks came as new Home
Secretary Priti Patel prepared to
quiz Michael Lockwood, the head
of the Independent Office for
Police Conduct, over its decision
to clear five Operation Midland
detectives of misconduct. Sources
have said she will be ‘seeking an
explanation as to why there were
no proceedings against officers if
there was indeed evidence of
misconduct’.
Yesterday also saw Radio 2 pre-
senter Paul Gambaccini – falsely
accused of sex abuse and whose
case is featured in the Henriques
review – call for the unredacted
version of it to be released in full.
He said: ‘The public will be
shocked to see what nonsense the
Metropolitan Police took seriously
and how many innocent lives were
tormented.’
Scotland Yard has been coming
under mounting pressure to pub-
lish following last week’s convic-
tion of Beech, whose lies led to
the Met’s £2.5million inquiry.
Beech, a convicted paedophile,
was jailed for 18 years.
But in a controversial
statement last night,
the Met suggested
publication could
breach data pro-
tection laws and
could also help
other criminals
escape justice. It added:
‘We are not considering
withholding any material
because it may be embar-
rassing or critical of the
[Met] or its officers.
Comment – Page 18
A FORMER head of Scotland
Yard last night demanded his old
force release an unredacted ver-
sion of a damning report into its
shambolic ‘Nick’ investigation.
Lord Stevens, who as Sir John Ste-
vens was Commissioner of the Met
between 2000 and 2005, called for ex-
judge Sir Richard Henriques’s review
to be made public in full.
He spoke out as Britain’s biggest force
issued an extraordinary statement, sug-
gesting it may not publish the uncensored
version of his report as it could reveal cov-
ert policing methods and help criminals
dodge justice.
Lord Stevens’s intervention will pile
pressure on Yard chiefs to release Sir
Richard’s dossier into the £2.5million
Operation Midland investigation which
ruined the lives and reputations of a string
of VIPs who were falsely accused of being
part of a murderous VIP paedophile ring.
Among those wrongly alleged to have
been child sex perverts were former Armed
Forces chief Field Marshal Lord Bramall,
95, former home secretary Leon Brittan,
and ex Tory MP Harvey Proctor, who each
had their homes raided by police.
In an astonishing broadside at the Met
‘Full exposure
and transparency’
By Stephen Wright
and Jack Doyle

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