Ex-MP Harvey Proctor slams Met chief Cressida Dick for failing to correct officer who called fantasist Nick’s claims ‘credible and true’ after she admitted she knew it was a mistake
- Met Police spent millions looking into sensational claims of lying paedophile
- Questions have been asked of Commissioner Cressida Dick’s involvement
- Today she said she was briefed on the early stages of the investigation
- She said she ‘felt for’ officer who wrongly described claims as ‘credible and true’
- MP was was wrongly accused by Beech says she didn’t do anything about it
A former MP who was among those wrongly accused by sex abuse fantasist ‘Nick’ has hit out at Met Police chief Cressida Dick for failing to correct an officer who described the lurid claims as ‘credible and true’.
In a radio interview this morning, the Commissioner was questioned about Operation Midland, the controversial £2.5million investigation into the claims of Carl Beech, which ruined the reputations of some of Britain’s most respected public servants.
She revealed that she heard DS Kenny McDonald describe Beech’s claims as ‘credible and true’ at a 2014 press conference and knew instantly it was a mistake.
Harvey Proctor, one of those whose name was dragged through the mud by the bungling investigation, has questioned why she appears to have done nothing to correct the error.
Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick (left) has admitted her force’s shambolic investigation into the lies of VIP sex ring fantasist Carl Beech (right) has damaged Scotland Yard’s reputation
Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald, who described Beech as being ‘credible and true’
Ms Dick said she was initially the line manager of the officer who set up Operation Midland.
She was an assistant commissioner responsible for overseeing the work of murder squads when DS McDonald made the controversial ‘credible and true’ comments.
She said she was driving her car when she heard the ‘credible and true’ statement of DS Kenny McDonald broadcast on the radio.
She told LBC radio: ‘I just felt for him… I remember thinking “oh, no”, I know he didn’t mean to say that. What he will have meant to say was that “this person appears credible” and unfortunately, when pressed and pressed, he said “credible and true”.
‘That of course was a mistake. It was unfortunate and it dented people’s confidence in the investigation from there on in.’
Harvey Proctor, the former MP who was wrongly accused by Beech, says Ms Dick is ‘part and parcel of what went wrong’
Mr Proctor, who was wrongly accused of being a child killer by Beech, said she did almost nothing to correct the mistake.
He told MailOnline: ‘On the 10th December [2014] she heard the words when she was driving her car. She recognised it was a mistake and she was surprised that he said what he said.
‘Subsequently she made no effort, before she moved to the Foreign Office [in 2015], to put it right.’
He added: ‘She part and parcel of what went wrong, she knew it was an error and did nothing about it.’
The £2.5million Operation Midland ruined the reputations of some of Britain’s most respected public servants, including former PM Edward Heath, ex-Home Secretary Leon Brittan and ex-Armed Forces chief Lord Bramall.
Ms Dick confirmed today that, as previously reported by the Daily Mail, she received briefings on the investigation’s early stages.
But she said she had moved away from that role when the probe expanded.
Commenting on her own role in the flawed probe, Ms Dick added: ‘I wasn’t there. I was not in policing for the vast majority of the time Midland took place.’
She said it is now known that Beech is a ‘total liar’ and accepted the investigation had been ‘horrible’ for those wrongly accused.
The Met Police is set to release more of a 491-page dossier into its inquiry into false allegations made by Beech, pictured above
Deputy assistant commissioner Steve Rodhouse, who oversaw the bungled probe, is now director general (operations) of the National Crime Agency
Beech, a 51-year-old convicted paedophile, claimed he had witnessed three murders committed by members of the group, including by former MP Harvey Proctor.
During the £2.5million probe, the homes of Lord Brittan, ex-Armed Forces chief Lord Bramall and Mr Proctor were raided.
In July, after Beech was jailed for 18 years over his lies, ex-High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques told the Mail that officers used false evidence to obtain search warrants for the raids.
LBC presenter Nick Ferrari today questioned Ms Dick over the fact that no officers had been censured over the probe and some had even been promoted.
Retired High Court judge Mr Justice Henriques wrote a scathing report about the £2.5million investigation
She said an independent investigation by the police watchdog had found no evidence of misconduct and concluded the officers acted in good faith.
Ms Dick added that the claims came to the Met shortly after the Jimmy Savile scandal, when historical sex offences were being widely investigated. She said officers in other investigations had done good work at that time.
Sir Richard Henriques’ scathing review of Operation Midland three years ago identified 43 separate blunders, however it was heavily redacted.
A less censored version, which is said to include evidence of ‘staggering incompetence’ by officers, is expected to be released by the Met in the next few weeks.
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