www.spiesatwork.org.uk Corruption in the Metropolitan Police -The neverending story that gives, and keeps on giving The Murder of Daniel Morgan 1 'Negation of the rule of law' that it might be of interest because it - The case against Sir John Mitting involved allegations of corruption in the Met from, a period smack bang in the middle of Priti Patel, on May 18 delayed the publication the period of Interest to the Mitting Inquiry of an independent Home Office panel review into spycops. I thought there may be Police of the murder of a Croydon private involved who were part of the story of the investigator Daniel Morgan. 34 years ago in special demonstration squad, which there 1987. Like the Pitchford/Mitting inquiry the are. But I hadn’t realised the role the Sir John panel inquiry had been ordered by Teresa Mitting played in the story, was central to the May when she was Home Secretary, and it story, and that that role draws attention to a his hard not to think that, like that and other breathing bias in favour of the Metropolitan enquiries she ordered, it reflected the Police’s secrecy and dishonesty in in the way significant exasperation from the home it goes abut its business that it calls into secretary the Metropolitan Police not only question whether he is a fit and proper could get it is own corrupt and incompetent person to lead the Inquiry that bears his house in order and that after thirty years of name, trying MPS didn’t seem to know what the problem was, and even if did know it To get to that point there is more than there certainly was not going to tell the home is thirty years of conspiracy, deception secretary. evasion and corruption by the net to deal with first. Yes it is about corruption in the On Friday May 28 the panel announced that Met, but it is not just about backhanders, after negotiation they had been given a disrespect and cover ups, it is about cops provisional publication date of June 15. The participating being accesories to serious delay was so that Priti Patel and small team a organised crime, and murder. It is also about from the Home Office can review the the hopelessness of the Met’s handling of supposedly independent review that has been Covert Human Intelligence Sources, and at reviewing the case since 2013. the heart of the story was a bereaved and dissatisfied family challenging the Met to take There must be many in the Metropolitan the killing seriously. Police, and elsewhere who are hoping that Priti Patel is sufficiently shameless to simply And if that does not ring enough bells, this bury this old piece of bad news. And Sir John was a private detective agency hand in glove Mitting is one of those who would be more with the detectives in the Met, at a time than happy to see that happen. when another surrey based private detective, Garry Murray, was putting the finishing When I first heard about the delay, in a tweet touches to a book about how the MI5, from veteran Investigative reporter Michael Special Branch and the Economic League Gillard, I realized that this was a story that I used Private Investigators to do their dirty had not been following closely but I thought work for them. And the dead man’s office [Type here] 1 www.spiesatwork.org.uk was just a short walk from the Economic "To say that Det Ch Supt Cook, a League’s national research centre. prosecutor guilty of perverting the course of justice by creating false Eventually more than twenty years after the evidence against the appellants hideous and brutal murder police charged was, on account of his belief in five men including a former Detective their guilt, not acting maliciously, Sergeant from Catford with responsibility for is rather like saying that Robin the killing. When the only trial of the dead Hood was not guilty of theft. man’s alleged killers collapsed because of the police’s coaching of un reliable super grasses’, One understands the motivation it left the future leader of the Labour Party, in each case, but any seeming and then Director of Public Prosecutions, endorsement of such dishonest with egg on his face. No sooner had the trial behaviour, particularly within the collapsed than two of the accused, the police force, leads... to a serious business partner of the dead man and his and unacceptable 'negation of mate, a retired Detective Sergeant from the the rule of law'." Metropolitan Police, were recruited again by Andy Coulson to continue to work for News By the time that withering appraisal of International and Rebekah Brookes. Mitting’s understanding of the legal concept of corruption by police officers had been This is a story we don’t have to spell out in issued, he was shockingly already in charge of any detail to Sir John Mitting. He knows it the inquiry into police corruption that bears only too well. The for of the accused in that his name. collapsed trial, claimed damages against the Metropolitan Police Commissioner for malicious prosecution and misfeasance in In the absence of the panel report public office. The claim was eventually heard commissioned by Theresa May, the only by Mr Justice Mitting, who found in favour of published written official account of that the former detective and against the three failed case and misfeasance by the Met other men. Commissioner is Sir John Mitting’s approved judgement in that claim. You can read it in To summarise Justice Mitting’s reasoning for full here: this it couldn’t have been malicious prosecution by the Metropolitan Police https://www.judiciary.uk/wp- because the decision to prosecute was Kier content/uploads/2017/02/rees-ors-v-met- Starner’s, even though the police withheld police-approved-final-jment.pdf information about their coaching of the witness from him. It wasn’t misfeasance in public office because the officer responsible genuinely believed the accused civilians were guilty which is why he coached the witness. Mitting’s judgement did not stand indeed could not stand. The three appealed and Mitting’s disturbing judgement was thrown out. One of the Appeal Court Judges, Lady Justice King wrote in the judgement: [Type here] 2 www.spiesatwork.org.uk II The Killing Of Daniel Morgan - A One of the most useful sources in doing this Chronology of Corruption, Evasion and has been Sir John Mitting’s judgement the Failure of Covert Human referenced above. Although the judgement Intelligence was wrong in law and in principle and wrong constitutionally, the premises on which he based it were factually accurate. The other This is not a murder story that has been was a three part, party dramatised or ignored by either the police, reporters, or reconstructed, Channel Four documentary investigative journalists, nor has it been “Murder in the Car Park”. This is a extremely sidelined by their editors and it has never well-researched piece commissioned in been out of the public view for very long. anticipation of the recently delayed report, and it was broadcast last year and is available But it is fair to say it hasn’t caught and stayed on All 4. It seems to have been made with in the public’s attention either. Although it is the co-operation of the accused defendants not a difficult story, it is not straightforward, who were all acquitted, the Met police and it has played out episodically over thirty- officers responsible for the inquiries and the four years. The number and complexity of collapsed trial, and the victim’s family. That is the characters is Shakespearean, and as with some feat, and one wonders how much Shakespeare most people hearing about it negotiation was in volved to achieve it, probably think it isn’t that sort of story that could have happened to anyone like them. The Guardian, By-line Times and even, heaven But most of all it is unresolved, and unlike preserve us, The Daily Mail have reported the Shakespeare it starts with a brutal and story regularly, and in detail. At one point a horrific murder and there is no ending, just a South London local newspaper called bunch of unsavoury characters shuffling off Shopping Times was helpful, If you want into the Croydon sunset. more information about the episodes in this story than I am laying out here, go and look For someone like me coming to the story for it. You might find it in unexpected places. fairly fresh it has been a solid piece of work trying to piece it together. For those of us interested in in the spycops, blacklisting, covert human intelligence sources and from 1987 Murder in Sydenham the different sources of variable. All the work has been done by other what I have tried to On March 10, 1987, the body of a man in his put it together in a way that is up to date and late thirties was found next to his own car in relevant to those following the Mitting the car Park of the Golden Lion pub in Inquiry. Sydenham in Southeast London. He had been stuck four or five times by an axe to his head, This isn’t a straightforward timeline, the and the last blow, struck after he had hit the lengthy cast list of the police officers will ground, left the axe embedded in his face. include officers who had a role to play in the Although his watch missing, his wallet was story of the Special Demonstration Squad not, and there was more than a grand in cash and National Public Order Intelligence Unit, in his jacket, untouched.