Nick: Operation Midland report into Carl Beech's bogus VIP paedophile ring claims published for first time - The Telegraph, The Telegraph

Scotland Yard has been accused of “institutional stupidity” as the long awaited report into itshandling of the VIP paedophile scandalidentifies a catalog of catastrophic failings by the Force.

Sir Richard Henriques’s 400 page review of Operation Midland, published in full for the first time this morning, pinpoints 43 separate mistakes by officers investigating claims that high profile politicians and public figures raped, tortured and even murdered children in the 1970 s and 80 s.

The scathing report accuses Britain’s biggest force of being too ready to believe the extraordinary claims of fantasist Carl Beech and failing to identify the glaring and obvious inconsistencies in his extraordinary allegations.

In 2014,Beech told senior detectives that he had been abusedby a group including Sir Edward Heath, the former Prime Minister, Lord Brittain, the former Home Secretary, Lord Bramall, the former head of the Army and Harvey Proctor, the former Tory MP.

He also claimed he had witnessed members of the gang murder three boys, prompting police to launch a £ 2.5 million homocide investigation.

Instead of testing the claims, the Met declared the allegations to be “credible and true”, something Sir Richard said had devastating consequences.

The report says there were numerous opportunities to spot his lies in the early stages of the inquiry and shut the case down.

In response, Scotland Yard’s Deputy Commissioner Sir Stephen House admitted “mistakes were made” but said the force does not agree with “everything Sir Richard wrote in his report or indeed all of his recent statements regarding further investigations into the actions of officers “.

Signing off the lengthy statement, Sir Stephen wrote: I am deeply, deeply sorry for the mistakes that were made and the ongoing pain these have caused. I promise we will do all we can to prevent them in the future. “

Instead, the retired High Court judge says, the police unlawfully applied for search warrants to raid the homes of some of them accused, causing them immeasurable distress.

Mr Proctor lost his home and his job as a result of the raids and is currently seeking damages from the Met, which they have so far refused to settle.

The former politician’s barrister, Geoffrey Robertson QC said there was never a shred of evidence to warrant the police investigation.

He said: “Operation Midland was conducted incompetently, negligently and almost with institutional stupidity.

“The allegations were inherently incredible, there was not a shred of evidence during or after they were investigated and Beech had already been shown by another police force to be a fantasist.”

Mr Proctor himself added: “I am grateful to Judge Henriques for this coruscating report about the incompetence, negligence and likely criminality of the police officers of Operation Midland who deliberately and unlawfully trashed my life and reputation and that of public men more illustrious than myself.

“For all the suffering these bad and bungling police have caused me I do not seek revenge. I deserve compensation (which the MPS has yet to agree) but most of all I want certainty that this behavior will not occur again and that others will not suffer as I have from such monstrous abuses of police power. “

Sir Richard’s report will now heap pressure on Cressida Dick, the Met Commissioner, who had overall responsibility for the investigation at its very start.

Other officers who come in for scathing criticism in the report are the former Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Steve Rodhouse, who led the inquiry but has since taken up a £ 240, 000 a year job as Director General of the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Most of the other senior officers who were in charge of the investigation have since retired and a recent report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct cleared them all of any wrongdoing.

In his report Sir Richard says the police failed to spot that Beech’s story was riddled with inconsistencies and lacked any credible corroboration.

He says: “When analized the only possible rational conclusion was that all Beech’s allegations were both fabricated and malicious.”

He also says the Force failed to give enough weight to the “outstanding character of those accused of the most shocking crimes”.

“The concept of the former Head of the Armed forces, a former Prime Minister, an ex Home Secretary, former Heads of MI5 and MI6 and a Conservative MP being engaged in raping, grievously injuring and torturing a young boy in a swimming pool with a Labor MP and a former senior Army Officer watching was simply ludicrous, “Sir Richard says.

In addition to the report into Operation Midland, the Met is also publishing information about an investigation into an historic rape allegation against Lord Brittan.

The investigation, dubbed Operation Vincente, resulted in the former Home Secretary being questioned by police while he was seriously ill with cancer.

He later died before police informed him that he was in the clear.

Officer in charge of Nick investigation apologises

Steve Rodhouse, the officer in charge of Operation Midland and Operation Vincente – an investigation into a separate rape claim against late former home secretary Lord Brittan – has apologized.

“I am sincerely sorry for the distress that has been caused to innocent people and their families as a consequence of Operation Midland and Operation Vincente,” he said in a statement.

“In hindsight I can see that I did not ensure that we got the balance right between our determination to maintain that confidence and our duty to robustly test the allegations being made.”

He added: “I understand the criticisms that have been made of my decisions during these investigations but I acted with the best of intentions throughout and I hope that I have demonstrated the transparency, honesty and integrity which have always been vital to me; my decisions were not taken lightly or without great consideration of their impact.

“Nevertheless, I sincerely regret the damage that the investigation caused to the reputations of those who were accused and for the hurt felt by their families.”