Corruption in the Met police

[Derek Smith]

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/N...

Ifg the link doesn't let you through the paywall, it is an article suggesting that:

SOME of Scotland Yard’s most senior officers will be named this week in a Commons debate on how police corruption undermined an unsolved murder 25 years ago.

That was the murder of Daniel Morgan.

The article suggest that the top name will be Lord John Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, the chap who replaced Condon in 2005, as well as Yates.

These rumours have been going on for years. You do feel it is about time they were properly investigated.

Search for the case online - it collpased last year under circumstances which might be considered strange by those not used to such matters.

[Steffan]

I do remember the case and it was indeed odd.

It struck me when John Yates and Paul Stephenson resigned because they had clearly been acting improperly in public office, I did wonder how much of this was going on.

The worst feature of the NOfW case IMO is the constant and widespread practice of making clearly illegal payments to Police Officers.

I doubt this will get sorted.

Sadly the authorities nowadays are all from the same mould. Me first, grab as much as you can, devil take the hindmost.

The practice of illegal payments and misuse of public office has become a` way of life in our legal systems, as it has in our political systems.

I do not hold out any hope of much improvement. Just the way thins are.

[turbobloke]

Thanks for the heads up, Derek.

One to watch out for.

[Derek Smith]

Steffan said:

I doubt this will get sorted.

I think you are right.

In my time in London - not the Mets - the corruption was largely CID based. There were all sorts of ranks in on it. Certainly ACPO, although, oddly enough, one of the really poweful blokes in the firm within a firm was a DC. Mind you, after he retired - early on medical grounds - he got a very high up job in a bank.

There's been McNee, Condon, Mark. All promised much but didn't deliver on corruption.

The recent ones, with the exception of Tim Godwin, whom I know, have all left funny tastes in the mouth. But they are not the problem. It's the supers and such.

I know of one ACC who produced a report that was proveably false in all important aspects but pleased the government and so they got promotion. And they wonder why we get corrupt officers of high rank. The message is clear: ignore any inconvenient truth and you'll be looked after.

The plice have been politicised so there is bound to be corruption.

It has got to be a failure of D&C departments. They target the wrong people.

Talking to the press is not a problem per se. Getting paid for it isn't really bad either, as long as the income is declared. The corruption comes with the motives. There was much being fed to the press at the time of Countryman, although they did little with it. The same goes for such things as later corruption investigations that just died, and other matters of police corruption. The current expose of police taking bribes and similar could not have come to light so early had it not been for, rather ironically, police giving info to the press.

There is much more high level corruption going on in the police.

I saw the disclosure on one very high level case a few years ago. There was, quite obviously, no case to answer. One wondered how it got through the quality control in the police prosecutions, then the CPS, then the committal, not to mention pre-trial hearings, but it did. When it was going forward the press were all over it. When it fell apart, as everyone, including a HC judge, knew it would, it received almost universal condemnation from the press as an example of police corruption, the inference being it was the defendants.

It stank but no one was investigated for the terrible case file. In fact many got promoted, some to very high rank.

If it was just the police things would be not so bad, but it is all the way through systems.

Some of my shift worked split shifts - actually against regulations at the time - when they had problems on their particular area. It cost them time and money. I had no overtime budget for the job and so they didn't claim.

[Jasandjules]

My thoughts here are that the corruption will be too wide ranging and would lead to too much injustice being uncovered and significant loss of what little faith people have in the police these days, and therefore there will be a little scapegoating of lower ranks who "couldn't" interfere with other cases etc and then some under carpet sweeping....

[maxxy5]

Tabloid 'tried to subvert' murder probe -

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3b875d3e-6216-11e1-807f-...

I don't get why the NOTW would bother? Were they fed lies by their corrupt PI/Police sources? Were the sources that important to do favours for? Were they just totally arrogant and didn't give a crap (ok we already know that)

Interesting link for the Daniel Morgan story in light of this, don't know how much is true:

http://gangsinlondon.blogspot.com/2012/01/daniel-m...