Watchdogs will get powers to reopen police misconduct probes following Met Police’s ‘Nick’ inquiry

Watchdogs will get powers to reopen police misconduct probes following Met Police’s shambolic VIP child sex abuse inquiry

  • Police watchdog failed to sanction any officers over the ‘Nick’ inquiry scandal 
  • The Independent Office for Police Conduct can now re-open misconduct probes
  • It can now launch new investigation if there are ‘compelling reasons for doing so’

The police watchdog will be able to reopen misconduct probes in the wake of Scotland Yard’s bungled VIP child sex abuse inquiry.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) failed to sanction any officers over the ‘Nick’ scandal, but will now be able to launch a new investigation if there are ‘compelling reasons for doing so’.

The move comes after it emerged that Home Secretary Priti Patel had told the IOPC’s director general Michael Lockwood that ‘more needs to be done to ensure that the organisation commands the confidence of the public and the police’.

The decision is a victory for the Mail, which has led the way in exposing the shambolic inquiry into Operation Midland since Beech (pictured above) was jailed for 18 years in July

She spelt out her concerns in a letter last October after the IOPC was savaged by a retired High Court judge over its ‘whitewash’ inquiry which cleared five detectives of misconduct over Operation Midland.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Sir Richard Henriques said the probe that exonerated the officers was ‘lamentable and inadequate’, and said police broke the law when they raided the homes of retired Armed Forces chief Lord Bramall, the widow of ex-home secretary Lord Brittan and former Tory MP Harvey Proctor while investigating the lies of ‘Nick’, the fantasist Carl Beech.

The IOPC yesterday released a report explaining how it plans to improve its performance.

Remarkably, it didn’t refer once to Operation Midland, but stated that government reforms ‘will make it easier for the IOPC to reopen an investigation, without delay or recourse to the courts’.

It said the director general would be able to order a new probe into any matter if there were ‘compelling reasons’.

The move comes after it emerged that Home Secretary Priti Patel had told the IOPC’s director general Michael Lockwood that ‘more needs to be done to ensure that the organisation commands the confidence of the public and the police’

The move comes after it emerged that Home Secretary Priti Patel had told the IOPC’s director general Michael Lockwood that ‘more needs to be done to ensure that the organisation commands the confidence of the public and the police’

The report came as MPs launched their own inquiry into the police watchdog.

The probe by the Commons’ home affairs committee will examine why the IOPC cleared two senior officers without even interviewing them, and why it took a further two years to conclude that three other officers accused should not face sanctions.

A 2016 report by Sir Richard Henriques, which identified 43 major errors in the £2.5million Met inquiry, will be considered.

The decision is a victory for the Mail, which has led the way in exposing the shambolic inquiry into Operation Midland since Beech was jailed for 18 years in July.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk