The police investigation into allegations of the abuse and murder of children by a ring of VIP paedophiles was riddled with errors, according to a report.
It found:
- There were “serious failings” in the conduct of the police investigation, indentifying 43 individual errors made by officers.
- The man who made the allegations – known by the pseudonym Nick, a father in his 40s – was believed for too long and is now being investigated for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
- Officers misled a judge to get search warrants. The author of the report, Sir Richard Henriques, said: “The gravity of a judge being misled in such circumstances cannot be overstated.”
- Five officers, including four detectives and a deputy assistant commissioner, would be referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission for failings.
- The former home secretary Leon Brittan should have been informed before his death that the case against him had been dropped.
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, said he accepted responsibility for the failings, and that it was a matter of “professional and personal dismay” that the VIPs – including Brittan, the former military chief Lord Bramall and the former Tory MP Harvey Proctor – were pursued for so long.
