An inspection of the Metropolitan Police Service's response to a review of its investigations into allegations of non-recent sexual abuse by prominent people
Summary
In 2012, allegations of sexual offences by TV presenter Jimmy Savile were broadcast in an ITV documentary, prompting a significant increase of people making complaints of historic sexual abuse.
One complaint set out allegations against various prominent public figures. These allegations led the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to launch an investigation into these claims, called Operation Midland (Op-mid).
This investigation was discontinued in March 2016, as deep flaws with the credibility of the complainant emerged.
In 2016, the MPS commissioned Sir Richard Henriques to review its handling of Op-mid. The findings were outlined in the Henriques report. This report made 25 recommendations based on lessons learnt from the MPS’s investigation.
Subsequently, the Independent Office for Police Conduct’s Operation Kentia investigation (the Kentia report) looked into the conduct of five officers who worked on those cases.
HMICFRS’s commission
In October 2019, the Home Secretary asked HMICFRS to review the MPS’s progress in learning from the mistakes identified by the Henriques report and the Kentia report.
We were asked to comment on the force’s:
- decision-making in investigations (including the concept of ‘belief’ in complainants at the point of recording crime allegations and thereafter);
- use of search warrants;
- supervision and reviews of investigations; and
- provision of information to complainants, suspects, the media and other parties during criminal investigations.
This report sets out our findings of that review.