Sir Peter Fahy, former head of Greater Manchester police, says such incidents should not happen in democratic country

Police should stay out of politics, a former chief constable has said amid a growing backlash against officers who revealed that pornography was found on Damian Green’s Commons computer during an investigation nine years ago.

Sir Peter Fahy, the former chief constable of Greater Manchester police, said the raid on Green’s office and the revelation that pornographic images were found on his computer were incidents that should not happen in a democratic country.

He spoke out after the now-retired detective who examined Green’s computer contradicted the Conservative MP’s claims that he never used it to look at pornography. Asked whether the officer’s intervention was in the public interest, Fahy said: “I think it’s very dangerous territory for a police officer to be making judgments about whether a politician is lying or not.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sir Peter Fahy in 2014. Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/PA

“That should only happen in a criminal investigation and then, ultimately, is for a court to decide. Police should be extremely careful about making judgments about other people’s morality when it’s not a matter of crime. It’s something really central to our democracy that police are not involved in politics; we are fairly unusual in the United Kingdom in that being the case.”

The claim that “extreme” pornography was found on Green’s work computer was first made by Bob Quick, former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, in a statement prepared for the Leveson inquiry that was obtained and reported by the Times last month.

Green, the first secretary of state, denied the allegation, but Neil Lewis, the former Scotland Yard officer who examined the computer, told the BBC that the internet history on the device showed pornography had been viewed extensively. He said the images were not extreme, as the earlier report claimed.

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Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday, Fahy said the disclosures made by Quick and Lewis undermined the principle that details uncovered by police in the course of an investigation ought to remain confidential if they are not central to a case.

“If you are attacked in the street and, for instance, happen to be with somebody who is not your wife, it’s really important that that is not revealed by the police and they concentrate on what was the incident,” he said, adding that to do otherwise could damage the confidence of victims.

His comments came after senior Tories, including the Brexit secretary, David Davis, rallied behind Green, whose future was already threatened by allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards a young Conservative activist, Kate Maltby.

The MPs said evidence obtained in a police raid that did not expose illegality should not be used to undermine a politician. Davis, who was Green’s boss as shadow home secretary for a time, let it be known that he would resign in protest were Green to be forced out solely on the basis of the allegations by former Met officers.

“The police are using tactics straight out of the mafia playbook,” said a close ally of the Brexit secretary.