The judge who issued the search warrants during the disastrous Operation Midland investigation into a fictitious VIP abuse ring has suggested he was “misled” by police officers.

Howard Riddle, who has since retired as a senior district judge and chief magistrate, has backed the findings of a damning report by Sir Richard Henriques, which concluded he would not have granted the warrants had police given him all of the relevant information.

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Riddle, writing in the Telegraph, said: “Sir Richard concludes that I was correct in granting the warrants having regard to the information put before me. However, he identifies a number of undermining factors that should have been drawn to my attention, but were not.

“Had they been, the report states: ‘It is inconceivable … that any application for a warrant would have been granted.’”

Riddle said he had complete confidence in the findings of Henriques’s report, which concluded: “The warrants were obtained unlawfully … I am satisfied the senior magistrate was misled.”

His comments relate to applications for six warrants in February 2015 that allowed officers to raid the homes of the former military chief Edwin Bramall, the former home secretary Leon Brittan and the former Tory MP Harvey Proctor.

They will place yet more pressure on the Metropolitan police over its handling of Operation Midland; the disastrous search for a child sexual abuse and murder ring triggered by the lies of Carl Beech, a fantasist and convicted paedophile who was eventually jailed for perverting the course of justice.

The head of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has claimed there is a “witch-hunt” against the officers who took part in the investigation after a furious reaction to the police watchdog’s decision to clear them of breaking the law.

In an article for the Guardian, Michael Lockwood, the director general of the IOPC, defended its report into Operation Midland.

Quick guide What was Operation Midland and how did it go wrong? Show Hide What was Operation Midland? Operation Midland was set up by the Metropolitan police in November 2014 to examine allegations of child sexual abuse and homicide. It was based on false claims by Carl Beech, known as "Nick", that he was abused by public figures of authority from 1975 to 1984, and witnessed the abuse of others. He made widely reported false allegations about being taken to parties at exclusive private members’ clubs, in Dolphin Square in London and other locations – including swimming pools – attended by among others the former prime minister Sir Edward Heath, the former home secretary Leon Brittan, the then chief of defence staff Lord Bramall, the ex-MI5 chief Sir Michael Hanley, as well as the former Tory MP Harvey Proctor. Operation MIdland was closed in March 2016 with no charges brought. Beech was jailed for 18 years in July 2019 for making the claims. He is appealing against the conviction and the sentence.

A 2016 report into the investigation said it was ‘riddled with errors’, identifying 43 individual errors made by officers, that the team misled a judge to get search warrants, and finding that five officers, including four detectives and a deputy assistant commissioner, would be referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission for failings.



The IOPC was accused of a whitewash after it rejected claims that officers acted unlawfully and should face criminal prosecution or disciplinary action.

Henriques has been the chief critic of the police watchdog’s findings and competence. He was commissioned by the Met to review Midland after it collapsed in March 2016.

His inquiry led to the sole witness, Beech, being unmasked as a fantasist who invented the claims, with devastating consequences for falsely accused suspects including Bramall, Brittan and Proctor.

Both Proctor and Henriques were highly critical of the IOPC’s findings. Henriques’s report said officers acted unlawfully in obtaining search warrants and misled a judge.

Lockwood said the blunders were bigger than individual officers and argued against what he called a “witch-hunt”: “If we want change, if we want to ensure that the failings of Operation Midland are never repeated again, it is not a witch-hunt of individuals that will prevent this, it is organisational change.”

He suggested that criticism has been based on misunderstandings of the way the police watchdog works and hit out at “quick media soundbites”. He said: “I understand that those who have suffered great injustices as a result of the lies told by Carl Beech are unhappy with our conclusions, but many of the comments made are inaccurate and appear to be based on misunderstandings of the role and remit of the IOPC.”

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The IOPC report published on Monday said that while there were shortcomings, there was no evidence of deliberate wrongdoing.

Operation Midland was overseen by Steve Rodhouse for much of its time hunting for evidence to support Beech’s lies between 2014-16.Both he and another officer, Kenny McDonald, who described Beech’s claims as “true”, were cleared by the IOPC.

Lockwood said: “In relation to deputy assistant commissioner Rodhouse and Det Supt McDonald, their actions in supervising the search warrant applications were assessed, and would not have met the threshold for misconduct. We cannot act outside the law.”

Henriques attacked the IOPC in a Daily Mail newspaper article before its report was made public. Lockwood has accused the retired judge of reaching contradictory conclusions. He said: “Sir Richard himself states in his report that he believed the officers conducted this investigation in a conscientious manner and with propriety and honesty. Yet at the same time he fervently believes they acted unlawfully. Which is true?”