Scotland Yard officers agreed to publicly say they believed the key witness in a multi-million pound investigation into an alleged Westminster VIP paedophile ring, according to a damning report that lays bare a series of police failings.

The revelation was omitted three years ago when the Metropolitan police released a heavily redacted version of the retired high court judge’s report on its handling of the £2.5m Operation Midland, which ended without a single arrest.

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.



It has now emerged, after the publication of a fuller version of Sir Richard Henriques’ report, that officers agreed to tell the media they believed the accuser, then known as “Nick”, whose claims sparked the ill-fated inquiry.

It led to Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald informing the media at the outset of the investigation in 2014 that officers believed the claims made by Carl Beech were “credible and true”. Beech was jailed for 18 years in July, having falsely alleged he was a victim of a VIP paedophile ring that had also killed three boys. All his claims were made up.

The report also sheds light on the extent of the role of Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, who met Beech and encouraged him to go to the police with his claims. The report finds that the main cause of Scotland Yard’s disastrous inquiry was “poor judgment and a failure to accurately evaluate known facts”.

The 391-page report, which has sparked criticism that Scotland Yard is guilty of “institutional stupidity”, reveals:

• Warrants to search the homes of wrongly accused suspects were obtained “unlawfully” and “should not have taken place”. Police “misled” the magistrate who authorised the search by describing Beech’s allegations as “consistent” and “credible”.

• The premeditated decision by officers to publicly say they believed Beech was a “serious mistake”. “I cannot conceive that any fully informed officer could reasonably have believed ‘Nick’,” the report says.

• Watson’s interest in Operation Midland “created further pressure upon officers”. Reviewing how to engage with the politician was listed among “investigative priorities” by a senior officer.

Beech, a former nurse, alleged he was among the victims of an “establishment group” – including politicians and military figures – who kidnapped, raped and murdered boys in the 1970s and 1980s. He accused the former prime minister Edward Heath, the ex-home secretary Leon Brittan, the former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, and the D-day veteran Field Marshal Edwin Bramall of being abusers. The homes of Lord Brittan, Lord Bramall and Proctor were raided as part of the disastrous 16-month inquiry.

The report’s publication has prompted Proctor to call for the Met police commissioner, Cressida Dick, to “consider her position”. At the outset of Operation Midland, Dick still oversaw sexual abuse and murder investigations in her role as assistant commissioner of specialist operations. Proctor’s counsel Geoffrey Robertson QC said Operation Midland operated “almost with institutional stupidity”.

Meanwhile, the home secretary, Priti Patel, responded to the findings by ordering an investigation into the Met to maintain “public confidence” in Britain’s biggest force.

The original version of the report, published by the Metropolitan police on the same day as the US presidential election in November 2016 in an apparent bid to bury coverage, found 43 failings by investigators and said detectives fell for Beech’s story.

The fuller version of the report discloses how McDonald, who retired on the eve of Beech’s trial, and deputy assistant commissioner (DAC) Steve Rodhouse, now director of general operations at the National Crime Agency, agreed to publicly back Beech.

On 18 December 2014, prior to a press conference with the media about Operation Midland, Rodhouse wrote: “I anticipate that Kenny or I will be asked if we ‘believe’ ‘Nick’. This is a significant issue and one with the potential to provide either reassurance or concern to other witnesses.

“Any indication that we will doubt the word of victims will undermine our efforts for them to come forward and will damage our relationship with ‘Nick’ ... Decision: If asked we will confirm that we do believe ‘Nick’ but that, as in any case, his evidence will need to be tested before it can be read out in a court.”

McDonald subsequently told the media: “Nick has been spoken to by experienced officers from the child abuse team and experienced officers from the murder investigation team. They and I believe what Nick is saying is credible and true.”

Henriques criticised the move in his report, writing: “I find it an error for two very senior officers who have never met a witness and, in the DAC’s case, not himself read either ‘Nick’s’ interviews or blogs, to announce to the press and public that they believe the witness.”

In September 2015, the Met conceded that it had been wrong to suggest that it was pre-empting the result of the inquiry by earlier declaring its key witness’s account to be “credible and true”.

Asked about how concerned she was when she heard that Beech’s claims were “credible and true”, Dick told LBC last month: “So I think everybody thinks that that was just a mistake, it shouldn’t have been said.”

Henriques says in his report that Watson’s intervention over a separate 1967 rape allegation against Brittan left officers “in a state of panic”, and that he “grossly insulted” Brittan. He says the Met was wrong to subject Brittan to an interview over the rape claim, and ignored the view of one of its senior detectives that there was no case to answer.

Beech was found guilty after a 10-week trial at Newcastle crown court of 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of fraud over a £22,000 criminal compensation payout. He is himself a convicted paedophile after pleading guilty to possessing child sexual abuse images in a separate trial earlier this year.

Met Deputy Commissioner Sir Stephen House issued an apology. “I am deeply, deeply sorry for the mistakes that were made and the ongoing pain these have caused,” he said. “I promise we will do all we can to prevent them in the future.”