21 June (Part 1) - Institutional Corruption
Today marks the sixth anniversary of Cabinet Member Peter Craske’s arrest on
suspicion of posting an obscene blog in my name. A blog that was subsequently
traced to his IP address and found on his computer.
Why was he never charged? The investigation into the crime and the
enquiry into its failure went on for nearly seven years and came to a full stop
when the Independent Office for Police Conduct said that no one had done anything wrong.
With a commendable sense of timing the IOPC has this week sent me a
questionnaire asking how well I think they dealt with my complaint. That should be fun to fill in.
Neither the Metropolitan Police nor the IOPC made any comment at all on the most
incriminating evidence such as the comment contained within the papers that
after tracing the crime to Peter Craske’s computer the police thought it would
be a good idea to tell me that the trail had gone cold. They similarly refused to comment on
the letter that Bexley Police sent to the Chief Executive of Bexley Council
suggesting a meeting to discuss how Craske could be got off the hook.
Never in the six and a bit years of investigation by the Met’s Department of
Professional Standards would anyone comment on those things.
It is often said that the Metropolitan Police is Institutionally Racist. I’ve
never really gone along with that, they are perhaps Institutionally Incompetent
but much worse is that I am absolutely certain that they are Institutionally Corrupt.
My family connection to the Daniel Morgan axe murder enquiries has persuaded me
that I must include the current Commissioner in that web of corruption.
The Daniel Morgan enquiry - technically a Hillsborough style Panel - is now well
into its sixth year. It was set up by the then Home Secretary Theresa May after
every single Labour Home Secretary who preceded her had refused to believe that
the Police could be complicit in murder. The enquiry was expected to last for no more than a year.