Operation Countryman: The Flawed Enquiry Into London Police Corruption by Dick Kirby

Author:Dick Kirby [Kirby, Dick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: True Crime, TRUE CRIME / General, General, Europe, history, Great Britain
ISBN: 9781526712561
Google: K2LNDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2018-03-30T23:46:45.810915+00:00

CHAPTER 15

So what have we got so far? One City of London officer and eight Metropolitan Police officers acquitted; another Met officer suspended for fourteen months when the head of the investigation knew he was innocent. In addition, any number of professional criminals running rings around a bunch of unworldly individuals who, as one officer put it, ‘knew as much about criminal investigation as my arsehole knows about steam navigation’.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s go back a couple of years, in this Fantasy Island of investigation, and see, following Neesham’s demise, what was going on.

*

By July 1979 Dorset had brought out their big gun: the Chief Constable, Arthur Hambleton. Born in 1915, Hambleton joined the West Riding Police Force in 1937; in 1942 he volunteered for the Royal Marines and as a company commander demonstrated exemplary bravery. Having been severely wounded, he was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the Military Cross. Demobilized in 1946 with the rank of captain, he rejoined the police and enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks – from constable to Chief Constable of Dorset in just sixteen years. He was appointed OBE, advanced to CBE and awarded the Queen’s Police Medal.

Hambleton presented a dossier to Deputy Commissioner Kavanagh and Assistant Commissioners Bright and Kelland; it contained details of allegations of 209 cases of corruption in respect of a total of 78 police officers both in the Met and the City of London – up to and including commander rank. These were specified as follows: three Met and one City commanders, three Met and two City detective chief superintendents, six Met and one City detective superintendents, eight Met and three City detective chief inspectors, seven Met and two City detective inspectors, twenty-seven Met and three City detective sergeants and six Met and six City detective constables.

And what had they allegedly been up to? Of the four commanders, one had received money in respect of a major crime enquiry which resulted in none of the witnesses making an appearance. Another had received part of a total of £40,000 paid to officers in respect of a bank robbery investigation, had arranged early parole for criminals for payment and had been paid £2,000 for assisting criminals. A third had received money in respect of a theft; and the last was accused of corruption, perjury and conspiracy. Those last allegations also referred to one of the detective chief superintendents, and it was said that both of them ‘were likely to be charged’. They weren’t.

Neither was the detective superintendent who was said to have received part of £20,000 paid over by criminals following a robbery, offered assistance to a prisoner for £15,000, corruptly received part of a £40,000 bribe following another robbery and received £6,000 for supplying information. Not only was he not charged, he wasn’t suspended either.

Names of detective constables who had taken part in burglaries and dealt in drugs were itemized, as was that of a detective sergeant who helped a prisoner to escape. Another sergeant had

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