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Met faces official probe on ‘corruption’ report

Martin Bentham Home Affairs Editor

PRITI PATEL was today preparing to send the police watchdog to investigate the Met and the way the force is run, in response to a damning report into the unsolved axe murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan. The Home Secretary will ask Sir Thomas Winsor, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services, to either bring forward a

scheduled inspection to this year or find another way of probing alleged corruption and obstructiveness.

The move is expected to be among changes — including a review of the Independent Office of Police Conduct — that Ms Patel will implement in the wake of the conclusions of the independent panel set up to investigate Mr Morgan’s death in Sydenham in 1987.

The panel’s report yesterday condemned the Met as “institutionally corrupt” in the way it investigated the murder, and in its failure to cooperate with inquiries into what went wrong. The report also identified a “culture of obfuscation and a lack of candour”.

Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick was criticised as one of the main culprits in hindering the panel and was urged by Mr Morgan’s brother, Alastair, to consider her position. Both Ms Patel and Mayor Sadiq Khan, jointly responsible for appointing the Commissioner, are understood to retain confidence in her.

But sources said the Home Secretary would discuss next steps with Sir Thomas in the coming days and his inspectorate would be sent into Scotland Yard in the first stage of a concerted effort to prevent a repeat of the failings identified by the report. A focus will be any evidence of failure to tackle outright corruption or to cooperate in external investigations. But if the full force inspection is confirmed, the inspectorate will also assess the Met’s actions in other areas, including its effectiveness in tackling violence against women.

Other measures Ms Patel will consider include a “statutory duty of candour” which was recommended in the report and backed by the Labour MP for Croydon Central, Sarah Jones. She told the Commons that Mr Morgan’s son, Daniel junior, lived in her constituency and wanted the measure adopted.

Lord Blair, who was Met chief to 2008, today criticised the report’s conclusion that the force was “institutionally corrupt”. He said the definition — which refers to the alleged failure of the current leadership to cooperate adequately with the panel and similar obstructiveness in the past — was “a very broad charge and unconvincing”.

Mr Morgan was found dead in a pub car park on 10 March 1987. The notes he was seen writing in the pub had been ripped from his trouser pocket. Three men were acquitted of murder in 2011 and another man had a charge against him dismissed before coming to trial. Mr Morgan’s family has said he was

about to expose police corruption.

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