Dark day for the Met

YESTERDAY was a dark day for the Metropolitan Police. A report accused it of “a form of institutional corruption” for concealing or denying failings over the unsolved murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan in 1987.

It said that the Met’s first objective was to “protect itself” for refusing to acknowledge its many failings since Morgan’s murder in Sydenham. Despite five police inquiries and an inquest, no one has been brought to justice over the murder. Now, the Met has accepted corruption hampered the original investigation. Commissioner Cressida Dick, who was criticised in the report for her refusal to allow a panel team to access the Holmes data system, is right to apologise.

Meanwhile, the Home Secretary is preparing to send the police watchdog to investigate claims of a cover-up culture in Scotland Yard. The Met needs to live up to its own aspirations and to fight corruption. Morgan’s family deserves justice.