Spokesman says investigations to continue but further information will not be released until after 5 May
No further updates on Partygate fines will be issued by the Metropolitan police until after May’s local elections, the force has said.
A Met spokesman said: “Whilst the investigation will continue during the pre-election period, due to the restrictions around communicating before the May local elections, we will not provide further updates until after 5 May.”
Continue reading...Francois Olwage convicted of grooming after arranging to meet undercover officer he believed to be 13-year-old girl
A Metropolitan police counter-terrorism officer has been found guilty of three child sex offences after he arranged to a meet a 13-year-old girl for sex when he was “on duty working from home”.
Francois Olwage, a detective constable who was serving with the Met’s specialist operations unit, was convicted of grooming someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl he had met on the Lycos online chat forum.
Continue reading...Met commissioner to step down on 10 April, with search for replacement expected to take months
Cressida Dick will leave her role as commissioner of the Metropolitan police with a payoff of £166,000, the Guardian understands.
Dick announced her resignation in February after clashing with the London mayor, Sadiq Khan. She officially ceases to be commissioner on 24 April.
Continue reading...Analysis: Scotland Yard issuing fixed-penalty notices will only revive doubts in PM’s leadership among Tory backbenchers
It was an electrifying development that has given renewed hope to some Tory rebels hoping to oust the prime minister.
After all the bluff and bluster from Boris Johnson, the Metropolitan police announcement of 20 fixed-penalty notices for people over Downing Street parties is concrete confirmation that the authorities believe the rules were broken during lockdown.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Scotland Yard investigation reportedly finds laws were broken at heart of government
The first fines for lockdown breaches in Downing Street are expected to be issued imminently after Scotland Yard concluded that laws were broken at the heart of government, sources have told the Guardian.
Multiple government insiders said the Metropolitan police had made referrals for the first tranche of fixed penalty notices (FPNs) connected with parties and gatherings being investigated by police in No 10 and the Cabinet Office. It is understood the Met are expected to issue around 20 fines related to the most straightforward cases, though more are expected to follow.
Continue reading...Home secretary says deputy commissioner Sir Stephen House will cover until successor appointed
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, will leave her job in April, months before her replacement is named, the home secretary has confirmed.
Dick resigned last month but agreed to stay on in the post until arrangements to appoint her successor had been finalised.
Continue reading...Review may look at communications between police and City Hall after clash with Sadiq Khan but will not ‘change any outcomes’
Cressida Dick has won a victory after the government agreed to a review of how she came to leave office after a clash with the London mayor, Sadiq Khan.
The Home Office is expected to announce it will ask Sir Tom Winsor to examine how Dick came to be ousted as commissioner of the Metropolitan police last month, a government source confirmed.
Continue reading...Met police decided not to proceed after ‘thorough assessment’ of allegations relating to actor
Claims by 20 women of sexual harassment and bullying against the actor Noel Clarke will not lead to a criminal police investigation, according to the Metropolitan police.
Clarke was the subject of complaints of groping and sexual misconduct in incidents between 2004 and 2019. He is best known for his work on the “hood” series of films, beginning with Kidulthood in 2006, and the BBC’s Doctor Who.
Continue reading...Police commander also admits Met has problem with officers treating inner London children as ‘adults’
Two of the five officers who were involved in the traumatic strip search of a 15-year-old black girl in her school in Hackney, London, have been removed from frontline duties, the Metropolitan police has confirmed.
The admission came at a community meeting on Wednesday evening as anger over the treatment of the girl, known as Child Q, continues. The meeting was originally supposed to take place in person but had to be moved online after the police force could not find a venue. More than 250 people attended, with more wanting to but unable to join because of the meeting’s limit.
Continue reading...News comes after questionnaires were sent to more than 100 people thought to be involved in lockdown gatherings
Boris Johnson is facing a possible police interview over lockdown breaches in Downing Street as the Metropolitan police said they intended to start questioning witnesses after sending out questionnaires to more than 100 people.
But the police statement – issued two months since inquiries began – suggests officers have not yet found breaches that meet the evidentiary threshold for fixed-penalty notices to be issued without further interviews. No FPNs have been issued so far, the force said.
Continue reading...High court last week ruled that Metropolitan police had breached rights of vigil organisers
The Metropolitan police will appeal against a high court ruling that they breached the rights of the organisers of a planned vigil for Sarah Everard in their handling of the event.
The Met said it had “taken time to consider with great care the decision itself and the wider implications for policing” and planned to appeal against the ruling “to resolve what’s required by law when policing protests and events in the future”, in a statement published on Friday.
Continue reading...‘We miss her all the time,’ say relatives of woman killed by serving Met police officer Wayne Couzens
The family of Sarah Everard have paid tribute to her on the first anniversary of her murder by a police officer, saying she was “wonderful and we miss her all the time” and that they “live with the sadness of our loss”.
Everard, 33 was abducted, raped and killed by serving Met officer Wayne Couzens as she walked home in south London on 3 March last year.
Continue reading...Despite vowing change, plans set to be released by the NPCC will oppose an admission of institutional racism
Police leaders in England and Wales will decide not to accept that their forces are still institutionally racist, as they try to battle their way out of a race crisis.
Chief constables began considering a public admission in December and have held a series of private meetings among forces to try to find agreement.
Continue reading...London mayor denies claim he gave Cressida Dick ultimatum over Charing Cross officers
Scotland Yard has been forced to admit it was “unacceptable” for one of its official Twitter accounts to apparently criticise the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, leading him to accuse the force of amplifying misleading information.
Khan tackled the suggestion – made in a now-deleted tweet by the verified “Metropolitan Police taskforce” – that he did not understand the rules for disciplining officers.
Continue reading...Confidence in force fell sharply during past five years, with 68% saying Met did a good job in 2017
Public confidence in the Metropolitan police has fallen sharply in the five years Cressida Dick has been leading Britain’s biggest force, figures published on Wednesday show.
Only 51% of those in London said they believed the Met did a good job in their local area, down 17 points compared with the last survey before Dick became Met commissioner in April 2017.
Continue reading...Metropolitan police have launched investigation into allegations linked to Prince Charles charity
Scotland Yard has launched an investigation into cash-for-honours allegations linked to the Prince of Wales’s charity the Prince’s Foundation.
In a brief statement, the Metropolitan police said it had launched the investigation after media reports alleging offers of help were made to secure honours and citizenship for a Saudi national.
Continue reading...Bas Javid says racism is an issue ‘but what I won’t do is describe all of the organisation as a racist organisation’
A senior Metropolitan police officer has said racism is a problem in the country’s largest force.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Bas Javid, the brother of the health secretary, Sajid Javid, acknowledged “people who have racist views and are racist” were among the force’s staff.
Continue reading...Telegram posts show far-right groups ‘emboldened’ by physical attack on Labour leader
The Metropolitan Police is investigating death threats against Keir Starmer made in the wake of Boris Johnson’s accusation that he “failed to prosecute” Jimmy Savile.
A cache of evidence documenting the threats was sent to Scotland Yard on Friday afternoon, including a number of apparently identifiable users on the messaging app Telegram who called for the Labour party leader to be hanged or “executed”.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson contacted over alleged parties that took place while the UK was under strict Covid curbs
Boris Johnson has been sent a questionnaire by Scotland Yard over alleged parties in Downing Street, in a move that could raise fresh concerns among Tory MPs about his leadership.
No 10 confirmed late on Friday night that the prime minister received the document, and vowed he would respond to it “as required”.
Continue reading...There was precedent for a commissioner determined to root out misbehaviour. Failure to follow it cost her the top job
When Robert Mark was appointed commissioner of the Metropolitan police in the 1970s he wryly suggested his ambition was to ensure the service arrested more criminals than it employed.
In the five years of his leadership (1972 to 1977) Mark’s success can be measured by the 50 criminal officers he put before a court, and the nearly 500 others who were swept out of the organisation as a result of his ruthless uncovering of the entrenched and institutionalised corruption which had protected them for too long.
Sandra Laville, a former Guardian crime correspondent, is now its environment correspondent
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