Advertisement

  1. National

Scotland Yard closes investigation into historical VIP abuse claims

Scotland Yard has said that Operation Midland, the police investigation into historical claims of a Westminster VIP paedophile ring, has closed.

The announcement came after former Tory MP Harvey Proctor - the last person to be investigated by Operation Midland - was told he will face no further action over allegations which he consistently denied.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse, the senior officer in charge of Operation Midland said "it is absolutely right that we assessed carefully the allegations made to us". The allegations - which spanned between 1975 and 1984 - were made by a single person.

View all 8 updates ›

Officer in charge says Operation Midland was 'handled well'

The senior officer in charge of Operation Midland insisted the investigation was "handled well" and refused to apologise to ex-MP Harvey Proctor who was told he would face no further action.

Speaking at Scotland Yard, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse stopped short of saying he was confident there was never a VIP paedophile ring, but stated that the evidence had not reached the right threshold for charges.

Our role here has been to investigate some serious allegations of crime. We've conducted a very detailed inquiry and our role really has been to assess whether or not there's enough evidence to ask the CPS to level charges.

My conclusion today is we haven't reached that threshold.

We've had a long investigation, a detailed investigation into some serious allegations of crime. It's absolutely right that we fully investigated it. Our role has been to identify whether there was sufficient evidence to ask the Crown Prosecution Service to charge anybody in this case, and our conclusion today is that isn't the case. The evidence doesn't reach that threshold.

– Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse
  1. Read more
  2. 8 updates
Scotland Yard closes investigation into historical VIP abuse claims

More top news