Metropolitan Police

Metropolitan Police cave on their threat to use the Official Secrets Act…

Mick Fealty on September 21, 2011, 12:23 pm

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So the Met’s intended use of the Official Secrets Act has collapsed before it had begun… On reflection no doubt they will come to view it as a spectacularly stupid move, not least because it seems they did not even consult with Dominic Grieve, the UK Attorney General before making the threat… It contrasts with their strangely lax treatment of the initial hackgate lead… It’s a racing certainty that Mr Greive would have given them pretty short shrift… This one …

“makes Murdoch look about as impressive as wrinkly little ant waving a tiny placard”

Pete Baker on July 17, 2011, 10:51 pm

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The arranged arrest of former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks today, she resigned on Friday, was met with suspicion by members of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, as the BBC report notes Liberal Democrat MP Adrian Sanders, a member of the select committee, questioned the timing of the latest arrest. “In whose interest was it for this arrest to take place before Tuesday? Because if it does impede what we can ask, that’s not going to …

Another case of another police force ‘looking the other way’?

Mick Fealty on July 13, 2011, 6:28 pm

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There’s a striking similarity between the strange behaviour of Gardai, in three cases in which were just forgotten, or in which no serious inquiries were commenced and the behaviour of John Yates, who in 2009 dismissed within eight hours the suggestion that there were any further evidence of wrong doing in the case of the News of the World: Yates was asked by the commissioner to “establish the facts”. It is clear that he failed to do so. On Tuesday, …

Ian Tomlinson unlawfully killed

Turgon on May 3, 2011, 4:48 pm

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The jury at the inquest into the death of Ian Tomlinson on the day of the G20 protests in London two years ago has found that Mr. Tomlainson was unlawfully killed and that PC Simon Harwood used “excessive and unreasonable” force in striking him. Mr Tomlinson, who was not taking part in the protests in London, posed no threat, the jury added. Criminal proceedings could reopen against Pc Harwood after jurors ruled he acted illegally, recklessly and dangerously. Last year, …

Phone tapping: No new Guardian facts to dent NoW rebuttal

Brian Walker on July 12, 2009, 3:59 pm

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As Mick has just offered a shrewd review of the political vibes, I’ll go on today’s press stand-off. Certainly, you can never fault the News of the World for lack of chutzpah. The great phone tapping scandal centres on two questions: were the News of the World Goodman and Mulcaire convictions in 2007 for phone tapping the tip of an icebeg of “thousands “ of other cases as the Guardian suggests? And can David Cameron’s PR chief Andy Coulson, the …