Met officer who led VIP abuse claims inquiry is removed from senior UK role | Police

The former police officer who led Scotland Yard’s disastrous investigation into claims of a VIP paedophile ring has been removed from a senior role with the National Crime Agency (NCA) after it was found he had a case to answer for gross misconduct.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said last week that Steve Rodhouse was being investigated over complaints the high-profile operation he ran failed to properly handle allegations that two witnesses had lied to his officers. A jury found that a third, Carl Beech, fabricated claims about a murderous high-level conspiracy.

This week, the NCA said Rodhouse was being replaced as its director general of operations in an effort to “protect public confidence” in the organisation.

During his time with the Met police, Rodhouse was in charge of Operation Midland, under which the force raided the homes of several high-profile figures, having fallen for the lies of Beech. The latter was jailed for 18 years for perverting the course of justice in 2019.

The impact of his lies were laid bare in emotional statements from Beech’s victims and their families that were read to the court. They spoke of Beech’s “monstrous” allegations of child rape and murder, labelling them “smears of the very worst kind”.

The IOPC initially cleared Rodhouse of any wrongdoing, but has reopened its investigation after complaints his operation failed to investigate two more people – named only as witnesses A and B – who are also accused of making false allegations to detectives.

Rodhouse is understood to have denied any wrongdoing to IOPC investigators. If found guilty of gross misconduct, he could be sacked and barred from ever working in policing again.

“There is rightfully a great deal of scrutiny on the conduct of law enforcement officers. We will continue to engage fully with the IOPC and their ongoing work,” the NCA said.

It added that Rodhouse would be moved to “other projects in the agency while work continues in relation to the IOPC proceedings” – a position it would review once the investigation concluded. He is to be temporarily replaced by the NCA’s director of threat leadership, Rob Jones.

A 2016 review of Operation Midland, led by the former high court judge Sir Richard Henriques, found offences of attempting to pervert the course of justice should be considered against witnesses A and B, with any investigation carried out by another force. Henriques found the pair made false claims that appeared to back up Beech’s account.

Announcing the reopening of the IOPC’s investigation last week, its director, Amanda Rowe, said: “We decided the former senior officer may have breached police professional standards of behaviour relating to honesty and integrity regarding comments made to the media about Operation Midland in March 2016 and comments subsequently made to Sir Richard Henriques in August 2016.

“We also found that, by failing to follow Sir Richard’s recommendation when it was made in 2016, and after it was again brought to the force’s attention following complaints in 2017 and 2020, the service provided by the Met was unacceptable and we have upheld these complaints.”