The need to preserve Plebgate evidence - letter of 17th September 2014 to Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe and three Chief Constables

There is considerable prima facie evidence of a conspiracy, which I believe to have been a criminal conspiracy, in relation to Plebgate.

In order definitvely to answer legitimate questions about the integrity of Operation Alice it is essential that evidence relating inter alia to phone records is preserved.

On 17th September 2014 I wrote to Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe and three Chief Constables in relation to the need to preserve evidence with respect to the Downing Street and Sutton Coldfield aspects of Plebgate.

My letter is below:

17^th September 2014

To:

Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe

Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey

Chief Constable Andy Parker, Warwickshire Police

Chief Constable David Shaw, West Mercia Police

Chief Constable Chris Sims, West Midlands Police

Gentlemen,

Plebgate etc

Suspected conspiracy by Police Federation officials and others

URGENT need to preserve telephone and other evidence

I am writing to you to ask each of you that you comply with the requirements of the Law with respect to preserving telephone evidence relating to Plebgate and SuttonColdfieldGate.

In the light of additional evidence emerging in the recently published Operation Alice Closing Report I ask each of you to comply with the requirements of the Law and take URGENT steps to preserve a range of telephone evidence (which I detail later in this letter) beginning 00.01 on 18^th September 2012.

Correspondence in October 2013

I wrote to Sir Bernard and the three Chief Constables in October 2013 regarding the suspected conspiracy by Police Federation officials regarding Plebgate and SuttonColdfieldGate.

I refer Sir Bernard to my letter of 29^th October 2013 and the three Chief Constables to my letter of 28^th October 2013.

None of the recipients has indicated to me that he has complied with his duty in Law to preserve telephone and other evidence.

I therefore am very concerned that there may have been a deliberate and unlawful failure by Sir Bernard and the three Chief Constables to preserve potentially important evidence relating to Plebgate.

The URGENT need to preserve evidence

Time is now of the essence to preserve the mobile telephone evidence, if steps have not already been taken to do so.

In any event evidence in the Operation Alice Closing Report raises the possibility of a wider and earlier conspiracy among Police officers, including officials of the Metropolitan Police Federation, the Warwickshire Police Federation, the West Mercia Police Federation and the West Midlands Police Federation, than was evident when I wrote my letters of 28^th October 2013 and 29^th October 2013.

Evidence of possible planning

As expressed in my letters of October 2013 there is evidence to suggest unlawful, indeed criminal, misconduct by officials of the Metropolitan Police Federation, the Warwickshire Police Federation, the West Mercia Police Federation and the West Midlands Police Federation with respect to Plebgate and SuttonColdfieldGate.

Two pieces of evidence published in the Operation Alice Closing Report add new elements of concern suggesting that the Plebgate incident itself may have been pre-planned, including the possibility of pre-planning involving “Officer 17 DPG”, a Metropolitan Police Federation official.

At 19.11 on 19^th September 2012 “Officer 4 DPG” sent a text message referring to a “major prob”. As far as I can presently establish the possible signficance of the timing of this message was not investigated by Operation Alice.

If the “major prob” referred to is the incident between PC Rowland and  Andrew Mitchell MP then there is evidence of pre-planning since the interaction between Mr. Mitchell and PC Rowland did not take place until some 24 minutes later.

Until such time as I am presented with evidence that this possibility has been fully and honestly investigated I will remain of the view that “Officer 4 DPG” may have been party to knowledge of planning of the incident at the heart of Plebgate.

In other words, it seems to me that there is uninvestigated evidence suggesting pre-planning of the Rowland/Mitchell incident and the subsequent unseating of a Minister of the UK Government.

Such pre-planning, if substantiated, I view as likely being misconduct in public office by multiple Police officers, including several Police Federation officials and/or being conspiracy among several such officers to commit misconduct in public office.

The subsequent actions and failures by the Metropolitan Police Service, Warwickshire Police, West Mercia Police and West Midlands Police, including those at chief officer grades, I view as likely constituting perversion of the course of justice and/or conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

In my view it is essential, and is required by Law, that evidence relating to these suspected criminal offences be preserved as a matter of urgency.

The supposed “suicide” of PC Colin Smelt SO1

On 19^th February 2013, a few days before Keith Wallis’s misconduct hearing, PC Colin Smelt, an officer in SO1 Specialist Protection was found shot dead in North London.

It has recently been suggested to me that PC Smelt may have been on duty in Downing Street on 18^th and/or 19^th September 2012 or may otherwise have had knowledge of what I’ll term the conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office with respect to Andrew Mitchell MP.

I am presently attempting to further explore the details of such suggestions and to arrive at a view about the credibility (or otherwise) of the foregoing information. Given the urgency to preserve mobile telphone records I present those suggestions as worthy of comprehensive investigation.

Should I receive further potentially relevant information regarding PC Smelt’s connections with SO6 officers with respect to Plebgate etc I will write again on this matter.

In the Operation Alice Closing Report no mention is made (so far as I can identify) of any statements having been taken from SO1 officers with respect to the incidents on 18^th or 19^th September 2012.

Given the likelihood that SO1 officers were on duty in Downing Street and/or otherwise may have had contact with SO6 officers on those dates this seems to me to be a potentially gross failure of investigation.

Given the imminent routine deletion of potentially relevant phone records I ask that all phone records of Metropolitan Police Service officers present in Downing Street on 18^th or 19^th September 2012 be preserved for evidential purposes. Specifically I ask that the telephone records of all SO1 officers be preserved as a matter of urgency.

“Corrupt relationship” between MPS and IPCC

The matters at hand require to be considered in the context of what I term here the “corrupt relationship” between the Metropolitan Police Service and Deborah Glass, then Deputy Chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Briefly, a criminal complaint was made to the Metropolitan Police in March/April 2012 that Deborah Glass and two other named members of IPCC staff had perverted the course of justice with respect to a case which involved child sexual offences.

This was assigned a Crime Related Incident reference number.

For around a year prior to 26^th November 2013 Deborah Glass was supervising Operation Alice at a time when the Directorate of Professional Standards of the Metropolitan Police Service was investigating criminal allegations regarding Ms. Glass.

The potential for corruption is obvious and disturbing.

The grave question of whether the MPS acquitted Ms. Glass of the alleged perversion of the course of justice as a quid pro quo for Ms. Glass not looking too hard at any Police (or Police Federation) conspiracy with respect to Plebgate etc has to be examined.

Commander Allan Gibson, then head of the Directorate of Professional Standards of the MPS,  refused to allow the investigation into Ms. Glass to be conducted by a Police force other than the Metropolitan Police Service.

Elements of the evidence are suggestive of premeditation on the part of Commander Gibson and possibly more senior officers in the MPS, perhaps including two of the recipients of this letter.

Telephone records which URGENTLY require to be preserved

I understand that mobile telephone records are deleted automatically after two years.

Given the evidence suggesting pre-planning of the Plebgate incident it seems to me that mobile telephone and other communication records must be preserved for a period beginning no later than 00.01 on 18^th September 2012.

Given the events at Sutton Coldfield on 12^th October 2012 and its likely relationship to securing Mr. Mitchell’s resignation on 19^th October 2012 I suggest that records up to 23.59 on 20^th October 2012 be secured without further delay.

With respect to Commissioner Hogan-Howe and Deputy Commissioner Mackey I ask specifically that, at a minimum, URGENT steps are taken to secure all telephone records to and from the following individuals:

1. Officer 4 DPG (evidence in the Operation Alice Closing Report suggesting knowledge of pre-planning 24 minutes before the Rowland/Mitchell interaction)
2. Officer 17 DPG (Metropolitan Police Federation official informed of the Mitchell incident on 18^th September 2012)
3. John Tully (Chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, who was prominent in the media with Ian Edwards of the West Midlands Police Federation on 21^st September 2012)
4. All other Metropolitan Police Federation officials
5. Telephone records relating to PC Colin Smelt and all other SO1 officers on duty on 18^th and/or 19^th September 2012 who were on duty in Downing Street and/or may have had the opportunity to have contacct with SO6 officers.

With respect to Chief Constable Parker I ask that, at a minimum, URGENT steps are taken to secure all telephone records to and from the following individuals:

1. Detective Sergeant Stuart Hinton (Warwickshire Police Federation official)
2. All other Warwickshire Police Federation officials
3. Jon Gaunt and all other members of staff of his organisation

With respect to Chief Constable Shaw I ask that, at a minimum, URGENT steps are taken to secure all telephone records to and from the following individuals:

1. Inspector Ken Mackaill (West Mercia Police Federation official)
2. All other West Mercia Police Federation officials
3. Jon Gaunt and all other members of staff of his organisation

With respect to Chief Constable Sims I ask that, at a minimum, URGENT steps are taken to secure all telephone records to and from the following individuals:

1. Sergeant Chris Jones (West Midlands Police Federation official)
2. All other West Midlands Police Federation officials
3. Jon Gaunt and all other members of staff of his organisation

Failure to secure evidence

My understanding is that it would be an unlawful failure for evidence not to be preserved.

Given that I first wrote to Commissioner Hogan-Howe and the three Chief Constables in October 2013 I think it cannot credibly be claimed that there has been insufficient time to secure the relevant evidence.

Given my understanding to that effect, should it prove to be the case that Commissioner Hogan-Howe and Deputy Commissioner Mackey and/or any of the three Chief Constables appear to have unlawfully failed to secure evidence I anticipate that I will view that as gross misconduct potentially contstituting one or both the criminal offences of perverting the course of justice and/or misconduct in public office.

In that event I intend to take all steps lawfully available to me to ensure appropriate investigation and prosecution of any failures and/or actions which may constitute one or more criminal offences of the nature referred to earlier in this letter.

Responses requested

I ask that each recipient acknowledge receipt of this letter as soon as possible together with a description of the actions they have taken (or refuse to take) with respect to the preservation of evidence.

Distribution

I am copying this letter to Andrew Mitchell MP for information.

I view this document as a public document but will not, in the immediate term, take steps to publicise it.

Given the limited time now available to rectify any past failure to preserve evidence, this letter will be sent by email to each of the five recipients named above.

Yours sincerely

(Dr) Andrew Watt

cc Andrew Mitchell MP