The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, has denied his force’s investigation into allegations of a murderous Westminster paedophile ring is a “shambles”.
In his first public remarks on Operation Midland, Hogan-Howe did, however, say that detectives had found it difficult to corroborate some of the allegations of a key witness known as “Nick”.
He told LBC radio on Wednesday: “We will do whatever we need to do to get to the bottom of this. It’s taken a while to get this far but the trouble with these inquiries is often the victims and witnesses don’t have total recall of the information, the detail of the offence, and clearly we have struggled at times to corroborate with such a passage of time some of the things that have been said.”
Scotland Yard has faced pressure over the handling of Operation Midland, its investigation into allegations that Conservative politicians murdered three boys as part of a Westminster-based paeodphile ring 40 years ago.
The force has faced particular scrutiny after a senior investigating officer described Nick’s allegations as “credible and true” at the outset of the investigation last December.
