In a report accusing the Metropolitan Police of “institutional corruption”, an independent commission found the former commissioner had caused “extensive delays” in a commission investigating the 1987 murder. In a separate report issued on Wednesday, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said: “We have assessed that Dame Cressida may have breached the police’s standards of professional conduct by failing to provide full and immediate disclosure to the Daniel Morgan Independent Commission (DMIP) earlier. although not to an extent that would warrant disciplinary action. “We found that she acted in a genuine belief to protect the information, but she may have struck the wrong balance and should have given higher priority to her duty to provide full and excellent disclosure to the committee.” Dame Cressida disputed the IOPC’s findings that she may have breached standards, saying she and her team “acted professionally, flexibly, quickly, diligently and with integrity in a difficult, unprecedented and complex project”. “By December 2014, the panel had received 133,000 pages of material,” he added. “I deeply regret that no one has been brought to justice for Daniel’s murder and I regret everything the Met or any of its members have done to add to the pain of Daniel’s family at losing Daniel in such terrible circumstances.” Father-of-two Morgan was brutally hacked to death with an ax in the car park of a south London pub in March 1987. There have been no successful prosecutions despite four major police investigations, an investigation, disciplinary action, complaints and other operations. The IOPC concluded that there were no new avenues of investigation that could now lead to either criminal or disciplinary proceedings. Mr Morgan’s family said they were “disappointed but not surprised” by the outcome of the review. “As Daniel’s family, we became aware of the police corruption and criminality at the heart of this matter within weeks of the murder: we said so then and have had to say so repeatedly in the decades since the murder,” a statement added. “We – and the public in general – have been failed for decades by a culture of corruption and cover-up in the Metropolitan Police.” The findings, published eight years after Theresa May commissioned the independent commission, say corruption and the “irretrievable” loss of evidence prevented the perpetrators from being brought to justice. The commission’s final report, published last June, said Dame Cressida’s refusal to allow “appropriate access” to the Holmes computer research system hampered the investigation. Baroness Nuala O’Loan, chair of the DMIP, said at the time: “It caused major delays in the commission’s work, which inevitably added to the commission’s costs, causing further unnecessary distress to Mr Morgan’s family.” Daniel Morgan, a private investigator who was axed to death in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, south-east London, on 10 March 1987 (Family Leaflet/PA) (Average PA) He said Scotland Yard’s leadership had failed to acknowledge or address its failings and showed a “lack of candor”, adding: “We believe the first aim of the Metropolitan Police was to protect itself.” Boris Johnson said he had “full confidence” in Dame Cressida after the publication of the report, which sparked fresh calls for her to resign. She announced she was stepping down as commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in February, following the murder of Sarah Everard and a series of scandals over racism and misogyny by officers. The panel said Dame Cressida, then assistant commissioner, was the “senior officer in the Metropolitan Police with responsibility for supporting the work of the Daniel Morgan panel” when it was set up in 2013. He drew up the terms of reference for the review with Crown Prosecution Service officials and was involved in an initial row over “sensitive” material and access to the Holmes computer system. Baroness O’Loan said the commission had “never received any reasonable explanation for the seven-year refusal by Cressida Dick and her successors to allow proper access to the Holmes accounts”. He said the potential £16m cost of the investigation would have been lower had it not been for the time delays and the “very significant resources that had to be spent disputing the Met Police’s ongoing claims about the difficulties in enabling the requested access to the Holmes system . This shouldn’t have happened.” The force, which has since been placed in special measures, accepted that corruption was a “significant factor” in the failure of the original 1987 investigation into Mr Morgan’s murder, but rejected the broader characterization of institutional corruption. Michael Kellett, Professor Rodney Morgan, Baroness Nuala O’Loan, Dr Silvia Casale and Samuel Pollock, following the publication of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel last summer (PA) (PA file) The IOPC said its powers were limited to the actions of individual officers and that it had “no authority to decide” on the matter. It reviewed 50 serving and active officers and also asked the Metropolitan Police, the Mayor of London’s Office for Policing and Crime (Mopac) and Hampshire Constabulary to assess whether officers had committed misconduct or offences. All three agencies responded negatively, but the IOPC said it disagreed with their assessments of Dame Cressida and other officers. He also named former Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner John Yates, who retired in 2011, saying he may have breached standards by failing to take action against the senior investigator into Mr Morgan’s murder. The actions of former chief detective Dave Cook led to key witness evidence being excluded from the trial of three suspects, the IOPC said, but no disciplinary action can be taken after retirement. Sal Naseem, IOPC regional director for London, said: “From the first to the last investigation into Daniel Morgan’s murder, there were failures to challenge and adequately investigate allegations that officers had acted corruptly. “In making our decisions, we are very aware that not a single officer has been successfully prosecuted or received significant disciplinary action as a result of corruption directly linked to the murder investigations. “The circumstances of these matters should serve as a reminder to the Metropolitan Police, and the police service more widely, of the importance of continued vigilance in challenging inappropriate and corrupt behavior swiftly, firmly and vigorously.” Assistant Commissioner Amanda Pearson said Scotland Yard had “transformed” its response to murder and corruption since Mr Morgan’s killing and was working to implement the commission’s recommendations. “We deeply regret our failure to bring to justice those responsible for the murder of Daniel Morgan. We deeply apologize,” he added. “Corrupt individuals, including police officers, have played a significant role in undermining our ability to bring offenders to justice and we recognize the impact this has had on public trust in us.”
