Met officer in VIP abuse scandal has gross misconduct charges dropped
The senior police officer who led Scotland Yard's VIP child abuse inquiry has had gross misconduct charges against him dropped.
Steve Rodhouse, a former assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, had been due to face a disciplinary hearing over his handling of aspects of Operation Midland.
He had been accused of breaching professional standards and making dishonest statements while leading the operation.
Mr Rodhouse, who is currently the director general of operations at the National Crime Agency, was the only officer to face disciplinary proceedings as a result of Operation Midland, which saw several high-profile figures investigated over false allegations of child abuse.
On Thursday, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) announced that it was dropping the charges.
A spokesman for the watchdog said the decision had been taken after a large volume of relevant material was unexpectedly disclosed by the Met.
The decision means not a single officer has been held to account for the blunders that led to innocent people, including high-ranking military personnel and former ministers and MPs, being investigated over malicious child sex allegations.
Operation Midland was launched in 2014 after fantasist Carl Beech went to police claiming he had been raped and abused by a VIP paedophile ring in the 1980s.
He told police that well-known figures, including Sir Edward Heath, the former prime minister; Lord Brittan, the former Home Secretary; Lord Bramall, the former head of the Army; and Harvey Proctor, the former Tory MP, had raped and even murdered children.
The Met spent 18 months investigating the claims, even raiding the homes of some of those falsely accused, before shutting it down without making a single arrest.
In July 2019, Beech was jailed for 18 years after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice and fraud.
Two other men, known as Witness A and Witness B, were alleged to have also come forward during Operation Midland to corroborate Beech's lies with false allegations, but they were never charged.
The claims against Mr Rodhouse centred on comments he made in the media about the honesty of Witnesses A and B, and subsequent remarks he made to Sir Richard Henriques, the former High Court judge who was carrying out an independent review into the handling of Operation Midland.
Following an IOPC investigation, the watchdog concluded that Mr Rodhouse had a case to answer and should attend a disciplinary hearing.
But that decision has been reversed following the late disclosure of a cache of material from Scotland Yard.
Harvey Proctor, who is the only living Operation Midland victim, described the decision to drop the charges as 'appalling'.
An IOPC spokesman said there was no evidence within the material that there was any 'inappropriate motivation' in Mr Roadhouse's comments.
The spokesman said: 'There was, however, substantial evidence to indicate the comments made to the media were the result of collaboration between senior Met officers and staff and that there had been appropriate considerations, including a desire not to discourage victims of historic sex offences coming forward.'
Amanda Rowe, director of the IOPC, said: 'It is highly regrettable for all concerned that material we requested three years ago during our investigation, and we believed had not been retained due to the Met's retention policy, has only recently been discovered and disclosed.
'Police forces have a legal obligation to provide information to the IOPC when we request it. However, we acknowledge that we could have taken further steps during the investigation to seek additional assurance from the Met that relevant email material was definitely unavailable.
'We apologise to all of those affected and we are working with the force to establish exactly how and why this situation has occurred, and to reduce the risk of it happening again.
'Today's announcement does not change our finding that by failing to follow Sir Richard's recommendation in his review to investigate the witnesses, the Met's service was unacceptable and its subsequent reviews concluding no investigation was needed were flawed.
'During our investigation, we reported a potential crime to the Met, which is being actively investigated by another force.'
Mr Rodhouse said the allegations made against him were 'ill-founded and incorrect'.
In a statement, he added: 'I am pleased that the IOPC has finally recognised that I acted with honesty, integrity and care throughout a difficult investigation.
'I welcome the IOPC's apology, but I have yet to receive an adequate explanation as to how this debacle occurred.
'I recognise that senior police officers must be held accountable for their actions, and that public complaints must be properly considered.
'However, if police officers are to willingly take on complex and challenging investigations, they must have the confidence that any complaints made about their conduct will be competently investigated in a balanced and timely fashion. That was not the case here.
'Vital evidence was not considered despite it being readily available and repeatedly requested.
'I am grateful for all of the support that I have received, and I now look forward to resuming my career investigating and prosecuting serious criminals.'
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