THE USUAL SUSPECTS # 5
A Monthly Round-Up of Crime & Corruption
In this round up of The Usual Suspects, you’ll find developments in the Soho police corruption scandal as a fugitive cop emerges; a new low in the woeful police watchdog and official secrecy over a racist murder that makes this country the envy of dictators, kleptocrats and bent public servants the world over.
So what’s new? Metropolitan police documents reveal the ease with which beat cops in central London believed it okay to privatise their job and give special treatment to certain nightclubs in return for free entry, booze and designer clothes.
The largesse came from a security company boss now on the run. The cop he is charged with bribing also did a runner. But last month the law caught up with him and the fugitive cop is now facing extradition to the UK. A trial could prove tricky for some nightclub owners and managers.
Over at the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC), its former regional director for London has accused the watchdog of racial bias.
Meanwhile, a report into who knew what and said nothing about historic rape claims that led the IOPC’s director general to resign in December 2022 is still not finished as his trial approaches.
The last few weeks have been darkened by the death of two true corruption fighters - Dr Richard Stone, a member of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry panel, and justice campaigner Michael Doherty.
Both would have been appalled at the current treatment of the family of Kelso Cochrane, Britain’s first racist murder victim. The West Indian carpenter was stabbed by a group of white teenagers in 1959 - his death having other remarkable parallels with that of Stephen Lawrence 34 years later, namely, Met incompetence, corruption and racism.
Kelso’s surviving family are asking for an apology from the Met and for the National Archives to open the files, which have been sealed until 2054, even though the prime suspects are dead and there are no forensic opportunities. But on the Met’s advice, the files remain closed. Who’s protecting what?
Eyes down.
