{"id":19073,"date":"2013-01-08T22:16:15","date_gmt":"2013-01-08T21:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/2013\/01\/08\/plebgate-charges-imminent-_n_2434567.html?utm_hp_ref=uk-politics?ncid=GEP"},"modified":"2013-01-08T22:16:15","modified_gmt":"2013-01-08T21:16:15","slug":"hogan-howe-plebgate-charges-by-end-of-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/hogan-howe-plebgate-charges-by-end-of-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Hogan-Howe: ‘Plebgate’ Charges By End Of Month"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Criminal charges linked to the so-called Plebgate affair could be brought by the end of the month, Britain’s most senior police officer said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said he hoped to hand a file to prosecutors in a matter of weeks, when the force closes its investigation into whether former chief whip Andrew Mitchell was the target of a conspiracy involving officers.<\/p>\n

\"hogan<\/p>\n

Hogan-Howe: Charges in ‘a matter of weeks’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Appearing before the Home Affairs Select Committee, the Met chief revealed that a police officer arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office will answer bail on January 31, while a relative of the officer will answer bail on January 16.<\/p>\n

Mitchell was forced to quit his Cabinet post amid a storm of protest – fuelled by the Police Federation – over claims he called officers “plebs” during an altercation in Downing Street.<\/p>\n

Hitting out at the Federation for meddling in politics, Sir Bernard told the Committee it was not for the staff association to get involved with Mr Mitchell’s resignation.<\/p>\n

The Commissioner insisted he had an “open mind” to the inquiry in the face of criticism that he had hastily backed the police officers involved.<\/p>\n

He admitted he made the comments before seeing the evidence that has since been made available – including CCTV footage of Mitchell exiting the gate to the Prime Minister’s residence.<\/p>\n

Committee chairman Keith Vaz recounted Sir Bernard’s assertion shortly after the allegations emerged that the Met boss would “stand by” his officers “100%”.<\/p>\n

Vaz asked: “Are you still saying you stand by the events or do you now have an open mind?”<\/p>\n

To which Sir Bernard replied: “I do have an open mind. If any comment that I have made left anyone thinking I couldn’t have an open mind, I’m sorry.”<\/p>\n

He added: “I’m open-minded. I will pursue the evidence.”<\/p>\n

Mitchell has claimed he was the victim of a deliberate attempt to “toxify” the Tories and ruin his career after it was alleged an email from a civilian witness backing up the police account of events was in fact written by another officer.<\/p>\n

Sir Bernard criticised public statements made by Police Federation representatives in the wake of the initial allegations against Mitchell.<\/p>\n

Local Federation branches organised protests by members wearing “PC Pleb” T-shirts and demanded Mr Mitchell’s sacking.<\/p>\n

The Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, has since said it planned an independent review into “issues” with its operations.<\/p>\n

Sir Bernard told the Committee: “My concern would be from some of the public statements from the Federation’s representatives is they got explicitly involved with asking for the resignation of a government member, and for me that is too much.<\/p>\n

“That’s a decision for the Government to make or the Prime Minister to make – and not for police officers to get involved in.”<\/p>\n

Committee member Michael Ellis MP asked: “Are you saying the conduct of the Police Federation was improper?”<\/p>\n

To which Sir Bernard replied: “Those are your words, I’ll stick with mine. It’s not for the Police Federation or officers generally to call for the resignation of members of the Government.”<\/p>\n

Scotland Yard has decided to take statements from 800 police officers in the diplomatic protection group and 30 detectives are working on the investigation.<\/p>\n

Sir Bernard added that part of the investigation was to identify the source of the leaked police log, which recounted the altercation with Mr Mitchell.<\/p>\n

He told the Committee that if the allegations against the police officers involved were true, “it would be a very serious matter”.<\/p>\n

“I don’t expect police officers to lie,” he said.<\/p>\n

Clarifying the terms of the inquiry, Sir Bernard said it set out to “investigate the circumstances surrounding the police officer’s claims to witnessing the incident on Downing Street”.<\/p>\n

He said the inquiry set out to “establish if there’s any evidence of a conspiracy between the police and any other persons”.<\/p>\n

“We expect we may be able to share a report with the CPS by the end of this month. A matter of weeks before we do as much as we can,” he added.<\/p>\n

The president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, Sir Hugh Orde, later told Channel 4 News the allegations of false police accounts of the “plebgate” affair should be seen “in perspective”.<\/p>\n

Sir Hugh told C4N: “I don’t think it’s evidence of routine endemic issues around corruption or integrity. We need to get it into perspective.<\/p>\n

“It’s an event that is almost unique in my police experience. The relationship between police and Government has to be one where healthy tension is the default position.<\/p>\n

“We must get on with the job we are tasked with doing. We must then be held robustly to account, and this is what you saw today.<\/p>\n

“We should take seriously any issues that damage the vital bond of trust between police and the citizen.<\/p>\n

“Confidence is robustly high, confidence in policing has not been damaged because the public judge us on what we deliver.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Criminal charges linked to the so-called Plebgate affair could be brought by the end of the month, Britain’s most senior police officer said on Tuesday.
\nMetropolitan Police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said he hoped to hand a file to prosecutor…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}