Riddle of ‘lost’ cop probe files: More records may have been shredded

POLICE last night admitted more anti-corruption files may have been shredded – but they have no idea how many.

Files from Operation Othona – a secret probe that may have spawned as many as 62 inquiries – were ­destroyed in 2001.

Now, there are questions over whether files on Operations Gayle, Gallery, Belize, Ashburn and Two Bridges met a similar fate.

The Metropolitan Police investigations had uncovered claims of police dishonesty when they took place in the 1990s.

All featured the name of John Davidson, a detective who worked on the original botched Stephen Lawrence murder investigation.

But last night the Met could not tell us if complete files on the operations still exist.

A spokesman said: “The sheer volume of anti-corruption activity and the scale of the organisation has generated a huge number of records since the 1990s.

“We accept that historically the Met did not keep good records of what was retained or destroyed”

A Metropolitan Police spokesman

“We accept that historically the Met did not keep good records of what was retained or destroyed and that makes our task all the more difficult but we are determined to lift the lid on the past.”
The existence of the probes was revealed in a report earlier this month by Mark Ellison QC. He looked at claims of corruption surrounding the investigation into the 1993 murder of 18-year-old Stephen and which files the Met gave to a public inquiry.
His report also exposed a document revealing how Davidson worked on the original flawed probe into the 1987 murder of private eye Daniel Morgan.
It included a July 2000 “intelligence analysis” listing probes into police wrongdoing in which Det Sgt Davidson’s name cropped up.
Davidson, who retired in 1998 before a disciplinary hearing, never faced charges and told Ellison he was not corrupt.
The 65-year-old Scot, who now runs a bar in Menorca, added: “No evidence whatsoever was found of corruption on my part.”
Paul Flynn, an MP on the Home Affairs Select Committee, told us: “I would say the multiple intelligence against Davidson is persuasive that a major inquiry is required…with the possibility of extradition.”