Met chief Cressida Dick fighting for her job after “institutional corruption” report

Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Chief, is facing fresh calls to resign after a bombshell inquiry into the unsolved killing of private detective Daniel Morgan accused the force of “a form of institutional corruption”.

On 10 March 1987 Daniel Morgan was found murdered in a car park in south London, with an axe embedded in his head.

The eight-year probe accused the Met of placing concerns about its reputation above properly confronting corruption and said the force misled the public and Morgan’s grieving family, exacerbating their pain.

It found corruption and the “irretrievable” loss of evidence through poor investigative practices had prevented the killers of Morgan from being brought to justice, despite five separate criminal enquiries and an inquest. 

The trial of four suspects collapsed at the Old Bailey in 2011 amid concerns about the police handling of “supergrass” witnesses and the Met’s failure to disclose sensitive files.

The independent probe made it clear that although its investigation focused on historic failures stemming from the 1987 killing, the term institutional corruption was used “in the present tense”.

The report said: “The Metropolitan police’s culture of obfuscation and a lack of candour is unhealthy in any public service. Concealing or denying failings, for the sake of the organisation’s public image, is dishonesty on the part of the organisation for reputational benefit. In the panel’s view, this constitutes a form of institutional corruption.”

Dick, who is Britain’s most senior police officer, was personally criticised by the panel, which concluded she personally placed “hurdles” in the way of the search for the truth about the death of Daniel Morgan. 

Morgan’s family, who believe he was on the brink of exposing police corruption when he was killed, said they endured 34 years of being “lied to, fobbed off, bullied [and] degraded” by those institutions they believed they had the right to rely on.

Morgan’s brother Alistair said earlier that Dick should “absolutely” be considering her position in light of the report.

His comments mark the latest in a long list of calls for Dick’s resignation. The Met Chief has previously come under fire for her handling of the death of Jean Charles De Menezes, Operation Midland, Extinction Rebellion and the Sarah Everard vigil earlier this year. 

But within hours the Met rejected the report’s key findings and dismissed Morgan’s call for Dick to consider stepping down. Her top aide, assistant commissioner Nick Ephgrave, said: “I don’t think the commissioner has any need to consider her position.”

The two people who could oust the Commissioner – the home secretary and London mayor – also threw their weight behind Dick, letting it be known she still enjoyed their “full confidence”.

The independent probe also criticised the actions of former Commissioner Ian Blair, who told the Metropolitan Police Authority in 2005 that his force had tried “to the best of its abilities” to correct the problems deriving from the first murder inquiry. The probe found the account “had the effect of overstating the extent of past efforts” to rectify problems.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, Lord Blair insisted there was “no evidence of systematic corruption in the Metropolitan Police” and said Dick was the “finest officer of her generation”.