Met 'to pay Lord Bramall and Lady Brittan £100,000 after raiding homes in doomed child abuse investigation'
Operation Midland cost £2.5m, but closed without a single arrest
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Lord Bramall and Lady Brittan have received a reported £100,000 in compensation from Scotland Yard over its doomed VIP sex abuse probe.
The Metropolitan Police raided the homes of D-Day veteran and former head of the Army Lord Bramall and the late ex-home secretary Lord Brittan during the 16-month Operation Midland child sex abuse inquiry.
But the force faced a storm of criticism over the £2.5m investigation into claims made by a single accuser, known only as “Nick”, of a high-level paedophile ring linked to Westminster.
It closed without a single arrest and, after a scathing review found there were “numerous errors”, the Independent Police Complaints Commission opened an investigation into a detective chief inspector and two junior detectives over allegations they may have misled a district judge in order to obtain search warrants.
A spokesperson for the Met said: “We can confirm the Met has reached a settlement with Lord Bramall and Lady Brittan.”
But she declined to confirm the amount of the award and said she had no information on any settlement with former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor, who has been a fierce critic of the force since the probe collapsed and he was cleared.
The Telegraph said the figure paid out was £100,000 and the settlements included confidentiality clauses.
Former Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe apologised to those named during the probe, while Lord Bramall spoke of his anger that his wife died before he had been cleared.
And Lady Brittan hit out after it emerged police decided her husband had no case to answer but failed to tell him before he died of cancer.
PA