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Details of Green arrest have been 'covered up'
Ross Lydall13.10.09
The police officer who led the investigation into allegations that government secrets were being passed to a Tory MP claims details of the case have been covered up.
Bob Quick, the Met's then assistant commissioner, was in charge when Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green was arrested last November and had his Commons office searched.
No charges were brought against Mr Green, the MP for Ashford, or Christopher Galley, the civil servant who admitted leaking documents. Two reports yesterday criticised the Met's actions.
But Mr Quick said: "I am disappointed that all publishable facts relevant to this case have not been disclosed. The public are entitled to all the facts in this case, given the scale of the controversy." He added: "We had a serial leaker in the private office of Jacqui Smith, the [then] Home Secretary. She was in charge of national security. It would have been indefensible not to investigate what this man has leaked and to whom."
Mr Green, who said the disclosures were "entirely legitimate", was detained for 11 hours and had his fingerprints and DNA taken. Yesterday's reports said his arrest was disproportionate. Of the 31 disclosures, only one came from a document marked "secret".
Reader views (12)
I feel the police are now an arm of the ruling party and are no longer there to take the criminal element off the streets and make people feel safer.
- John, Llandudno, Wales
The police is no longer a "Force" to be recogned with.
- Georgie, Islington, London
Damien Green was arrested on the orders of Gordon Brown; there is no way that such a high profile MP could have been arrested had his Commons office ransacked without sanction right from the top. It was entirely politically motivated.
McClown's protestations to the contrary are bare-faced lies.
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster
Bob haven`t you got some motorists to persecute?! I think you have not covered yourself in glory and so should remain quiet from now on.....
- Nickspurs, London
Poor old Bob, feeling left out? Taxi firm properly registered now ? Like Andy Hayman he's attempting to try and change public opinion depsite his awful performance and dreadful judgement, a man who clearly believed his own publicity. Please Bob, shut up!
- Ranter, Maidstone, UK
Quick is displaying all the characteristics of the goons that have become predominant since 9/11.
- Bingham Macnamara, lymington, hampshire
I do not believe that anybody investigated Brown when he quite happily, on GMTV several years ago, declared he had leaked government data in breach of the official secrets act.
This was a political witch-hunt instigated by an incompetent government wanting to cover up their failings on an issue that should have been in the public forum. An issue I might add that they are still completely failing on.
Quick was simply obeying his political masters in the same incompetent manner that his masters operate.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
This just shows that characters like Bob Quick are incapable of understanding, learning and feeling ashamed for what they've done wrong.
And it is our collective failure that characters like him were given access to such high-ranking jobs.
- Horace, London, UK
As Damian Green MP has noted, we have a real problem in the UK when the police no longer enjoy the respect of the middle classes.
The horrifying thing is that the police do not seem to realise how their pursuit of power has alienated the public.
The arrogance of Mr Quick is astounding.
- Mark Horn, Bourne, UK
Is Bob Quick accusing Christopher Galley (Home Office leaker) of damaging an on going police terrorism enquiry by allowing the press to photograph details of the operation whilst entering a Public Building?
- Jim, London
Quick made a hash then,why should we listen to a failed public employee?
- Tojo, Hythe, Kent
Bob Quick you still dont't get it do you!!. The fact that an allegation of criminal activity was made did require you to carry out an initial investigation. However, it is the way that you conducted the investigation that is being criticised. The report highlights deficiencies in the procedures adopted by you as the Senior Investigator, from the necessity and proportionality of arresting Mr Green, through to the legality of searching his private Parliamentary offices without the proper authority or a warrant, and secretly recording his conversations with your officers when he was not suspected of a terrorist related offence or under caution. The report is a critical overview of your investigation, the evidence gathered as a result is immaterial in this context.
- Paddy, Croydon Uk
