How could I have missed this? Well, being in England didn’t help, as I was too busy to log on to a computer. The BBC (stop giggling) aired a documentary on the worthy topic of Metropolitan Police corruption. The thing is, that it is highly inaccurate. Jake Arnott begins with “Dixon of Dock Green”, then takes a decades long take on “bad apples”. The 1960’s saw a sea change, once respected, The Met became mired in corruption. 35 minutes in Arnott mentions Daniel Morgan – a quick interview with recovering drug addict Alastair Morgan glosses over the fact that “Southern Investigations” were bugged and nothing came of it (the Kim James case is now before the CCRC). Not content with errors over the Daniel Morgan murder (the whole police corruption theory is blown out of the water, Morgan had a small lead on overtime scams at Catford) the most likely murder motives were Maltese drug dealers and/or cuckoldry.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0002l0k
Arnott then approaches the Alan “Taffy” Holmes suicide. Holmes was under enormous strain as he was being blackmailed by his “pal” Derek G Haslam, now hiding in the Downham Market area of Norfolk. (Is the “Ray” character Haslam dubbed? Haslam bugged Southern) Morgan and Holmes knew each other and Al Morgan, plus mortgage fraudster Peter Jukes, keep flogging the old canard of their being something amiss.
Finally Operation Tiberius (Goggzilla has the most well known unredacted publicly available copy) is alluded to. Arnott woefully omits John Yates in his catalogue. You know, in all my digging and interviews last weekend I never discovered who Haslam’s Father was, Francis Willoughby is on the birth certificate, but as he was white that is a dead end. Still, much useful detail garnered. Pass the Red Stripe.
Ciaran Goggins 