It is hard to know where to begin on Emma MacKenzie (royal correspondent for Yahoo!) and Stuart Henderson’s article.
Let us start with veracity. Yes, “Derek” Haslam retired from the Metropolitan Police in October 1989, with mental health issues. Undercover operative? That is one way to describe him, far more accurately he was, and is, a shabby con man. The Mitting “spy cop” inquiry ruled that Haslam was not strictly speaking in the police, merely employed by New Scotland Yard to break into “Southern Investigations” office and bug the place. I point out that over many years no evidence, or proof, was found linking Jonathan Rees to the Daniel Morgan murder.
Haslam also claimed to have a Father wounded at D Day commanding a regiment (less prosaically his Dad was a West Indian docker). Rees did indeed boast of many things, as a private investigator he had to be able to deliver on his promises, and was sought after, by many newspapers, as an effective blood hound with great connections to the police in London.
Stephen Lawrence looms large, not only did the “Daily Mail” shaft the Lawrence family but also engaged in fitting up innocent police figures such as Bulloch, Crampton, Ilsley and Weeden.
Yahoo News have failed to cover themselves in glory and I would love to contact their legal department. Did they know that “Derek” Haslam was a copious and keen collector of child abuse images?
A final point, did Emma and Stuart bother to check what Baroness O’Loan wrote concerning Haslam? He offered no evidence or proof in his statements on the Daniel Morgan murder. Yahoo have fallen for a Lidl’s version of Walter Mitty.
Ciaran Goggins 