The BBC are hustling this story on every news bulletin and, Newsnight like, whipping it up into a candy floss confection of spin, smear and half truths….note trigger words and phrases embedded to suggest a very clear line of thought…‘guilty secrets‘ being destroyed:

Met Police corruption probe papers shredded ‘over two days’

New details about the mass shredding of documents relating to a corruption inquiry in the Metropolitan Police have been uncovered by BBC News.

It is understood the inquiry produced a “lorry-load” of material and that the shredding took place over two days.

The material that was shredded was from a broader, top-secret investigation into possible police corruption that began in 1993 and came to be known as Operation Othona.

Operation Othona is understood to have generated so much material that it is highly unlikely it could have been destroyed by mistake.

Former officers and staff with experience of record keeping in the Met at the time have told the BBC the mass shredding was disturbing, bizarre and suspicious.

It has bolstered the possibility that the material was deleted because it contained information that implicated officers or damaged the force’s reputation....They also said it was highly unusual to destroy paper records of recent investigations.

However, the ex-officers could not rule out an innocent explanation for the shredding.

 

What the BBC doesn’t report is the actual words of the Lawrence inquiry review which suggested that any order to ‘smear’ the Lawrences would likely have been verbal and so not in the records…so shredding wouldn’t be necessary to hide that…and that shredding records was routine rather than ‘bizarre, disturbing and suspicious‘…

 

Page 27

There is no surviving record that we have seen that supports Mr Francis’ claim that he, or any other officer, was tasked to report back intelligence that might be used to ‘smear’ or undermine the Lawrence family. However, the weight of the material that we have considered makes it clear that the majority of the records of SDS work in the era have been destroyed. In addition, if there had been such tasking, it would most likely have been oral rather than recorded in writing.

 

Page 21

There are very few documentary records capable of providing insight into the veracity of Mr Francis’ claim that he was “tasked to find intelligence that might be used by the MPS to smear the Lawrence family”.  A number of possible explanations have been advanced as to why.

These include the suggestion that incoming intelligence reports were routinely destroyed after SDS office analysis and intermittent ‘document review’.

As with other MPS records, it does not appear that any clear records were ever kept of what was being destroyed.  Accordingly, in our view little weight can be attached to the fact that no record can be found to confirm any relevant aspect of claimed SDS activity.

 

Routine destruction is one of ‘a number of possibilities’…but it is the one the Review highlighted…presumably as the most likely…..and the one the BBC ignores….despite the Review suggesting ‘ little weight can be attached to the fact that no record can be found to confirm any relevant aspect of claimed SDS activity.‘

 

The BBC is attaching quite a lot of weight to the allegations….there may be substance to them but the BBC looks to have already found the Met. guilty.