Andy Hayman – the UK’s most bent copper
Copwatcher general | 13.07.2011 09:10 | Other Press
Andy Hayman sat before a government home affairs select committee over the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World that he was charged with investigating in 2005 and, despite his barrow-boy-made-good persona and incredulous performance, lied through his teeth. We take a brief look at the history of the most bent copper the UK has produced in some time.
» Head of Met police internal Anti-Corruption branch CIB
» Chief Constable of Norfolk Constabulary
» Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations at London’s Metropolitan Police (which included which include the Anti-Terrorist Branch and Special Branch), the highest ranking officer responsible for counter-terrorism in the UK
» Chairman of Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) drugs subcommittee
Hayman and his resignation from the force [2007]
Hayman resigned from the police in December 2007 over allegations about expense claims and improper conduct with a female member of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and a female Sergeant. He was being investigated by Metropolitan Police Authority professional standards committee about expenses which had been referred to them by auditors because they were significantly higher than those of other senior officers.
Hayman and Jean Charles de Menezes [2005]
The IPCC's report on the assassination of Jean Charles de Menezes in July 2005 exonerated every police officer involved with the killing with sole exception of Andy Hayman. The report found "serious weaknesses" in the Metropolitan Police's handling of information after the shooting. It revealed that Mr Hayman had briefed crime reporters on the day of the shooting that the dead man was not one of the 21st July suspects. However, that information was "deliberately withheld" from a press release he helped to write later on. The IPCC said that Mr Hayman’s actions were a cause of “serious concern” as he “chose to mislead the public by his actions” and referred the issue to the Metropolitan Police Authority with a recommendation that it take disciplinary action against Mr Hayman. Peter Herbert, a member of the authority, said: “I find it incredible and staggering that Andy Hayman claims that he cannot remember what he said . . . on that day, of all days.”
Hayman and the Forest Gate raid [2006]
Two brothers Mohammed Abdulkahar and Abul Koyair were innocent victims of the armed anti-terror raid on their home in Forest Gate, London, where one was shot by police and the other seriously assaulted. They were held for seven days before being released without charge. The police claim to have acted on 'specific intelligence' but never said what that intelligence was or indeed how they got is so wrong. There were 150 allegations by the eleven different people from the two raided houses of police misconduct and excessive physical force. Andy Hayman was in charge of the operation.
Interestingly Newham Monitoring Project were prescient in their assessment of the cover up of the bungled raid: "NMP has also told the Metropolitan Police Authority that if the unofficial briefings that appeared in the press following the Forest Gate raids as police sources were not officially orchestrated, then the Metropolitan Police is guilty of effectively condoning the actions of a small group of police officers who have anonymously fed information to the media in return either for cash, the conducting of inter-agency feuding between the Met and the security services over apportioning blame or simply in order to undermine the accountability of a public service".
Hayman and illegally phone tapping his own officers [1999-2003]
An internal Metropolitan Police investigation was used as cover to listen in to dozens of private phone calls made by officers seeking legal advice from the National Black Police Association (NBPA). The case involved illegal phone taps on Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei, whom the Met was investigating over corruption charges which proved to be unfounded. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal, headed by a High Court judge, said that the reasons given by the Met to justify recording the private conversations were illegal. It is the first time in British legal history that the reasons used by the police or security services to justify phone tapping have been found to be unlawful. Operation Helios, the £7 million investigation, was under the direct control of Andy Hayman. An inquiry later found it may have been motivated by race.
Hayman and suspects being held for 90 days without charge [2005]
Hayman wrote a report in the form of a letter to the then New Labour Home Secretary Charles Clarke laying out the need to increase detention for terror suspects from 14 days to 90 days. This was another "dodgy dossier" used to justify a political manoeuvre by Blair's government.
Hayman and complaints investigation branch (CIB) [2000]
The Metropolitan police's much vaunted anti-corruption drive, which has been under way for six years, is now itself the subject of three inquiries because of allegations over the way it operates. The inquiries into the (CIB), two of them internal and one by an outside force, have been prompted by complaints that the anti-corruption squad, dubbed the Untouchables, used discredited methods to pursue serving and former officers.
They include entrapment operations; inducements to supergrasses; non-disclosure to the defence of vital documents in court cases; widespread breaches of laws regulating police evidence-gathering procedures; and double standards in the handling of complaints. Andy Hayman, director of the CIB, said it was not able to sustain the current effort and was reassessing its methods.
Hayman said: "We are operating within the criminal justice system but that is difficult because we are right at the cutting edge of policing."
He was keen to "push the parameters" of the system to be ahead of the officers being targeted. Cutting-edge methods used in the past include covert surveillance and bugging - inside homes, offices, squad cars and police stations.
[More about about the corrupt complaints investigation branch]
Hayman and internal investigations (1)
He was subject to two internal investigations in 2007. The first was sparked after complaints that information about a series of anti-terror raids in Birmingham last February was leaked to the media in advance. Mr Hayman's telephone records for the months before and after the raids were scrutinised and he was cleared of any blame. Investigators did, however, find details of the hundreds of 'unexplained' calls between Mr Hayman and the complaints commission official. She has now left the police watchdog and works for the Association of Chief Police Officers.
Hayman and internal investigations (2)
Scotland Yard auditors raised concerns over the £15,000 spent by Mr Hayman on drinks, restaurants, hotels and foreign travel. He strenuously denied the expenses allegations and vowed to clear his name when details of the financial probe emerged. But he decided to retire a month later as the £180,000-a-year head of the unit in charge of the fight against terror.
Hayman and bugging MPs [2005/6]
British Muslim MP Sadiq Khan was bugged during his meetings with constituency member Baber Ahmed - under detention and fighting an extradition request from the US. Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist squad had eavesdropped on conversations between Khan and Ahmad at Woodhill prison, Milton Keynes, in 2005 and 2006 using a microphone hidden in a table. Following an enquiry by the chief surveillance commissioner, Sir Christopher Rose, responsibility for the act was apportioned to the then Met Police Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman.
Hayman on protesters [2011]
"Unless the police become more proactive in disrupting the activists before the event it will be impossible to ever stage a protest without it being infiltrated by extremist groups. The police must start to be more intrusive and active ahead of any planned illegal demonstration. By ruthlessly testing the open source information that is easily accessed they can start to aggressively target activists".
Hayman and his views on corruption [2010]
In his Sunday Times column about police corruption during his time when he was in charge of Anti-Corruption at the Met:
"It is vital that the police are vigilant against corruption in their ranks".
"But there are lessons for the Met: any skimping in disciplining rogue officers is simply storing up future trouble. The corrupt must be pursued without favour or fear, regardless of the repercussions".
"There is little worse than a bent copper who mocks the law by abusing the privileged powers bestowed on him. It is for that reason that the expense and time spent on prosecuting is justified".
Tomorrow: John Yates - the UK's most bent copper
http://www.freedompress.org.uk/news/2011/07/13/andy-hayman-the-uks-most-bent-copper/
» Chief Constable of Norfolk Constabulary
» Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations at London’s Metropolitan Police (which included which include the Anti-Terrorist Branch and Special Branch), the highest ranking officer responsible for counter-terrorism in the UK
» Chairman of Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) drugs subcommittee
Hayman and his resignation from the force [2007]
Hayman resigned from the police in December 2007 over allegations about expense claims and improper conduct with a female member of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and a female Sergeant. He was being investigated by Metropolitan Police Authority professional standards committee about expenses which had been referred to them by auditors because they were significantly higher than those of other senior officers.
Hayman and Jean Charles de Menezes [2005]
The IPCC's report on the assassination of Jean Charles de Menezes in July 2005 exonerated every police officer involved with the killing with sole exception of Andy Hayman. The report found "serious weaknesses" in the Metropolitan Police's handling of information after the shooting. It revealed that Mr Hayman had briefed crime reporters on the day of the shooting that the dead man was not one of the 21st July suspects. However, that information was "deliberately withheld" from a press release he helped to write later on. The IPCC said that Mr Hayman’s actions were a cause of “serious concern” as he “chose to mislead the public by his actions” and referred the issue to the Metropolitan Police Authority with a recommendation that it take disciplinary action against Mr Hayman. Peter Herbert, a member of the authority, said: “I find it incredible and staggering that Andy Hayman claims that he cannot remember what he said . . . on that day, of all days.”
Hayman and the Forest Gate raid [2006]
Two brothers Mohammed Abdulkahar and Abul Koyair were innocent victims of the armed anti-terror raid on their home in Forest Gate, London, where one was shot by police and the other seriously assaulted. They were held for seven days before being released without charge. The police claim to have acted on 'specific intelligence' but never said what that intelligence was or indeed how they got is so wrong. There were 150 allegations by the eleven different people from the two raided houses of police misconduct and excessive physical force. Andy Hayman was in charge of the operation.
Interestingly Newham Monitoring Project were prescient in their assessment of the cover up of the bungled raid: "NMP has also told the Metropolitan Police Authority that if the unofficial briefings that appeared in the press following the Forest Gate raids as police sources were not officially orchestrated, then the Metropolitan Police is guilty of effectively condoning the actions of a small group of police officers who have anonymously fed information to the media in return either for cash, the conducting of inter-agency feuding between the Met and the security services over apportioning blame or simply in order to undermine the accountability of a public service".
Hayman and illegally phone tapping his own officers [1999-2003]
An internal Metropolitan Police investigation was used as cover to listen in to dozens of private phone calls made by officers seeking legal advice from the National Black Police Association (NBPA). The case involved illegal phone taps on Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei, whom the Met was investigating over corruption charges which proved to be unfounded. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal, headed by a High Court judge, said that the reasons given by the Met to justify recording the private conversations were illegal. It is the first time in British legal history that the reasons used by the police or security services to justify phone tapping have been found to be unlawful. Operation Helios, the £7 million investigation, was under the direct control of Andy Hayman. An inquiry later found it may have been motivated by race.
Hayman and suspects being held for 90 days without charge [2005]
Hayman wrote a report in the form of a letter to the then New Labour Home Secretary Charles Clarke laying out the need to increase detention for terror suspects from 14 days to 90 days. This was another "dodgy dossier" used to justify a political manoeuvre by Blair's government.
Hayman and complaints investigation branch (CIB) [2000]
The Metropolitan police's much vaunted anti-corruption drive, which has been under way for six years, is now itself the subject of three inquiries because of allegations over the way it operates. The inquiries into the (CIB), two of them internal and one by an outside force, have been prompted by complaints that the anti-corruption squad, dubbed the Untouchables, used discredited methods to pursue serving and former officers.
They include entrapment operations; inducements to supergrasses; non-disclosure to the defence of vital documents in court cases; widespread breaches of laws regulating police evidence-gathering procedures; and double standards in the handling of complaints. Andy Hayman, director of the CIB, said it was not able to sustain the current effort and was reassessing its methods.
Hayman said: "We are operating within the criminal justice system but that is difficult because we are right at the cutting edge of policing."
He was keen to "push the parameters" of the system to be ahead of the officers being targeted. Cutting-edge methods used in the past include covert surveillance and bugging - inside homes, offices, squad cars and police stations.
[More about about the corrupt complaints investigation branch]
Hayman and internal investigations (1)
He was subject to two internal investigations in 2007. The first was sparked after complaints that information about a series of anti-terror raids in Birmingham last February was leaked to the media in advance. Mr Hayman's telephone records for the months before and after the raids were scrutinised and he was cleared of any blame. Investigators did, however, find details of the hundreds of 'unexplained' calls between Mr Hayman and the complaints commission official. She has now left the police watchdog and works for the Association of Chief Police Officers.
Hayman and internal investigations (2)
Scotland Yard auditors raised concerns over the £15,000 spent by Mr Hayman on drinks, restaurants, hotels and foreign travel. He strenuously denied the expenses allegations and vowed to clear his name when details of the financial probe emerged. But he decided to retire a month later as the £180,000-a-year head of the unit in charge of the fight against terror.
Hayman and bugging MPs [2005/6]
British Muslim MP Sadiq Khan was bugged during his meetings with constituency member Baber Ahmed - under detention and fighting an extradition request from the US. Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist squad had eavesdropped on conversations between Khan and Ahmad at Woodhill prison, Milton Keynes, in 2005 and 2006 using a microphone hidden in a table. Following an enquiry by the chief surveillance commissioner, Sir Christopher Rose, responsibility for the act was apportioned to the then Met Police Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman.
Hayman on protesters [2011]
"Unless the police become more proactive in disrupting the activists before the event it will be impossible to ever stage a protest without it being infiltrated by extremist groups. The police must start to be more intrusive and active ahead of any planned illegal demonstration. By ruthlessly testing the open source information that is easily accessed they can start to aggressively target activists".
Hayman and his views on corruption [2010]
In his Sunday Times column about police corruption during his time when he was in charge of Anti-Corruption at the Met:
"It is vital that the police are vigilant against corruption in their ranks".
"But there are lessons for the Met: any skimping in disciplining rogue officers is simply storing up future trouble. The corrupt must be pursued without favour or fear, regardless of the repercussions".
"There is little worse than a bent copper who mocks the law by abusing the privileged powers bestowed on him. It is for that reason that the expense and time spent on prosecuting is justified".
Tomorrow: John Yates - the UK's most bent copper
http://www.freedompress.org.uk/news/2011/07/13/andy-hayman-the-uks-most-bent-copper/
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