Mayor 'failed to act' over Met 'lies' about vulnerable children

SADIQ Khan has been accused of "facilitating a cover-up" amid bombshell grooming gang claims.

- By Zak Garner-Purkis

A whistleblower alleged the Mayor of London's team failed to take action when she revealed Metropolitan Police “lies” that affected the safety of hundreds of the capital's most vulnerable children.

Former detective Bernadette Murray was hired by the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) as a consultant in 2017 after claiming to have witnessed some disturbing practices.

During a six-month spell, the 32-year veteran helped Mr Khan’s auditors examine units of the Met investigating child abuse, ran a training programme to improve standards and made inspections to see if improvements were made.

Ms Murray claimed when she reported that standards had actually deteriorated, the Mayor took no action.

She said: "I showed [Sadiq Khan's auditors] what the Met Police were up to with cover-ups and corrupting the data.

"I explained how they were cheating the system. They'd seen for themselves and knew that the system was not functioning. My understanding is they didn’t put anything in place [to change things], they just moved officers around.

"There's more confusion than ever before, and children are still not being safeguarded."

Ms Murray claimed her experiences showed the force could not be trusted on topics like grooming gangs, saying they were constantly misrepresenting the facts.