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Scotland Yard is investigating claims that a serving police officer perverted
the course of justice by warning journalists against writing about the
“political affairs” of a Ukip MEP.
Detective Constable Tony Holden sent an unsolicited email to two reporters
from The Sunday Times and The Independent after they contacted Gerard
Batten over the London MEP’s alleged links to far-right political
organisations and proposed anti-Muslim policies, including banning halal
meat.
Mr
Holden, who was working on an unrelated fraud case brought by Mr Batten
against a former employee, warned the journalists against publishing
articles “deemed to be untruthful and concerning to” the Ukip
politician.
The
officer, a specialist in financial crime, wrote that “it has been
bought [sic] to the attention of the Metropolitan Police” that the
journalists had “been provided material by an unknown source concerning
the political affairs of Mr Gerard Batten MEP”.
He
cautioned that any articles linked to Mr Batten’s ex-employee, Jasna
Badzak, who at the time was awaiting trial for fraud, “may result in
further arrests being made” and requested that the reporters “thoroughly
check the sources of the information, prior to contacting either Mr
Batten or going to press”. He copied Mr Batten’s private email address
into the correspondence.
One
of the journalists replied to Mr Holden, saying that he considered the
email to be an attempt to warn him off writing about the MEP and a
“potential abuse of office”. The journalist also emailed Mr Batten,
asking for an explanation. Mr Batten appears to have forwarded the email
to Mr Holden, saying: “Dear Tony, very sorry to bother you with this.
Please see the exchange of messages below.”
Mr
Holden’s extraordinary intervention is one of several instances of
alleged police misconduct said to have been committed by four police
officers and one ex-officer, all of which are under investigation by the
Metropolitan police’s serious misconduct investigation unit.
The
claims relate to Ms Badzak, who was convicted of fraud in October last
year after a jury found that she had doctored a bank statement and
borrowed £3,000 from Mr Batten on the false pretence that she had not
been paid by the European parliament. Ms Badzak has since campaigned
against her conviction, alleging that police officers in the case acted
improperly.
The
IPCC, the independent police regulator, said in July that it was
“concerned” about her complaints and referred them to Scotland Yard,
which is investigating them.
The unit will also examine why Ms Badzak was told on two occasions that the officers about whom she complained did not exist.
“The
officers you have named as being officers of the Metropolitan Police
Service are not officers with the MPS,” a police sergeant wrote. “I have
thoroughly interrogated all MPS systems and cannot find any trace of
the officers.”
The
officer repeated this claim in July last year and it was only disclosed
to Ms Badzak in April this year that they were serving Met officers.
Last
night a Metropolitan police spokesman said that “it is not possible for
us to explain how this mistake was made” and that the officer who made
the mistake is “on a career break”.
Bob
Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors, said that he
was shocked by Mr Holden’s email. “It shows that there is something
seriously amiss within the police when officers feel that they can
interfere with the legitimate work of journalists,” he said. “That is
the stuff of totalitarian states.”
Ms
Badzak has also raised concerns that police officers have used the
criminal law in an attempt to prevent her from talking to journalists.
In November, she received a formal harassment warning for “providing
information . . . of a false nature” to a journalist at The Mail on
Sunday. The warning stated that she had provided “false” information
concerning Annabelle Fuller, a former press aide to Nigel Farage, which
had caused Ms Fuller to be “subjected to numerous phone calls and
emails”.
The
Times understands that Ms Badzak did not call the journalist — he
called her to check information given to him by another source. Ms
Fuller is under police investigation for allegedly making false claims
of sexual assault.
Louise
Mensch, a former Conservative MP, submitted two criminal complaints
yesterday via a senior officer in the Metropolitan police, complaining
about the alleged conduct of officers in Ms Badzak’s case.
“It is clear to me that substantial police misconduct may have been committed,” Ms Mensch said.
The
Tory MP David Davis said that “the public should know whether this was
an authorised intervention in the operation of a free press and if so
who authorised it [and] what the basis for it was”.
A Met spokeswoman said: “On 25 April, 2014, a woman made a number of complaints against MPS police officers.”
She
added: “The matter is currently being investigated by the Directorate
of Professional Standards. No police officer has been suspended or
placed on restricted duties at this stage.”
Discrimination is common sense apparently 
