Outrage as top cop in charge of disastrous ‘witch hunt’ against journalists gets medal from Queen
Met Police Detective Chief Superintendent Gordon Briggs oversaw £30m investigation into payments to public officials for stories
A COP who ran the disastrous probe into journalists paying public officials has been controversially honoured by the Queen.
The investigation was branded a “politically motivated witch hunt”.
But former Met Police Detective Chief Superintendent Gordon Briggs will receive the highest honour in policing for his work on it.
He was rewarded with the Queen’s Police Medal in the New Year’s Honours, following his retirement last January.
Briggs oversaw the £30million Operation Elveden inquiries into payments to public officials for stories.
Ninety people were arrested, including 34 journalists. But after five years all the journalists, including 21 Sun reporters who were charged, had been cleared.
Critics said many stories paid for were in the public interest. They included British troops sent to war with dodgy equipment, plus poor conduct running hospitals and jails.
But more than 30 public officials were convicted over payments, with many jailed.
RELATED STORIES
Media lawyer Mark Stephens QC said Briggs took the lead in a period of “notoriously bad policing”, adding: “One has to raise an eyebrow that the honours committee made the recommendation.”
Press Gazette magazine editor Dominic Ponsford said the “needless” arrests had a “devastating impact” on journalists and their families.
He added: “This honour suggests the Met Police haven’t learnt from the mistakes they have made.”
Briggs also ran the Operation Weeting probe into phone hacking which led to the convictions of journalists.
Shame of 'honour'
BY TREVOR KAVANAGH, SUN COLUMNIST
THE persecution of journalists after the Leveson Inquiry will go down in infamy as a travesty of justice.
A political witch-hunt was driven by vengeful politicians abusing their power. Dozens of Sun journalists were dragged through trials with not one enduring conviction.
Yet the man in charge of this fiasco, ex-Detective Chief Supt Gordon Briggs, has got the Queen’s Police Medal.
The operation sprang from the furore over phone hacking, for which a few journalists were rightly convicted. But it was allowed to morph into a Labour-led political vendetta that wrecked lives and careers.
Briggs, who gloated as journalists were led to the dock, should be ashamed of his so-called “honour”.
If he had any decency he would hand it back. And apologise.