Thread by @MarkWatts_1

Day 10 of Janner hearings of #CSAinquiry behind closed doors ALL DAY yet again:

Another retired officer from Leicestershire Police, Alistair Helm. On ‘Operation Dauntless’.

And Roger Rock, senior prosecutor at CPS. On why it did not prosecute.

Alistair Helm, as a detective chief superintendent, was in the ‘gold group’ that launched Operation Dauntless in 2006.

He is testifying behind closed doors at #CSAinquiry, but the publicly available evidence suggests that the gold group had minimal insight over the operation.

Freemasonry is known to have been rife at Leicestershire Police (and the county council).

However, Alistair Helm is unlikely to have been a mason because he was ordained mid-career. He retired from Leicestershire Police in 2008 and went on to be a priest in the Yorkshire Dales.

Roger Rock is a key witness in Janner hearings of #CSAinquiry and, of course, is being heard behind closed doors.

As a senior prosecutor at the CPS, he had a role in the Frank Beck case AND the two subsequent police operations re Lord Janner.

Roger Rock was the “reviewing lawyer” in Frank Beck case. He was the “CPS liaison” for Operation Magnolia. He again was the point of contact for Operation Dauntless.

Roger Rock was due to be called this am, and was scheduled to continue giving evidence after lunch adjournment.

There has been a change of heart at #CSAinquiry, and Roger Rock is going to give SOME evidence in the open some time later this afternoon.

For now, he is due to be testifying in closed session.

On Operation Magnolia, Roger Rock advised that there was insufficient evidence to convict any of the suspects in Operation Magnolia, as revealed in IOPC report on past Leicestershire Police probes into Greville, later Lord, Janner.

Rock marked the files: “No further action.”

On Operation Dauntless, David Swift-Rollinson (from whom we heard – well, behind closed doors – yesterday) prepared an advice file for Roger Rock, by then special casework lawyer for Leicestershire at the CPS

He wrote a telling note in his “rough book”…

https://twitter.com/MarkWatts_1/status/1319181224720715777

David Swift-Rollinson’s note: “I felt that if any person had been involved, not GJ, a member of the House of Lords we would have probably arrested, searched for historical diaries and seized computers, etc.”

This made him a “little uncomfortable”.

David Swift-Rollinson wrote in CPS file that arresting Lord Janner would have enabled a search of his properties which “could be likely to yield evidence” because “some entrenched paedophiles do keep trophies of previous offences committed such as diaries and photographs.”

David Swift-Rollinson sought CPS advice not only on what charges, if any, should be brought against Lord Janner, but also on whether any further investigative work should be directed towards him.

The officer hand-delivered the file to Roger Rock at the CPS in April 2007.

In December 2007, Roger Rock advised police that there was insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction of Lord Janner, because of “difficulties” over credibility of one accuser and “inconsistencies and contradictions” in another.

Roger Rock also advised police that there were no other reasonable lines of enquiry.

He said that there was no value in interviewing Lord Janner because of the expectation that he would give a “no comment” interview as he had done before.

After hours of hearing from Roger Rock behing closed doors, #CSAinquiry hearing went into open session for a single question to be put to him, which took under three minutes. And most of that was the question.

Counsel to #CSAinquiry, Brian Altman, tells Roger Rock that James Wynne, an officer on ‘Operation Magnolia’, did not accept that allegations about Lord Janner were not raised at a police-CPS meeting attended by Rock in November 2001.

Roger Rock is clear that he “was not informed” of the allegations about Lord Janner at this meeting in November 2001. “Had I been informed, I would have immediately ended the meeting and referred the matter to the chief prosecutor.”

Roger Rock explained that allegations against a high-profile figure, such as Lord Janner, had to be referred to the chief prosecutor.

With that, today’s almost entirely closed hearing concluded.

“Summary” by #CSAinquiry of closed session for Day 10 says that unnamed former Leicestershire detective chief superintendent – but who was identified in published timetable as Alistair Helm – said that an SIO could have made a decision not to arrest someone like Lord Janner...

By contrast, Alistair Helm, who as head of the specialist crime department was on gold group that set strategic direction for Operation Dauntless, said that he would have expected the assistant chief constable to be consulted on a decision to arrest someone like Lord Janner.

Alistair Helm transferred, to become head of professional standards, seven months after the investigation started.

He described the SIO of Operation Dauntless, Christopher Thomas, as a “highly skilled investigating officer”, according to #CSAinquiry “summary” of closed session.

“Summary” by #CSAinquiry of closed session for Day 10 says that unnamed former senior CPS lawyer – but who was identified in published timetable as Roger Rock – said that no allegation in Operation Magnolia re Lord Janner was brought to his attention at the time.

Roger Rock said that when he received the advice file from police re Operation Dauntless, including allegations against Lord Janner, he realised that he needed to refer to it CPS headquarters, according to the #CSAinquiry “summary” of his testimony behind closed doors.

Roger Rock confirmed that he received the Operation Dauntless file in April 2007, but had not sent it to HQ until August, which he accepted was “too long”, says #CSAinquiry “summary” of closed session. The delay was partly because he needed to read it first, which he did in July.

Roger Rock said that after he sent the file to HQ, it was returned some weeks later with an instruction to review it himself – #CSAinquiry “summary” of closed session.

He then advised police that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.

Roger Rock: my advice was not “written in anticipation of a detailed forensic examination many years later, and, for that reason, it’s not as comprehensive as otherwise it perhaps should have been,” according to the #CSAinquiry “summary” closed session.

Roger Rock: I was “applying the processes that were relevant in 2007. They did change in 2013, and anyone looking at the case now would approach it in a totally different way,” says #CSAinquiry “summary” of his testimony in closed session.

Linked here: iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/…