An Address By The Police Commissioner
To The Officers Of SO19

 

My brother officers, and brother Freemasons,

As I am sure you know, the recent decision in the second inquest on Harry Stanley has raised the possibility of the prosecution of those officers involved in this operation. Pressure has come in particular from the Home Secretary. It is with deep regret that I have taken the decision to suspend the officers concerned - on full pay, of course. I will though continue to do my best to ensure that police officers who carry out contract killings at the behest of the Security Services and other agencies remain above the law, failing which I will conspire with the CPS and rogue elements of the judiciary to sabotage any legal proceedings brought against officers in such cases.

Those of you who are as ancient as me will recall the case of Stephen Waldorf. In December 1982, the British Board Of Film Censors took out a contract on this film director with my predecessor, and the following month the Commissioner hatched a cunning scheme to eliminate him. Two detectives were commissioned to shoot him dead in cold blood on the pretext of mistaken identity.

Unfortunately, he survived. Even more unfortunately,the authorities were duty bound to bring a prosecution for attempted murder against the two officers concerned, but my predecessor had a quiet word with the trial judge concerning his relationship with a certain rent boy in the Kings Cross area of London, and he summed up so poetically for the defence that the jury felt bound to return not guilty verdicts.

More recently, Paul Whitehouse, the then Chief Constable of Sussex Constabulary, was contracted by a Hastings businessman to arrange for the execution of a man named James Ashley for some personal reason. A marksman named Christopher Sherwood was instructed to execute him during the course of a contrived raid on his home. This contract received a great deal of adverse publicity because Ashley was naked when he was shot, having been in bed with his girlfriend, and it was inevitable that some sort of criminal charge would be brought against the officer concerned, although frankly I am surprised that a murder charge rather than one of manslaughter was proferred.

Fortunately, I was able to lend a hand personally; when PC Sherwood finally stood trial at the Central Criminal Court - after a lengthy suspension on full pay - he appeared before Mrs Justice Rafferty, who has a weakness for cocaine. Prior to the trial I had a word with her, and she agreed to sum up for the defence, but actually went one step better and stopped the trial directing the jury to find PC Sherwood not guilty. She has now been rewarded handsomely with an appointment to the High Court.

As I am shortly to retire, I don’t know if I will be able to pull any strings for the officers in the Harry Stanley case, but I am sure my successor will. In the meantime, though I have had to go through the motions of suspending the officers concerned, please be assured that whatever noises I may make in public, in private I am in your corner.

The right of police officers to murder innocent members of the public is sacrosanct, and one that we must do all do everything in our power to preserve.


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