The former Chairman of the Police Federation says it it’s regrettable that Ian McGrail’s legal team has commented on an ongoing criminal investigation.
Maurice Morello says the former police commissioner’s lawyers are wrong to claim the police federation or Mr Morello himself were involved in any “potentially illegal inducements” in exchange for evidence against Mr McGrail.
These are the latest comments by an interested party since the McGrail Inquiry was delayed due to the risk of jeopardising an ongoing criminal investigation concerning allegations that witnesses may have received incentives for providing evidence to the inquiry.
Maurice Morello says he assisted individuals in obtaining a letter of assurance from the Government that if their position became untenable as a result of their disclosure, that they would be transferred out of the RGP whilst retaining their salary and pension rights.
The former federation chairman says transferring out of the RGP to other jobs in the wider public sector is not new, nor unique to the police. He argues that for officers for whom policing was a vocation, giving up their career is not an inducement.
Mr Morello points out that in the trial in which Mr McGrail was found not guilty of one count of sexual assault, Stipendiary Magistrate Charles Pitto said there was no evidence of inducement given to the complainant for giving her evidence and that the letter offered only the whistle blowing protections that are afforded under law.
Notwithstanding, there is an ongoing criminal investigation led by senior investigating officer John McVea, who said it is unlikely to be completed before the 26th of September, when the McGrail Inquiry had been scheduled to start. There is still no new start date for the official review of the events leading up to Mr McGrail’s early retirement as police commissioner in June 2020.
