Desperate Tories line up to protect Damian Green as damning evidence emerges over porn claims

[Image: Twitter.]

An uncharitable person might claim that a ‘circle of jerks’ had formed to defend the use of Parliamentary computer sysems for auto-eroticism.

The revelation that David Davis has offered to resign as Brexit Secretary if Damian Green loses his job has prompted comments that he should have picked a more appropriate excuse to put down that poisoned chalice.

Mr Davis made what he intended to be a threat – but we should take as an offer – after former detective Neil Lewis, who examined Mr Green’s computers as part of Operation Miser (an investigation into the leak of politically-sensitive material from Parliament), provided evidence that the pornography found there could only have been accessed by the now-First Secretary of State.

A friend of Mr Davies said: “David has made it clear that he will not stand idly by if as a result of wrong behaviour by the police then Damian is forced out. The police are using tactics straight out of the mafia playbook.”

Former attorney general Dominic Grieve said the actions of the retired officers in leaking the allegations against Green had “the smack of the police state”, telling the BBC’s Newsnight: “This can’t be right. They are in flagrant breach of their own code of conduct and practice.”

Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins delivered a rambling attack on the former police officers who have accused Mr Green. He told the BBC’s The World Tonight: “People are making accusations against [Damian Green] who clearly have a vested interest in trying to justify what they originally did, which was an outrageous invasion of Parliamentary privilege.

“Are policemen going to pursue politicians into every newsagents to see what magazines they pick up?

“My understanding is they were told to destroy this material when the original raid was considered defunct. He didn’t destroy it; he held onto it for nine years, and now it comes out – very suspiciously.

“The original investigation was very odd. It was instigated by the Home Office into a leak of politically embarrassing material.

“The whole thing stinks to me, but the hysteria surrounding it is now out of all proportion.

“I’m sure lots of people in their office ours look at things on computers which they shouldn’t be looking at on computers. Whether it’s a sackable offence for a deputy prime minister… We don’t know he did it, for goodness’ sake – he’s denied it, he’s not allowed a court of law on this, it’s perfectly possible to hack into other people’s computers and use their destinations, it could be someone else using his computer; we just don’t know.”

But Stephen Roberts, former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, told the same programme: “Police officers take an oath of duty to the Crown to serve the public good, and there are occasions when that duty outweighs the normal conventions.”

And Mr Lewis himself said: “The computer was in Mr Green’s office, on his desk, logged in, his account, his name.

“In between browsing pornography, he was sending emails from his account, his personal account, reading documents … it was ridiculous to suggest anybody else could have done it.”

He said: “When I left the police I kept one notebook and that was the notebook for Operation Miser, because that was the case that I was uncomfortable with.”

Lewis said he was motivated to come forward when he read about Mr Green’s denial of claims by Bob Quick, a former Metropolitan assistant commissioner, who told the Sunday Times that pornography had been found on the politician’s computer.

“His outright denial of that was quite amazing, followed by his criticism of Bob Quick,” Lewis said. “I contacted Bob Quick to offer my support.”

Asked if it was possible for anyone else to access Green’s machine, Lewis said: “It was so extensive, whoever had done it would have had to push Mr Green to one side to say ‘Get out, I’m using your computer’.”

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police has said Mr Lewis should not have made his information public and an investigation was taking place, but This Writer finds himself in rare agreement with Labour’s Jess Phillips, who said: “Both people can be in the wrong and there still has to be a case to answer.

“If what is being said, which I hope is being submitted to the proper investigation, is believed to be true on the balance of probabilities, then yes it does change things and Damian Green cannot stay in his position.

“The pressure is mounting on him. There is no illegality but would you be fired if you looked at pornography on your work computer? The problem for me in all of this is how people use their power to not live by the same rules that everybody else has to.”

The evidence seems clear: Pornography was found on a computer in Mr Green’s office, and the browsing history certainly suggests that it was accessed by Mr Green himself. His denial seems false – and if that is found to be false, it is a sacking offence for a Minister of the Crown. More generally, any other office worker who is found to have material of this kind on their computer would be sacked out of hand.

Members of the public seem to have made up their own minds:

https://twitter.com/UKDemockery/status/936658622507110401

This Writer’s concern is: If Mr Lewis had taken his evidence through the proper channels, would we ever have been allowed to know it existed?


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16 Comments

  1. NMac December 2, 2017 at 6:06 pm - Reply

    Gosh, it would be really good to get rid of two of the odious, loathsome Tories in one go, but as these people cling on by their fingertips I won’t hold my breath.

  2. Roy Beiley December 2, 2017 at 7:01 pm - Reply

    Police tactics ” straight out of the mafia handbook”. Errrr. Police = Mafia now? Methinks they doth protest to much. It is obvious that if allegations had been made ” through the normal channels” then like Savile, Cyril Smith and the other paedos the Police Top Brass would have taken the political easy way out and declared that there was insufficient evidence to proceed. Insufficient evidence? A computer hard disk containing sexual images on the desk of Damian Green! In any other organisation the IT Dept would have monitored what was being downloaded from the Net and put in place URL blocks to prevent porn being accessed. Now his mates are getting all indignant at the idea of Green getting banged to rights and using “threats” to try and obstruct the outing of another Tory purve.

  3. Charles Roberts December 2, 2017 at 7:32 pm - Reply

    So it was all right for the police to invite the BBC and media when they raided Sir Cliff Richards house so that they could film everything, but when it comes to a politician downloading porn onto his work computer that’s wrong? A case of double standards me thinks. Who do I think is telling the truth in all this? well it’s not the Tory politician, they spout lies as soon as they open their big mouths.

  4. Xavier Breath December 2, 2017 at 10:05 pm - Reply

    I wonder how many white papers Damian has knocked out on his watch?

    • John December 3, 2017 at 12:25 pm - Reply

      That was very clever! I see what you did there! Well done! ;-)

  5. m December 3, 2017 at 1:23 am - Reply

    Sounds like a brilliant idea… I wounder if any more Con=u party members are willing to leave with their mates….One way to clear them out

  6. JohnDee December 3, 2017 at 5:53 am - Reply

    ” … computer sysems … ” !

  7. Bryan Hemming December 3, 2017 at 10:50 am - Reply

    If he had been constantly playing computer games, or watching popular soaps on s telly in his office, while he should be working, we would expect him to be sacked, so why should an exception be made for watching porn? And would the same police officers get so much stick had they reported him for constantly playing computer games, or watching popular soaps, at the taxpayers expense?

  8. Brian December 3, 2017 at 12:10 pm - Reply

    “The original investigation was very odd. It was instigated by the Home Office into a leak of politically embarrassing material.

    I’d like to know what the ‘material’ was.??????

    • Mike Sivier December 3, 2017 at 5:05 pm - Reply

      That information is in the public domain. Search previous stories.

  9. John December 3, 2017 at 12:23 pm - Reply

    I knew that web browsers keep a ‘history’ of pages accessed, but I didn’t realise that timestamps accompanied them? If so, then it’s even more difficult to deny.
    Either someone was hacked into his machine at the same time (which isn’t impossible, but doubtful), or some other staff member WAS using his PC at very similar times.
    Also, accessing your personal email on a BUSINESS PC (unless you’re the boss), should be a disciplinary offence (unless you have express permission to do so).

    • Mike Sivier December 3, 2017 at 5:05 pm - Reply

      This was about web browsing rather than email, I thought.
      According to the ex-policeman, login details on the computer showed that Mr Green’s account was logged in when the porn was accessed. If he had passed those details to a third party, then he was guilty of a data protection breach.

      • John December 4, 2017 at 8:31 am - Reply

        Yes, I know it was about web browsing, but the email observation still stands. The real issue that exists is whether it WAS him doing the porn viewing or not. If he DID give someone else his logon, then we would never know. Was someone else very briefly using his account (perhaps whiist he was temporarily away from his computer (but still logged in)? Hence the timestamp. If there was enough time. But if a staff member was doing that, why? Why not use their own machine?

        • Mike Sivier December 4, 2017 at 12:23 pm - Reply

          My understanding is that this was not a brief instance. There were thousands of images on that computer.

  10. STVE December 3, 2017 at 6:37 pm - Reply

    He should be sacked any other employee would face disciplinary action!!!

  11. Dave Putson December 4, 2017 at 1:06 pm - Reply

    What information does Damian Green hold on fellow Tories that has prompted such an avalanche of bogus “outraged” support from fellow Tories?
    Has anyone else noted that the two senior coppers criticising their own in this matter have already been served up their rewards as they are both “Sirs”, although I would probably spell it differently…

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