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UK's top policeman secretly taped phone calls

Posted on: Monday, 13 March 2006, 05:13 CST

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's top policeman, already under pressure over the mistaken shooting of a suspected suicide bomber, faced calls for his resignation on Monday after his office admitted he secretly recorded a phone call with the government's senior legal adviser.

Sir Ian Blair, London's police chief, also taped calls with members of a commission investigating the shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, Scotland Yard said at the weekend.

Rights groups and a member of the authority that oversees London's police force both demanded his resignation.

Oxford University educated Blair, 52, took charge of London's 30,000-strong force last February.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said he had taped a call from Attorney General Peter Goldsmith in September.

Goldsmith was reported to be "extremely angry," according to the Times newspaper.

The police spokesman said Blair also taped calls with members of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), a government-funded watchdog investigating Blair's conduct after the shooting of de Menezes last July.

"We can confirm that a conversation was recorded with the attorney general," police said in a statement. "Three conversations with senior IPCC personnel were recorded during the inquiry (into the Brazilian's death)."

"The Metropolitan Police Service has not sought to conceal that conversations were recorded."

The Times said the conversation with Goldsmith was about the admissibility of telephone wire tap evidence in British courts.

Under English law it is legal to record a telephone call for personal use, according to the Web site of the communications regulator, Ofcom. A recording breaks civil law only if it is shared with a third party.

BLAIR "SHOULD CONSIDER POSITION"

Richard Barnes, a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) which oversees the London police force, said Blair should "be considering his position."

Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group organization Liberty, said the revelations "beggared belief" and that Blair had to provide an explanation for his actions.

"If it doesn't ring true ... I think it's very hard for any of us to have trust in him as the senior law enforcer, police officer, in this country," she told BBC radio.

"His behavior appears to be unconstitutional, unethical quite possibly unlawful."

Home Office minister Hazel Blears said it was a "serious matter" and the situation would be considered carefully.

Blair has faced intense scrutiny since last July's suicide bombing attacks on London's transport network.

The family of the 27-year-old Brazilian electrician has called for his resignation, accusing him of lying and misleading the public over the July 22 shooting on a London train.

Blair was also criticized by sections of the media after saying "almost nobody" understood why the murders of two schoolgirls in 2002 received such widespread media attention.

He issued an apology to the parents of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, whose killings received blanket coverage for months.

Days later, Scotland Yard issued a statement denying newspaper reports that Blair faced a revolt from 140 leading officers who thought he should quit.

"These extraneous activities are making him the story rather than the Met and that is always a dangerous place to be," the MPA's Barnes told the BBC.

(additional reporting by Mike Holden)

Source: REUTERS

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