Update on investigation involving MPS Commander and others following Mark Ellison QC review

27 May 2015 01:18 PM

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation into the conduct of Metropolitan Police (MPS) Commander Richard Walton (then an acting Detective Inspector) and former MPS officers Robert Lambert and Colin Black is ongoing. Mr Lambert and Mr Black were a Detective Inspector and Commander at the time.

The investigation, which began in June 2014, relates to a meeting between an undercover officer and then Acting DI Walton during the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry in 1998. Detective Inspector Robert Lambert and Commander Colin Black were both identified in the Ellison review as having played a part in facilitating the meeting.

The investigation has gathered and reviewed documentation from both the Stephen Lawrence Independent Review undertaken by Mark Ellison QC and Operation Herne which is looking at alleged misconduct and criminality engaged in by members of the MPS Special Demonstration Squad (SDS). All three men were served with gross misconduct notices in July 2014 and were interviewed by an IPCC investigator in December 2014.

As a result of the evidence gathered so far two further individuals, retired MPS officers, have been identified within the management structure of the SDS at the relevant time who may had some involvement or knowledge of the meeting with the undercover officer. The conduct of those former officers was referred to the IPCC at its request and now forms part of the investigation. They have both been served with gross misconduct notices.