Untouchables: Dirty Cops, Bent Justice and Racism in Scotland Yard by
Michael Gillard and Laurie Flynn (Mainstream Publishing, 2004).
This book is the
first expose of Scotland Yard in 30 years. It is the result of a 5 year
investigation into the Yard's most secretive and powerful unit - the very
one charged with rooting out corrupt and racist cops.
In 1993 the yard set
up the ghost squad, an undercover anti-corruption unit whose existence was
known to only a handful of senior officers who operated with no
independent oversight. In 1998 these shadowy detectives went public as
"the Untouchables". Their motto: "Integrity is non-negotiable".
But instead of
thorough corruption investigations and prosecutions, there was corruption
management; instead of justice and accountability there were double
standards and the cover-up of miscarriages of justice.
Based on thousands
of official documents, which the Yard hoped would never see the light of
day, and hundreds of interviews, Untouchables is an
integrity test on
the
most powerful police force in Britain.
For the first time,
police whistleblowers speak out about the hidden failures and cover-ups
during some of Scotland yard's most high-profile cases, from the still
unsolved murders of Daniel Morgan, David Norris, Stephen Lawrence
and Damilola Taylor to the prosecution of Royal butler Paul
Burrell and the Jill Dando case.
Untouchables
also reveals the secret history of corruption surrounding the biggest
robbery in British history: the £26m Brinks Mat gold bullion heist, which
on its 21st anniversary still dogs Scotland Yard.
After the Stephen
Lawrence scandal, the Government promised a fully independent system
of investigating the police. Instead, the Home Office had stacked the new
police watchdog with retired law enforcement officers led by the former
head of the yard's anti-corruption squad.
Untouchables
exposes the New Labour sell-out and reveals the true legacy of
commissioner Sir John Stevens and his predecessor, Lord Paul Condon.
You can read extracts from
chapter 22 Secret Justice here.
You can read a Blog
review of this book here and a review from the
New Statesman (22
November 2004)
Here are three video clips about
Erkin's case and the Parliamentary book launch of Untouchables:
untouchables part 1 of 3
untouchables part 2 of 3
untouchables part 3 of 3
