Sun Sewel Coke Sting Busted

Back in July, the Sun clearly thought it had caught Lord Sewel bang to rights, with a headline that simply read BUSTED. The peer had been snapped in what appeared to be the act of snorting cocaine. The sub-heading “Cops probe peer’s hooker drug romp … Sewel resigns as he’s pictured in bra” told readers all they needed to know: he had been caught by Rupe’s downmarket troops, and was therefore guilty.

However, and here we encounter a significantly sized however, that was not sufficient evidence for a conviction to be so much as considered. And the Metropolitan Police did follow up on the story, with the BBC telling that “The police raided a property in central London during their investigation, which was prompted by a complaint made about Lord Sewel's conduct”. So what did the cops have to say in conclusion?

“The Met launched a criminal inquiry into allegations of drug-related offences involving a member of the House of Lords on Monday, 27 July … The investigation, led by officers from the Special Enquiry Team of the Homicide and Major Crime Command, has now concluded … Following a review of all the material, including a forensic examination of an address in central London, there is insufficient evidence to proceed with this investigation and the matter is now closed”. The Sun is not best pleased.

Today’s front page features at top right “YOU MUST BE COKING … Cops let off druggie lord”. The paper’s pals at the Guido Fawkes blog yesterday told a shocked readership “Lord Coke Won’t Face Charges”, before calling the story “developing”. But, sad to say, the story is not developing. It’s going nowhere. It’s dead. Morte.

That has prompted a thundering editorial, titled “Police farce”, and ranting “WE’VE heard it all now … Lord Sewel won’t be charged with drug offences due to a lack of evidence … Lack of evidence? He was pictured on our front page snorting cocaine through a rolled-up bank note … If that’s not incriminating, we’re stumped as to what is … If the Metropolitan Police was uniformly reluctant to go after the rich and famous, we could vaguely understand it. At least it would be consistently useless … But the same force takes spectacular punts on other cases - only to fall flat on its face - and credulously pursues unprovable cases of child abuse and murder with no evidence whatsoever … What a laughing stock it has become under Bernard Hogan-Howe”. Hogan-Howe, according to the BBC’s Danny Shaw, has suggested that the Sun’s evidence was crap.

Whine, sir? And, as Jon Stewart might have said, two things here. One, the Sun is making a whole series of logic leaps, and is taking the same line it often takes when kicking the CPS, which is not the Met. And two, all that this rant says to the public is that the Murdoch press can no longer count on the Met to bang people up on their say-so.

It was so much easier when Mazher Mahmood was working with what he claims were bent coppers, fitting up slebs and laughingly trashing careers. The good old days, when they could bung officers the occasional Bag Of Sand for stories, have gone for ever. The rule of the Sun ends at the exit door of the Baby Shard bunker.

And that is as it should be. Game over, Murdoch doggies.