News in 2006

26th January 2006

Met chief's Soham remarks condemned

Sir Ian Blair, the country's most senior police chief, has drawn criticism for saying that "almost nobody" could understand why the Soham murders became "the biggest story in Britain".

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner cited the case during a speech on Thursday in which he accused the media of "institutional racism" over its reporting of murders.

When asked later about his remark, the commissioner said he was highlighting the fact that while this was a "dreadful crime", other dreadful crimes did not get the same attention.

Bob McLachlan, former head of the Met's paedophile unit, told The Sun: "Sir Ian Blair has abused the memory of those two girls for his own political purpose.

"He has totally lost the plot. How can this man lead people to devote their lives to protecting children? Soham was rightly a big story. Society was horrified. It was every parent's nightmare."

Sir Ian had been speaking at the Metropolitan Police Authority's monthly meeting, where he was asked to give an assurance that his force delivered a "proportional response" to all murders.

The commissioner said: "I am pretty furious. We do devote the same level of resources to murders in relation to their difficulty."

He continued: "What the difference is, is how these are reported. I actually believe that the media is guilty of institutional racism in the way they report deaths."

He highlighted the recent "terrible" murder of 31-year-old lawyer Tom ap Rhys Pryce, who was stabbed to death after being mugged close to the north west London home he shared with his fiancee.

The murder of father-of-two Balbir Matharu, an Asian man, who was dragged to his death by two car stereo thieves, received little press coverage by comparison, he said. The two murders happened on the same day earlier this month.

Source: IC Scotland