A retired senior police chief has told an inquiry the Royal Military Police’s initial investigation into alleged war crimes by UK Special Forces in Afghanistan was “slow to commence, sluggish in its progress, and never properly resourced”.
Alan Pughsley QPM, who has 39 years of experience in investigating serious and organised crimes, had been asked by the Independent Inquiry Relating to Afghanistan to produce a desktop review of two RMP investigations including Operation Northmoor which began in March 2014.
The inquiry is investigating claims made in a BBC Panorama programme that innocent Afghan civilians were executed by three out of four SAS squadrons between 2010 and 2013.
Evidence submitted to the inquiry suggests as many as 80 people were killed this way during a campaign of night raids.
The RMP launched Operation Northmoor on 31 March 2014, three years after the alleged war crimes.
Mr Pughsley, whose conclusions have not yet been finalised, said the most senior investigating officer (SIO) lacked experience for such a significant investigation.
He identified Operation Northmoor as a Category A investigation – the most serious of its kind but said it “did not progress at the pace, breadth or depth that is required for a Category A investigation”.
He said the investigation’s gold commanders kept few records, minutes were scant, and very few key witnesses were spoken to on time.
Guidance from independent advisors was often not heeded, he said, adding he had not seen sufficient evidence of proper handovers being made when multiple changes were made to investigating staff.
The inquiry heard there was a “confusing landscape,” where at one time four external advisers were offering differing guidelines to the RMP investigators.
A critical delay in starting the investigation, which Mr Pughsley said was not the fault of the RMP, denied early opportunities for gathering contemporaneous witness accounts.
The former police chief criticised the appointment of some investigators saying many lacked skills and experience, including an SIO (Senior Investigating Officer) who had only just attended the relevant training course and had never acted as the SIO in any, or any serious, investigation.
“There was consideration to whether or not a Home Office Police Force could or should’ve been utilised as lead investigators”, Mr Pughsley said before explaining that the Ministry of Defence chose the RMP instead to lead.
“I would’ve asked a Home Office police force to identify an incredibly experienced ISO,” he said.
The inquiry’s counsel Mr Oliver Glasgow KC put to Mr Pughsley: “We remind ourselves, this would have been an enormous challenge for even a highly experienced SIO from the Home Office Police Force.”
Mr Pughsley replied: “Absolutely right.”
Four years to set up resources
Operation Northmoor was described by the former police chief as “a complex and incredibly serious investigation that was fundamentally poorly resourced.”
The inquiry heard how it took two years to find premises and two more to get all the required resources in place.
“If you feel not supported whether as an investigator or one of the senior officers, I think you would feel very, very disappointed and I guess you would feel ‘how seriously are we taking this?’ Or are we just rubber-stamping the definition and not putting the resources into it?’ I hope that’s not the case,” Mr Pughsley said.
Later, the inquiry heard £7m was spent on the creation of a forensics data handling centre which was eventually blocked from being used.
Closure ‘inappropriate and premature’
Mr Pughsley said there were “clearly outstanding lines of enquiry that were not followed”, including a large number of potential witnesses in Afghanistan and data and digital evidence. He added the decision to close Operation Northmore was “inappropriate and premature”.
Operation Northmoor was set up in 2014 to examine allegations of executions by special forces, including those of children.
No charges were ever brought.
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Operation Cestro, which followed, referred three soldiers to the Service Prosecuting Authority but there were no prosecutions.
Law firm Leigh Day, representing the bereaved families at the inquiry, said its clients have always maintained Operation Northmoor was deeply flawed.
“Mr Pughsley… has raised potential failings at almost every stage of the investigation,” said Tessa Gregory, partner at Leigh Day.
“Perhaps most concerningly, he considers that the investigation was closed prematurely and inappropriately with major lines of enquiry still outstanding.
“Plainly the inquiry now needs to take further evidence from those who were involved with both running and overseeing Operation Northmoor to find out how this complex, multi-homicide military police investigation went so badly wrong.”
The inquiry continues.
