The Met has batted away pleas to investigate the Ministry of Defence over allegations of a criminal cover-up of human radiation experiments
Scotland Yard has been accused of “refusing to investigate” crimes by the state against British troops.
Officers of the Metropolitan Police spent 50 days deliberating over 500 pages of evidence about an alleged official cover-up of human radiation experiments.
Despite documents which appear to show people still at work in Westminster misled ministers, courts, and Parliament as recently as 2024, the Met decided it was “non-recent” and not in their jurisdiction.
Jane O’Connor, who led the complaint when it was made on the eve of VE Day commemorations, said: “This is ridiculous. My father flew through the mushroom clouds, his blood tests were removed from his medical record, and we found them hidden at the Atomic Weapons Establishment under national security. The same probably happened to thousands of servicemen. That’s a crime of national importance the Met should investigate, and it’s certainly not historic.”
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Steve Purse, who has been unlawfully denied access to blood tests taken from his father during a series of toxic plutonium experiments in the Australian Outback in 1963, said: “They’re forgetting the people who are the victims of these crimes. The Ministry of Defence is physically next door to Scotland Yard. It feels like they’re refusing to look over the garden fence in case it upsets the neighbours.”
The Met has passed the complaint to Thames Valley Police, on the grounds that the AWE is in Berkshire.
But Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who first called for a police investigation last year and supported the complaint, said: “There is a widely-held belief that the misconduct in public office is taking place literally yards from Scotland Yard. So it makes no sense whatsoever for this crucial case to be transferred to a smaller force many miles away.”
The Nuked Blood Scandal blew open three years ago with a 1958 memo between atomic scientists about “gross irregularity” in the blood tests of Jane’s dad, Group Captain Terry Gledhill.
It led to a database, codenamed Merlin, which was locked as a state secret. After parts of it were forced open, it was found to contain more than 30 separate orders for blood monitoring of troops of all three armed forces, and thousands of pages of blood tests, blood data, and official discussion.
The MoD had previously denied to courts and Parliament that any such biological monitoring took place. The entire database is due to be declassified as a result of the Mirror’s investigation, but ministers refuse to say how or why it was locked in the first place.
John Morris, who despite a radiogenic blood disorder and cancer has been denied a war pension after his medical records were missing the results of blood tests and chest x-rays, said: “We’re just numbers to them, not people. If that’s not the Met’s jurisdiction, I don’t know what is. Perhaps they need a lawnmower to cut back all that long grass before they kick our case into it.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who oversees policing for the capital, has been contacted by. MPs, voters and neighbous, all asking him to ensure the scandal is properly investigated. In 2021, Khan signed a letter by all metro mayors calling for “truth and justice for our nuclear test veterans”.
A spokesman for the Met said: “It was determined that allegations related to alleged offences against an organisation based in Berkshire. As a result, the investigation was transferred to Thames Valley Police in late June. We refute the claim that the Met has refused to investigate this. At this stage of this investigation, the report is sitting with the most appropriate force.”
A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said: “We have recently been made aware of alleged crimes related to historic nuclear tests. At this early stage, we are not in a position to provide further information.”
The Mirror’s dossier of evidence has been passed to both forces.