Dear Detective Inspector Blair,
Many thanks for your email of 26/01/21 in reply to mine of 22 January 2021 that asked "Why doesn't Scotland Yard launch a Bernt Carlsson murder inquiry?"
You say that Dame Cressida has no operational jurisdiction over non-Metropolitan Police matters, which implies that the Met's 'patch' does not extend to London's Heathrow airport (where the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988 was ingested).
You suggest I should redirect the question to Police Scotland, just as your colleague Marcus Barnett did when he emailed me on 30/07/15 saying: "Whilst I recognise the tragedy and trauma that came from the Lockerbie disaster many years ago, the matters which you are seeking to be investigated are ones that sit within the Jurisdiction of the Police Service of Scotland."
The Met's reticence to venture onto Lockerbie bombing territory is perfectly understandable after its ignominious exclusion from the Pan Am Flight 103 investigation which was left to the CIA, FBI and Scottish police to conduct. And what a mess they made of it!
The exclusion of the Met from the investigation is set out in excruciating detail here:
"In Chapter Three of his 2002 book 'The Lockerbie Incident: A Detective's Tale' (pages 70/71), Scottish policeman John Crawford describes how officers from the Metropolitan Police were excluded from investigating the Lockerbie bombing in Scotland and quickly dispatched home to London.
"I knew that a considerable amount of political in-fighting had been going on from day one. The Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist squad from London had tried to make the enquiry theirs from the first day. There was considerable opposition to this both politically and from the Scottish police.
"Scotland Yard as any ordinary cop knows was like living on a reputation built 100 years ago. Sure it had the facilities to conduct a huge enquiry; sure it had the personnel and was supposed to have the expertise. It certainly had the resources in manpower and finance. But ask a cop in any force up and down the country who they consider the most arrogant, the most useless and the least likely to do anything for anyone beyond their 'patch' and they will undoubtedly tell you – The Met.
"It's an unfortunate reputation because I personally know of a number of fine officers in that organisation who would match the best anywhere. But the reputation of the Met precedes it and it does not enjoy the high standing it thinks it does in what it disparagingly calls the 'provincial' forces. I would like to think things have changed since then but I rather think they have not.
"No – neither the Scottish police nor the Lord Advocate Lord Fraser of Carmylie wanted them messing around in our enquiry. It was said the Lord Advocate presented an ultimatum to the then Prime Minister, the Iron Lady herself, Margaret Thatcher that either he was in charge of the enquiry as befitted his role as Lord Advocate in Scotland or he would resign. I cannot vouch for the veracity of that but as far as the Met Anti-Terrorist squad were concerned it was all over. They were hanging around for a few days with their flashy designer suits and the full weight of their own egos and self-importance on their shoulders, the once deserved reputation of Scotland Yard expected to sweep all before them.
"After all, what could a bunch of hick 'jocks' do, we were experts only in dealing with sheep and haggis – let's face it, according to them nothing of any consequence ever happened outside London.
"The Met were told in no uncertain manner that they weren't welcome! It was back to London for them."
(https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103#Exclusion_of_the_Met
Having had the posthumous appeal (on very limited grounds) against his conviction for the Lockerbie bombing rejected on 15 January 2021 by the Scottish High Court of Justiciary, the Megrahi family are now taking the appeal to the UK Supreme Court in London. I anticipate the Supreme Court will rule that Heathrow was indeed where the Lockerbie bomb was ingested, so you can therefore expect me to repeat the question "Why doesn't Scotland Yard launch a Bernt Carlsson murder inquiry?" quite soon.
Next time, though, I won't be fobbed off with any of that "Police Scotland" nonsense!
Sincerely,
Patrick Haseldine