A SECOND senior police officer has confirmed he was told of pornography allegedly being found on Damian Green’s office computer, adding to the pressure on Theresa May’s deputy.
Sir Paul Stephenson, who was Metropolitan Police Commissioner from 2009 to 2011, said he was briefed about the claims at the time, but regarded them as a “side issue”.
Former Met Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick last week claimed “extreme” porn was found on one of Mr Green’s computers when he was shadow immigration minister in 2008.
Mr Green’s home and office were raided by police in a heavy-handed investigation into Home Office leaks that year.
Mr Green dismissed Mr Quick’s allegation as a “political smears” from an embittered source.
However apparent corroboration from Sir Paul may make things more difficult for Mr Green, who is currently the subject of a Cabinet Office inquiry into his conduct.
Former Tory activist Kate Maltby claims he previously made sexual advances to her - something Mr Green, First Secretary of State and de factor deputy PM, also strongly denies.
Sir Paul and Mr Quick both gave evidence to the Cabinet Office probe last week.
Sir Paul told the BBC the porn allegation should not have become public.
He said: “I regret it’s in the public domain. There was no criminality involved, there were no victims, there was no vulnerability and it was not a matter of extraordinary public interest.”
It was not Scotland Yard’s job to “police the workplace”, he added.
A friend of Theresa May since they were students at Oxford in the 1970s, Mr Green is one of the Prime Minister’s most trusted allies, and it would be a huge blow to her if he had to quit.
It would also add to the impression of a government in freefall, given Mrs May has also just lost her defence and international development secretaries in separate scandals.
Following Sir Paul’s intervention, Mr Green did not deny that porn had been found but let it be known computers had been shared by several users, and he was not aware that he or anyone else had downloaded pornographic material.
He said: "I reiterate that no allegations about the presence of improper material on my parliamentary computers have ever been put to me or to the parliamentary authorities by the police. I can only assume they are being made now, nine years later, for ulterior motives."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here