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Gibraltar rocked
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rozenberg.substack.com
Gibraltar’s senior police officer was “in effect… forced out” of his job in 2020 as a result of assertions by the British overseas territory’s acting governor Nick Pyle and the chief minister Fabian Picardo KC that they had lost confidence in him, an inquiry by a retired British High Court judge has found.
In a 700-page report published by the Gibraltar government on 23 December, Sir Peter Openshaw said he had no doubt that the real reason Picardo had lost confidence in Ian McGrail, the police commissioner, was that the Royal Gibraltar Police had obtained a search warrant against Picardo’s friend, James Levy KC, which the chief minister was “determined in one way or another to thwart”. Levy denied any wrongdoing and was never charged.
Picardo had misled the police authority, the inquiry found: “by suppressing the truth, he was in effect suggesting a falsehood”.
Openshaw said that although McGrail realised his position had become untenable after the governor and chief minister had lost confidence in him, he retired only because he believed he was being unfairly and unlawfully compelled to do so. He felt he was being put under improper pressure to alter the course of a live criminal investigation.
The former judge found that Picardo had behaved grossly improperly when he tried to interfere in an active criminal investigation. But when Openshaw’s report was published two days before Christmas, Picardo announced that he had been vindicated and the Gibraltar government had been exonerated.
The chief minister said:
Crucially, the report completely exonerates the government from the many spurious allegations made against it. I am also very pleased that the inquiry chairman has found that I genuinely believed the then commissioner of police lied to me. My reading of the report, therefore, is that it vindicates my position on this crucial issue.
Most of the barristers who took part in the inquiry are based in London. McGrail was represented by Adam Wagner KC from Doughty Street Chambers (pictured at the inquiry). On the latest edition of A Lawyer Talks, he told me about the inquiry’s findings and gave me his reaction to Picardo’s comments.
My weekly podcast is a bonus for paying subscribers to A Lawyer Writes. Everyone else can hear a short taster by clicking the ► symbol above.
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By Joshua RozenbergThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rozenberg.substack.com
Gibraltar’s senior police officer was “in effect… forced out” of his job in 2020 as a result of assertions by the British overseas territory’s acting governor Nick Pyle and the chief minister Fabian Picardo KC that they had lost confidence in him, an inquiry by a retired British High Court judge has found.
In a 700-page report published by the Gibraltar government on 23 December, Sir Peter Openshaw said he had no doubt that the real reason Picardo had lost confidence in Ian McGrail, the police commissioner, was that the Royal Gibraltar Police had obtained a search warrant against Picardo’s friend, James Levy KC, which the chief minister was “determined in one way or another to thwart”. Levy denied any wrongdoing and was never charged.
Picardo had misled the police authority, the inquiry found: “by suppressing the truth, he was in effect suggesting a falsehood”.
Openshaw said that although McGrail realised his position had become untenable after the governor and chief minister had lost confidence in him, he retired only because he believed he was being unfairly and unlawfully compelled to do so. He felt he was being put under improper pressure to alter the course of a live criminal investigation.
The former judge found that Picardo had behaved grossly improperly when he tried to interfere in an active criminal investigation. But when Openshaw’s report was published two days before Christmas, Picardo announced that he had been vindicated and the Gibraltar government had been exonerated.
The chief minister said:
Crucially, the report completely exonerates the government from the many spurious allegations made against it. I am also very pleased that the inquiry chairman has found that I genuinely believed the then commissioner of police lied to me. My reading of the report, therefore, is that it vindicates my position on this crucial issue.
Most of the barristers who took part in the inquiry are based in London. McGrail was represented by Adam Wagner KC from Doughty Street Chambers (pictured at the inquiry). On the latest edition of A Lawyer Talks, he told me about the inquiry’s findings and gave me his reaction to Picardo’s comments.
My weekly podcast is a bonus for paying subscribers to A Lawyer Writes. Everyone else can hear a short taster by clicking the ► symbol above.