Bit by bit

Says the BBC yesterday: "We can confirm the BBC was made aware in 2017 of the existence of an ongoing police investigation, which was subsequently closed in 2019 with no arrest or charge being made.

"We are doing more work to understand the details of what was known by the BBC at this time."

Operation Winter Key's remit was "to investigate allegations of non-recent child sexual abuse, where the alleged abuse was committed before 2012", firstly when the alleged abusers were "people of prominence in public life". Some 80 officers developed 222 cases, based in temporary offices near the Stratford Docklands Light Railway Station.  The team had learned lessons from Operation Midland, the bungled Met investigation into the fantasy claims of Carl Beech. An inspection of Winter Key in 2019 said "The Winter Key cases all seemed to have been thoroughly investigated, and we didn’t find anything to indicate that the team had made poor decisions". 

It went on to praise Winter Key's discretion: "For example, wherever possible, they prefer to take a
discreet approach when dealing with high-profile suspects for non-recent offences. This often involves a process known as voluntary attendance, which means that the suspect agrees to attend police premises for interview. Interviews can also be conducted elsewhere (for example, at a solicitor’s office)."

Winter Key may have closed down in 2019, but the Met seems to have a better handle on its records than the BBC: 'We have been in contact with the man's employer on several occasions, between the start of our investigation in 2017 and the present day. It would not be appropriate to share the specific nature of these discussions.'

BBC News tells us that the director general at the time of the investigation, Tony Hall, did not know about the allegations. Who did ?  And did they know Winter Key was about child sexual abuse ?

An added complication: Hampshire Police said the sexual offences allegations were first reported by a third party in 2016, and that the force logged the details and passed on information to the Met for investigation.  Will that third party complainant reveal themselves to the press this weekend ?