New light on Bridger probe
Martin Bridger, SIO of Operation Tempura
(CNS): The decision from the Information Commissioner’s Office on Tuesday ordering the release of reports relating to Operation Tempura shed some new light on the ongoing RCIPS investigation into Martin Bridger, the former head of the discredited and controversial internal police probe. The details of why he has been on the RCIPS radar for more than two years without ever being interviewed about his alleged crimes remains sketchy but it appears he is under the spotlight for the entire conduct of the ill-fated operation.
Acting Information Commissioner Jan Liebaers’ latest decision reveals that Bridger is being investigated for misconduct in public office and six other unidentified offences in relation to Tempura. But questions over the parts played by many other senior officials from Cayman and the UK remain unanswered.
Liebaers’ ruling also shows that David Baines, the police commissioner, appeared unsure as to the grounds of the current RCIPS investigation into Bridger when he spoke with him about how the enquiry was impacting the release of the complaint and report.
“In the course of our conversations, the police commissioner … verbally indicated that he was uncertain which parts, if any, of the responsive records were relevant to the investigation of Mr Bridger. He said this would depend on where the evidence might lead the investigation and he was not sure what direction that might be,” Liebaers stated in his ruling.
”The non-committal nature of his answer was somewhat concerning, considering the investigation had apparently been going on for some time,” he noted.
During the course of Liebaers’ investigation, Baines indicated that some of the allegations relate to events that occurred sometime after the subject matter of the responsive records and outside the Cayman Islands.
“One of the allegations arises from a UK act, and it is not clear how it relates to what the governor’s office calls ‘Cayman Islands criminal offences’ which are alleged against Mr Bridger,” the acting commissioner wrote. He said the governor’s office did not clarify the parameters of the allegations, such as their date or range, or any evidence to support the relevance of six out of seven allegations to the exemption of the records in question.
He said that only one of the allegations against Bridger relating to the offence of misconduct in public office is outlined and implies that the “entire conduct of Mr Bridger” was in question in regard to “everything that transpired in the three-year investigation” after he found there was no corrupt relationship between RCIPS Deputy Commissioner of the RCIPS Anthony Ennis and Desmond Seales, the editor of the local newspaper, Cayman Net News.
“It may be determined that at that time Operation Tempura should have been concluded,” the governor’s office said in its submissions to Leibaers, as they implied that Bridger may have pressed on with the probe for his own advantage.
While Bridger would deny that the reason he continued was for his benefit, he has stated in the past that Tempura could have ended some three weeks after it started instead of lasting three years.
But no one in a position of authority here ever disclosed that they were aware of the unauthorised break-in to the Net News offices. The police commissioner at the time, Stuart Kernohan, has always contended that Attorney General Samuel Bulgin, the UK’s special security advisor for the overseas territories, Larry Covington, and then governor Stuart Jack were informed and approved the plan to check out the corruption allegations against Ennis via the proverbial and actual backdoor.
As Liebaers tried to establish how the investigation of Bridger was impacting the release of the records, he was prevented from making a full study of the case files because Baines made a U-turn on his commitment to allow the ICO access.
Baines told Liebaers in August 2015, when he barred the information commissioner from the material, that he had “just appointed an investigation team which would need the files”, although Bridger told the information commissioner that he was aware the RCIPS had begun an enquiry about him more than two years before, in July 2013.
Other documents that the information commissioner referred to indicate that Bridger is accused of failing to perform his public duty, but the details have not been revealed. Liebaers also noted that the governor’s office’s continued attempts to keep a lid on the secret document will not stop media coverage because the probe has fuelled the flames of public interest. He pointed out that while they were claiming Bridger’s right to a fair trial, should there ever be one, would be undermined, Bridger himself disagrees and wants the documents to be released.
“The governor’s arguments on press coverage are somewhat unclear but the position seems to be that any public discussion of the responsive records, or indeed Operation Tempura, poses dangers for Mr Bridger’s right to a fair trial.” But, he said, discussion and debate of matters of great public interest “ought not be stifled lightly”.
“It seems certain that the media will publish articles and opinions on this subject, no matter how the question of disclosure of the responsive records is resolved, and that the police investigation and possible prosecution of Mr Bridger, itself, is certain to elicit continued interest.”
The arguments from the governor’s office were also weakened because numerous articles have already been published on Operation Tempura and the governor’s challenge to the disclosure of the records.
The negative impact of pre-trial publicity over the costs of Tempura and its aftermath, which Liebaers said exceeded US$8 million, not including the damages paid out to Justice Alex Henderson and Kernohan, was another argument used by the governor’s office, which pointed to the costs it has incurred keeping a lid on this report but made no mention of the costs of the ongoing criminal investigation and possible prosecution of Bridger.
The office implied that because of the pre-trial publicity of the huge costs of Operation Tempura costs, jurors might find Bridger guilty to make amends for the hefty bill. But Liebaers said not only do the records contain no information on the costs but the general public in Cayman is already well aware of the Tempura price tag, which is even more reason why the documents should all be released.
“It could certainly be argued that the high costs of Operation Tempura actually increase the need for transparency and openness, since there is an elevated need for government accountability where expenses are very high, as is the case here,” he noted. He added that if Bridger was charged, the record would be required in court to support his defence.
Bridger has previously stated that he quickly learned that Desmond Seals and Anthony Ennis were not in a corrupt relationship but he did have concerns about what he believed was a break-in to a newspaper’s office sanctioned by police top brass, which caused him to begin delving deeper into the RCIPS.
However, questions remain about which senior officials here and abroad were telling Bridger the truth.
Kim, write the book, it could be a best seller………………… Speedy
Btw, CNS, given that it seems that Caribbean News Now picks up your stories, I wonder if you noticed today’s headline that refers to the Tempura probe as a “corruption” investigation. I don’t think that reflects a true understanding of Tempura. We have quite enough corruption, thank you.
The probe was initially prompted by the so-called staff break in, as it turned out that there was no collusion between the senior RCIPS officer and Desmond Seales. Bridger had soon abandoned that investigation upon which he was completely taken in by the wily Seales.
The so-called break in was a direct outcome of Seales’ lying to his staff in a cover story about how he had certain information that could only have come from the RCIPS “Gold Command.” That information had actually resulted from an awful error by the RCIPS PR officer who had inadvertently emailed minutes from a meeting and who had immediately tried to recall it when she realised the error. Other media complied, but that was too much to ask of Seales, who then had to devise a cover story — triggering this whole holy mess.
And the sad thing is that the staff members were in reality perfect examples of whistle blowers who really distinguished themselves among all the sorry players in his costly debacle in going about their concerns in the right way. They had gone to the police with their fears and had then been inveigled into conducting an RCIPS-sanctioned search. That would have been a perfectly legitimate cover operation had the RCIPS themselves done so with the permission of the Governor. That permission must have been given by the Governor, despite his denials, and had fears been realised, the courageous actions of the staffers would hardly have resulted in much notice by the Courts if it had come to that.
Sorry to go down this road again, but Tempura just keeps coming back like a bad penny. New people reading reports may actually think Tempura was a legitimate probe, particularly when it is attributed glib words such as “corruption.”
Whilst I appreciate the comment I wouldn’t say my actions were courageous – daft is probably a better description. If I’d known about Martin Bridger’s CIB3 background at the time (it was well-documented and I should have checked) my response to their request for cooperation would have been very different.
What is interesting is the relationship that developed between Bridger and Desmond Seales after Tempura went public in March 2008. Seales became a trusted informant. During the post-Henderson fiasco news blackout in late 2008/early 2009 Seales was still not only in regular contact with Bridger but was publishing editorials praising the investigation.
Over 1-3 October 2008 Net News was even allowed to publish a series of editorials attacking the credibility of crown witnesses and the reputation of the accused – all in complete contempt of the Grand Court. When I complained about this Bridger’s deputy, Richard Coy, indicated that Seales was too valuable to them to do anything about it.
During Lyndon’s trial Net News deliberately misreported proceedings on at least two occasions and it was only after I threatened to go to the Judge (in a very heated phone call to Anne Lawrence on 3 September 2009!) that someone apparently intervened.
Sadly, we’ll never fully understand how much this relationship drove Tempura onwards but I know for a fact that they were investigating several old Net News ‘tips’ that we’d long ago established were rubbish. Our investigations had shown that most of them simply involved personal issues between the people concerned and Seales.
Along the same lines I’m also convinced that Seales was the force behind the Henderson arrest, using Tempura to settle an old score with the Judge. Certainly his identification of Anthony Ennis to me as a source now appears to have been completely malicious and just retaliation for attempts by the Deputy Commissioner to sue Net News for libel over a story questioning RCIPS recruiting standards.
To John Evans, the “courageous” epithet was to the whistle blowing before Tempura, not with regard to speaking with Bridger.
And, yes, the whole way in which Bridger had been so completely been fooled by Seales is just an incredible and despicable part of this story.
Drsmond was a master manipulator and Bridger fell into the trap — was clearly out smarted — duped really — by Desmond.
Digger and others- please just go away!
I see that Caribbean News Now has continued undeterred in another headline today to refer to the now vastly discredited Tempura investigation as a “corruption probe” despite the only corruption-related aspect having been soon abandoned as being completely non-existent and despite its failed shameful effort to destroy a judge.
By appearing to give credibility to the misconceived travesty, the headline adds insult to injury. This is an example of media’s penchant for sensationalism with little or no evidence.
Why let the facts get in the way of a good story continues to dominate over fairness and integrity.
Tempura has a great deal of positive effects on Cayman and has helped undermine structural corruption.
7:17 What exactly do you mean by ‘structural corruption’?
9:17 Isn’t that something old buildings suffer from?
Those who need to know know.
9:17 It’s the title of Numb3rs season 1, episode 4 and it doesn’t actually mean anything. The OP is a troll.
If RCIPS are indeed investigating allegations ‘that Bridger may have pressed on with the probe for his own advantage’ I’d be very interested because Commissioner Baines has so far ignored all the evidence I’ve sent him of this over the past five years and RCIPS have made no attempt to interview me about it.
In October 2007 the Tempura team concluded that the allegations against Desmond Seales and Anthony Ennis had no substance. I was one of the people present during the discussion, one of the others is currently a Chief Inspector with the Met. Despite this, in January 2008 John Yates, in a move that was never revealed to the Auditor General and was only admitted by the Met in 2011, contracted BGP Global and several un-named retired Met officers to run an expanded investigation. The revised staffing was required because after dismissing the Seales/Ennis allegations the team had gone on a ‘fishing’ exercise looking for other things to investigate. I was asked to provide them with details of any stories that I was working on that might merit a criminal investigation. I had two, both involving allegations that a senior RCIPS officer interfered with evidence, which were passed onto Tempura in November/December 2007 but nothing happened.
In April 2008 Martin Bridger retired from the Met and, under the name MMB Associate Consultants, headed the team of three retired Met officers who worked alongside BGP. Two of those bought in were apparently IT/communications experts who worked on cell phone intercepts and accessed emails but it has never been clear what they were actually investigating. The details of their rather impressive income are included in the 2009 audit of Tempura.
In 2010 lawyers employed by the Met Police supplied me with copies of confidential communications between the Met and the FCO. These showed that the Met was fully engaged in what became Operation Tempura on 31 August 2007 – three days before I searched Desmond Seales’ office.
The bottom line is that everyone involved in Tempura must have realised the investigation was going nowhere by the beginning of November 2007 but carried on regardless. The prosecutions of Lyndon Martin and Rudi Dixon were little more than show trials intended to try and rescue Tempura after the Henderson fiasco.
I’ve been pushing for a public inquiry into Tempura since September 2009 and frankly I don’t believe RCIPS are engaged in, or have been engaged in, any investigations into the conduct of Martin Bridger or anyone else involved. Three years ago I submitted evidence to the Auditor General Alistair Swarbrick that his predecessor had been lied to during the 2009 audit. Despite this, he refused to re-open or complete the audit and the FCO advised me to forget it.
This is smoke and mirrors.
Sing like a CANARY John Evans, let the world know what the truth is. Those at the top of the RCIPS and their overseas cronies are guilty as you have exposed. Keep singing, we are listening. The truth will prevail, lies and corruption stinks.
John, is there any chance that you can write out the story in its entirety (at least the parts that can be published), from your point of view and have CNS publish it? As a reader who is unfamiliar with many elements of this story, it makes it very difficult to piece together and therefore understand. Similarly, there may be many out there who most likely feel the same. This story is obviously interesting… Thanks.
2:20 If you go back in the CNS archives it’s all there, including my response to the verdict in Lyndon’s 2009 trial. I’m now 10 days into official retirement in the UK and the 3000-odd words it would take to even summarise this fiasco isn’t going to happen unless someone is willing to pay me a decent word rate for the story.
You would think that retirement is the perfect time to write your story. Ummh, no, I doubt anyone is willing to pay you a decent anything – it’s interesting, but not that interesting…
One just has to continue to shake one’s head. To think that so many millions have been spent and continue to be spent so needlessly and all because of one crafty fox (who else but the late Desmond Seales) at the centre of this whole thing trying his usual street-wise sleight of hand. Finally pulled one fast hand too many. Then in walks Bridger, a sort of Alice in wonderland, layering on his own game — the plumb was too great to resist — and what a fiasco! And then on all the stops along the way, we have all these public servants who seemed paralised from doing the right thing — exactly what their job requires of them.
And that paralysis and inertia, so clearly an indictment of the ethos of the lumbering public service, could not have been more clearly demonstrated by “the Governor knows” advice from one senior civil servant to another — another trigger point of this spectacle.
The old saying that actions speak louder than words could not be truer than in this case. We can talk a lot about integrity, Justice, truth, but when we had the opportunity to demonstrate it in actions, we failed. That shows what we are at the core and it is a terrible revelation of organizational deceitfulness.
Preach the sermon Mr Evans. They all got promotions and huge payoffs for the world of blunder they brought on these islands. God bless the British corruption investigators.