The chief constable of Essex Police has defended the way his officers handled the investigation into Allison Pearson, the Telegraph journalist, insisting they had behaved “proportionately, fairly and very, very ethically”.
BJ Harrington said the force had received an allegation of crime and had followed all reasonable lines of inquiry before concluding that no offence had been committed.
Pearson, an award winning columnist with The Telegraph, found herself at the centre of a storm last month when police officers turned up at her home on Remembrance Sunday to inform her she was being investigated for allegedly stirring up racial hatred.
The investigation had been sparked following a complaint from a member of the public over a social media post made in November last year.
The officers invited Ms Pearson to a voluntary interview but refused to inform her which post was being investigated or the identity of the person who had made the complaint.
Ms Pearson said she felt ‘vindicated’ but described how the experience of being investigated had been deeply upsetting – Elliott Franks
News of the investigation sparked a huge backlash with critics including Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, describing it as a chilling attack on free speech.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, also weighed into the debate and said responding to tweets should not be the police’s first priority and forces should “concentrate on what matters most to their communities”.
Less than two weeks after visiting Ms Pearson at home Essex Police announced it had closed the criminal investigation as no offence had been identified.
Responding at the time Ms Pearson said she felt “vindicated” but described how the experience had been deeply upsetting.
She said: “I feel angry with Essex Police, I do not believe there was ever any case to answer, I was expressing my opinion in what I thought was a free society.”
The force’s handling of the case is now expected to be subjected to a review.
But speaking to Nick Ferrari on LBC Radio, the Essex Police chief defended the way the matter had been handled.
Mr Harrington said: “All I’d say is, we received an allegation of crime. Officers went round and investigated that crime, proportionately, fairly, and I think very, very ethically.
“We put that evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service. They said there wasn’t evidence to prosecute. And of course, we cancelled that crime… I stand by what they did.”
Mr Harrington said if the public did not want the police to investigate alleged hate crimes then they should seek a change in the law.
He went on: “If people make an allegation of crime to this force, officers will follow up reasonable lines of inquiry to gather the evidence to make a decision if a crime has been committed. We can’t make that decision at the start, and I don’t think the public would expect us to do that.”
Asked if it was legitimate to investigate journalists over free speech matters, he said: “We followed the reasonable line of inquiry. We did that professionally. They did that lawfully. And of course, we follow due process. And that’s what we’ve said all along.
“All the parties have been advised, and at the end of that investigation, I stress at the end of that investigation, we find there was no crime. We can’t make that assumption at the start because that would be wrong for victims of crime.”