07/03/2014 Newsnight

Evidence of a possible cover-up within the Met police. A document

obtained by the BBC suggests records of a link between an allegedly

corrupt officer and another murder investigation. Tonight, we ask if

this is a new low for the force. Was this the inventor of Bitcoin?

REPORTER: Why did you quit Bitcoin, Sir? No questions right now. He

claims he had nothing to do with the cryptocurrency. So why are some

still convinced he was behind it? And, a porn business aimed at women.

The burgeoning new industry that comes from Japan.

Good evening. The BBC has seen evidence of a possible cover-up

within The Met Police concerning an allegedly corrupt officer linked to

the murder case of Stephen Lawrence. Well, today the Met Commissioner

insisted he could restore trust in the force, but this evening,

documents have emerged suggesting claims the Met police force made

just last month could be wrong. Jim Reed has been following the

developments. There have been other dramatic days

in the 21 years since Stephen Lawrence was murdered. For The Met

Police though, the last 48-hours have been some of the most difficult

in its recent history. This is an awful outcome, a terrible

day yesterday where obviously the results of Mark Ellison QC's

inquiry's told us some pretty awful things about the past. So what I've

got to do obviously is to make sure people are trusting the Met met, the

Met of today and the Met of the future. I feel for the family, I saw

yesterday they tried to talk about it. Long ago, historic in the past.

The Met Police commissioner might like to see this as a problem not of

his making. The confirmation of his force, the SC squad tried to -- SCS

squad tried to spy on the Lawrence family. He's simply deflected or

sought to deflect the criticism that's been laid fairly and squarely

at his feet elsewhere. It smacks of somebody not trying to go forward

but looking back and simply looking at it from an emotional point of

view. And tonight, there are new allegations of a possible police

cover-up concerning an allegedly corrupt officer limped to the

Lawrence investigation. -- linked. There are three major questions as

things stand, that still loom large for the Met. First up, who knew

what? Former SDS officers used to gather here at a safe house on this

quiet residential street in North London in. 1993, the year that

Stephen Lawrence was killed, it's claimed Britain's top police officer

calm to play them a visit. The then Commissioner of The Met row poll tan

police, Commissioner Condon, is said to have handed over a bottle of

whisky as a thank you for all their hard work. One former SDS member

said senior officers at the Met were well aware of the unit's general

role. I personally had Lord Condon came

out to visit us. He's denied meeting me, but his diary probably documents

it. I asked, is this a special event, the Commissioner coming out

and I was informed, no, every single Met Commissioner has met the SDS

since its formation, so surely every single commissioner bares some

responsibility for this unit that was there. So it's impossible that

senior management didn't know what was going on? If they are going to

call me a liar, that's the only definite scenario, but no.

In a statement today, Lord Condon denied he ever knew about any action

by undercover officers in connection to the Lawrence case. Had he done,

he claims he would have stopped the action immediately. The next

question - did the actions of undercover officers undermine the

first public inquiry into the Lawrence case led by Sir William

Macpherson? Today, this man, the Head of Scotland Yard's Counter

Terrorism Command, was temporarily moved from his post. The Ellison

Review, publish yesterday, said Richard Walton was part of the

police team involved in drafting the final written submissions to the

Macpherson Inquiry. Ahead of that, he met up with a police spy in the

Lawrence camp, known as N81, calling it a fascinating and valuable ex

change. His account was found to be less than straightforward to

establish and somewhat troubling. Finally, what of separate

allegations of police corruption? The claim this man, Detective

Sergeant John Davidson, was being paid off by the father of one

Stephen Lawrence's murderers. The BBC's seen evidence tonight that

Davidson was named in another case involving possible police

corruption, the murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan. Last

month, Scotland Yard were saying it had no record of his involvement in

that investigation. What we need to be reassured about

is that the culture of policing is fundamentally honest. This sort of

misconduct and scandal, it cannot take place today and if it does, it

will be revealed, it will be exposed. I think that's what the

public need to be reassured about, that things really have changed.

The Lawrence case might be historic. It might be 21 years old. But it

will take more than words from The Met Police to convince its critics

all its problems really are in the past.

That was Jim Reed and Lord Paddick, the former deputy asssistant

Commissioner of The Met joins me now from York. Lord Paddick, good

evening. Let's start with what we have learned then. Evidence that Mr

Davidson was named nine times in those documents about another murder

investigation when the Met said it had no record of that last month.

How do you respond to that? Well, I don't know. Your report says

that Davidson may have possibly been involved. That's slightly weaker

than he was definitely involved. I don't know what documents you've

seen, I don't know what documents the Met base their response on, but

clearly it doesn't look very good. What we've seen is the documents

that names him and those are documents that the Met said just

last month they had no record of him being linked to at all.

Well, as you say, I don't know on what basis the Met made that

statement. I don't know what evidence they had that made them say

that, compared with the evidence that you now have in your

possession. It's a very unfair question for me to say, what the

Met's motivation was, because I don't know what evidence they had at

that time. Sure. Let's look at Mr Hogan Howe who, as we heard in that

report, has been talking about the past and talking about these

thingses happening a long time ago. Would you feel confident that this

is all history or would you worry that this was still ongoing?

What I would be confident of is, if you are a member of the public and

you are a victim of crime or you dial 999, you can trust 99.9% of the

police officers who might turn up when you call for help, not just in

London, but across the country. The overwhelming majority of police

officers are decent, hard-working people who are trying to do the best

for them. They will be in despair at the revelations that we have seen

over the last couple of days. So when you say despair, do you think

we are making too much of the stories that are emerging in these

days of alleged police corruption? Clearly any police corruption is

going to affect how the public view the whole of the Police Service.

What I'm saying is, we need to get these things into perspective.

There's a world of difference between the special demonstrations

squad who never believe that they would have to reveal their real

identity to anybody, therefore they felt they could do whatever they

wanted to and they would never be held publicly to account. There is a

world of difference between that and undercover officers who're working

against terrorists and other people involved in organised crime who're

saving people's lives because of the work they are dog and putting their

own lives on the line -- the work they are doing. Ordinary officers

who perform duty every day to try and keep us safe. We have got to get

things into perspective. Clearly, if you have got a senior officer at

Scotland Yard in charge of Counter-Terrorism who Ellison says

he has his doubts about, then clearly the commissioner's done the

right thing in temporarily moving that officer away from such a very

sensitive position. And do you think that the public can

still have confidence that Bernard Hogan Howe is the right person to

lead the Met given that the day after he called it the worst

revelation, the worst day of his life, worse revelations have come

out? Well, your report talks about possible links may have been between

the officer of DS Davidson involved in the Lawrence case and him being

in some way involved possibly in the Morgan case. Now, that to me at the

moment doesn't sound very strong. If it turns out that the Met has misled

the public over something in recent days under Bernard Hogan Howe's

watch, then clearly that is a far more serious issue. In that case we

need to find out what did he know? Did he allow the Met to mislead the

public if that's what's happened. If that was the case, that would be

fatal for him. Thank you very much indeed.

There've probably been better starts to a spring can everyones than this

one. In the early hours the Liberal Democrats were beaten into last

place at a council by election by their Bus Pass Elvis party whose key

pledge is to legalise brothels with a discount for OAPs. Caught in a

trap? We are not going to dwell on one result in Clifton North

Nottingham. The party has suffered consistency

in the polls. The Lib Dems will set out an in or out choice on Europe

for as they take on UKIP. We'll talk to Tim Farron in a moment after a

reminder of how they are faring. We thought we'd give the Liberal

Democrats a health check. Since June 2010, the percentage of people

intending to vote Lib Dem has fallen from 21 to 9%. The Tory vote 29 to

34% while Labour's risen from 32 to 38%. UKIP has had a big leap from

22010%. Voters don't seem that happy with

Nick Clegg. He scores the lowest on satisfaction ratings as party leader

with just 25% compared with 31% for both Ed Miliband and Nigel Farage

and 37% for David Cameron. Nick Clegg's diminished stature has

been reflected in the numbers willing to pay to join. Party

membership's fallen from 65,000 in 2010 to 43,000, although they had a

slight increase last year. That's not just a Lib Dem problem though.

Labour membership fell from 193,000 to 188,000, Tory from 177,000 to

134,000, only UKIP were the big winners with a rise from 15,000 to

32,000. Partly as a result of this, the

party's finances are somewhat underweight. The Lib Dems spent ?6.4

million but the income was just ?6.2 million, leaving them badly

out-of-pocket. What ideas of the party's brains come up with for the

2015 manifesto? Among the front runners with a mansion tax on homes

worth over ?2 million, a raid on pensions limiting tax free savings

to ?1 million and an increase in the personal tax allowance to an

expected ?10,500 or more. Will this be enough to ensure Nick Clegg is

fit for the fight? We'll see. We are going to be talking to Tim

Farron, the Lib Dem President in a moment, but first, let's bring you

our next report. Pornography, let's be frank, belongs more often to a

man's world. In Japan, the industry's moving in the opposite

direction. They are increasingly directly make porn films aimed at a

female audience with male porn stars treated like rock stars. Here is

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes. In Tokyo, empty apartments double as

film sets. Young people aspire to be film stars. This vast city is now

the porn capital of the world. This woman is one of thousands of young

Japanese women who every year flock to join its ranks.

As many as 20,000 adult movies are made in Tokyo every year.

Traditionally, Japanese porn has had its fair share of the extreme and

the bizarre. But this new generation, film makers is aiming at

a new market. Women. Ellie is 30 and went to film school. She says

women's appetite for porn is being driven by frustration with men.

Shoko and her co star film all morning.

Women viewers are increasingly seen as a vast untapped market. One

recent survey suggests one in five Japanese women regularly watch porn.

They want to see sex, but also I want thatcy.

-- intimacy. Another big change is the promotion of male stars. The

real star of this shoot is Itetsu. It's him the female viewers want to

see and it's him the photographer lingers on. This 35-year-old is the

first male porn actor in Europe Japan to become a really big star.

Ultimately, this isn't just about changing tastes. All over the world,

people are watching porn for free on the Internet, the old business model

is broken. Anni has been a porn actress for

three years. She says it's getting harder and harder for anyone to make

money. Many people watch porn for free, so actresses have to work

harder. They have to shoot longer so it's very, very hard. The fee is

getting less. It's a completely different thing to 20 years ago.

Right now, Anni is a big star. Her videos sell thousands of copies.

She's constantly on the road promoting her films. She's opening

up new markets in China where she has a million followers on its

version of Twitter. Even in China, 40% of her fans are women.

Many, many promoting events all the time and they need to keep the

relationship with the fans. We have to have this blog, Twitter and

everything. I think they are looking for another way to sell the videos

these days. For Ittetsu, that means doing a lot of this.

Building the brand. For Japan's biggest male porn star, taking your

clothes off in front of the fans' cameras is a big part of the job

too. It's called "added value" but the

goal is just the same, to get the fans to part with their money.

The industry's betting with up with are much more willing to pay for

porn than men. These fans are lining up to meet four of their favourite

male stars. They are paying for a 30-second chat, hand shake and

signed DVD and it really is 30-seconds.

Ten years ago, this scene would have been unthinkable. But Japanese women

appear more open than ever about exploring their sexual fantasies.

I think the future is in females because more and more women are more

confident to talk about intimate life and they are more curious. I

think the future is women. If the porn industry has a future,

then it has to find customers who're willing to pay for its products.

That used to be men alone in their bedrooms. But in Tokyo, it looks

like the future of porn will be increasingly female.

Now, Tim Farron has just popped up from the Lib Dems Spring Conference.

I'm not going to ask you about Japanese porn, you will be relieved

to hear. I know tomorrow you kick off with a shuningt of an in-out

referendum on Europe in the May elections? Yes, the European

elections are on May 22nd and offer people a genuine choice. Politics is

stage and managerial and who you vote for can often be very blurred

on messages. Two parties have a clear message - if you want to leave

the European Union, risk those three million jobs and peace and security

and our ability to catch criminals across borders, you should vote

UKIP, they are the clear party. If you think Britain's future is best

within the European Union, fighting for those jobs and for the recovery

of our economy with it, alongside our neighbours in Europe, then you

vote Liberal Democrat. Labour or Tory, that would be a wasted vote.

I'm thinking that ten years ago, your ambition was to Jeffers take

the Tories, now it seems you are battling with UKIP, that's a bit of

a comedown -- was to -- overtake the Tories. It's very right that Nick

Clegg's decided to put the challenge down to Nigel Farage which he has

accepted and I will say that so far as I am concerned, UKIP's position

is utterly wrong and against Britain's interests but it's at

least clear and you know what you are getting if you vote for them and

also Liberal Democrat, are you in or are you out. That's the choice

people need to make in May. You said it doesn't matter where you come in

the elections. One pollster could see you losing all 12 seats. Would

you say that didn't matter? Of course it does. It matters that we

do as well as we possibly can and for the future of Britain's

relationship with our friends and neighbours in Europe with the

protection of the three million jobs and our ability to catch criminals

and for sustaining peace and security within our continent, it's

really important to stay in the European Union. What is the message

that would come out of the European elections on 22nd May. If UKIP have

done well, the message will be to businesses in this country and

outside, you'd better leave Britain. There is no future because you are

no longer going to be part of that important market. If the Liberal

Democrats do well in May, the message will be the opposite. I want

to look further afield because the Liberal Democrats have had a rocky

few months. The Lord Rennard scandal, was that badly handled? If

he turned up in York, would he be welcome? I don't think it's been

badly handled in the last few months. It was badly handled over

the last decade. The reality is that I think the party in not dealing

with the issue years ago when it appeared to a few people did not do

a service either to Lord Rennard or to the people who complained. Since

it's come to our attention broadly a year ago, it's clear that we have

dealt with it during. Would he be welcome if he turned up there today?

He's not a party member at the moment, his membership is currently

suspended as the investigation continues.

How did the Tories handle the Patrick Rock allegations? Do you

think their fared better? I mean, I think these are all grubby things

for us to comment on as media stories. The fact is, the issue has

been a far more serious one and more appalling one and it's important

that those things that are potentially involved there and all

these things are important to be underlined by saying people are

innocent unless proven proven guilty that, it's wrong for us to be trying

to score any political points one way or another, just as I thought it

was grubby ov the Harriet Harman situation a few weeks ago. You use

the word "grubby" and one of the problems I guess the Liberal

Democrats have with the voters is the whole manifesto question that

whatever you say after the tuition fees looks like an empty pledge.

Does that mean there'll be nothing really in your manifesto going

forward or that you have to make sure you stuck to your promises? I

do accept that the fees issue's always about trust because a new

policy is far better than the Labour one it replaced in terms of being

fairer to students from better off backgrounds. This whole issue of

trust is important. But let's not overdo it. We got 9% of the seats in

Parliament, 23% of the votes in the election and got 65% of our

manifesto promises such as the tax cut for 24 million lowest paid

people in this country. If a party with 9% of the MPs and 23% of the

the vote had got 1010% of the manifesto through which is what you

are suggesting we should have done, that would be a matter for the

United Nations, a travel else the I of democracy. We got two thirds of

what we promised the electorate done, despite less than a quarter

voting for us. Tim Farron, thank you very much indeed. Despite our best

efforts, for a second night we are unable to speak to the journalist

who broke the Bitcoin story. The Sochi Paralympics opening ceremony

was full of the usual pomp but it may be remembered for who didn't

turn up. Prince Edward pulled out. The British Government refused the

invitation and, when the countries paraded their flags around the

arena, the Ukrainian Paralympic team chose to sit it out, leaving the

flag bearer on his own. The team said they want to compete to remind

the world what is happening in their country under the presence of

Russian troops. Earlier, I spoke to Bogdana Matsotska, an Al pyre

Skinner who boycotted the games on Friday 21th February after 30

protesters were shot dead in Kiev. -- Alpine skier. Tell us why you

chose to pull out of the Olympics, Bogdana Matsotska? I'm training a

lot, four years for this Paralympics and it was a really hard decision

for me and my dad because he's my coach. But after we saw just on TV

and received the messages what's going on in Ukraine and then we have

all out war, it was so... The feelings were that we could not do

it another way. It was the right decision at that moment I think. I

feel the thing that I did, we did, was the right decision. What was the

reaction from your team-mates, the rest of the Ukraine team when you

told them? They were surprised actually, like "oh, what, come on,

we are competing and training a lot and you just want to recognise all

your job what you have done before", but, you know, everybody have their

own minds and I cannot tell them to do something and they cannot tell me

what I need to do. Did it have the ever fact you were

hoping it would have? I was surprised when the newspapers or the

channels started to call on me and to offer me. I was just thinking

that, you know, I'm... I cannot do things another way. When it started

all around the world, it was the chance to tell the all of the world

what is going on in Ukraine. Do you think the Ukrainian team should be

at the Paralympics now? Come on, guys. Now the Crimea, they

want to take Crimea to part of Ukraine and they just put the

soldiers in my country and after this you want to compete in this

country, it's insane, but they have their own minds. I cannot tell them.

Have you said that to them? Have you made those views felt? No. No. They

have on the shoulder there, so they can do what they want and what they

think is right. What did you make of the ceremony

today when the Ukrainian flag carrier was the only one

representing Ukraine? From one side I'm really happy that

the people understand and it's also the message to all the world because

we need help, you know, Russia is big country and now it's difficult

situation. I don't know, I have lots of feeling, I cannot explain it all,

you know, it's really hard to tell it, but I hope that all this things

what's going on now just end and finally we'll get a new government

with the Ukrainian Ukraine, you know. Bogdana Matsotska speaking to

me earlier from Ukraine and sadly, that's all we have time for, but

from all of us here, good night, have a good weekend.

Hello. It's going to be a grey start to