Met boss faces 'humiliating' legal battle with Yates of Yard after 'email slur' sent to high-ranking figures

• Met chief Bernard Hogan-Howe sent  strongly worded memo mentioning former Assistance Commissioner John Yates
• He is said to have 'hit the roof' and is instructing libel lawyers to represent him

By Stephen Wright

PUBLISHED: 16:50 EST, 24 October 2012 | UPDATED: 17:01 EST, 24 October 2012

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe is facing difficult questions over the email

Britain's most senior policeman is facing the humiliating prospect of having to pay libel damages to one of Scotland Yard’s former top officers.

Met chief Bernard Hogan-Howe emailed a strongly worded memo mentioning ex-counter terrorism chief John Yates to influential figures in the Home Office and Foreign Office.

Hundreds of the Met’s senior and middle-ranking officers  also received the memo in April this year.

Mr Yates, who resigned as  Assistant Commissioner in July last year in the wake of the hacking scandal, was said to have ‘hit the roof’ when he heard what had been written about him.

He has now instructed libel lawyers to represent him and is seeking exoneration and redress from Mr Hogan-Howe.

A legal battle with Mr Yates, now an international policing adviser,  would be a major embarrassment for the Met chief, whose no- nonsense management style has divided opinion at the Yard.

Since taking charge last September, Mr Hogan-Howe has demanded the highest standards of his officers but was last night facing difficult questions about how the dispute with Mr Yates developed.

The Met refused to discuss the legal stand-off and whether public money would be used for costs and pay-outs made to settle the case.

Mr Yates, who became known as Yates of the Yard during his police career, took exception to remarks made about him by Mr Hogan-Howe in the April memo.

At the time, Mr Yates was working as senior policing adviser to the controversial Bahrain government.

During a demonstration about human rights abuses outside the Bahrain embassy in London, he called Scotland Yard’s press bureau from the Middle East asking whether any protesters had climbed on to the roof of the building.

He also asked who was in charge of the policing operation at the embassy. He was told but he did not contact the officer.

Former Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner John Yates was said to have 'hit the roof' when he learned of the email

Mr Hogan-Howe was informed of his call to the press bureau and later emailed a memo, referring to Mr Yates, to the Home Office and the Foreign Office, as well as to many of his officers in the Met.

It is believed the Home Secretary Theresa May and Foreign Secretary William Hague may have seen the correspondence.

According to informed sources, the British ambassador to Bahrain also saw the email.

The exact contents of the memo were not clear last night but it is understood Mr Yates, who recently returned to Britain after completing a short-term contract in Bahrain, ‘hit the roof’ when he was alerted to it.

He has vowed to fight for vindication.

Senior figures in the Home Office will be nervous about the wrangle, and the possibility of a court case involving Mr Hogan-Howe, the man meant to stabilise Scotland Yard after the departures last year of Mr Yates and former Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson.

Mr Yates, once tipped to take over as Met Commissioner, was paid £86,382 in compensation by the force after he resigned.

He was appointed an adviser on police reform to King Hamad of Bahrain in December last year, and moved to the Gulf kingdom to spearhead an overhaul of policing as  officers struggled with a youthful protest movement.

Theresa May, left, and William Hague, right, were both said to have received the email

In April, when the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix took place against a backdrop of protests, Mr Yates appeared on news reports defending the stuttering reform process and describing the unrest as ‘criminal acts’ against ‘unarmed police’.

It was around this time that he contacted the Yard press bureau over the demonstration at the Bahrain embassy in London.

In June this year, Mr Yates accompanied a member of Bahrain’s  ruling family who was entertained at the Foreign Office in London as the international community condemned the Gulf state for its brutal repression of political opponents.

Scotland Yard refused to confirm whether the Commissioner had received a legal complaint from Mr Yates, and whether he was proposing to defend the action or seek a settlement.

A Met spokesman said: ‘We are not prepared to discuss this  matter at this time.’
Mr Yates declined to answer a series of questions.

He said: ‘I am not prepared to discuss these matters whilst negotiations are ongoing.’