PADDICK BACKERS ANGRY AT MET MOVE

The Metropolitan police has officially closed the door on Brian Paddick
returning to his job as commander of Lambeth by appointing him to another
post and signalling that he will not be able to return to the south London
borough even if he is cleared of allegations that he smoked cannabis, the
Guardian has learned.

The move to a less high profile position in a new department was sanctioned
by the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir John Stevens, and his deputy,
Ian Blair.

Their decision will infuriate Mr Paddick's supporters because it pre-empts
the findings of the crown prosecution service, which is expected to
announce within 48 hours that the officer who pioneered the "softly softly"
drugs strategy will not face criminal charges relating to claims in a "kiss
and tell" story published in a Sunday tabloid.

The choice of job for Mr Paddick has also raised eyebrows within the Met.
He has been appointed joint number three of a new intelligence unit, even
though he has limited experience in the field.

The department is to be headed by Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur,
the country's most senior Asian of ficer. Below him will be Deputy
Assistant Commissioner Mike Fuller, the country's most senior black officer.

Mr Fuller will be the direct line manager to Mr Paddick, the country's most
senior openly gay officer. None of them has recent experience in
intelligence work. Mr Ghaffur is currently head of the Met's directorate of
performance, review and standards, and Mr Fuller is in charge of the Met's
drugs strategy.

"They are all highly talented officers, but this could be a case of the
blind leading the blind, leading the blind," said one source.

The trio will be part of a team responsible for implementing an information
sharing system known as the national intelligence model, a task that is
regarded as one of the most complex in policing.

The decision to block Mr Paddick's return to Lambeth, though, is likely to
spark the most immediate controversy and will be a focal point of a rally
demanding his reinstatement, which is being staged at the end of the month.

The commander has consistently denied allegations by his partner of five
years, James Renolleau, who said in the Mail on Sunday that the officer
smoked cannabis and allowed it to be stored at the flat they shared during
their five-year relationship. Mr Paddick has admitted being present when
his former partner smoked the drug and was questioned by detectives about
whether he broke police guidelines by not telling his superiors that Mr
Renolleau was on bail for an alleged fraud offence when they met.

The officer was moved from Lambeth pending an investigation by the police
complaints authority, whose report on the matter is now being considered by
the CPS. The furore led the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, to say that
Mr Paddick had been the victim of a "profoundly intrusive homophobic press
campaign".

The Mail on Sunday paid Mr Renolleau UKP100,000 for his story and it is
believed that he offered investigators from the PCA no evidence to support
his claims of drug use.

If CPS lawyers decide there are no grounds to press charges against Mr
Paddick, the Metropolitan police authority will convene a committee to
decide whether he should be disciplined.

Rather than wait, and fearing more controversy if he returned to south
London, the Met's most senior officer decided last week to press ahead with
a plan to move Mr Paddick permanently.

The decision to act now also pre-empts a report by an independent firm of
management consultants, which is being paid UKP60,000 to review the ranking
and borough structure of the force.

Last month Lee Jasper, chairman of the Lambeth police consultative
committee, said Mr Paddick enjoyed "unprecedented levels of support from
the Lambeth community.

"The sooner [he] is back behind his desk in Brixton the better for all of
us," he added.