Inquiry report ‘speaks for itself’, McGrail says

Former police Commissioner Ian McGrail said the Inquiry report vindicated a position he had maintained for over five years and “speaks for itself”.

Speaking during a press conference alongside his lawyers on Tuesday afternoon, Mr McGrail said he had maintained a “consistent and honest account” of the “flagrant abuse of processes” he was subjected to, “seeded with, I dare say, a great deal of malice”.

“I was muscled out from post in the most grossly improper fashion after having devoted nearly 36 years of loyal service to Gibraltar and the Crown,” said in the statement.

“My reputation and dignity were at stake and many of you will no doubt accept this is a very important matter for any person, more so when one knows they are being treated in the most unfair and unlawful of ways.”

“I am very pleased, in fact extremely pleased, that having gone through the copious amount of evidence, Sir Peter Openshaw has ruled in my favour.”

“Equally, I humbly respect the criticisms he ruled on that concerned me.”

He highlighted key findings made by Inquiry chairman Sir Peter Openshaw in the report, including:

• That Mr McGrail had not lied to the Chief Minister as Mr Picardo was repeatedly alleging in many forums including the oral hearings;

• That Mr McGrail provided timely information to the Chief Minister on the collision at sea contrary to what Mr Picardo was claiming;

• That Sir Peter did not find that Mr McGrail was evasive to the interim Governor, or that he deliberately misled him;

• That Sir Peter found Mr McGrail was “forced out” and retired because of “improper pressure” over a live criminal investigation;

• That Mr Picardo made “grossly improper” and “sinister” interventions in that investigation;

• That Mr Picardo “deliberately and cynically” misled the Gibraltar Police Authority and that the GPA process was “defective” and “unfair”, and that this was a key reason why Mr McGrail retired.

“When I took up office as Commissioner of Police this was certainly not the type of legacy that I would have imagined would mark my service in the RGP as Commissioner,” Mr McGrail said.

“However, the findings made by Sir Peter Openshaw should be strongly considered as an important legacy which inherently protects the independence of the police going forward under the Gibraltar Constitution.”

Charles Gomez, one of the former Commissioner’s lawyers, said that in many decades of legal practice, he had never witnessed such an incident of “singular gravity”.

“It was, I feared, an event that would come to be recorded as among the most ignominious episodes in Gibraltar’s modern constitutional history and a stain on our Constitutional system and the Rule of Law,” he said.

“The casual brutality of the process, now revealed to have been undertaken at the direction of the Chief Minister by which the Crown’s principal law enforcement officer was marked for destruction, had something dark and surreal about it.”

He added: “It was, in short, a betrayal of the values that our Gibraltar has long claimed as our inheritance: British, European, and constitutional.”

He reflected on the arduous experience for Mr McGrail and his family, praising his resilience and adding “it has not broken him”.

“On the contrary, his resolve has unsettled those accustomed to obedience from submissive subordinates and acquiescence from the vulnerable,” Mr Gomez said.

“His refusal to submit quietly to injustice plainly came as a shock to men more familiar with command than with accountability.”

Mr Gomez said constitutional safeguards, checks and balances “were conspicuous by their absence” and that Mr McGrail had been subjected to “a feeding frenzy”.

“If the Commissioner of the Royal Gibraltar Police can be dealt with in this fashion, the citizens of Gibraltar may reasonably ask what protections remain for them should they fall foul of the powerful,” he said.

Gibraltar, he added, owed a debt of gratitude to Mr McGrail.

Asked why he thought Sir Peter Openshaw had not recommended an apology or redress for Mr McGrail, Mr Gomez said “you would have to ask him”, but noted too that the Inquiry was “not a court of law” and that this was “not necessarily a matter for an Inquiry to reflect on, and he decided not to”.

He was reluctant to be drawn on what should happen next but said that, alongside an apology, the seriousness of the findings relating to the Chief Minister could mean “resignation might be the way to proceed”.

Adam Wagner, a UK King’s Counsel who led Mr McGrail’s representation during the Inquiry hearings, said the former Commissioner had “carried the rule of law and police independence on his shoulders”.

“This report is a total vindication for Ian McGrail,” he said.

“There is no better sign of this than the fact that Sir Peter Openshaw’s findings reflect almost precisely the allegations which Ian McGrail made as far back as May 2020.”

He said Mr McGrail was owed “a very significant apology” but “disgracefully” none had been forthcoming.

He said the Chief Minister and the Government of Gibraltar “extraordinarily appear to be attempting to escape accountability”.

“This is not just dishonourable, it is also dangerous because no lessons can be learned until they take responsibility for what happened,” he added.