We have been too busy protecting ourselves from terrorist attack to investigate corruption within our society.
[Robert Jay QC, counsel to the Leveson inquiry] said [detective chief superintendent Philip] Williams could have gone to a magistrates' court and told the judge of a "a pathetic response to our letter" to News International solicitors Burton Copeland and won a production order forcing the publisher to hand over key evidence.
Williams told the inquiry repeatedly that this would have involved a "step change" in the scale of the investigation and that in August 2006 the team, whose main business was anti-terrorism, was under enormous pressure because of the threat of a terrorist attack on several planes around the UK.
Superintendent Williams apparently believed it would be a 'step change' if he employed legal means to compel the disclosure of documents he had already requested from News International solicitors. One wonders what he would have done if they had actually met his request. No wonder he needed to repeat himself.
