At the start of February Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the head of Scotland Yard, said that his force were wrong to automatically believe allegations about a Westminster paedophile ring. He has come under a lot of criticism as a result, including from other high rank police officials such as Vera Baird, the police and crime commissioner for Northumbria, who said “Thousands of victims of sexual abuse have been denied justice through the attitude the Met Commissioner now advocates.”