On Sunday 2nd August, a former regional chief prosecutor alleged that his request for an investigation into lockdown breaches by Dominic Cummings were “rejected”.
Nazir Afzal, former north-west chief crown prosecutor questioned the impartiality of Durham police, the Met and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and in an interview to The Guardian stated that the police and his successors had “closed ranks” on the issue. According to him, they had ignored the “deep public concern” over Cummings’ trip to Durham and Barnard Castle in late March.
Cummings has insisted that he had acted reasonably and legally after driving 260 miles from his home to Durham during lockdown. Prime minister’s chief aide left for Durham on the day his wife showed coronavirus symptoms and when he admitted there was a “distinct probability” he had already caught the virus too.
According to media reports, Afzal and his lawyers have now began preparing a dossier of evidence on Cummings’ lockdown movements at the height of the pandemic. They have also issued an appeal to the public for help in compiling it. They have also asked Durham police to reopen its investigation into Cummings movements in the county, claiming its initial three-day probe was “short, narrow and limited”.
Both police forces and the CPS have now rejected the request. Explaining its decision, in letter to Afzal, the Met said, “It would not be prudent for resources to be spent on the same or similar allegations.”
Earlier, this month, the former chief constable of Durham, Mike Barton, said Cummings’ behaviour had made it more difficult for officers to enforce the rules and that his name had been cited by some as an excuse for law-breaking. He said, “If the public don’t think the police are operating in a fair and impartial way, you won’t get their trust and you won’t get their support.”
Afzal’s solicitor, Mike Schwarz, a partner at the firm Hodge Jones & Allen, in a statement to The Guardian said, “We appeal to any witness who can shed light on Mr Cummings’ activities, especially in March and April, to come forward. We are driven by what others should be doing – compiling a dossier of evidence and making our own assessment as to whether a prosecution should follow and presenting it to the director of public prosecutions.”
Afzal’s older brother Umar died of coronavirus when he was self-isolating at home on 8th April.
