Page 19 - Top Cover Issue 9

TOP COVER ISSUE 9 19

TONY’S LONG

JOURNEY TO

‘NOT GUILTY’

WRITTEN BY TONY LONG,
FORMERLY E7

n Saturday the 30th of April 2005 I In the meantime I’d had a now well publicised run in with the
deployed on Operation ‘Tayport’, a MAST Commander in charge of the Met’s Directorate of Professional
job no different to the hundreds I’d been Standards. A national newspaper had written an ill informed article
deployed on before. It was an intelligence about the incident and, with further support from the Federation’s
led, proactive operation set up to frustrate lawyers, were forced to acknowledge fault and I accepted a
the armed robbery of Columbian drug settlement on the understanding that it would be paid not to me
dealers by suspects we believed to be armed but to charities of my choice. One of those was the fledgling PFOA
Owith machine pistols. That intelligence, and I have never regretted it. My job with the FCO had suddenly
combined with his behaviour when confronted by police, caused been snatched away and, with nowhere better to go to, I decided
me to shoot and kill Azelle Rodney, a rival drug dealer who, to stay on with Nineteen until something else came along. The
contrary to lazy reporting in the press and the media, WAS armed. incident had also had a toll on my personal relationship and, while
Ten years, two months and three days later, a jury at the Old I have to accept the majority of the blame, the incident and its
Bailey finally vindicated me. It had been a long and winding route aftermath were certainly contributing factors in its break up.
between those two dates in history and enough has been written In 2008 I was recruited to work with the Police and Military
about the case itself, so this is the story of what happened behind Division of Edgar Brothers and, despite my lack of any form of
the scenes. It’s my story and that of my family, loved ones and business acumen, I resigned from the Met and threw myself into
colleagues that have journeyed with me. Without them and their a commercial career. I enjoyed my work liaising with specialist
unstinting support I doubt I could have maintained my sanity or police and military units around the country but Rodney’s ghost
my dignity. was never far away. Intelligence led, much of my justification for
I’d joined the Met in the mid ‘70s and had crammed a lot into opening fire could not be used as evidence at a coroner’s inquest
my thirty years including two other situations in the ‘80s where I and in 2012, after much deliberation, a Judge-lead public inquiry
had had to open fire. I was due to retire on the 11th of August that was held instead. By this time I’d sat on a jury myself and I
year and I’d been recruited for a well-paid and interesting job with remember feeling relief that my actions would be scrutinized by an
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Selection courses and intelligent Judge and not twelve strangers plucked off the street. I
vetting would follow but that would all depend on a satisfactory couldn’t have been more wrong. In July 2013, 73 year-old retired
result from the IPCC investigation and they didn’t appear to be in High Court Judge Sir Christopher Holland published his damning
any hurry. Scott Ingram, my Federation lawyer, was beside me all conclusions, stating his belief that I had acted unlawfully. My
the way, and has remained so throughout and finally, eight months Federation lawyers tried valiantly for the result to be overturned
later, I received word of their conclusion: they’d found no evidence by a Judicial Review. If we had succeeded, we would have made
of wrong doing and were forwarding the papers to the CPS for legal history but, predictably, the JR supported Holland’s perverse
them to review. I’d been pushing my bosses to reinstate me for assumptions and the IPCC put the matter back into the hands of
months and I was finally put back on full operational duties while the CPS. My split second decision would be studied in detail for
the CPS reviewed the case. It didn’t seem like a big thing to me another year before they would decide to charge me with murder.
at the time but, with the benefit of hindsight, some would say Up to this point, my colleagues on Operation Tayport and I had
that some senior officers, at least, had shown great faith in me by maintained our anonymity and I had been referred to throughout
reinstating me before the CPS had decided my fate. That decision as ‘E7’. Now I would lose that privilege and would be tried in
would take a further six months and in April 2006, a year after the front of a Judge and Jury at the Old Bailey using my real name.
incident, I finally got the all clear … or so I thought. Reassessing my situation I now found the odds on twelve strangers