John Yates, who has taken over as the Metropolitan police’s head of counter-terrorism in the wake of Bob Quick’s resignation, has a record of handling sensitive and complicated inquiries that attract intense media attention.
Assistant Commissioner Yates came to public prominence when he led the unsuccessful and contentious 19-month “cash for peerages” investigation.
He led the team of detectives who investigated allegations that life peerages were awarded in return for loans to Labour. Tony Blair, then prime minister, was interviewed as part of the investigation in December 2006. The probe cost in excess of £770,000 but the Crown Prosecution Service decided to bring no charges.
Mr Yates was also at the centre of the row over the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes who was mistaken for a terror suspect at Stockwell Tube station in 2005. He was the senior officer who travelled to Brazil to explain the shooting to the dead man’s family.
His evidence to the Independent Police Complaints Commission in the resulting inquiry was also regarded as important in the body’s decision to exonerate Sir Ian Blair’s handling of the police response to the killing.
Educated at Marlborough College and King’s College London, he joined the Met in 1981 and went on to lead investigations into more than 20 murders.
Between 1999 and 2000 he worked as staff officer to the then-Met commissioner Paul Condon during the period of the Macpherson Inquiry into the death of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.
While a detective superintendent, he led an inquiry into internal police corruption centred on a crime squad based in East Dulwich. It was pioneering in its use of ”supergrass” evidence, and resulted in the jailing of six serving detectives for sentences totaling 46 years.
He has also handled others in the glare of the media spotlight: the perjury case against Lord Archer, the failed prosecution of Paul Burrell, the royal butler, and the “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” fraud trial.
Mr Yates also led the UK policing response to the South East Asian Tsunami, and has been the Association of Chief Police Officers’ lead officer on rape and serious sexual offences involving adults.
He has been one of the Met’s most trusted officers with a wide portfolio covering police complaints, intelligence, legal matters and specific high profile police investigations. Until now, though, he has had little experience of counter-terrorism policing.
