Former Gibraltar police commissioner Ian McGrail gives evidence at inquiry

The reasons behind McGrail's sudden resignation as head of Royal Gibraltar Police are being investigated

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Gibraltar

Friday, 19 April 2024, 12:27

Ian McGrail's sudden resignation as Gibraltar's Commissioner of Police in 2020 during Operation Delhi, the investigation into the alleged "hacking and sabotage" of Gibraltar's National Security Centralised Intelligence System, is the subject of an on-going public inquiry.

Giving evidence last week, both Ian McGrail and the lead investigator at the time, Superintendent Paul Richardson, said they had pushed for the execution of a search warrant for the home and office of Hassans Law Firm senior partner James Levy KC in May 2020 because they were concerned about the destruction of evidence in connection with the hacking.

However when Levy, a close friend of Chief Minister Fabian Picardo, gave evidence, he denied deleting Whatsapp messages from his phone saying his phone had "collapsed" and he hadn't been able to restore the texts.

Ian McGrail, talking about the weeks before his resignation, said his well-being was badly affected by the pressure he was under, and he felt retiring was the best thing he could do for Gibraltar, for the police and for himself. In his testimony, McGrail said that the pressure to leave from the then Governor, Nick Pyle, had begun during the investigation into the hacking of the national security system.

A statement by lawyers for the government parties refuted this and said Mr McGrail retired because he knew he had lost the confidence of the Governor and the Chief Minister. The inquiry, which started on 8 April, is expected to continue into May.

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