's newsletter, you acknowledge that you have read and accepted hellomagazine.com's privacy policy, the cookies policy, and the website terms of use, and that you consent to hellomagazine.com using your data according to the established laws. “There was an attitude of distrust,” says Simmonds. 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Since 2012, Superintendent Ted Hastings, DI Kate Fleming and DS Steve Arnott from the fictional Anti-Corruption Unit 12 (AC-12) have been chasing corrupt police officers — ‘bent coppers’, as Ted calls them — dazzling us with their interrogation tactics as they close in on law enforcement links … Line Of Duty Series 6, Episode 4: The 9 Burning Questions We Now Have One popular fan theory was also put to bed, while we saw the returns of Jimmy Lakewell and Lee Banks. If you wish to change your mind and would like to stop receiving communications from hellomagazine.com, you can revoke your consent by clicking on "unsubscribe" in the footer of the newsletter. “I was directed to do it. “There was an attitude that because some CID officers … The term originates from the recorded dying declaration of corrupt officer DI Matthew Cottan in Series 3, in which he revealed the names of several corrupt officers. Although we don't want it to be true, the series has already dropped some serious suggestions that Hastings might not follow the letter of the law after all. Sir Robert Mark, the Met Police Commissioner who battled corruption in the 1970s. … Read more on mirror.co.uk Organized Crime So we're seriously concerned by how much Line of Duty seems to be hinting that he might actually be a corrupt officer after all. LINE OF DUTY has been keeping BBC viewers hooked for nearly a decade and with the show set to return for its sixth season in the coming months, could one of its key cast members be revealed … Sir Robert, deciding it was time to clean things up, created A10 – an independent unit in the Met to investigate its own. We speak over the phone because he isn’t au fait with Zoom and, anyway, his hair is too long. Mar 31, 2019 19:34 BST, Line of Duty fans seem to think that Hastings is corrupt - here are all the signs that they might be right, Line of Duty fans have furious reaction to the season five trailer. One criticism often levelled against Line of Duty is that there can’t possibly be that many corrupt police officers working in plain sight. Line of Duty follows DS Steve Arnott (Martin Compston), an authorised firearms officer who was transferred to Anti-Corruption Unit 12 (AC-12) after refusing to agree to cover up an unlawful shooting by his own team. During the latest instalment of the BBC drama, DC Chloe Bishop and DI Steve Arnott decided to move solicitor Jimmy Lakewell from prison to the police station in the hope he would reveal some information to him. READ: Line of Duty FINALLY announces air date – and it's sooner than you might think! “There was an attitude that because some CID officers were crooked, all of them were,” says Simmonds. alerts and find out about everything before anyone else. IN Line Of Duty, “H” is the codename for a senior officer, or possibly a group of officers, who control bent coppers on behalf of an organised crime gang. Warning: contains spoilers for Line of Duty series 6 episode 5. As in Line of Duty, there was a world of suspicion within A10, according to Simmonds, and officers were used to covering their backs. The detectives who led the Met's internal battle with corruption – and inspired the BBC's hit drama – are at the centre of a new documentary. The unit investigated corrupt officers, with John Simmonds heading up the department of detectives. While he ended up saving an officer's life by his actions, this can be read another way: he killed a gunman so that he wouldn't be arrested and reveal his secrets. Ted was issued a regulation 15 notice in season four after it was alleged that he was the lead officer in charge of the corrupt police officers, known only as 'H' (his surname is Hastings after all). As fast as you clear up one rot, someone else comes up with a new idea. “The greed and brazen attitudes of certain officers shocked me,” says Austin. Chatting on Lorraine on Thursday, Adrian Dunbar – who plays the fella himself - revealed that Ted "comes under scrutiny" in season five. Simmonds does add that “there’s no such thing as a Mr Big organising these things. Simmonds’s voice is as one might expect of a wizened detective and he peppers his story with words like “villain” and “crooked”. Line of Duty FINALLY announces air date – and it's sooner than you might think. Money is the corruptor, he says unequivocally. Line of Duty fans are desperate to work out the identity of H, the corrupt police officer that AC-12 have been trying to pin down for six seasons now. Its purpose was to investigate corrupt officers, and John Simmonds was one of the first detectives in the department. “No,” he is clear. “He’s a hero for me. Share on Facebook But I used to say no honest copper would treat you like that – it’s always someone who has something to worry about.”. So did they have undercover officers working within the police? Line of Duty fans spot ANOTHER clue Hastings is corrupt Yao said: "The user could have concealed their true location, connecting via multiple VPNs. Reports about crooked officers would come to A10 through its hotline – from the public and internally. Line of Duty fans are now convinced that newcomer DC Chloe Bishop could be a corrupt officer after spotting a number of strange mistakes she made during Sunday's episode. Line of Duty series six continues tonight, with AC-12 embarking on another inquiry of corruption in the force. In the late Seventies, the UK’s biggest investigation into police corruption was under way – Operation Countryman, which spanned four years, cost £4 million, and resulted in eight officers being charged. In the Seventies, police would be bribed with what was called a “drink” which was in fact a brown envelope stuffed with money. We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future. “No,” laughs Simmonds. If you wanted to go there people would wonder what your motive was – it was a rotten job. “The people you’re dealing with are villains,” he says. Share. Since it was Hastings who promoted Dot to AC-12, with Dot telling the Superintendent: "What can I say? “As fast as the criminal is on the streets, the police have got to try and catch them.”, Bent Coppers: Crossing the Line of Duty airs on BBC Two on April 14 at 9pm, Listen to Cara McGoogan's seven-part podcast, Bed of Lies, which lays bare a gripping story of police corruption, here or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred podcast app. “He said to me afterwards, ‘You should have taken the 20 quid, it would have been much easier’.”, The man was arrested and convicted while Simmonds learnt a valuable lesson: “You get your hands dirty when you’re dealing with dirt.”. Who spelt definitely wrong in Line of Duty? For this, the detectives in A10 were paired with uniformed officers to prevent cross-contamination. “Quite often you find an officer would be asking more money off the villain than the courts would level against them,” says Simmonds. In the season four finale, a group of the balaclava men come into AC-12 after they realise that their operation has gone sideways and that Ros' lawyer, Jimmy Lakewell, has been arrested. READ: Line of Duty fans have furious reaction to the season five trailer, Although the showrunner Jed Mercurio is known for messing with the audience (see Bodyguard! LINE OF DUTY season five has seen the AC-12 continue the cat chase with the mysterious villain H, the corrupt police officer who has been causing havoc for the force. Some of the most straight people I ever met were detectives who wouldn’t tolerate the criminality that had developed.”. Simmonds went on to become one of the first detectives in the Met Police’s A10, a unit set up in 1971 by Sir Robert Mark to investigate corrupt officers. Then 19 and a cadet in Stoke Newington, north London, Simmonds was trying to make his first arrest – for a van theft – when the man offered him £20 to let him go. Eventually 500 “bad apples” were driven out of the force. If you drag everyone into the spider’s web, it’s harder to investigate.”. Aha, well. So the day I got to my 25 years’ police service I retired,” he says of Moore, who died in 1992. Working for … J ed Mercurio’s cop drama Line of Duty is the UK’s most-watched series this year, drawing 13.2 million viewers for the first episode of season five. As Line of Duty aficionados debate the identity of H and wonder who DCI Joanne Davidson shares her DNA with, this new three-part series from BBC Two investigates the history of real-life corruption in the Metropolitan Police. I'm your man," after accepting the job officer, it does hint that Hastings might have known the truth about Dot all along. Line of Duty is a British police procedural television series created by Jed Mercurio that premiered on 26 June 2012. 19 March Line of Duty, BBC One's hit drama about police corruption, returns to our screens on Sunday 21 March. They think they’re clever and can beat the system.”, Did that ever make him think it wasn’t worth the hassle? “John was at the thick of it,” says Todd Austin, director of the series and co-founder at Bohemia Films. Line Of Duty has sort of answered who H is (Picture: BBC) Warning: Article contains spoilers for Line Of Duty series five. It was more than double his weekly salary, but Simmonds turned it down. Aha, well. Will we find out who H is? For all the similarities with Line of Duty – which he watches, and finds “exciting” – Simmonds takes umbrage with the suggestion “there isn’t any comparison in the real world.” He is firm. Drama series following the investigations of AC-12, a controversial police anti-corruption unit. “It wasn’t a question of if I wanted to do it,” he says. “It was an attempt to get us set up.”, As to whether there is still corruption within the police and a need for A10, Simmonds is clear: “We have a corrupt society and it’s no different in the police,” says Simmonds. Bent Coppers: Crossing the Line of Duty examines corruption in the police in the 1970s. Within the police, A10 was looked at with suspicion and its officers branded informants or “grasses”. It wasn’t something you strived for.”. In an anonymous conversation with Jo Davidson, the mystery individual ordered her to get rid of Kate Fleming for good, but insisted he would handle AC-12. “The villain gains from not having a conviction and the officer feels he’s served justice.”. While one of the men grabs an officer and holds him hostage, Hastings doesn't hesitate and shoots him straight away, killing him. Corruption was everywhere: during his time at City of London police, where he became head of CID, “there was a murder investigation being conducted by an officer I knew to be a crook, so I took him off the investigation”. By registering to HELLO! LINE of Duty fans have spotted another clue Hastings is corrupt after the evil OCG boss misspelled “definitely” as “definately” again.The AC-1 19 April 2021, 10:22 | Updated: 19 April 2021, 10:31 Soho was notorious for officer corruption in the Seventies – so much so, the cops there were nicknamed the “dirty squad”. “It’s the longest it’s been in 82 years. They would then investigate them behind the scenes, making sure they weren’t being duped – “Not every complaint is true and there were plenty of times when people knew they’d cause problems for an officer by making a false allegation,” says Simmonds. “Men I knew who were honest coppers suddenly went addled... the system allows them to be corrupted if they’re not careful.”. This mystery business of ‘H’” – the corrupt officer whose identity remains a mystery – “is nonsense. “They felt they were above the law. People wouldn’t recognise me,” says the man who once sent six police officers to jail together for a robbery and managed security in the City of London for Prince Charles and Diana’s wedding. At the time of the inquiry, “my wife received an anonymous parcel containing a gold watch,” recalls Simmonds. Jed Mercurio has since hinted that this action will come back to haunt him, explaining: "It does leave Hastings open to the accusation that he should have done more to preserve life in that situation and preserve a key witness.". Their methods included tailing officers who were under suspicion and using recording devices to catch them. It is the most popular drama series broadcast on BBC Two in the multichannel era and is a winner of the Royal Television Society Award for Best Drama Series. When asked by DC Kate Fleming for the name of the most senior corrupt officer in the Organised Crime Syndicate , Cottan was capable only of blinking to indicate the first letter of the officers surname. So we're seriously concerned by how much Line of Duty seems to be hinting that he might actually be a corrupt officer after all. At AC-12 Arnott is partnered with DC Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure), a highly commended undercover officer with a keen investigative instinct. The inspiration for the fictional AC-12 in Line of Duty, A10 is also now the subject of its own BBC documentary, Bent Coppers: Crossing the Line of Duty. “We didn’t perform and behave the way they do. We rely on advertising to help fund our award-winning journalism. And it’s much broader than ‘a few rotten apples’.”, He continues, “John realised there were a lot of young officers being coerced. Last modified on “We were all tarred with the same brush, which was quite annoying and hurtful. "They may be in Spain. Synopsis. We knew who the crooked coppers were.” For the real A10, “H” was Hugh Moore, the commander of City of London Police, on whom the fictional character could be based. ... a corrupt senior officer who … The sixth series will introduce Kelly Macdonald as Detective Chief Inspector … Line of Duty A critically acclaimed cat-and-mouse thriller about corrupt cops and the officers who investigate them goes deep into the dark side of policing. Will Hastings be exposed as corrupt in season 5? There isn’t an obvious path to corruption, according to Simmonds, who saw seemingly good guys take a bad turn. The unit weeded out corruption from the police force, and resulted in dozens of prosecutions. While elements of the rollercoaster plotlines leave some people struggling to suspend their disbelief, Line of Duty is inspired in part by real-life cases of police corruption, according to Mercurio. “We both ended up in hospital,” says Simmonds, now 82. None were convicted. “That’s the realms of fantasy – to a degree.”. DS John Corbett. ), he left season four on an disquieting note after appearing to show Ted Hastings behind bars in his office while ominously watching his team as they work, as the epilogue reads: "[Ted Hastings] remains in command of Anti-Corruption Unit 12.". How tech helped me stay creative during lockdown, The easy ways to tell if your jewellery is eco-friendly. Once again the unknown corrupt officer replied by mis-spelling definitely as "definately". The 10 Line of Duty Lies: Real-life Hastings reveals officers DON’T have to be interviewed by someone a rank higher, anti-corruption police aren't armed and superintendents don't interview bent cops Although Hastings was imperative to rumbling Dot – it was the corrupt copper who alerted Kate and AC-12 to the ringleader 'H' in the first place, confirming that the network of corruption goes much higher than 'the Caddy'. Line of Duty fans are desperate to work out the identity of H, the corrupt police officer that AC-12 have been trying to pin down for six seasons now. Crime: Murdering at least five bent coppers, torturing Roisin Hastings. The only problem is, most senior officers surnames appear to begin with 'H' as well. As in Line of Duty, there was a world of suspicion within A10, according to Simmonds, and officers were used to covering their backs. With Adrian Dunbar, Martin Compston, Vicky McClure, Craig Parkinson. Line of Duty fans convinced Ted Hastings is corrupt after spotting major spelling blunder. Simmonds got the call-up. You can’t underestimate what he did.”. As such, the suspicion falls to Assistant Chief Constable Derek Hilton - and it is Hastings who declares that Hilton was 'H' all along, and requests that his name be taken from the list of suspects. Superintendent Ted Hastings, the head of AC-12 and all-round legend, follows the letter of the law sir, THE LETTER. “People treated us with a degree of stand-offishness. “He was bent and crooked and I knew and he knew I knew and he gave me a hard time. Line of Duty's greatest mystery surrounds who H is - here's a list of all the runners and riders including Ted Hastings. Simmonds worked his way through the ranks at the Met over the course of 25 years, joining the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) before moving to the Flying Squad, a branch of the serious organised crime command nicknamed “The Sweeney”. Line of Duty returns on Sunday, 21st March at 9pm on BBC One. On his first day in the job as a uniformed police officer for the Met in 1956, John Simmonds was offered a bribe. Adrian revealed his character comes under scrutiny in season 5. By the early Seventies, CID had developed a reputation for taking bribes, stitching up innocent people and running protection rackets. 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