Sir Ian Blair apologises for Soham comments

Metropolitan police Chief Sir Ian Blair has apologised for comments made about the Soham child murders during a speech.

On Thursday, Sir Ian Blair made a speech to the Metropolitan Police Authority, accusing the media of institutional racism, by devoting more coverage to crimes where the victims were white and middle-aged, than those who were from ethnic minorities.

He cited the murders of Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, saying that few people could understand why it had become such a big story.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4's 'Today' programme, Sir Ian said: "First of all, I obviously have to unreservedly apologise to anyone connected to the Soham murders, especially the parents of Holly and Jessica for re-igniting this story.

"It was not intended to diminish the significance of this dreadful crime, which is exactly how I described it yesterday."

In yesterday's speech, Sir Ian had highlighted the differences in reporting of murders where the victim was white and the victim was from a minority. He had highlighted the coverage of the murder of lawyer Tom ap Rhys Price, who was stabbed to death near his home in north London and the murder of Asian man, Balbir Matharu, who was murdered by car thieves. Both murders took place on the same day, but the murder of Mr Rhys Price received more media coverage, Sir Ian said.

However, Sir Ian admitted that there were exceptions, such as in the case of black teenager Stephen Lawrence and schoolboy Damilola Taylor.

The remarks provoked outrage. Speaking to the 'Sun' newspaper, Bob McLachlan, the former head of the Metropolitan Police's paedophile unit, said that Sir Ian had "totally lost the plot".

He said: "How can this man lead people to devote their lives to protecting children? Soham was rightly a big story. Society was horrified."

(KMcA/SP)