Is it time to break up the Met?

For more than 47 years, Dennis McGrory got away with murder. But last week justice was finally delivered: the pensioner was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing 15-year-old Jacqui Montgomery, in Islington, north London. His conviction was in large measure due to the work of Metropolitan police forensic scientists and detectives who never gave up on the case, which dates back to June 1975.

So it was with Zafar Iqbal, who strangled his wife, Naziat Khan, in front of their young daughters in Norbury, south-west London, in 2001. Iqbal fled to Pakistan but Scotland Yard, working with other law enforcement agencies, tracked him down and eventually brought him back to the UK. He was jailed in December.

This is the best of the Met: never letting up, pursuing criminals, using a range of techniques to solve the most complex of crimes. Over the years, I’ve met officers who’ve carried out investigations like these; their professionalism, dedication to duty and integrity have always stood out.