King Hamd’s media spectacle, John Yates meet John Timoney – the “two Johns” to rehab Bahrain police

John Yates resigns from Met police over phone-hacking scandal
Vikram Dodd, Sam Jones and Hélène Mulholland – guardian.co.uk – 18 July 2011

‘I have acted with complete integrity and my conscience is clear’ – John Yates Link to this video

The Metropolitan police assistant commissioner John Yates has become the second high-profile Scotland Yard officer to resign over the phone-hacking scandal.

The resignation of Yates – the country’s top counter-terrorism officer – comes a day after his boss, the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, stepped down.

In a statement, Scotland Yard said: “Assistant commissioner John Yates has this afternoon indicated his intention to resign to the chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA). This has been accepted. AC Yates will make a statement later this afternoon.”

His decision to quit came as the Metropolitan Police Authority’s professional standards cases subcommittee held a meeting to consider a slew of complaints against him.

The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said the resignations of Yates and Stephenson were “regrettable but right”. He said: “Whatever mistakes have been made at any level in the police service, now is the time to clear them up.” …more