The mysterious death of Chief Constable of Police Mike Todd

by **Jill Havern** 19.12.18 16:49

Todd, having relied upon what the security forces had told Postles about the low risks of the operation, and what little, consequently, he had planned for it, dumbfounded the press when he so explained, and forced Postles's retirement and the sanctioning of others when he learned otherwise. In sending Postles to the sidelines, though, Todd gained a most bitter opponent because he too had been a high-flying officer up until then. Postles had been the leading officer in the capture of serial killer Dr. Harold Shipman. Todd had gotten the Queen's Police Medal in June 2001 for his "media grabbing" police work, according to some of his fellow Chief Constables, while Postles had gotten his for finally stopping the growing national menace.

Campbell also did not mention the fallout from Todd's unsuccessful inquiry into British assistance of the CIA's rendition program, and what its possible blowback might be. Todd had been the hatchet-man in the resignation of Postles - what was caused by the incompetence of SO19 and MI5 - and he was most apt to behave similarly in light of the security services' failures to learn anything about the risks involved in allowing Washington to use Britain airspace and airports for illegal purposes.

The new director of MI5, Jonathan 'Bob' Evans aka William Perkins, and the Mets' SO19, led by Assistant Deputy Commissioner Peter Clarke - the same people really responsible for the Manchester cock-up - could have at least limited the fallout from the exposure of the Agency's use of UK airports by discovering a few fellows being rendered by inspecting a few parked airliners on the tarmac in the name of counterterrorism, but they did nothing.

As did Sir John Scarlett's MI6 whose agents, especially Robert Andrew Fulton, had done so much to help cover up CIA fiascoes, particularly the Olof Palme assassination, and the Lockerbie tragedy. Instead of getting the Agency's disclosure of its use of Diego Garcia in rendering two suspected terrorists, and passing it on to Todd for his admission of the minor, unsuspected infraction so as to limit his embarrassment, Scarlett let DCI General Michael Hayden do the damage by informing the FO of the matter - what Foreign Secretary David Miliband made a meal of at the Chief Constable's expense.

In sum, there were all kinds of people in policing who wanted to destroy Todd, and it seems that one or more of them did when he went on his hurried mission to Snowden two weeks ago, apparently to meet someone who was to inform him of the growning dangers, only to learn when he got there that the alleged whistleblower was his nemesis. Little wonder that the police almost universally assumed the killing a suicide, and Chief Inspector of HM's Constabulary Sir Ronnie Flanagan has ordered Sir Paul Scott-Lee to investigate the possible personal causes of his suicide for good measure, not who might have killed him. At least in the murder of Dr. David Kelly, the Thames Valley Police went through the motions of something more being involved than just another suicide.

https://cryptome.org/todd-kill.htm

And now Manchester's Chief Constable of Police Michael Todd - who was led by Sir John Scarlett's MI6 to cover up Britain's involvement in America's program of 'extraordinary renditions' - has, it seems, suffered a similar fate by parties unknown while on a walk up Snowdonia on Monday, though one cannot be sure about the details, given all the spin the media is spewing out.

First, we are told that Todd apparently jumped off Bwlch Glas to his death 300 feet below, only to learn that there was no sign of any serious trauma on or inside his recovered body. Then we are told that he was frantic about an apparent exposé of his three-year affair with Angie Robinson, the married chief executive of Greater Manchester's Chamber of Commerce, only to learn that it ended a year ago, and he was now in the process of splitting with his wife anyway. In fact, Todd had a new girl friend, having stayed with her over the weekend before he set off on his fatal trip to Snowdonia on Monday afternoon. And now the press is acting as if he is some kind of British Eliot Spitzer with all his womanizing.

Then they were all kinds of people who were concerned about "worrying texts" he was sendíng out - implying that they were suicidal in nature, and confirming letters allegedly found at the scene - but we are never told about what they actually contained, and why they would be a threat to the persons who received them. It turns out that there were only two such messages, one to his wife, and it is made out to sound like a suicide announcement when it was only informing her that he was finally leaving despite his continuing love for her. Then the existence of the letters was denied.

More important, there was a nearly empty bottle of gun nearby the corpse, "reeking" of it, though we are never told how it could be so if he were found lying face down in the snow, obviously with his mouth well covered up, and he was found in the autopsy to have had only slightly over the legal limit for DWI. Of course, he was not being investigated for that crime, and bringing it up and investigating it is just another diversion, it seems, from the investigation of how and why he died.

Had gin been poured around the corpse, and if so by whom? Is the gin in this case taking the place of the blood in the Kelly one? It certainly looks so when the inquiry's pathologist was allowed unprecedentedly by the coroner to state Thursday at the preliminary inquest that the claims of Todd's intoxification were totally over the top. Of course, the coroner's job is to determine the cause of death - what he has not yet done - rather than go out of his way to shoot down untrue conspiracy theories.

Moreover, the coroner, Dewi Pritchard-Jones, has only belatedly stated that he is willing to entertain the assumption that Todd committed suicide. Isn't a coroner supposed to entertain all possible causes of the deceased's demise, especially murder? Is Pritchard-Jones afraid that he might too be replaced as the coroner, as happened to the Oxford one in Kelly's case?

Most important of all is that no one, especially the media, is talking about Todd's cover up of the UK's role in the CIA's renditions. Only few news outlets have even made mentioned his inquiry, and none that he categorically concluded that there was no truth in the claims.

It's all beginning to sound like what happened to Dr. Kelly, though, of course, even a Brown government could not entertain the idea of replacing the coroner by another commission, given the blowback from the infamous Hutton one. If Todd was murdered, his killers would have realized that another coverup by a commission was not possible, explaining why Todd was, it seems, overpowered, stripped of some clothing, filled with as much gin as possible, held down, and then left to die of hypothermia. Freezing to death is much easier to accomplish than bleeding to death, especially if the victim is fighting back.

Todd's problem, like Kelly's, was with the British government getting him to support a position he was not prepared to take. Whereas Kelly was made to appear to support the claim that Saddam's WMD threat was immediate, and of a strategetic nature, the weapons inspector had only thought in the late '90s that Iraq could possibly develop tactical weapons of this sort in future. Todd had been persuaded by continuing gross falsehoods by those investigating the claims during his 18-month inquiry into possible British involvement in America's rendition program of possible terrorists to various secret prisons where they underwent torture that there was absolutely no truth to them.

The rendering program had started in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and Washington stampeded all its partners to go along with it despite its dubious international and national legality because of all the 'ticking bombs' out there, and the need of stopping the unknown terrorists before it was too late. Here in Sweden, as in a few other European states, its authorities even allowed CIA agents to operate on its own soil in sending off two suspected terrorists to Egypt for harsh interrogations.

Other countries at least allowed and admitted that CIA flights with suspected terrorists on board had used their airports for the transfers. Britain was in the thick of all this, with 210 alleged flights with possible terrorists on board entering British airspace since 2001.

While the CIA consistently denied that there was any substance to the claims, stories started leaking out from the Agency by former agents, like CIC chief Vince Cannistrano and Larry Johnson, to the contrary - ones so persuasive that Dick Marty, chairman of the Council of Europe's legal affairs and human rights committee, was obliged to investigate the charges. Marty, however, got nowhere in his inquiries until EuroControl, the air-traffic controllers' organization, agreed to supply over flight plans filed electronically by suspected CIA planes involved in renditions. Thanks to what EuroControl supplied about 18 most suspicious flights, and anecdotal accounts by suspects allegedly on them, Marty was able to put together a most compelling case about the process in general, though there was still no hard confirmation of Britain having been involved despite all those suspicious flights in and out of UK airports.

Of course, during all this time, British authorities were a chorus of denial about anything untoward having happened in this regard in its territories. Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw made statements in the Commons in 2005, 2006, and 2007, "...saying there was no evidence that rendition flights had stopped on UK territory." ("UK apology over rendition flights," BBC News, February 21, 2008) Other inquiries, especially the one by the Commons' Foreign Affairs Select Committee, had come to the same conclusion, thanks to information that its intelligence community, especially from MI6, had supplied.

As Annie Machon rightly concluded in Spies, Lies & Whistleblowers about such behavior by Blair and Straw regarding MI6's performance, they were telling it this:

"You are above the law. You can get away with it now and can get away with it in the future. In fact, you enjoy the same rights as the KGB officers in the former Soviet Union." (Quoted from p. 287.)

by willowthewisp 19.12.18 18:08

Hi jill Haven,in regard to possible un-explained Deaths,Dunblane where it one theory stated there was at least Two shooters within the premises of the school,one Being Thomas Hamiliton,the silent shooter was never caught?

then their is the Fire Arms certificate and who signed it as guarantor for Thomas Hamilton,George Robinson,NATO,friends with Michael Forsyth?

Then add in Operation Ore,with CIA unleashing records of dubious person's being on a certain list of people,when the UK was about to commit troops back into Iraq,the people on the list were apparently affiliated to Government cohorts and had been MP's?

Yes your in very shady areas with 100 yr D-notices!

by **PeterMac** 19.12.18 21:41

Insulin is far more likely. Almost undetectable unless someone is looking for it, which of course they weren't, as is the needlestick injury, which with a micro pen is also almost undetectable.
Half a bottle of gin is not going to kill a Senior Police Officer ! And the evidence was a "Half Bottle".
Todd was young and fit and healthy.
He crossed Straw and Blair, and stirred up the CIA. Never a good move.

cf. Major Mike Healy. Died on the Brecon Beacons in 1979, similarly of "exposure", allegedly after having been administered chlorpropamide He too was young, fit and healthy.

Hamilton ? Brown was also on the list of people who were told immediately about the incident, and guessed the identity of the murderer. Why ? And how ? And his mate Blair put the 100 year embargo on the papers. Why ?

by skyrocket 20.12.18 7:57

Robin Cook is another one to add to the list of 'timely' deaths - died on his way down from a summit in the Highlands (his wife was with him at the time).
Glad to see that George Galloway's film project "Killing Kelly' has reached its crowd funding target.

by willowthewisp 20.12.18 16:29

skyrocket wrote:Robin Cook is another one to add to the list of 'timely' deaths - died on his way down from a summit in the Highlands (his wife was with him at the time).
Glad to see that George Galloway's film project "Killing Kelly' has reached its crowd funding target.

Hi Skyrocket,I'm not 100% sure but it wasn't Robin's wife unless Gaynor had married him after a divorce,Gaynor was with him on the mountain where the incident happened?

by skyrocket 21.12.18 8:49

Hi Willow - yes, they were married and she was walking with him at the time.

I believe that Cook had already said too much (Iraq) and was in a position (and was hinting he was about) to say more. His resignation speech (from the Cabinet in 2003) were the words of an honourable man. Dr David Kelly seems to have had similar morals, which is probably why he also died young. Back to front world we live in.

On a lighter note - A very Happy Christmas and all the best for 2019 to all.

by **PeterMac** 21.12.18 9:13

And Todd was naif enough to delve too deeply.
Stalker got away with it, by not doing !

by willowthewisp 21.12.18 18:10

PeterMac wrote:And Todd was naif enough to delve too deeply.
Stalker got away with it, by not doing !

Hi Petermac,that would sure account for all the former Chief Police Officers who now sit in the Lords,passing Laws down to the plebs to be governed by on £300 a day + expenses,the idle rich!

Inquiries of Deaths their words,Diana,Mr Menzies,Madeleine?

by **PeterMac** 21.12.18 21:52

I was once asked to look for some historic documents - but not to find them !

by Guest 21.12.18 23:32

Did you not find the historic documents or did you appropriately salute the requesting orificer?

eyebrows

by **PeterMac** 25.12.18 21:15

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/todd-death-not-suicide-969264
Listening to the radio
Mr Todd's body was found the following day, March 11, on Bwlch Glas a mountain pass about 300ft below the top of Snowdon and a half mile walk from the summit.
The inquest heard that Mr Todd had apparently been sitting on the ground drinking gin and listening to a radio before he tripped on rocks and went sliding 30 metres down a slope.
Inspector David Gerwyn Lloyd said his body was found face down in the snow. His clothing had ridden up his stomach and his legs.
Insp Lloyd said Mr Todd's body appeared to be in a “resting position”, the left arm under his chest and his forehead resting on his other arm.
He said the Chief Constable appeared to have moved his arms to make himself more comfortable.
There was a 30 metre slide mark in the snow and in the last five metres of it a smear of blood.
He put this down to cuts on his face, forehead, knees and knuckles – none of which would have been life-threatening.
Mr Todd was wearing two layers of clothing on his top half, thermal under garments, trekking trousers and mountain boots. His jacket was missing.
About 100 metres from where his body was found, two hikers who had raised the alarm found his rucksack, a radio, a half empty bottle of gin, an unopened bottle of champagne and broken tumbler.
Insp Lloyd said: “The impression I got was that he was sitting or lying in a wind-sheltered hollow and had placed his radio at almost head height on what appeared to be an almost natural shelf and placed other items on the ground around him”
The coroner said: “It appears that he was sitting there, drinking gin, listening to the radio.”
Mr Lloyd replied: “That is the impression I gained.”
The inquest heard that Mr Todd had 105mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in his system, more than the legal driving limit which is 83mg of alcohol. In addition he had 6.4mg per litre of blood pf Diphenhydramine – sold over the counter as Nytol.
Dr Keith Griffths said the amount of the drug was well above a therapeutic level which would be taken if you were struggling to sleep. He said: “It is a toxic level but I would say it would be below a fatal level”.
Dr Griffiths said the cause of death was hypothermia accelerated by the effects of alcohol and Nytol.

Coroner Mr Pritchard-Jones said that Mr Todd had sent a series of “conflicting” text messages. Some indicated that he had suicidal intentions but other messages referred to him getting on with life and preparing for things he had to do at work.
Describing Mr Todd's final movements, the coroner said: “He walked a short distance down the slope, dropped a bottle of champagne he was carrying and eventually slipped and slid into a slight depression where he was found.

by **PeterMac** 25.12.18 21:32

So only just over the driving limit, which means for a Senior Police officer - Stone cold sober
Proper walking kit, thermals, layers, boots, etc . . .
?
The reference to the car which was seen with the lights on at the bottom of the hill was quickly 'whooshed'.
Feather Men, or perhaps the Clinic. Or just common or garden spooks
Never forget that Jack Straw was just about to be implicated, and Todd knew too much.
Coincidence, of course

by **PeterMac** 25.12.18 21:43

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-549488/Suicide-police-chief-Why-didnt-earlier-ask-rescue-services.html#

[size=34]'Suicide' police chief: Why didn't they call us earlier ask rescue services?[/size]
By ALAN RIMMER and ANDREW CHAPMAN
Last updated at 00:37 30 March 2008

• Mountain rescue chief says they could have saved top policeman on Snowdon

• Mystery of dark suited 'spooks' waiting at bottom of mountain

• Chinook helicopter appeared above body - but could not land
• 'Champagne was in police chief's rucksack'

The police chief who died on a blizzard-swept mountain might have survived if rescue services had been alerted earlier, according to the expert who masterminded the recovery of his body.

Peter Walker has provided the first detailed account of the hunt on Snowdon for Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Michael Todd.

His claims raise a series of disturbing questions about the death of Mr Todd, who was tipped as a future Scotland Yard Commissioner.

Mr Walker, 52, a veteran of hundreds of rescue operations, alleges that mountain rescue services were not called in to search for the police chief, who had been linked with a number of women, until hours after he was first reported missing.

He also claims that a mysterious group of dark-suited men were seen at the bottom of Mount Snowdon after Mr Todd's body was found. He believes the group, who did not identify themselves, were from the Security Services.

Mr Walker also reveals that a Chinook helicopter attempted to land close to where Mr Todd's body was found - an apparent breach of normal rescue procedure. And he says that a bottle of champagne was found in Mr Todd's rucksack.

Inquiries suggest that officers from Greater Manchester Police were also involved in the hunt for the missing chief constable.

Mr Walker, a co-ordinator at Ogwen and Llanberis Mountain Rescue team, said: "The fact is we were called in too late. Normal mountain rescue procedures were not followed. If we had been alerted earlier I believe we might have saved his life."

Concern for the father of three's safety was reportedly raised during the afternoon of Monday, March 10 when Mr Todd is said to have rung and sent text messages to his close friends and family. Among those alerted was Scotland Yard commissioner Sir Ian Blair, who was contacted by a female officer who had received a message from Mr Todd.

Initially the hunt - based upon mobile phone tracking - focused on an area close to the Menai Straits, ten miles from where Mr Todd actually was.
Mr Walker said: "I have been told that when Mr Todd went missing, Greater Manchester Police decided they could find him through his mobile phone signals. I heard quite a large contingent was sent up. I don't know when North Wales Police were brought in.

"But I understand flawed information was given which sent them out to the coast near Port Dinorwic."

It was, said Mr Walker, "well after midnight" when the mountain rescue team was brought in, and at the insistence of the police that was a very small team.

"They used only three men and a dog, which is totally against normal practice," he said. "Thirty-six people and all the dogs are normally called out to any incident. The three men have been sworn to secrecy by police."

In pitch darkness, and with a storm brewing, the search proved to be a hopeless task and was eventually called off until daybreak on Tuesday.

Later that morning a pair of hikers found a rucksack containing personal items linked to Mr Todd, 300ft from the summit of Snowdon in a spot known as Bwlch Glas.

They made a 999 call to North Wales Police and it was that which led to the hunt being switched to Snowdon at 1pm.

Mr Walker was sent to co-ordinate the 36-man search and was dispatched to a small mountain rescue centre, where a helicopter was due to arrive with the two hikers who had found the rucksack.

"I knew then that something out of the ordinary was happening," said Mr Walker. "We don't normally send helicopters to pick up witnesses. I knew then that whoever was missing must be a VIP. There were police everywhere.

"After the couple were dropped off, a local police officer and a member of our team flew back up the mountain in the helicopter to Bwlch Glas where the rucksack had been found. They found Mr Todd's body almost immediately.

"Mr Todd was found face-down covered in snow. A half-empty bottle of gin was found by his side. His winter jacket was also found discarded in the snow a few yards away.

"Someone told me that they also found a bottle of champagne in Mr Todd's rucksack, a strange thing to take up a mountain. I don't know whether it was full or empty."

Mr Walker added: "I picked up the two hikers in my Land Rover. They were a youngish man and woman and they had just been dropped off by the helicopter and were bemused by all the activity.

"I took them to a mountain rescue station a couple of hundred yards away where they were questioned about where they had found the rucksack. But before long they were whisked away by a squad of police. I don't know where they went to, but I did know the young woman was from Brighton.

Mr Walker then told how he started ferrying the rescue team in his Land Rover up a treacherous mountain path to a summer house called Hafoty. It was the furthest the team could reach by road - and they still faced a hazardous hike of two hours to where the body lay.

Mr Walker said: "I stayed at Hafoty to co-ordinate the operation by radio. The rescuers reached the body at about 3pm. By that time the weather was really closing in.

"To make matters worse, a huge Chinook helicopter suddenly appeared and tried to make a landing. It made two attempts, but it was impossible and it soon pulled off. No one had a clue where it came from.

"Six men at a time were used to carry the stretcher in relays with Mr Todd's body strapped to it down the mountainside.

"It was touch and go, we were operating in failing light at this stage due to the blizzard. Conditions underfoot were treacherous."

The rescue party eventually reached the bottom of Snowdon by 7pm on the Tuesday.

Mr Walker added: "Men in dark suits were swarming all over the place. They were not in uniform. We took it they were spooks, Government agents. They weren't normal plainclothes detectives, and they didn't introduce themselves to us."

The body of Mr Todd - who last year investigated claims that the CIA had used British airports to fly terrorist suspects for torture in other countries but found no evidence to support the allegation - was stretchered into an ambulance and taken away. It was only then, said Mr Walker, that he was told the 'VIP' was the chief constable.

"When I was told who it was it all made sense. We had only been told it was a VIP missing, no more than that. It was typical of the secrecy that has surrounded the whole operation ever since, and explained why we hadn't been called in earlier.

"If we had known who we were looking for from the onset, and been given his vehicle details, I honestly think we could have found him alive."

Later Mr Walker was astonished to learn that Mr Todd's Range Rover had been found outside the mountain rescue expert's own home in Llanberis, parked next to Mr Walker's Land Rover. Mr Todd had left it there before setting off on his fateful journey.

"If I had been told what vehicle he had been in I would have found it just by popping my head out of the door," Mr Walker said.

"If we had been told the night before that a man was missing we would have automatically launched full mountain rescue procedure.

"The first thing we would have done was to look for the vehicle. It is routine to look for a missing person's vehicle. Once we had found that, we would have forced the door, sent in a sniffer dog to pick up the scent and take us directly to where the missing man was."

Since his death Mr Todd, 50, has been linked with at least six women. These include several female police officers, a business chief and a newspaper journalist.

Mr Todd would spend the week in his Manchester city centre flat and return to his wife Carolyn at their family home in Nottingham at weekends.

An independent police inquiry is being held to establish whether Mr Todd's complex personal life affected his duties.

Villagers in Llanberis have claimed that they were questioned by detectives from Greater Manchester Police.

Janice Hughes said she was visited by two plain-clothed officers on the afternoon Mr Todd's body was found.

She said: "There was all this activity from police around the black Range Rover that was parked opposite. Soon after, it would have been about four or five o'clock, two plain-clothed detectives came to interview me. They showed me their warrant cards and said that they were from Greater Manchester Police.

"They asked me all sorts of questions about the Range Rover, but I don't think I was much help. I told them what time I had seen it, but I never saw who was driving it. The detectives interviewed me for about half an hour.

"A couple of days later North Wales Police also came to interview me and asked me the same questions. They said it was necessary to dot all the i's and cross the t's."

Last night Greater Manchester Police said: "As an inquest is to be held and an investigation by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary is under way, it would be inappropriate for us to comment."

North Wales Police said: "We will not be making any comment at this time. The matter is under investigation and the coroner may wish to respond when he is receipt of the investigation report."

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by sar 31.12.18 0:37

"The first thing we would have done was to look for the vehicle. It is routine to look for a missing person's vehicle. Once we had found that, we would have forced the door, sent in a sniffer dog to pick up the scent and take us directly to where the missing man was."

....interesting

by **PeterMac** 31.12.18 7:04

Once you start adding up all the coincidences you find they fit Kate's theory very well.

"As a lawyer once said to me, apropos another matter, ‘One coincidence, two coincidences – maybe they’re still coincidences. Any more than that and it stops being coincidence.’