The Sweeney

Synopsis
In 1972, Sir Robert Mark was appointed Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police by Home Secretary James Callaghan with orders to clean up the force. Mark famously said when appointed that ‘a good police force catches more criminals than it employs’.

After a fraught internal investigation, three separate trials in 1977 would lead to the imprisonment of Commander Kenneth Drury, the Head of the Flying Squad, for eight years on five counts of corruption in public office, Commander Wally Virgo (later cleared on appeal) and twelve years for Chief Superintendent ‘Wicked’ Bill Moody, Head of the Obscene Publications Squad, along with another Chief Inspector and five Inspectors. They are the highest ranking British policemen ever to be convicted of corruption, collectively being sentenced to 96 years in prison.

Following its formation in 1919, the Flying Squad became internationally famous as ‘the heavy mob’ that took on the toughest criminals, but bent officers were soon on the take, accepting bribes from the very criminals they were supposed to be pursuing.

This is the blow-by-blow story of the rise and fall of the Flying Squad. Its new and explosive revelations show that the legendary TV series The Sweeney told only part of the story.