Probe head is an old hand

COMMANDER David Armond, the man leading the police probe into Diana’s death, has been charged with a wide range of tasks during his 28 years with the British Metropolitan police.

Working in the Serious Crime Group, he has helped convict paedophiles, tackle the rise in credit card fraud and fight London’s billion pound black market in endangered animals.

He is also a member of the Met’s anti-terrorist branch, in the chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear command team, which was developed in response to the Tokyo Sarin gas attack.

In the late 1990s he helped pioneer a controversial computerised police surveillance scheme, where police matched footage from CCTV cameras with pictures of known criminals operating in the area.

The move sparked furious protests from civil liberties groups, but led to a number of important arrests.

Cmdr Armond joined the Met in 1976, and spent his first three years on the beat in Newham, east London. He was promoted to sergeant in 1980, and posted to nearby Tower Hamlets where he worked as a plain clothes officer in the vice squad and the crime squad.

He made commander in October 2001.

The final authority for the probe will be with Cmdr Armond’s boss, Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens, who has plenty of experience in running contentious investigations. He has led three inquiries into Northern Ireland’s security forces, most recently the examination of the killing of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.