Serving councillor admits to sex with a 14-year-old and here’s why Northants Police is not taking any action
The police, fire and crime commissioner is urging anyone with new information about Matt Binley’s alleged crime to come forward
By Sarah Ward
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A councillor who admitted in a room full of colleagues to sex with a 14-year-old will not face re-investigation by the police, due to the criminal admission not being deemed to be new evidence.
Earlier this month at a meeting of the North Northamptonshire Conservative councillor group, Matt Binley who is a former police officer, admitted he had had sex with an underage teenager.
The council’s leader Jason Smithers, reported the admission (along with an earlier admission made in January) to the chief constable Ivan Balhatchet immediately after the meeting, but Northants Police is not taking any further investigation.
NN Journal understands this is because Binley had made the same admission at the time of the alleged offence when he was a police constable in 2009, but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to charge him. The recent admission is not fresh evidence and therefore does not warrant a new investigation. It is understood that in 2009 the 14-year-old decided not to make a complaint. Binley who is in his early 40s, was in his mid 20s at the time of the incident.
NN Journal has contacted the CPS who said that files are destroyed after ten years, meaning the reasoning for not charging Binley may be hard to discover.
Binley quit the force while under a standards investigation and as was usual practice at the time the internal investigation was dropped.
A Northamptonshire Police spokesman said:
“Councillor Smithers made contact with Northamptonshire Police earlier this month, since when we have taken exhaustive steps to address all allegations surrounding Mr Binley some 15 years or more ago.
“As stated previously, Mr Binley was the subject of police investigations in 2009, but the CPS advised no further action be taken in the courts. Professional Standards then carried out its own internal investigation into misconduct, but Mr Binley resigned from the Force during that process and, under the regulations at the time, the Force had no legal recourse to continue its investigation into him.
“Following the approach from Councillor Smithers, the Chief Constable directed that all relevant crime files were fully reviewed in addition to the Crown Prosecution Service advice from the time.
“No new evidence has surfaced to pursue further any of the allegations against Mr Binley.
“However, as in the case of any historic allegations of criminal conduct, Northamptonshire Police will, of course, investigate new evidence that does come to light.”
NN Journal understands that Northants Police has not been in contact with any of the Conservative councillors, besides the leader, who heard Binley’s admission. Binley, who until last month was a cabinet member, was asked outright if he had sex with a 14-year-old and he admitted the crime. The transcript of the meeting (shown below) has been handed to the police. He was expelled from the Conservative group that night and councillors present have told NN Journal of their shock at the admission, with one describing it as a ‘nightmare’.
Matt Binley is the son of former Northampton South councillor Brian Binley, who died in 2020. He was selected as a candidate to stand in the Wellingborough Queensway Ward in 2021 despite having past convictions. In 2010 he was jailed for perverting the course of justice after lying about drink driving. His mother, who took the blame for his offence, was given a suspended prison sentence* . At the time his election agent said his past convictions were known to the Conservative party and he had ‘paid his dues’.
However the police, fire and crime commissioner Labour’s Danielle Stone, has now appealed for people who have fresh evidence about Binley to come forward.
In a statement to NN Journal she said:
“There is no room in Northamptonshire Police for anyone whose conduct falls short of the highest standards of integrity – that is at the heart of my public safety plan and I hold the Chief Constable to account for the way he identifies and deals with misconduct in his officers and staff.
“I expect the Chief Constable to use all the powers available to him to make sure that police officers and staff act to the highest standards, and earn the trust of the public they serve. I have discussed the situation you are referring to with the Chief Constable and I know that Northamptonshire Police has looked into everything that has been raised.
“If anyone has any new information about this situation that they did not disclose at the time, I urge them, please, to come forward to the police and make it known. Beyond that, this situation is an operational matter for the Chief Constable and his team.”
Binley gave this statement to NN Journal last week when asked about his underage sex admission:
“I will not engage in speculation concerning inaccurate information, nor entertain hearsay or gossip.
“As I previously stated, the North Northamptonshire Conservative Group had voted to expel me. The matter relates to historic allegations from 16 years ago. These allegations were fully investigated by the appropriate authorities at the time. Following a comprehensive investigation, the matter was concluded with no further action taken. There is no ongoing investigation. Therefore, I will not be commenting further on these historic closed allegations.”
Anyone with information can contact the Northants Police force and NN Journal can also be contacted in confidence at sarahward@nnjournal.co.uk on 07887 500545
*Matt Binley’s mother was given a suspended sentence rather than a prison term as the original sentence stated. Apologies for the error.
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Police have released the man arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman in Raunds, and have said they do not think a third party was involved in her death.
Following a postmortem, Northants detectives say they are not treating the death of the woman from Gladstone Street, Raunds, as suspicious.
In a statement last night detective inspector Matt Bly said:
“Although we have managed to establish that there was no third-party involvement in the death of the woman, that does not make it any less sad for those that loved her, and our thoughts are with her family and friends at this very sad time.
“It is only right that an incident such as this is treated with the utmost seriousness, however following our enquiries today and the results of the post-mortem this afternoon, we have deemed this woman’s death to be non-suspicious and the man we arrested in order to preserve best evidence has been released without charge.
“Our findings have been explained to this woman’s family and we will continue to support them.
“I’d like to thank the community in Raunds for their patience whilst we carried out our enquiries today. I know an incident like this can cause worry among local residents and anyone with any concerns is still encouraged to speak to their neighbourhood policing team.”
Following the conclusion of the police investigation, a file will be prepared and handed over to the coroner’s office.
Yesterday evening the leader of North Northamptonshire Council, Jason Smithers announced he would not be standing for re-election this May.
The Conservative, who was also a councillor on the former county council said:
“It has been a privilege and honour to be the Council’s first Leader and to serve everyone in North Northamptonshire.
“The Council has made excellent progress in the achievement of its ambitions, and it has been great to be part of this team effort. It has been a pleasure and an honour working with elected members, staff, partners and of course our local communities who are at the centre of everything we do.
“I feel that I have helped get the authority off to a solid start. Now feels like the right time for me to transition into semi-retirement, focus more on my family and on new opportunities ahead.
“My intention from the outset was to do one full term at the Council but this was always subject to making the right progress which I feel has been achieved.
“I would like to thank all those in North Northamptonshire who put their faith in me and who gave me this opportunity.”
Utterly Utterly disgusting that he committed a statutory offence, but fully expecting the response that comes of "nothing to see here" using whatever loopholes possible to ensure this is swept under the carpet.
The message here is quite clear, if you wait long enough to ensure paperwork is destroyed you can get away with even the most heinous of crimes and even boast about what you did with impunity.
Also worth letting the consequences of this sink in, a serving police office has sex with a child (could be your son or daughter) and when they investigate them even with it being admitted they will not find them guilty. How on earth can you trust investigations to be impartial with results like this.
We need reform of the system and a truly independent body to investigate out of control officers who commit sex crimes and then laugh at how they get away with it after.
Disgraceful.