Top British official forced out over porn cover-up

Damian Green, Britain’s first secretary of State and effective deputy prime minister, resigned Wednesday after an investigation found he misled police about the presence of pornography on his office computer, according to multiple media reports.

British Prime Minister Theresa May asked him to resign, according to Reuters.

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Authorities raided Green’s office in 2008 and examined his computers as part of a leak probe, according to The Telegraph. Officers reported that history logs indicated he had viewed pornography “prolifically and in working hours.”

Green denied the claims, and at the time called the London Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner’s account of the findings “false, disreputable political smears.”

However, after the U.K.’s Cabinet Office conducted a seven-week investigation this year, officials concluded Green had misled the police regarding the pornographic material, according to The Telegraph. His previous statements regarding the presence of pornography “were inaccurate and misleading,” according to the report.

Green also faces allegations of misconduct toward a female writer, which the Cabinet Office found “plausible.” 

“While I can understand the considerable distress caused to you by some of the allegations which have been made in recent weeks, I know that you share my commitment to maintaining the high standards which the public demands of Ministers of the Crown,” the prime minister wrote to her deputy in a letter.

“It is therefore with deep regret, and enduring gratitude for the contribution you have made over many years, that I asked you to resign from the government and have accepted your resignation,” she said.