Sir Ian Rankin said his new novel in the legendary John Rebus series was inspired by the scandals that have swamped the Met Police. His book A Heart Full Of Headstones centres on a corrupt police station in the west of Edinburgh and sees his former detective in the dock facing charges.
Rankin said he initially came up with the idea of Rebus in court and then built the rest of the story around police scandals like those happening in real life. London’s Metropolitan Police have faced criticism after Wayne Couzens abducted and killed Sarah Everard, 33, in London in March last year while he was a serving police officer, using his warrant card and handcuffs to get her into his car.
In December former officers Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis were jailed for taking pictures of two black murder victims “for their own amusement” and sharing them in a WhatsApp group.
Rankin, 62, said: “This book is predicated on some of the uglier stuff we’ve seen in recent times, most notably the Met. We’ve seen some very dodgy police officers in the Met, taking selfies at murder scenes or committing murder themselves in the case of Sarah Everard.
“In the old days there was no CCTV in the interview rooms or mobile phones but it is harder to get away with bad behaviour these days. It still goes on, we know it, we see it in the media all the time. I’m reflecting on that.”
Speaking on BBC Scotland ’s The Afternoon Show, he added: “We’ve never had such huge problems in Scotland but it’s not that long ago in Fife that a black man, Sheku Bayoh, died on the streets having been arrested by police officers.
“If it can happen in Kirkcaldy, it can happen anywhere.”
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