Met Police boss admits mistake over Jason Arday plagiarism row

The head of the Metropolitan Police has said his force should not have investigated a journalist who was looking into plagiarism claims about a University of Cambridge professor. Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said officers "dropped the ball" when they looked into a complaint made against journalist Jack Grove over his attempts to contact Prof Jason Arday. Sir Mark told broadcaster LBC the complaint should have been "screened out earlier on as not requiring investigation". Arday, who resigned from Cambridge on Wednesday, has has admitted errors in his work, but denied plagiarism. Times Higher Education (THE) reporter Grove said he had been investigating allegations Arday had plagiarised parts of his PhD, and contacted him in 2025 to offer him the right of reply. "In early February I received a call from a Met police officer saying that a complaint had been raised against me by someone and Professor Arday was very distressed and I shouldn't contact him again," Grove told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "It was a complete shock. Apparently it was for harassment but I hadn't contacted him for four months and then maybe I think I've only sent three or four emails to him in tota