Today I got praised by Zac Goldsmith MP for the work Exaro and I have been doing on investigating child sex abuse and helping to press for an overarching inquiry into the issue.
But I could not have done this without the help from survivors,contacts and MPs who have passed vital information allowing me to investigate this scandal in the first place.
Also this is a team effort. Exaro colleagues like Mark Conrad have uncovered amazing leads and Mark Watts, editor of Exaro, has fearlessly put this whole investigation together.
There is much more to be done, much more to be exposed, but it is great to get some recognition from MPs like Zac.
I can assure everybody that Zac Goldsmith,Tom Watson and Simon Danczuk are very concerned to get to the real truth behind such a disturbing scandal that has remained hidden for decades. No one is going to be silenced very easily.
Westminster Confidential 
Well done but where’s the praise for the IoS and Hanning and Calahan who broke first broke the story. Keep an eye on the IoS: Rochdale/Rotherham/Richmond the next one in London will dwarf all. Promise.
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I was at the debate yesterday. 3 stayed for the duration in the gallery and about 20 MPs. Security services being told to do the right thing? Get real ‘********, a mere speck of dust in all of this’ Ask SRD.
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Is that the same Zac Goldsmith responsible for the following (referring to a certain ‘child protection campaigner’)?
“He said that he’d been told by Mrs Kasir that boys had been brought in from the local children’s home […] for sex.
And that she had all kinds of photographs of establishment figures at her hotel. One of them allegedly showed a former cabinet minister in the sauna with a naked boy.
She had logbooks, names, times, dates, pictures of her customers and so on. All that evidence simply disappeared after the raid. It no longer exists. That surely is astonishing.”
Yes, it certainly is astonishing. An astonishing re-writing of what has previously been claimed, when the evidence that ‘disappeared’ in 1982 was seen in 1990 by the self same ‘campaigner’.
Why in God’s name is a MP getting this SO wrong on the floor of the Houses of Parliament at this stage of the game?
I’m starting to wonder if I should have paid more attention to the colour of the Exaro masthead a long time ago…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2852189/Ex-cabinet-minister-photographed-sauna-naked-boy-notorious-guest-house-children-brought-sex-MP-tells-Parliament.html
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What’s that they say about a lie making it half way around the world?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11258889/Sir-Edward-Garnier-tried-to-stop-Labour-MP-challenging-Lord-Brittan-over-child-abuse-claims.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/westminster-sex-abuse-scandal-excabinet-minister-was-photographed-in-the-sauna-with-a-naked-boy-at-elm-guest-house-9889972.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2852444/Did-PM-s-adviser-try-stop-MP-linking-Brittan-claims-child-sex-abuse-Former-solictor-general-said-naming-not-wise-move.html
They even manage to drag Danczuk’s claims about being leaned on into the frame (whilst neglecting to point out how THAT story has changed: the “current Minister” that never was).
If Exaro/yourself are going to make no attempt to correct the flow of disinformation then where does that leave the claim for ‘evidence based journalism’? If you are genuinely happy to read the following…
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmhansrd/cm141127/debtext/141127-0003.htm#14112768000487
… then I have made a genuine misjudgement of character. I’m disappointed, shocked, and genuinely angry. Rather than say more I comment further here:
http://annaraccoon.com/2014/11/29/saturday-evening-posts-worth-reading-and-the-25-hour-news-21/#comment-63549
I’d wish you luck, but no longer understand what your aims are, so… goodbye.
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Bandini,
Sad to see you are going. I am always happy to have debate on my blogs unless it libels someone. But the decision is yours.
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Thanks for the reply, but without corrections & clarifications Exaro is going in the bin with the rest of the red-tops.
At least Tom Watson seems to be hanging onto his sanity… but for how long?
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/28/tom-watson-interview-no-doubt-one-politician-abused-kids
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Well I timed that well – just before the latest bombshell revelations from Exaro/Sunday People!
Aside from being factually incorrect, the story neglects to mention that the tabloid tale from 1983 – now being given mouth-to-mouth by Exaro – was already 10-years old when it first raised its homophobic head. (i.e. It’s now over 40-years old.)
It’s basically a story of how a mother fails to get to grips with her son’s sexuality, thinks that he may have been “homosexualised” 10-years earlier, finds a homo-hating firebrand to leap to HER defence (NOT the son’s, who made no complaint) & the rest was barrel-scraping history. Dr. (!) Dickens included it in one of his “massive dossiers”…
Ah, those dossiers! The 80s equivalent of Philip Schofield’s list culled from the web. I foresee future generations – using yet-to-be-invented image-enhancing technology – frothing at the mouth as they uncover the names that the crime cracking presenter tried to expose… and that the Evil Establishment tried to suppress!
And that really is over & out from me.
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I would be surprised if it is factually incorrect.
However I would be interested in your views of the conviction of John Allen at Mold Crown Court on Friday for 33 new offences of child sex abuse following Operation Pallial re-opening the North Wales children’s home dossier. His defence was that he was not gay, not interested in children sexually and the claims against him were just for money.And his previous convictions were a major miscarriage of justice. Do you agree with him or with the judge and the jury?
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I really DO wish to leave this all alone now, a whole year of my life spent searching & reading & poring through immense newspaper archives, and all sparked by a chance occurence: the spotting of what seemed to be an anomoly relating to the supposed involvement of a 60s pornographer in the Elm-case. I’d never heard of the man prior to this, and wish I never had.
To this day I don’t know the truth of the matter, although I DO know that the only item which raised an eyebrow of suspicion was brought to the attention of ‘that’ forum by myself (thanks to a friend in London who went traipsing around bookstores/libraries for me): it is alleged that he changed his name to deliberately confuse himself with a photographer/filmmaker who most people would say has an unhealthy interest in underage girls (although his work, being “art”, is freely available).
For my troubles I was graphically wished a painful death by names I can see scrolling by in the Twitter-box of Exaro…
With the renewed interest in the Allen/Mishrota cases there have been attempts to link a particular MP to the scene(s) of the crime(s), based largely on suspects’ descriptions.
Again, there seemed to be a determined attempt on the part of some to see only what they wanted to see & remain wilfully blind to that that might have suggested they were mistaken (namely, focussing on one artist’s impression & ignoring other information which had the potential culprit as a well-built moustachioed man dressed all in denim, and not a bespoke-suit wearing, Inman-style mincing aesthete).
But I also found a curious reference (Private Eye, 1981) to the MP’s alleged fondness for a particluar spot which the police later raided as part of their enquiries. As I simply don’t know the truth of any of this – but I believe in the presumption of innocence & not trial-by-Twitter – I posted about both points in what I hope was a reasoned manner (although not in a place famed for its reason!).
http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1062319131&postcount=82051
I could go on, but what I’m trying to show is that I have no ulterior motive other than to try & get closer to the truth. And I mention this now as I’m puzzled by your question relating to John Allen…
Although his name has repeatedly popped-up, I’ve never really spent any time following up this side of things, perhaps because it already seemed like a minefield. The whole of bloody Wales seems like that at times…
I’ll allow myself the following caveat: sometimes the innocent are wrongly jailed.
However, I still have a modicum of faith in the British justice system, and having not heard any credible claims of miscarriage in his case I will assume that he is guilty as charges/convicted/sentenced.
If he has any information to share, I hope he does so. And I hope he might come to some kind of realisation about the damage to others’ lives he has caused, and seek to rectify anything that he can rectify (but from behind bars). A forlorn hope, perhaps, but it’s what dies last, right?
No more, please. I’m tired of it all.
P.S. I’ve just left a comment on AnnaRaccon’s blog, relating to the Cyril Smith/Elm/Haroon Kasir/Met confirmation that was touched on here a few days ago. Again, an attempt at having the truth heard.
http://annaraccoon.com/2014/11/30/duncroft-the-finale-part-one/comment-page-1/#comment-63996
Goodbye.
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Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.
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Just been told by my IO friend today that all of Carole Kasirs photos were destroyed by SB in 1990
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Aye, GMB, and two-weeks ago you were telling us of Chris Fay’s discusions with Newsnight over – and prior to – the ‘naming’ of McAlpine (the scandal which blossomed on the very day that Watson spoke in Parliament).
You should consider collecting your posts between the pages of a book, for posterity’s sake. Who knows when they might be called upon?
http://theneedleblog.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/a-warning-from-the-self-proclaimed-new-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-34827
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