Child sex abuse: Investigators announce a game change decision

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The announcement by the Independent Police Complaints Commission that it is to investigate  cover ups  inside the Metropolitan Police on historical child sexual abuse inquiries is  game changing. It means not only are the Met Police convinced that evidence from survivors of a powerful paedophile ring that may have operated in Westminster and Whitehall needs investigating and people prosecuted but the Met Police conduct at the time needs to be held to account

The full statement on the IPCC  site lists no fewer than 14 allegations to be investigated going back to the 1970s. and 1980s to the early 2000s. You can read them in the release.

As the IPCC Deputy Chair Sarah Green said:

“These allegations are of historic, high level corruption of the most serious nature.

“We will oversee the investigations and ensure that they meet the terms of reference that we will set. Allegations of this nature are of grave concern and I would like to reassure people of our absolute commitment to ensuring that the investigations are thorough and robust.”

The press release names Dolphin Square as one of the venues of the ring  and also South London – linking possible venues like Elm Guest House in Barnes  and Lambeth. It covers a number of investigations by exaro and disclosures on a closed website that  former Met  police officers working on these cases believed they had been stopped from pursuing important people.

Survivors and victims should at last be pleased that they are being taken seriously and must hope that this will really be a thorough detailed investigation that will not shy away from finding out who in the Met agreed or was told to close down such investigations .

However a word of warning it is to be – as the Danny Shaw, the BBC’s home affairs correspondent points out –  a ” managed ” inquiry – meaning that the Met police’s own Professional Standards Body will carry out the investigation into the Met police. They will be overseen by the IPCC which is hit by not having enough resources due to the austerity measures.

In some ways this investigation parallels the equally appalling murder of Daniel Morgan – current the subject of an independent panel inquiry into  the murder of the private investigator. The evidence from the Met Police finally handed over late last year should also open up inquiries into why leading figures in the Met never got a successful prosecution.

What can be said now is that these lurid allegations against MPs, senior Cabinet ministers, spies and the various churches- which some commentators believe must be false – have to be taken seriously and cannot just be ignored.

The investigation I hope will go some way to restore trust in the police to conduct such inquiries in the future and also show those who thought they could cover up matters in the 1970s and 1980s will not get away with it.

The inquiry has to be seen to be robust, transparent and thorough and getting to the root of the many scandals in the capital. If it doesn’t suspicions will remain. it will require nerves of steel  to tackle the prominent people who stand accused.

27 thoughts on “Child sex abuse: Investigators announce a game change decision”

  1. Right so the police will be investigating the police who will investigate the police about the investigations about the police

    Will they find time to er actually arrest criminals or will they be too busy investigating themselves

    Still it will make a change from trying to nobble others looking into HCSA

    If Terry May claims no more cover ups could she look into her own department on this matter?

    And borough councils missing and lost documents and closure orders on archives and misinformation in newspapers?

    It would help

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    • Give our police some credit, I hope the Police have moved on since the 1970’s & 1980’s . What you have to bear in mind is that these alleged event had taking place many years ago. Few if any will be now be serving in the Police force and many will be dead. There has been many cases where police forces have been investigated by other forces in more recent times and often the accusations of cover up before the investigation do not materialise.

      Mr Hall’s comments below show the weakness of the investigations. Now before anyone writes and informs me that Special Branch, or the Intelligence Services should be excluded for Intelligence reasons. What I wish to make clear to them is that no-one is above the law, which is the reason why we have ended up in this situation in the beginning. Let me spell it out again “No-one is above the Law” and this includes the flowing organisation that has been unaccountable to anyone for many years.
      https://www.mi5.gov.uk/

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  2. CSA IPCC Case Nos 2005/000601 & 2004/003500 [same complaint]‏
    An IPCC case: Details Metropolitan Police removing CSA claims from their database (imputed at Kingston upom Thames PS) about Barmes Brothel and LBRut childrens and other things. If this is not one of the referrals to the IPCC why not? it should be! Loads more in the IPCC files concealed eg Meeting @ IPCC HQ 23.7.2004 with senior officer Keith Price re. Leon Brittan/Richmond/EGH and the killing of Grace Lilian Johnson an 88 year old spinster at a LBRuT elderly persons care home.

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    • 1) Allegation of a potential cover up around failures to properly investigate child sex abuse offences in South London and further information about criminal allegations against a politician being dropped.
      2) Allegation that an investigation involving a proactive operation targeting young men in Dolphin Square, was stopped because officers were too near prominent people.
      3) Allegation that a document was found at an address of a paedophile that originated from the Houses of Parliament listing a number of highly prominent individuals (MPs and senior police officers) as being involved in a paedophile ring and no further action was taken.
      4) Allegation that an account provided by an abuse victim had been altered to omit the name of a senior politician.
      5) Allegation that an investigation into a paedophile ring, in which a number of people were convicted, did not take action in relation to other more prominent individuals
      6) Allegations that a politician had spoken with a senior MPS officer and demanded no action was taken regarding a paedophile ring and boys being procured and supplied to prominent persons in Westminster in the 1970s.
      7) Allegation that in the late 1970s a surveillance operation that gathered intelligence on a politician being involved in paedophile activities was closed down by a senior MPS officer.
      8) Allegation that a dossier of allegations against senior figures and politicians involved in child abuse were taken by Special Branch officers.
      9) Allegations that a surveillance operation of a child abuse ring was subsequently shut down due to high profile people being involved.
      10) Allegations of child sex abuse against a senior politician and a subsequent cover-up of his crimes.
      11) Allegations that during a sexual abuse investigation a senior officer instructed the investigation be halted and that that order had come from ‘up high’ in the MPS.
      12) Allegation of a conspiracy within the MPS to prevent the prosecution of a politician suspected of offences.
      13) Allegations against a former senior MPS officer regarding child sex abuse and that further members of the establishment including judges were involved. It is claimed that no further action was taken.
      14) Allegation that police officers sexually abused a boy and carried out surveillance on him. Further allegations of financial corruption in a London borough police force.
      A further two referrals of a similar nature have been received from the MPS and are currently being assessed.

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    • Been told by HCAI this morning it is being referred back to the PPSD. Ohhh does that mean it will be thorough, nobody will turn off the recorders again and Plod will not take down CSA complaints from their database?

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  4. “Allegation that a dossier of allegations against senior figures and politicians involved in child abuse were taken by Special Branch officers.”

    That would be that break in at Home Office then.
    by
    The Special Burglars

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    • @graham Wilmer I deeply resent the idea that white flowers is some covert underhand Organisation

      We are just representing survivors As best we can. You should be Ashamed of yourself

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  6. The majority of commentators refer to these ‘historic’ events as though they only happened in the 70’s and 80’s. I was given information (at the time) that the parties were occurring in the 90’s. I believe that on Newsnight, last night, it was claimed that they continued into the new millenium.

    If I am correct in this surely, to keep referring to these crimes as historic, belittles their importance in the here and now? Did these offenders just suddenly stop?

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    • The answer is no – it applies to the Met Police only but North Wales is being heavily revisited by the National Crime Agency’s Operation Pallial which has started catching people who got away with it last time – for example John Allen who is now in jail for a long time.

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  11. I agree with David that the self referral by the Metropolitan Police to the IPCC is as significant event in relation to crimes against children and their cover up as the admissions on at the Hillsborough Inquest and augurs well for the statutory inquiry as long these developments are not adversely affected by the potential change of government at the General Election and makes more important the need for the media, and others to seek assurances from all Party Leaders and those politicians likely to command Ministerial positions in the Justice, Home Affairs, Health which includes their former responsibilities in relation to child protection and Education.

    The difficulties of establishing evidence which will hold up in court against VIPs who have not been media celebrities was always going to prove difficult which is why I have pressed for the emphasis on the cover up especially where the argument of national interest such stopping terrorist bombings on mainland UK could not said to have applied.

    In addition to the response of the Home Secretary to the Home Affairs Committee there was the expanded response of the Prime Minister to Tom Watson at PMQ which also appeared to signal licence to talk to the media although being prosecuted under the Official Secrets Acts is only one consideration as was demonstrated in the evidence of the Inquiry Counsel to the Home Affairs Committee in relation to the position of an individual panel member/ There are many constraints under many statutes. and as we have seen in relation to Whistleblowing and the National Health service there is a wide gulf between national standards and good intentions set by governments and what happens in practice when authorities consult their lawyers directly employed or those used by liability insurers. No government can directly intervene in individual situations involving disciplinary measures between employers and their employees..

    While recommending caution and taking legal advice I never expected to witness the events if the past 9 months culminating in the developments of the past month during my remaining lifetime. The decision of the Home Secretary to establish the Judicial Inquiry into the role of undercover policing before the GE is another important move together with the decision to require some disciplinary investigation to be held in public.. It will also be interesting to learn how many other police forces have self referred themselves to the IPCC given the news that Leicestershire police has done so in relation to a senior Labour Politician and another good question for Freedom of Information Act enthusiasts.

    .

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  12. Here’s one that should be also referred to the IPCC:

    Extracts from a complaint to the IPCC of 20.12.2004
    ‘Further matters were brought to the attention of my trade union branch involving criminal matters at the LBRUT. By this time I, fellow Trade union branch officers and others were aware the Police had still failed to act. On the 25 January 2003 (1) our Branch Secretary wrote on behalf of our TU Branch to a senior GMB Trade Union officer via Mr. Hunter who is the Regional Secretary for the Southern Region of the GMB Trades Union about amongst other things, elder and child abuse at the LBRUT. This was also copied 25 January 2003 (2) to Mr. John Edmonds, the then General Secretary of the GMB Trades Union. Mr. Hunter replied to our Branch Secretary, Mr. McArthur, on the 19 February 2003. Over a year later after repeated requests to GMB was a journalist finally able to get further details from the GMB. See below Mr. Judge’s details re. Kingston upon Thames CID Unit.’

    ‘In early 2004 I was aware that the Police had not acted properly and that my GMB Trades Union were not acting properly so I decided to go to a local Richmond journalist, Mr. Daniel Judge. Over the past few months Mr. Judge has spoken to people who confirmed crimes were being committed at Greville House. Despite his repeated requests to the Trade Union and more importantly the Metropolitan Police Service it took months for Mr. Judge to finally get some information from the Union and the Police. He finally was able to speak to a DC at Kingston upon Thames CID. He confirmed to Mr. Judge he had received Mr. Hunter’s allegations in the Spring of 2003 and had put them into a Police computer database for Twickenham/Richmond CID to act upon. When Mr. Judge subsequently spoke to the Police at Richmond the Police there denied any knowledge of such information. Mr. Judge went back to DC Foot at Kingston and told him what Richmond Police had stated. The response of DC Foot was he was adamant that the information had been put on the database by him, he had seen it on screen, it could not be taken off and that he was not going to cover for those Police officers at Richmond.’
    &
    Extract from a letter to the GMB Trades Union 25.1.2003 outlining the issue which led the TU passing the allegations onto the Met see the above

    ‘What is going on in Richmond is very nasty. One of our officers has recently given David Blunkett correspondence re. abuse cover-ups in Richmond from the 1980’s to date. That investigation is being steadily progressed. The abuse? Boys and girls procured from carehomes to work in a brothel / ex-minsters paying visits to the same brothel in Richmond / Torture of elderly LA carehome residents / Suicides and assaults of/on vulnerable women in LA care etc. Get the drift? The Police did not want to, they even dispatched a letter refusing to deal with abuse allegations.’

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    • @Gmb and David Hencke
      Our suspicions have been confirmed regarding the death of Peter Watts in January 1976

      The document states that peter watts was murderd by ” person or persons unknown ”

      The coroner ww found had a habit of removing brains from subjects. One of which was a suspect in an abduction paedo crime

      So why on earth did the police not investigate peter watts death?
      Is it because ” chester ” was connected to this cas?

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  14. I hear that the IPCC have received a massif complaint last Tuesday…nothing to do with me – mine has been pinged back to the PSSD by HCAI or so they verbally told me yesterday…still waiting DS for your email. No really the one last week is the one everybody knows about but everybody is afraid to mention who it is.

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