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Child abuse investigation propels site to over 200,000 hits in 3 years

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Just a service note to say the number of hits on this website has exceeded 200,000 since it was launched just over three years ago.

The recent momentum has been propelled by the investigation into child abuse at the Elm Guest House in Richmond,London where a team of reporters based at Exaro News (http://www.exaronews.com) have been starting to unravel this enormous historic scandal. Most of the stories into the child abuse have attracted between 1500 and 3000 hits. The only higher ones include some of the investigations into the privatisation of the London fire brigade, Brian Coleman, the demise of NHS Direct, and the very disturbing report into strip searching of women and bad treatment of gays at Gatwick Airport.

Thanks to all the people reading this non-profit making site and for supporting genuine investigative journalism.

” I regularly briefed Jenny Tonge on child abuse in Richmond” -children’s director

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Baroness Tonge; Still Still Silent,pic courtesy:http://2009fpconference.files.wordpress.com

Baroness Tonge; Still Still Silent,pic courtesy:http://2009fpconference.files.wordpress.com

The anmesia among politicians about  the child sexual abuse scandal in Richmond Council is looking less and less credible by the day. Now Terry Earland, the former assistant director of children’s services at Richmond, has told my colleague Mark Conrad that he held regular briefings with Jenny Tonge, Liberal social services chair and her deputy at the time – now believed to be dead- about child abuse problems. In article in Exaro News( http://bit.ly/WQQz7M) where Mr Earland gives a long interview. He makes it is absolutely clear that he briefed both senior politicians and officials in the social services department about the issue.

Earland was aware of the scandal at Grafton Close and Elm Guest House. He says he may not have specified Elm Guest House to Jenny Tonge but it is clear that he did report to her and her deputy on a regular basis on child care issue.

Similarly he says he did tell Louis Minster,  social services director later prematurely retired by Jenny Tonge, about sexual abuse at Elm  Guest House  in 1982. This directly contradicts Mr Minster’s statement that he knew nothing about it. He also says it was well-known inside Richmond Council after 1983 that  sexual abuse of children was going on. This is when the Liberal Democrats took over from the Tories.

When you consider that two boys have now told the police that one of the abusers was Sir Cyril Smith, the Liberal MP, whose death will mean he will escape prosecution, it is doubly tragic.

A failure by a council  to protect children in its care is a terrible scandal. The fact that it  appears to have been  ignored by the two parties that form today’s coalition government is anappalling dereliction of duty. And that one of the identified perpetrators was a Liberal Mp makes it even worse. Sometimes critics of the Tories call them the ” nasty party ” As this rate the Liberal Democrats could be called the ” sordid party.”

Baroness Tonge was given the opportunity to comment on Mr Earland’s claim and said she had nothing to say. She was asked about Sir Cyril and had no comment to make. She said the information should be passed to the police. I think it already has.

Discovered: The idyllic St Lucia hideaway of Amy Winehouse

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Moonrise at Cas en Bas beach, Cotton Bay

Moonrise at Cas en Bas beach, Cotton Bay

If you want some peace and quiet, sun, sand and some luxury, I can recommend a week on the island of St Lucia.

I have just returned from a stay there ( No I did not disappear, Dan Hodges,  into a nineteenth century opium den,(see http://bit.ly/XM83jx).  But digesting the horrors of Leveson and midway through a long disturbing investigation into a historic paedophile scandal requires a break.

The hotel chosen by my wife, Margaret, from a Sovereign holiday brochure, proved to be a great find –  remarkable oasis of calm and privacy – and yet extraordinary spacious and comfortable – and by no means the most expensive venue there.

While many hotels are crammed into massive noisy resorts – this one was tucked away alongside a wild and semi deserted public beach where horses cantered along the shore with the local youth  demonstrating their bareback riding skills on Sundays.

Cotton bay; The main pool

Cotton bay; The main pool

The Cotton Bay hotel (http://www.cottonbayvillage.com) consists entirely of villas and apartments,  two restaurants, one attached to a bar on the beach and the other, Piano,Piano, an up market one with a resident pianist; a superb pool, good facilities for kids, a spa, and for the very energetic (unlike me) kite surfing. Built next to a mangrove swamp, part of this had been preserved with the result that the night resounded to myriad frogs calling their mates.

It's a dogs life on holiday

It’s a dogs life on holiday

But its charm was that this piece of unashamed 21st century luxury was alongside  the rest of the  Cas en Bas beach – a very public place where families drove the odd car down for a beach party, dogs were welcome to roam (unlike England) following you on hikes and anyone could bathe in the warm Atlantic ocean.

What caught me off guard was when a local driver taking tourists on a trip to see the remnants of  St Lucia’s rainforest (the colonial Brits chopped down rather a lot of it) and I mentioned Cotton Bay and he said ” You’re staying with the celebs then”.

As I knew neither Dan Hodges, Rupert Murdoch or even Barnet’s local celeb Mrs Angry had been staying there, I wondered who.

It turned out that Amy Winehouse had rented a rather large villa there for six months ( being a journo I checked this out with the hotel manager) and had also committed a remarkable feat of generosity by giving £4000 to a local coconut seller so he could have a hernia operation. See the tale in The Mirror (http://bit.ly/Y7gXUF ) and it appears to be true and happened on the beach! The good news -from another  taxi driver – is that the Chinese are building a new public hospital at Castres, the capital.

The hotel had many plus points. we were on half board and could dine at either restaurant and if we had  three meals, they only charged us for the cheapest one. We had one complimentary spa treatment  between us and they did not charge us for the most expensive treatment.

The ground floor apartment was more than spacious with its own kitchen, sitting room and two bathrooms ( we appear to have been upgraded!)

Cas-en-Bas beach looking towards the bar

Cas-en-Bas beach looking towards the bar

Bad points – if you were going self catering, the shop had only limited supplies, though they did run a complimentary bus service three times a week to a local shopping mall. Also it was a long way from the main road where there are cheap bus services and it would have been far too hot to walk there. Taxis, car hire  and tourist trips are expensive though the rain forest trip on an aerial tram was breathtaking.

Probably the most bizarre story there was that at one stage the forest was occupied by Zimbabwean refugee Rastafarians, who started chopping down parts of it for firewood and introduced a new species, cannabis sativa, into the forest. Our tour guide, a trained lawyer, said they had been moved and some Norfolk pines had been imported from Cuba to fill the gaps. Anything can happen in the Caribbean.

Will Elm Guest House man quit Britain?

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The former Elm Tree Guest House Pic courtesy: Exaro

The former Elm Tree Guest House Pic courtesy: Exaro

Harry Kasir, the former co manager of Elm Guest House in Barnes, appears to be on the verge of leaving the country.

Mr Kasir, a central figure in the scandal involving investigations into child sex abuse at the guest house, was convicted  with his wife, Carole, of running a gay brothel after the police raid on the place in 1982.

The full story by my Exaro colleague Fiona O’Cleirigh and myself (http://bit.ly/YA42MS)  reveals that Kasir has recently sought  to raise nearly £60,000 from his ex-partner –  part of his share of  their house. He wants the money under a legal agreement by  next Monday. The story also appeared in the Sunday People in a  more shortened form.(http://bit.ly/11V6sMC)

He is also thought to have applied for a residential visa to move to the United States so he can live with his 40-year-old son. Kasir has two passports – a UK and a Pakistani passport.

Exaro has informed the police . Certainly Kasir might have many reasons to move – his home has been raided by the police and he has been pursued by journalists from us, the  Sunday People and Channel Four News. He has reserved his right not to speak to anyone.

However if he does go abroad – given the weakness of the US UK extradition treaty – thanks to  former home secretary Mr David Blunkett, it is going to be difficult for anyone to get him back.

Justice will need to be seen to be done in this criminal investigation and I suspect that Mr Kasir should be telling the police everything he knows.

Richmond social services knew their children were abused – former children’s director

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Richmond Council: Not a welcome refuge for children: Pic courtesy: http://www.officespaceinlondon.lnet.

Richmond Council: Not a welcome refuge for children: Pic courtesy: http://www.officespaceinlondon.lnet.

The amnesia surrounding everybody at Richmond Council over the 1982 Elm  guest house paedophile scandal is at an end.

A dramatic interview by my colleague Mark Conrad published in Exaro News today (   http://bit.ly/Vesffe) with Terry Earland, the former assistant director in charge of children’s services, reveals that he  knew that children at Grafton Close children’s home were sexually abused at Elm Guest House.

You will have to get on to the Exaro website to read the full story. But this disclosure from Earland’s  home abroad raises even more damning questions about the conduct of Richmond Council at the time. It directly contradicts what Louis Minster told Exaro  from Malta only days ago when he claimed he had never heard about the Elm Guest House in Barnes until Exaro and the Sunday People revealed the police investigation into the scandal. How can his head of children’s services know what happened and he didn’t know anything?

This awful saga which began with allegations about prominent people sexually abusing boys at the guest house is now also turning into what looks like a ” cover up ” by Richmond Council of the abuse of children, some as young as ten, in their care in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

It has all the hallmarks of the scandal in North Wales. Searching questions are needed of  people in power at the time.

And watch Exaro over the next few days for  even more damning revelations about the role of Richmond Council.

See no evil,Hear no evil, Speak no evil: Richmond’s amnesia on child abuse

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Top Liberal Democrat politicians and the most senior official in charge  of social services  in the London borough of Richmond appear to have been struck dumb by an extraordinary outbreak of amnesia over the rapidly enfolding child abuse scandal 30 years ago.

Contacted by myself and my colleagues at Exaro News  prominent Lib SDP councillors at the time  Lord Razzall, Baroness  Tonge, Sir David Williams, and former social services director Louis Minster, traced by Exaro colleague Mark Conrad to retirement in Malta, don’t seem to remember a thing about it.

His interview by Mark and Alison Winward is at http://bit.ly/Y2xnzk  81 year old Mr Minster – who is following the police investigation on the internet – told Mark:” There no inquiries[into suspected child abuse] at all.”

In a piece by me, Mark, Nick Fielding and David Pallister on Exaro News(http://bit.ly/YQVguO) it is revealed that Richmond Council held a rare extraordinary general meeting in private session to discuss the premature retirement of Louis Minster. This came a year after the then Liberal  SDP coalition came into office and two years after the police raid on Elm Guest House in Barnes.

Exatraorinarily Lord Razzall, who went  on to be the Liberal Democrat treasurer and is business spokesman for the party in the Lords, can’t remember anything about it.

Sir David Williams, former lb dem leader of Richmond Council - pic courtesy: richmond.gov.uk

Sir David Williams, former lb dem leader of Richmond Council – pic courtesy: richmond.gov.uk

Yet the minutes of that meeting  show that he and Sir David Williams, then leader of the council, proposed a motion both to end the career of Louis Minster, and for the meeting to be held in private.

Lord Razzall: Picture: courtesy Wikipedia

Lord Razzall: Picture: courtesy Wikipedia

Lord Razzall said: “I have no recollection. All I know is that he left shortly after we took control of the council.”

He was unable to say why the council held an emergency meeting to sack a senior officer who had clashed with political leaders.

He said: “The only recollection I have, as is so often the case when a new political party takes over, the senior executives leave if the relationship with the new management is not working.

“I have no recollection of extraordinary meetings, or indeed why there was an extraordinary meeting.”

Sir David who doubts there was any child abuse in Richmond thought they had discovered Louis Minster did not have the right qualifications.

Louis Minster himself has disclosed he was paid off with a £10,000 golden handshake and is still bitter about it all.

While Baroness Tonge,who chaired the social services committee at the time and is  known for her ability

Baroness Tonge; Silent,pic courtesy:http://2009fpconference.files.wordpress.com

Baroness Tonge; Silent,pic courtesy:http://2009fpconference.files.wordpress.com

to speak her mind, is totally silent.

One has to ask how such a prominent police raid in 1982 – it made the front page of the News of the World- appears to have passed without comment in Richmond .

If as they say they knew nothing about it and the police prove there was child abuse, Richmond Council  will have a lot of questions to explain why they knew nothing about this.

The case for an inquiry into the running of Richmond Council at the time  will be  compelling if people  are prosecuted by the Met Police. Particularly as I have now had confirmation from a source that a payout was made to a child abused under Richmond’s care for compensation after the event.

Child Abuse Questions for the London borough of Richmond

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Sir David Williams, former lb dem leader of Richmond Council - pic courtesy: richmond.gov.uk

Sir David Williams, former lib dem leader of Richmond Council – child abuse  ” specious rumours”pic courtesy: richmond.gov.uk

As the police investigation Operation Fernbank continues apace, questions are mounting over the role of the London borough of Richmond and its social services department over the scandal.

A report by David Pallister and me on the Exaro News website (http://www.exaronews.com/articles/4817/police-probes-richmond-council-over-vip-paedophile-ring )  that the police have requested and obtained documents from the council’s records dating back to the 1980s.

The council is in the frame because  documents written about Elm House guest house, raided by the police in 1982, name boys who were at the now closed Grafton House  children’s home and were taken  there to be sexually abused by prominent people. It suggests a link between kids under the care of Richmond Council and the notorious guest house.

One of the few prominent councillors around at the time was Sir David Williams, Liberal Democrat leader of Richmond Council for 18 years from 1983 to 2001 and appointed by Eric Pickles, communities secretary, to sit on the board of the soon to be abolished Audit Commission in 2011. He has been a councillor since 1974.

This is his view of the present police investigation into the Elm House guest house.

” I knew nothing about this until some time afterwards it was a rumour. It didn’t impact on the council at the time.

…” If the police do find something, well the police will find something. It is all specious rumour as far as I am concerned until someone gives me some hard facts. It is idle speculation as far as I am aware.

 “If it did involve children I didn’t know. I doubt if it did.”
Sir David’s reaction to put it mildly is interesting. If he is right the police are wasting their time launching a criminal investigation. But it is highly unlikely in these stricken financial times that the Met Police would waste our money without any strong leads.
What do you think or if you are  in Richmond  do you know more about this than meets the eye? Contact me if you have.

Revealed: The Tory promotion of the ” paedophile ” guest house

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The former Elm Tree Guest House Strongly recommended by Tory gay newsletter.Pic courtesy: Exaro

The former Elm Tree Guest House Strongly recommended by Tory gay newsletter.Pic courtesy: Exaro

The Conservative Campaign for Homosexual Equality ” strongly recommended ” the Elm House guest house as a venue for its members in 1982 at  time of alleged suppressed paedophile scandal, Exaro News ( http://www.exaronews.com/articles/4816/tory-group-recommended-guest-house-in-met-paedo-probe ) and the Sunday People ( http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/paedo-brothel-elm-guest-house-1558001) reveal today.

Investigations by me and former Guardian colleague David Pallister have uncovered an old Conservative  CHE newsletter which urged its membership from London and the Home Counties to use the facilities including the sauna and video room.

The newsletter went out during the year police raided the property and the guest house is now at the centre of a criminal investigation under Operation Fernbridge into whether young boys in the care of  Richmond Council and other authorities  were taken there to be sexually abused.

The existence of the reference in the CHE Group newsletter is the first official document linking the gay guest house in Barnes to the Conservative Party. Previous files taken from Mary Moss, organiser of the  now defunct National Association of Young People in Care which name 16 boys , two Conservative ministers , eight other MPs and other prominent people including people from social services- are written by a source who appeared to be staying at the guest house.

In a sense it shows how difficult the police investigation will be – since some of the guests will be consenting gay adults – who legitimately have the right to stay in a  gay hotel. The rest of newsletter concentrates on legitimate political campaigning but it is quite clear that   a special effort was made to promote this guest house among members.

Full Story in Exaro News(.http://www.exaronews.com/articles/4816/tory-group-recommended-guest-house-in-met-paedo-probe)

The Unsavoury Boom in Child Grooming revealed by Oxford gang

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From an anti-grooming campaign. Pic courtesy: blog.childquest.org

From an anti-grooming campaign. Pic courtesy: blog.childquest.org

The huge scale of the activities of the Oxford paedophile ring revealed yesterday when seven men were convicted of 43 charges of rape, child prostitution and trafficking is but the tip of the iceberg.

Extraordinary figures revealed earlier that police forces across England and Wales are engaged in more than 30 separate investigations into suspected child sexual abuse and exploitation.

The most damning thing is the failure of social services and the police to get a grip on the situation despite being warned and some of the victims going to the police for help.

A damning article  in today’s Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/may/14/oxford-abuse-ring-social-services) based on an interview with one of the victims reveals yet again the failure of authorities  to support them. Indeed it is worse. From her interview it appears that Oxfordshire  county council MADE UP they were giving her ” wrap around support.” to her and her family. This is  compounded by a letter from Jim Leivers, director for children in Oxfordshire,  saying he had been ” closely involved in providing support to me.”. This is branded ” a lie” by the girl.

This is very similar to Downing Street claiming £10.5 m was being spent on helping victims of historic child abuse when the money was going to rape crisis centres – when challenged about support for victims of Operation Fernbridge.

But meanwhile the scale of this problem will only keep on growing The figures  for ongoing investigations disclosed in an investigation by my brilliant colleague Mark Conrad in two articles for Exaro News ( http://www.exaronews.com)  and in a story in The Sun  (see http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4762065/Thirty-major-police-probes-into-paedophile-gangs-under-way.html) suggest that recent cases in Rochdale and the current trial in Oxford are not isolated incidents. A full list of police operations  released under freedom of information requests  is on Exaro’s website.

While overall crime is down, this potential epidemic involving child grooming and drug abuse suggest either the police have only just become aware of this or it is becoming a very serious problem in the UK.

Not all the suspected crimes are in big cities – Lancashire is the top of the list for investigations – and even in rural areas like North Wales it is a problem.

Questions need to be asked why this happening and why  England is returning to an era more eloquently described by Charles Dickens and Samuel Pepys where young girls  were exploited for prostitution. Is it seen by some unsavoury characters as a new perverted business opportunity, is it the sexualised world fuelled by the internet?

Whatever is going on politicians in all parties  ought to be addressing this question. It seems to extend to all levels of society as the current investigation by Exaro into historic child abuse in the 1980s is beginning to uncover.

Police raid home of former gay guest house contact in paedophile investigation

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The former Elm Tree Guest House where Kasir was the contact and fined at the Old Bailey now flats Pic courtesy: Exaro

The former Elm Guest House where Kasir was the contact and fined at the Old Bailey.Now flats Pic courtesy: Exaro

The  police investigation into the political paedophile ring has taken a new turn with detectives looking at  Haroon Kasir, known as Harry, who was the contact for the Elm Guest House home in Barnes at the time it is alleged it was used by MPs and other prominent people in the 1980s.

My former Guardian  colleague David Pallister has managed to trace Mr Kasir and had a brief conversation with him. His full story is at http://www.exaronews.com .

Harry Kasir was convicted at the Old Bailey in 1990 with his now dead wife of  keeping a disorderly house- a brothel –  , fined £1000 and given a nine month prison sentence suspended for two years.  The case was  reported in Capital Gay at the time.

Now aged 69 he went on to be a driving instructor and is said to be currently working as a driver for a Kingston based charity that helps disabled people. they are understood to have raided his home but he has not been arrested in connection with the investigation.

The move comes, as previously reported in Exaro and on this website,  when the police have upgraded the scoping exercise called Operation Fairbank to a criminal investigation, Operation Fernbridge.

Boys, some of them as young as ten, were said to be taken to the  guest house from a Richmond Council children’s home, Grafton Close, at the time. Evidence supplied to Exaro from a former employee of Richmond Council and from  Labour Mp, Tom Watson, is helping the police continue their investigation.

Tom Watson said:  I am confident that the Metropolitan police team are committed to a through investigation that leaves no stone unturned. As they get nearer the truth it is vital they are given the time and space to conduct the investigation without interference. I urge any witnesses or victims to come forward if they think they can help with the inquiry. No matter what has happened in the past, now is the time for your voice to be heard.”