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.

Updated: First two arrests in Richmond paedophile ring

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The  Met Police investigation into the Elm Guest House paedophile brothel took a dramatic turn yesterday. The first two people suspected of being involved in the scandal were arrested at dawn yesterday in simultaneous police raids in Hastings and Norfolk.

The  first arrest at a flat in St Leonards came as Exaro reporters were outside the flat and witnessed the eight police from the paedophile unit arrive at 7.15 am. There is a full report and a picture of the arrested man being taken away by police on the exaro website (http://bit.ly/X2U3RK).

The first man to be arrested was John Stingemore, the former deputy manager of Grafton Close children’s home. Now 70 and frail he was taken to a local police station for further questioning. The police are investigating claims of child sexual abuse at the  home and at the guest house.

The second person is a 66-year old Roman Catholic priest, Tony McSweeney who was arrested in Norwich . Father McSweeney, a former chaplain to Norwich football club, is being asked about child sexual abuse at the Elm Guest House in the 1980s,

Grafton Close children’s’ home, closed since the 1990s, is on the borders of Richmond and Hounslow. One central allegation in the story is that  it supplied young boys to Elm Guest House,in Barnes  a place strongly recommended on the Conservative Group for Homosexual Equality and offering discounts to people belonging to the Spartacus club, then an organisation  for men seeking sexual relations with young boys. Central to the allegations is the guest house for VIPs including politicians, government ministers and business people.

This is the first action by the Met police since 1982 when they raided the guest house and made 23 arrests. All the people were then released. Harry Kasir, the owner of the guest house, was later charged and convicted of running a gay brothel.

Both men have now been released by the police on bail until April pending further inquiries.

Police are  appealing for more  people to come forward and contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000.

Did Richmond council pay ” hush money” to cover up the Elm Guest House child abuse scandal?

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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.net.

One of the most disturbing  of the many sordid facts emerging in this tale of a 30 year child sex abuse scandal is the role of Richmond Council.

It is their kids in care who were allegedly procured from their homes – mainly the now closed Grafton Close home – and taken to Elm Guest House – and then sexually abused by prominent people including ministers, and MPs.

Two graphic accounts appeared over the weekend  in the Daily Mail ( http://bit.ly/XE6iCj) and the Sunday People( http://bit.ly/XE6OAf ) from victims about what happened there in the 1980s..

The Exaro News investigation – now involving  the editor, Mark Watts, five reporters  David Pallister, Nick Fielding, Fiona O’Cleirigh, Alex Varley-Winter and me – has produced a fresh spate of articles, including one on Grafton Close children’s home today  See http://bit.ly/WLo45E ,http://bit.ly/Xiw9Om, and http://bit.ly/Y4XFzI   ) for the full stories.

These reveal that Elm House was also on the then Spartacus club network where men attracted to boys could get a discount for staying there. Coming on top of the ” strongly recommended ” rating on the Conservative Group for Homosexual Reform – this again points to the place being used not just for homosexual sex between consenting adults but also with young boys.

They also reveal that  the two managers of Grafton Close,both employees of Richmond Council, were named as part of the paedophile ring at a coroner’s court hearing into the death of Carole Kasir, who co-managed Elm House, in the 1990s.

What is interesting in both reports  is the fact that Richmond Council faced civil proceedings from one of the boys and paid out a ” considerable sum ” of money to him to go away. Why I say fact rather than allegation is that I understand the papers obtained by the police criminal investigation Operation Fernbridge also refer to civil proceedings and a payment.

A statement from Richmond Council said: “Richmond Council considers the safeguarding of all children and young people as an utmost priority and we take any allegations of abuse very seriously.

“As such, we are offering our full support and co-operation to the police during their investigation. As the investigation is ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”

What I find inexplicable and disturbing  is that if this is true -rather than report this to the police in the aftermath of the Elm House scandal- the council secretly paid out taxpayers money to an alleged child abuser victim. I am sure the home owners and tenants of the London borough would be sick to think their money was spent on what was essentially a  sex abuse cover up.

This disclosure also calls into question the extraordinary complacent statement from Sir David Williams, former Liberal Democrat leader of the council:

 “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. I doubt if there is much in this at all.”
 Really, Sir David. You were leader of the council for 18 years and you know nothing about this.

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.”

Political Paedophile Scandal: Met Police announce criminal investigation

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Scotland Yard has announced that there will now be a criminal investigation into the sexual abuse of young boys in the care of the London borough of Richmond in the 1980s.

The criminal investigation will concentrate on boys who were living at Grafton Close  children’s home and are alleged to have been taken to Elm House guest house in Barnes, south west London where they were sexually abused.

The police decision follows a raid on the home of Mary Moss, the former organiser of the now defunct National Association of Young People in Care in London  when the police took away boxes of documents. These  included the names of prominent people and MPs and former ministers alleged to have stayed at the guest house.

The police  have also obtained documents and records from Richmond Council on the boys in their care at the time.

The rest of Operation Fairbank will be extended to include fresh allegations passed on to the police by Tom Watson, Labour MP. The criminal investigation is named Operation Fernbridge.

There could be the first arrests of people in the next few weeks, though the initial arrests will not include politicians. Full story in http://www.exaronews.com.

The Met Police statement in full:

The Metropolitan Police Service has today launched an investigation, Operation Fernbridge, into historic allegations of child abuse in the early 1980s at the Elm Guest House, Rocks Lane, Barnes, London.

The investigation will be led by the Child Abuse Investigation Command.

Anyone with information is asked to contact officers on 020 7161 0500.

The allegations under Operation Fernbridge were initially assessed under Operation Fairbank which was information passed to police by MP Tom Watson. Operation Fernbridge reached the threshold for a criminal investigation.

We will not be providing a running commentary on this inquiry.

Why Eric Pickles will allow councils to fiddle your cash – MPs’ damning verdict

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Eric Pickles:will he make it easier for councils to fiddle your cash?

Eric Pickles:will he make it easier for councils to fiddle your cash?

Do you believe your council spends your money wisely? Are you sure none of your council tax is wasted through incompetence or fraud? Do you trust all your local politicians to be honest? Probably the answer to all three is no!

Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, has a flagship policy of scrapping the body that  tries to protect you from all of this – the Audit Commission. His passionate belief is that this body of highly skilled auditors and officials  is a load of bureaucratic nonsense – and has produced figures to claim that the public will save  over £1bn in a decade by scrapping it.

Now an all party committee of MPs led by the indefatigable Margaret Hodge, scourge of  tax avoiding Amazon and Starbucks and chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, has come to some damning conclusions on what the government is about to do. There is a full report by me on the Exaro News website (http://www.exaronews.com).

Basically Pickles wants to leave it to local councils, health trusts and the new NHS commissioning bodies to police themselves by appointing their own auditors,taking away a whistleblower hot line to the Audit Commission, and allowing big accountancy firms  free rein to up their charges by picking off individual councils. It also allows  even more cosy relationships to be built between the auditor and the local council and leaves whistleblowers nowhere to go.

Given the present background of mass privatisation of services this plain daft. The most extreme example is Tory controlled Barnet’s plan to hand almost everything over to the private sector – see the Broken Barnet website for detailed coverage (http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk). Are locally appointed auditors going to be up to doing a tough job – already Grant Thornton missed the MetPro private securityscandal in the borough. How will they keep up with all the services being privatised?

Some amazing facts are comments in  the report. The government claim it will save £137m a year. The MPs say the figure is more likely to be £2.4m. They warn of a fragmented and more complex audit regime.

And on the appointment of local auditors they say: “The proposals for self-appointment of auditors risk compromising the independence of audit. The Government must intervene to ensure that existing governance structures within local bodies are not duplicated; existing contracts are managed proficiently; economies of scale in audit fees are not lost; quality of audit does not diminish; value for money can be measured comprehensively and consistently; fees, especially for smaller bodies, do not increase as a result of increased tendering costs and potential limitations to the market in audit and; processes for auditor removal, whistleblowing and public interest reporting are rigorous enough so that the regime is sufficiently robust in difficult circumstances.”

The link to the full report is: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmdraftlocaudit/696/696vw01.htm.

Pretty damning stuff. And they call on the auditor general, Amyas Morse, to  offer to take calls from whistleblowers as well as local auditors who could have a vested interest in not upsetting the council.

Otherwise they warn that whistleblowers will contact the media, and in Barnet’s case,it will be  the local bloggers. Too right if Pickles gets his way on this dodgy piece of legislation, your money is at stake.