Tag Archives: louis minster

The mad world of Louis Minster- the man who denies he is there

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For those following the Richmond child sexual abuse scandal a most extraordinary phone conversation has just taken place between my colleague Mark Conrad for Exaro News and Louis Minster, director of social services at the time.

Mr Minster was in charge of the council’s social services council at the time it is alleged boys from Grafton Close children’s home were taken to Elm Guest House in Barnes and sexually abused by VIPs, including the late Sir Cyril Smith in the early 1980s. He was the boss of John Stingemore, the head of the home, who has already been arrested by the Met police as part of Operation Fernbridge

Mr Minster is in a bit of the trouble. The 81-year-old ex director now living in retirement in Malta first claimed he had never had heard of the scandal when first approached by Exaro. Then it emerged he was briefed by Terry Earland, head of children’s services and now Richmond’s own files showed he twice unusually pulled the file of  a 14-year-old boy in care who had knowledge of child abuse at the time. Yet he knows nothing.

Naturally we would want to ask him about these discrepancies. So when rung up in Malta he pretends he isn’t there and he isn’t Louis Minster. When rumbled he doesn’t want to answer any questions. Listen to the amazing interview at Exaro News (http://www.exaronews.com/articles/4950/ex-richmond-boss-louis-minster-denies-being-louis-minster ).

Perhaps it is about time he was questioned by the Met Police. Then he won’t be able to dodge these questions and pretend he is someone else.

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.