Tag Archives: Met Police

Phone Hacking Trial: Palace phone directories found at home of NOTW royal editor, trial hears – Martin Hickman

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It is absolutely extraordinary that the Met police should withhold for SIX years from the Royal Household that they had found highly sensitive directories giving the private telephone numbers of the Royal Family at NoTW Royal editor Clive Goodman’s home. It shows in the early stages the Met Police seemed reluctant to investigate the phone hacking scandal.

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Clive GoodmanDay 27:  Police did not tell a senior member of the Royal Household that a large number of Buckingham Palace phone directories had been found at the home of the News of the World’s royal editor for six years, the hacking trial heard yesterday.

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Met Police probe former Tory Cabinet minister and a filmed gay sexual abuse party

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Met police have seized a picture and amateur film from a known paedophile of a gay sex party attended by a former Tory cabinet minister where boys were sexually abused some 30 years ago.

A report in today’s Exaro News and the Sunday Mirror  reveals that the Met Police’s Paedophile obtained the information under their Operation Fairbank scoping inquiry. The paedophile cannot be named for legal reasons and the ex-minister is not being named as it would interfere with police operations.

The unit is focussing on a series of parties in London three decades ago at which boys were supplied for the sexual gratification of men. 

Sources close to the investigation say that this line of enquiry will spin-off from Fairbank to become a separate operation with its own name in the New Year.

Exaro has also learnt that police have “talked to” the ex-minister about his attendance at the “sex party”.

 The ex-minister, according to the sources, confirmed to police that he was at the party, and that he “knew of” a specific victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons. But the ex-minister denied that he carried out any sexual abuse.

The new information obtained by the police follows two separate but linked operations,Operation Fernbridge and Operation Fairbank – one sparked off by one of my sources and the other by Tom Watson, MP who  made allegations in the Commons.

The police action follows a setback when the Crown Prosecution Service dropped charges against two people in connection with abusing boys at Elm Guest House in the London borough of Richmond. Separately the police made a decision to release without  charge, Harry Kasir, the former co-manager of the guest house.

While it would be wrong to speculate about police inquiries, I think it is worth pointing out that in this long investigation the Met Police Paedophile Unit seems to be woefully inadequately resourced to handle all the leads it gets. When you realise that fewer police are employed in this tightly knit unit than the Met Police employ to pursue the Plebgate affair and journalists from News International, you wonder who sets the priorities. It is not to say that Plebgate or News International should not be pursued, but one would have thought the life damaging crime of child sexual abuse should receive the highest priority for police investigations. excluding say murder or terrorism. It is clearly not

Why Tom Watson is dead right to call for child abuse FBI

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Tom Watson MP: campaigning to get child sexual abuse cases investigated: Pic courtesy The Guardian

Tom Watson MP: campaigning to get child sexual abuse cases investigated: Pic courtesy The Guardian

Tom Watson, the MP who raised the historic child sex abuse issue that could involve politicians in the Commons, has this week called for the setting up of child abuse FBI.
In an article in the Sunday People and also on The Needleblog the MP forcibly questions why the National Crime Agency has failed to arrest any paedophile connected with an international ring or amorphous group.
Mr Watson told the Sunday People: “We’ve got an international policing operation that has netted hundreds of alleged paedophiles and the UK has failed to act on intelligence.

“This is completely unacceptable. It shows why we need a dedicated national team whose sole aim is to investigate allegations of child abuse.
“I think we need a proper team of officers who have investigative capabilities as well as powers of arrest.
“There are police officers who have been calling for it for years.”
Mr Watson’s call comes after the shocking news that ‘Project Spade’ had arrested hundreds of paedophiles -100 in Canada, 76 in the US and 164 in other countries
Almost 400 child sex slaves were freed and 341 alleged paedophiles arrested as part of the swoop.

I am not surprised about this. After observing the painstaking work the Metropolitan Police Paedophile Unit has done to unearth historic child sexual abuse cases dating from the 1970s and 1980s and the long time it is taking achieve results, I am not surprised.
The number of police officers working on this scourge is frankly pitifully low and I am amazed they have got as far as they have. The expertise in this area other forces have outside London is not brilliant either – and they are dependent on outside help.
But child sexual abuse does not always take place within the UK – indeed with the internet there is growing evidence that child sexual trafficking crosses the world. But I doubt David Cameron will want to commit any more public resources to stop it – he prefers to leave it to pressing, as he did today, for Google and Microsoft to take the lead in tackling child sexual abuse.

Police arrest second person in paedophile investigation sparked by Tom Watson

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The police have arrested a second person in Operation Cayacos – the investigation sparked off by Tom Watson MP – into historic child sexual abuse, it emerged yesterday
The People reported that Richard Alston, now 69, has been arrested on August 20 at his home in Bury St Edmunds.
The arrest follows 68-year-old Charles Napier’s arrest at his home in Sherborne, Dorset, last November.
Mr Alston a former headmaster of New Barns School in Toddington, Gloucestershire, an independent school for children aged six to 12 with emotional and behavioural problems. The school closed in 1992.
This investigation is separate to the current investigation into historic child sexual abuse in the London borough of Richmond which has seen two people charged and appearing at Westminster Magistrates Court last week and a third person, Harry Kasir, who ran Elm Guest House in Barnes in the early 1980s arrested.

Murdoch eats humble pie over private comments at the Sun

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Rupert Murdoch yesterday rowed back from his private comments seen and heard by Exaro News and on this site  condemning the police, the judiciary and his admission that he knew all along about payments to police and officials.

In two letters to John Whittingdale, Tory chair of the culture, media and sport committee, and Keith Vaz, Labour chair of the home affairs committee, his strident comments became strangely muted.

The full quotes are in an updated piece on the Exaro News website and Channel Four News.

No doubt the media mogul, advised by his lawyer,realised that the leaking of his comments to arrested journalists had attracted too much attention, particularly after  the Met Police Operation Elveden  asked Exaro for a tape with his views.

Now he does not doubt the police’s professionalism and says any interpretation on his words that he knew about bribing official is ” wholly false”. This is after he called the police operation totally incompetent and said the Met Police inquiry was about ” next to nothing.”

Really. He was obviously not wanting to row back too much from the words he gave to his journalists – still complaining the investigation had taken too long and was ” disproportionate ” and admitting to raw emotion at the meeting.

But will this be  enough to get him off the hook. Will people really believe him?  It was definitely a repentant Rupe, but I suspect the humbling was only skin deep and I am not sure that it will get him entirely off the hook from the Met.

More seriously how will people in the US and Australia take this explanation. I think there is more to come.

Tom Watson MP: SEVEN Boxes Of Evidence Recovered !

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Tom Watson’s point here shows that his controversial allegation is not based on mere party political point scoring or fiction. The fact that seven boxes of evidence exist and are in the hands of Metropolitan Police speaks volumes. Tom Watson’s source had three days to study the documents and the first investigation was inexplicably closed down after four months. It is not the case now.

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From the 24th October 2012, Tom Watson MP at Prime Minister’s Questions.

“The evidence file – used to convict paedophile Peter Righton – if it still exists, contains clear intelligence of a widespread paedophile ring. One of it’s members boasts of his links to a senior aide of a former Prime minister, who says he could smuggle indecent images of children from abroad. The leads were not followed up, but if the files still exist, I want to ensure that the Metropolitan Police secure the evidence, re-examine it, and investigate clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and Number 10″.

Did the Met recover this evidence ?

Yes they did ! Seven boxes of it, recovered from a repository in Leicestershire !

More on this later but I’d just like to take a little time to thank The Needle team member Daedalus. Daedalus works quietly behind the…

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Exclusive: Child sex abuse – Police arrest half brother of prominent Tory MP

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The home of the Tory MP's mum where this morning's arrest took place. Pic courtesy: Exaro

The home of the Tory MP’s mum where this morning’s arrest took place. Pic courtesy: Exaro

The Met police this morning arrested Charles Napier, the half brother of a prominent Conservative MP in a substantial stepping of their investigation into historic child sexual abuse.

The full story of the arrest of John Whittingdale ‘s half brother in the Dorset town of  Sherborne is on the Exaro News website ( see http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5021/met-s-operation-fairbank-arrests-half-brother-of-top-tory-mp ). The arrest took place at the £500.000 home of the Mp’s 92 year old mother.

The arrest is the first  as a result of inquiries by  Operation Fairbank set up after Labour MP  Tom Watson passed allegations of child sexual abuse dating back to the 1980s to the Met Police.It follows two arrests under Operation Fernbridge, which is looking into child abuse in the London borough of Richmond and at Elm Guest House in Barnes where it is alleged that prominent VIPS abused boys.

 However unlike  reports today in the Telegraph and  Mail on line today  the arrest has NOTHING to do with events at the Elm Guest House, please  see Exaro for an accurate account.
The Met police said: “This arrest is part of a new strand of Operation Fairbank entitled Operation Cayacos, which has now reached the criminal threshold.”
Tom Watson said :” I am extremely grateful for the dedicated team of officers of the Met Police who are investigating a number of allegations regarding child abuse. I am sure people will appreciate  that we should let them continue with their forensic and comprehensive inquiries into this area.”

John Whittingdale said :‘I’m obviously aware that he was convicted of offences some twenty years ago, that is a matter that is in the public domain anyway. But I am not aware that he has committed any offence since that time. But if allegations have been made then I accept that they have to be investigated.”

For those sceptics who have said the Met Police would never dare arrest anybody connected to a prominent person in this investigation – they should think again. To my mind it fits in what I have been assured by the highest levelof the  Met’s Paedophile Unit – that the police would follow without fear or favour wherever credible evidence took them.

 

Exclusive: Met Police launch nationwide child abuse investigation into Catholic order

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National child abuse hero Graham Wilner: Picture reproduced courtesy Rory Wilmer Photography

Campaigning hero Graham Wilmer: Picture reproduced courtesy Rory Wilmer Photography

Over the last two weeks the Met Police Child Abuse Investigation Command  has been  secretly running a new investigation into alleged child abuse involving former schoolboys who went to primary and secondary  schools run by the Roman Catholic Salesian Order in England and Scotland.

Some 23 alleged victims have already contacted in one of the biggest operations since Operation Yewtree  which involved  Jimmy Savile and Operation Fernbridge investigation into sexual abuse at Elm Guest House in Barnes – including tracing people who had left the country for Thailand.

The full story is revealed today in The People (http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/paedo-probe-catholic-schools-20-1911825) and Exaro News( http://www.exaronews.com/articles/4979/met-investigates-catholic-order-s-schools-over-child-sex-abuse ). It is known to involve at least 30 victims and 20 priests and teachers, some of whom are now dead, and stretching back some 50 years. Some of the figures were prominent members of the Order which was set up in London in the late nineteenth century and now stretches world-wide.

The impetus for the new investigation comes from one former pupil of  a Salesian school, Graham Wilmer, who was sexually abused himself, and has tirelessly and heroically  campaigned for a full-scale police investigation into the order for decades.

He now runs the Lantern Project (http://www.lanternproject.org.uk) in the Wirral  which counsels victims of child sexual abuse and has managed to pass to the police 50 names of victims and abusers, some of whom had left the country.

The extraordinary decision to launch the investigation was finally prompted – after three false attempts – by a former pupil of a London Salesian school who was a senior colleague of Commander Peter Spindler, now at HM Inspectorate of Constabulary. He knew of the abuse in the order and directly contacted Spindler. His intervention led to Spindler launching the inquiry and the contacting of  victims. (See http://www.exaronews.com/articles/4980/operation-torva-ex-pupil-joined-police-and-triggered-met-probe )

The Scotland Yard codename for the exercise is Operation Torva.

One of the schools where abuse by staff was alleged to have taken place was a Salesian College in Battersea, south London. Famous pupils there include Catherine Tate  who attended the sixth form and Lord O’Donnell, the former cabinet Secretary, who was head boy.

The Met Police said: “The Metropolitan Police takes allegations of sexual abuse very seriously regardless of when they took place. All allegations when reported will be recorded and investigated and where possible evidence will be put before the court in order that offenders will have to answer for their actions. Officers from the Metropolitan Police have been engaging with members of the Lantern Project in order to work in partnership to encourage those who have suffered abuse to come forward.

Graham Wilmer said: “It is a matter of great comfort to us that the response we have had, when talking to the police, has always been very positive, and no one should be concerned about how they will be treated if they report abuse to the police. I would urge any one who has been abused in a Salesian school, or elsewhere, to come forward and make contact with the police in the first instant.

“It has always been a matter of real concern to me that, up until the Jimmy Savile case, it has been very difficult to get justice for victims of sexual abuse, as nobody really wanted to know. Now, everything as changed, and the police, the DPP and the CPS are actively encouraging victims to come forward and seek help.

However, there is still no sign from government that they will provide the funding necessary to support survivor groups, such as the Lantern Project, without which the support that victims who come forward desperately need, will simply not be there.”

The police are taking calls  from victims on 101 or 999 and victims can also contact the Lantern Project on 0151 630 6956 if they don’t want call the police to report child abuse in the Salesian Order.

Investigators under investigation: Met Police inquiry into IPCC over Richmond abuse scandal

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IPCC: Under investigation by Met Police over handling of Richmond complaint

IPCC: Under investigation by Met Police over handling of Richmond complaint

Operation Fernbridge – the criminal investigation into a paedophile ring centred round the London borough of Richmond and the shady Elm Guest House – is now turning to the role of Independent Police Complaints Commission over the whole affair.

As reported by my excellent colleague for Exaro News, Mark Conrad,(see http://www.exaronews.com/articles/4936/met-investigates-police-watchdog-over-richmond-paedo-ring) in an amazing turn of events the  Met Police is now investigating the role of the police investigators.

The turn of events is extraordinary. A former local government employee at Richmond and GMB trade unionist put a complaint into the police some 20 years after the police raid on the Elm Guest House. The police while taking down the details did not appear to investigate.

So he complained to the IPCC who also appear to have dismissed the inquiry.He then used the appeal process to complain about the IPCC who again dismissed it.

To be fair most of the complaint concentrated on yet another hushed up  Richmond scandal – the physical abuse of elderly people at another care home – but there is a clear mention of child abuse in the first complaint to the police.

Now 30 years later ( and one has to be careful not to prejudice a future trial) there is enough evidence to justify the arrest of two people in connection with the child sexual abuse inquiry, it logically follows that the police certainly did not do their job and the IPCC appear to have been cavalier about doing theirs.

What is emerging is that the Conservative and Liberal run leafy borough of Richmond – which made the careers of three Liberal Democrat peers, Lord Razzall, Baroness Tonge and Baroness Hamwee – was behind the net curtains not a very savoury place. And it is clear that the authorities and the complaints procedure were found wanting. Watch out for more damaging revelations to come on Richmond once Exaro has fully investigated them.

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.