Tag Archives: richmond council

Police arrest manager of Elm Guest House

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The former Elm Tree Guest House in Barnes Pic Courtesy: Exaro

The former Elm Tree Guest House in Barnes, south west London Pic courtesy: Exaro

Harry Kasir, the former manager of the  Elm Guest House  where it is alleged that young boys were sexually assaulted by VIPs, and politicians in the early 1980s, was arrested by the Met Police Paedophile Unit  yesterday.

The full story is on the Exaro News website. It is a significant development by Operation Fernbridge, which has already arrested and bailed two other people in connection with the 1980s scandal. They are John Stingemore, who ran Grafton Close, the Richmond Council children’s home, where it is alleged boys in council care were taken to Elm Guest House in Barnes. The other arrested person, Father Tony McSweeney,is a Roman Catholic priest.

The Met Police in a statement confirming the arrest  but not naming Mr Kasir, aged 69, said he had been detained on suspicion of having indecent pictures of children, He was bailed until September.

Previous stories on this site on Mr Kasir are  (https://davidhencke.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/will-elm-guest-house-man-quit-britain/) and ( https://davidhencke.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/police-raid-home-of-former-gay-guest-house-contact-in-paedophile-investigation/).

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 child sex abuse file ” No further action required”

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Richmond Council: Another cover up exposedPic courtesy: http://www.officespaceinlondon.lnet.

Richmond Council: Another cover up exposed Pic courtesy: http://www.officespaceinlondon.lnet.

The latest damning disclosure about both the police and Richmond Council’s handling of the  child abuse scandal  at Elm Guest House and Grafton Close children’s home adds to growing disquiet that both the council and the police were not up to the job.

An article by me and Mark Conrad in exaro news ( see http://www.exaronews.com/articles/4944/richmond-files-reveal-failure-to-pursue-claim-of-child-sex-abuse ) and in the Sunday People ( see http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/elm-guest-house-abuse-scandal-1857494)  reveals yet another example of the authorities turning a blind eye.

Since the incident goes close to any potential trial I am restrained for legal reasons to go into too much detail or identify the file. However a copy of the entry has been sent to me.

The alarming thing is that this happened TWO years after the event and a year after the raid on Elm Guest House in Barnes and yet it appears neither the police – who requested the interview – or the council – took any other action to investigate. Just as they did not pursue the people involved after they raided the guest house in 1982 apart from prosecuting Mr Kasir, then the owner.

What is also very disturbing is the role of Louis Minster, the director of social services now living abroad, who twice requested a copy of this file with the complaints about sexual abuse. Once was when the boy involved was not even in council care. Why? No answer is forthcoming from Mr Minster who claimed earlier he had no knowledge of the  Elm Guest House scandal until it appeared on Exaro News website and in the Sunday People. Really, Mr Minster?

Equally distressing is that our source who requested  the file is ” not surprised” that the record shows the council and police did nothing. How bad is that?

This incident took place in the year Conservative minority rule ended at Richmond and the Liberal SDP Alliance took control. Until the whole story comes out there is now a stain on the record of the original police investigation and the Tories and Liberals in charge of Richmond Council at the time.

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.

” 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.

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.