The dark secret at the heart of British politics [civil]

[kentonio]

Ok, I haven't posted about this in the past, because it's something so truly vile and repulsive that at times its been hard to believe its actually real. I think now it's basically past the point of question, now its just a matter of how deep the evil goes. I don't usually use the word evil to describe things because I think its overused and hyperbolic. This time, I think its about the only word you can use.

Basically for a very long time, there have been rumours and stories about politicians, military leaders and other people at the very highest levels of UK society sexually abusing children in past decades. This was investigated by several very brave MP's in the past, and a dossier of evidence passed onto the police. That evidence was disappeared.

Now the stories have started to come out thick and fast, and it seems the cancer at the heart of the British establishment for so many years might finally be revealed in all its putrescence. Now its not just about the sexual abuse of children, but about the kidnapping, rape, torture and murder of children.

There is currently an investigation taking place to look at how this was able to happen and to finally reveal the culprits and bring those surviving to justice. As this is one of the most horrifying and significant events in modern UK political history I'd like to politely ask people to not troll or spam in here. The story is likely to unfold over an extended period and I'd like to keep track of events here as the media have to be extremely careful about what they print at the moment.

[kentonio]

This is an update of events..

The historical child abuse inquiries and what happens next

There have been claims for many years about paedophiles in powerful places and establishment attempts to cover-up their actions.

The government's principal probe - a sweeping, independent inquiry looking at how public bodies dealt with these types of allegations -ran into problems before it has even started work.

Meanwhile, there are several police investigations into historical allegations of abuse.

What sparked the inquiries and what happens next?

What are the allegations?

On 1 July last year, Labour MP Simon Danczuk called on Leon Brittan to say what he knew about paedophile allegations passed to him when he was home secretary in the 1980s. The files were given to Lord Brittan by the late Conservative MP Geoffrey Dickens, who was a long-standing campaigner against child abuse.

Mr Dickens's son has said the files - now missing - contained "explosive" paedophile allegations about powerful and famous figures, including politicians.

Since Mr Danczuk's comments brought the so-called "Dickens dossier" to the fore, the focus has moved to the wider issue of how historical child sex abuse allegations were dealt with by public bodies and other institutions across the country.

Previously there had been calls for an overarching investigation into historical abuse claims in the wake of revelations that Jimmy Savile abused hundreds of victims at hospitals, children's homes and schools.

Who in politics has been implicated?

Peter McKelvie, a former child protection manager, claims that at least 20 prominent figures - including former MPs and government ministers - abused children for "decades".

Mr McKelvie discovered suggested links between paedophiles and the government while assisting police in investigating convicted paedophile Peter Righton. Among evidence seized from Righton's home in 1992 were a vast number of documents that pointed to a "very well organised paedophile network", going back to the 1950s and 1960s, according to Mr McKelvie.

When the Savile scandal broke, Mr McKelvie contacted Labour MP Tom Watson who raised the issue in the Commons in 2012.

As more information came in, different investigations were launched, they include:

- The Metropolitan Police's Operation Fernbridge, which is investigating allegations of a network of abusers in the late 1970s and 1980s at the former Elm Guest House in Barnes, south-west London - the scene of alleged parties involving MPs and other members of the establishment
- Greater Manchester Police are conducting a new investigation into allegations of abuse by Cyril Smith in Rochdale, including at Knowl View, a children's home which closed in 1994

What other inquiries or investigations have been carried out or are ongoing?

- 28 NHS hospitals have published reports on allegations involving the late BBC DJ and presenter Savile. 13 other NHS organisations are still to report. A former judge is also looking into whether culture and practice at the BBC enabled Savile to carry out the sexual abuse of children
- Operation Yewtree - set up following Savile's death in 2011 - has seen a string of high-profile entertainers being prosecuted for alleged sex crimes
- At least 1,400 children were abused in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, a report published in August 2014 found. The report led to the resignation of senior council leaders and Shaun Wright, the police and crime commissioner for South Yorkshire
- And local authorities have been instructed to investigate claims that Savile abused children at 21 children's homes and schools in England in the 1960s, 70s and 80s
- Operation Cayacos, which is among numerous other ongoing historical child abuse investigations around the UK, is investigating allegations of a paedophile ring linked to Righton, a founding member of the Paedophile Information Exchange, a group that campaigned to make sex between adults and children legal
- Operation Midland is investigating three alleged murders as part of an inquiry into historical child abuse. This investigation is under the umbrella of Operation Fairbank, which is looking into historical abuse

What did the "Dickens dossier" allege?

Press reports from the era claimed one file concerned a civil servant and that another one related to an employee of Buckingham Palace. The papers also contained allegations concerning the Paedophile Information Exchange.

n an interview with the Daily Express in 1983, Mr Dickens said he had eight names of "really important, public figures" he was going to expose.

But former minister David Mellor has played down what he called the "Dickens dossier", saying: "It was a good publicity thing for him but there wasn't much substance behind it."

What happened to the files?

Lord Brittan, who died on 22 January this year, said he received a "substantial bundle of papers" from Mr Dickens and asked his Home Office officials to report back to him if "action needed to be taken". He had said any suggestion he acted inappropriately was "wholly without foundation".

After MP Tom Watson made allegations of a link between abuse and "Parliament and Number 10" in 2012, the Home Office carried out a review of hundreds of thousands of files to identify information about organised child abuse.

The review, covering the years 1979 - 1999, found 527 potentially relevant files the department had kept and a further 114 that were either missing, destroyed or "not found".

The department's top official Mark Sedwill says the 2013 review found no evidence that documents had been inappropriately destroyed.

He told the Home Affairs Committee he was "concerned" over the missing files but MPs should "not assume there is anything sinister" in their absence.

Former minister Mr Mellor said the 114 unaccounted for Home Office files "have nothing to do with the Geoffrey Dickens case".

In November 2014, a review by NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless found no evidence of organised attempts to conceal child abuse by the Home Office.

Where are the investigations heading?

The home secretary has announced an expert-led, independent inquiry into whether public bodies, such as the police, NHS and BBC, have failed in their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse.

Theresa May has said this could be upgraded to a full public inquiry if the panel of experts leading it deem it necessary.

But the inquiry suffered an early setback after its chair, retired senior judge Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, stood down amid questions about her independence.

Baroness Butler-Sloss said she did not believe victims of abuse could have full confidence in her given that her late brother, Lord Havers, was attorney general for much of the 1980s and was the government's senior legal officer at the time the Dickens dossier was considered.

Home Secretary Theresa May then chose corporate lawyer Dame Fiona Woolf to replace her, but she also stood down after questions were raised over her experience and personal connections. Dame Fiona disclosed that she lived in the same street as Lord Brittan and had dinner with him five times between 2008 and 2012, although she said they did not have a "close association".

In February, Justice Lowell Goddard was named as the third head of the inquiry. Mrs May also announced that the inquiry would have statutory powers and a new panel.

Justice Goddard said she was "committed to leading a robust and independent inquiry".

[kentonio]

This came out today. Danczuk is having to use parliamentary privilege to talk about this stuff, to avoid a libel suit which is not ideal, but seems the only recourse they have at the moment.

Lord Greville Janner 'violated, raped and tortured' children in the Houses of Parliament
Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale, said the Labour peer was a 'serial child abuser' and criticised the Crown Prosecution Service for not allowing the allegations to be aired in court

Labour peer Lord Janner of Braunstone is a “serial child abuser” who “violated, raped and tortured” children in the Houses of Parliament, an MP has said.

Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale, said he was appalled that the Crown Prosecution Service had not allowed the allegations against Lord Janner to be heard in court.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Danczuk said: “The shocking thing is that the CPS admits that the witnesses are not unreliable, it admits that Janner should face prosecution but refuses to bring a case.

“I know the police are furious about this and rightly so. Anyone who has heard the accusations will be similarly outraged."

Mr Danczuk was speaking in a Westminster Hall debate in the Houses of Parliament which gives him legal protection from being sued for libel.

He added: “I have met with Leicestershire police and discussed the allegations in some detail.

“Children being violated, raped and tortured, some in the very building in which we now sit.

“The official charges are 14 indecent assaults of a male under 16 between 1969 and 1988; two indecent assaults between 1984 and 1988; four counts of buggery of a male under 16 between 72 and 87, two counts of buggery between 1977 and 1988.

“My office has spoken to a number of the alleged victims and heard their stories. I cannot overstate the effect that this abuse has had on their lives.”

In April this year the CPS admitted Lord Janner, who as an MP for Leicester West was known as Greville Janner, should have faced multiple child sex abuse charges in 1991 and again in 2007, but said it would not be in the public interest to do so now as the 86-year-old was suffering from severe dementia.

Mr Danczuk told MPs that the case against the peer should still be heard. He said: “If Lord Janner really is too ill to face prosecution the why can’t the courts establish this, with a fitness to plead process?

“This would clear up doubts that still linger, for example why he was still visiting Parliament on official visits after he was declared unfit to face justice.

“If it is found that he is genuinely too ill to stand trial then why not conduct a ‘trial of the facts’ – this would allow the victims to tell their stories and gain some sense of justice.

“The DPP has said the trial of the facts would not be in the public interest – personally I fail to see how the knowledge that a peer of the realm is a serial child abuser is not in the public interest.”

Mr Danczuk added that it was important the charges against Lord Janner were heard in court if only to ensure that paedophiles knew they could not get away with their crimes.

He said: “The Director of Public Prosecutions has said that Lord Janner will not offend again.

“But the failure to prosecute Lord Janner offends every principle of justice – he may not abuse again but the legacy of the abuse continues. His victims needs the truth and they need to be heard.”

Lord Janner has previously denied all wrongdoing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11694195/Lord-Greville-Janner-violated-raped-and-tortured-children-in-the-Houses-of-Parliament.html

[N35t0r]

That's awful

Still, good that it's being investigated, even if it's too late for some cases.

[kentonio]

It doesn't even touch on the very worst stuff. A man came forward alleging that when he was a boy, he was frequently taken to an apartment complex where many MP's had homes and along with other children raped and frequently tortured. He also alleges that he saw a Tory MP murder a 12 year old child. The police describe these allegations as "credible and true".

Met backs claim that VIP abuse ring killed three boys: Victim's story that Tory VIP strangled child 'is credible'

Police yesterday described claims that a Conservative MP strangled a boy of 12 as ‘credible and true’.

Officers investigating three alleged murders linked to a VIP paedophile ring also backed claims that a Tory minister watched as another boy was murdered.

Scotland Yard has now launched an extraordinary appeal for information from celebrities, politicians and foreign dignitaries who lived at or visited the exclusive Dolphin Square estate in central London in the 1970s and 1980s.

It comes after months of Daily Mail investigations concerning alleged abuse at Dolphin Square and the nearby Elm Guest House in south-west London.

Detectives say they believe a witness who claimed he was sexually assaulted at Dolphin Square, in Pimlico, by senior MPs, spies and prominent military figures during ‘abuse parties’ over a period of almost a decade.

The alleged victim, known only as Nick, says he was molested from the age of seven to 16. He has told how he saw a Conservative MP strangle a 12-year-old boy at an orgy in a London townhouse around 1980, and that a Conservative Cabinet minister watched two men kill another boy in a depraved sexual assault a year later.

A third boy aged ten or 11 was deliberately run over in broad daylight in south-west London by an unknown member of the paedophile gang in 1979, he alleges.
Police have now appealed for potential witnesses who lived in or visited Dolphin Square, where Nick said the majority of the abuse took place, between 1975 and 1984.

They confirmed for the first time they were looking at ‘allegations of serious and organised sexual abuse’ at Dolphin Square and other locations, including military bases, after Nick said he and several other boys were driven to properties in London and the Home Counties, where they were raped, cut and beaten.

Now in his forties, Nick has helped to compile e-fits of the three alleged murder victims, whose names he never learned.

Police are working through historical missing persons reports and unsolved child murders to look for possible matches.

Detectives have spoken to the family of Martin Allen, who disappeared in 1979 aged 15, but are not currently linking him to Dolphin Square. Similarly, Sussex Police is reviewing the disappearance and murder of eight-year-old Vishal Mehrotra in 1981. The Royal Military Police is also investigating claims that military bases were used by a VIP paedophile ring.

Scotland Yard first launched its investigation into Nick’s claims – Operation Midland – last month.

Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald said: ‘Nick has been spoken to by experienced officers from child abuse teams and experienced officers from murder investigations. They and I believe what Nick is saying is credible and true.’

He continued: ‘There will be people who lived at, or visited, Dolphin Square from the early 1970s onwards who will have seen or heard something that they only now understand the significance of.

Today I would like to ask former residents, current residents, or anyone who routinely went to Dolphin Square to think back and get in touch with us with any information they may have.’

The luxury estate has long been home to politicians, foreign dignitaries, and stars of stage and screen – as well as spies and glamour girls.

Famous former residents include Harold Wilson and William Hague; Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, key players in the Profumo Affair; and Sir Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists.

According to Nick, the estate also hosted sordid ‘parties’, where children were plied with whisky after being escorted from school.

Det Supt McDonald said: ‘Today I want to appeal directly to those other young boys, now men, who were also subject to abuse at the hands of these men. ... I would ask you to trust me. I will support you, and do everything in my power to find those responsible and bring them to justice.’

Operation Midland falls under a wider umbrella of investigations, Operation Fairbank, exploring allegations of child abuse by VIPs. One of the most high-profile strands is Operation Fernbridge, concerning Elm Guest House.

Tom Watson, the Labour MP who warned in Parliament two years ago that a paedophile ring was linked to No 10, said: ‘It will come as a great relief to Nick that his allegations are being fully investigated and taken seriously ... now is the time for any victims to speak to the police.’

Yesterday police also said they are probing claims that officers acted inappropriately in relation to child abuse probes from the mid-1970s until as recently as 2005.

Last July it emerged that a dossier compiled by Geoffrey Dickens, naming Cyril Smith and other suspected Establishment paedophiles, had vanished after it was sent in 1983 to the then home secretary Leon Brittan. A recent Home Office inquiry failed to uncover the file, and Theresa May said she could not rule out a possible cover-up.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...etectives.html

There will come a point where this story absolutely explodes. I'm beyond amazed that it hasn't already completely set fire to the country, I think its just so far past the point of comprehension that people are still struggling to believe its all true. Either that or everyone is still just numb from the Saville investigations.

[I AM MOBIUS]

This came out today. Danczuk is having to use parliamentary privilege to talk about this stuff, to avoid a libel suit which is not ideal, but seems the only recourse they have at the moment.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...arliament.html

My prediction is that the Janner family won't be filing any libel charges any time soon...

[dannubis]

My God.

[Alexander's Horse]

I'd like to dismiss these stories but unfortunately there were convictions in Australia of MPs for similar.

[C0ckney]

it sounds like the plot from a bad novel. i wonder if any of is true and what will come of it.

[Dr Strangelove]

Some traditions die very hard.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

There is a strong suspicion that most of the delays (or cover-ups) were to protect Leon Brittan, the most significant character implicated. Now that he's died, it's interesting to see what possible other motives there might be for stalling.

[C0ckney]

following a review it appears that lord janner shall now be brought to answer the charges against him. if he is found to be unfit to stand a criminal prosecution, there will be a trial of the facts.

[grumbler]

it sounds like the plot from a bad novel. i wonder if any of is true and what will come of it.

Some of it is likely true, and other bits not. This reminds me strongly of the "recovered memory" panics in the US in the 1990s. Many innocent people were harmed, but many guilty people escaped under the guise of being innocent victims. I hope Britain avoids this trap.

[kentonio]

The thing is, these rumours have been going around since the 80's, and any time people have tried to investigate they've found their inquiries obstructed by the establishment at every turn. The second thing to remember is that the Saville case showed that this stuff actually happened, on a massive scale and with collusion from the authorities. With Saville the narrative was that he tricked the authorities into getting the access he had based on his fame, but there's no way of telling whether he was part of a larger group. We also have cases of high profile MP's like Cyril Smith who was basically proved after his death to have been an abuser. And the intelligence agency guy who again was dead by the time the story broke.

That seems to be the common thread at the moment, the people being proven guilty are usually already dead. That's why the Jenner case is so striking.

The really scary part though..

In recent weeks new allegations have emerged suggesting Tory MPs murdered and abused boys as part of an establishment paedophile network in the 1970s and 80s. Police are investigating the claims.

Mrs May told The Andrew Marr Show: "How was it that in the past, but continuing today, the very institutions of the state that should be protecting children were not doing so?"

"Why was it that these abuses were able to take place and that nobody was brought to justice as a result of that. We must as a society, I believe, get to the truth of that and because I think what we’re seeing is frankly - what we’ve already seen revealed - is only the tip of the iceberg on this issue.”

If MP's raping, torturing and murdering young boys is only the 'tip of the iceburg' then I dread to think what else is to come.

[kentonio]

Oh and meanwhile in Rotherham..

UK Finds 300 Possible Suspects in Child Sex Abuse Scandal

LONDON — British crime experts say some 300 suspects have been identified in a wide-ranging inquiry into industrial-scale child sex abuse in the northern city of Rotherham.

The National Crime Agency said Wednesday that earlier reports saying roughly 1,400 children had been abused in the city between the years of 1997 and 2013 appear accurate. The magnitude of the abuse shocked Britain when it was first reported in August.

Municipal authorities in the city of 250,000 are accused of turning a blind eye to the reports of young girls who said they had been abused at the hands of largely Pakistani gangs. Officials say the girls, many who lived in government-paid care homes, were not believed or taken seriously when they complained about being raped and trafficked. Some were seen as troublemakers for reporting sex abuse.

Steve Baldwin, the crime agency's senior investigating officer, said the police inquiry supports earlier claims about the number of children who were targeted. The crime agency also confirmed that two of the suspects have served on the city council.

"The abuse that has taken place in Rotherham is horrific," he said. "We have gathered a huge amount of information which details some very disturbing events."

He said investigators will make a high priority of building cases against "suspects who may continue to pose any risk of harm today and those who have caused most harm in the past."

The inquiry is likely to lead to numerous criminal charges in future years.

Baldwin said investigators are now trying to win the community's trust so more victims will come forward. He said it's likely that investigators will eventually document "thousands" of offenses in an inquiry that is expected to take several years.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015...sex-abuse.html