Diplomatic Connections and PIE / Diplomat Robert Alston – brother of Richard Alston

 Brothers: Richard Alston  – convicted child rapist (left) – Diplomat Robert Alston (right) pictured above

Richard Alston – former school teacher and long term partner of the founder of PIE (Peter Righton) –  has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for molesting an 11-year-old boy.

Charles Napier and Peter Righton

The court heard that Peter Righton and Richard Alston’s friend Charles Napier – now a convicted paedophile – would also be present when the boy was abused.

Brothers:  Charles Napier, the half-brother of senior Conservative MP John Whittingdale and cousin to DIPLOMAT  Peter Hayman’s wife, was jailed for 13 years for carrying out hundreds of sexual assaults on young boys.

PIE: CHARLES NAPIER – No.116

January 12, 2018 Peg

PAEDOPHILE INFORMATION EXCHANGE (PIE)

CHARLES NAPIER – No.116

Following on from my list of PIE members blog post, I thought I’d look at some of the depraved individuals – starting with it’s treasurer – Charles Napier, member number 116.

Charles Napier is the half brother of John Whittingdale, the Conservative MP for Maldon.  It’s hard to gain any proper insight into the family logistics unless you piece together information in newspaper articles and look at the genealogy, which turns out to be an enigma in itself.

Read through the timeline of Napier’s depravity, but most importantly, please see my final – and rather important question – towards the end.

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CHARLES SCOTT NAPIER

Charles was born on 1st July 1947 in Calcutta – the son of Margaret Esme (AKA ‘Meg’) Scott Napier (maiden name) and Alexander Scott Napier.  I therefore think it’s safe to assume they were somehow related.

Alexander was in the Indian Political Service and was Meg’s second husband.  Her first was Ephraim Stewart Cook Spence, whom she married in 1942 and divorced in 1946.  Sadly, Alexander died of an illness in 1954 when Charles was just 7 years old, and Meg remarried again to John Whittingdale in 1957.  They had a son – John Flasby Lawrance (now MP for Maldon) – in 1959.  This explains the familial connection between John Whittingdale MP and Charles Napier, convicted self-confessed life-long paedophile – they are half brothers through their mother.

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THE PAEDOPHILE YEARS – TIMELINE

• Educated: Wellington College, Wellington, Berkshire
• 1965 (approx): Joined Exeter University to study an Art degree.
• 1967-1972: Began abusing young boys.
• 1969: At the age of 22, he graduated from Exeter University with a B.A.  Napier has said that it was at this point he first realised he was a paedophile, but his conviction in 2014 says it was well before this.
• 1969-1972: Teacher at Copthorne Preparatory School in West Sussex where he was eventually charged for abusing pupils between the ages of eight and 13.  (One of those went on to become a mainstream press columnist, who wrote about the abuse in 2005.)
• 1972: At the age of 25, he was charged with abuse against young boys and sentenced to three years probation.  (See 2014)  Claimed he underwent Electric Shock Therapy in an attempt to ‘cure’ his attraction to children.  Was also put onto the Department of Education’s (DoE) ‘List 99’, which banned him from teaching.
• 1972 onwards: Became a member and Treasurer of Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) following his dismissal from the school.  Funds were supplied for this grotesque group by the Home Office.
• 1974-1977: Exposed in Daily Telegraph as being a member and treasurer of PIE whilst also working for Nucleus – a youth welfare organisation helping youngsters in Earls Court.  Funded by a grant from Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, as well as a Swiss charity, Fondation Rejoindre, and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and other trusts and individuals.

The Paedophile Information Exchange PIE was allegedly given £70,000 by the Home Office between 1977 and 1980 – the equivalent today of about £400,000.

A former Home Office worker revealed that Jim Callaghan’s Labour government and Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative administration, which took over in 1979, may have provided funding for PIE.

The whistleblower said senior civil servant Clifford Hindley, who was head of the Home Office’s voluntary services unit, signed off a three year grant for £35,000 in 1980.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2571632/Home-Office-gave-Paedophile-Information-Exchange-70-000-Group-allegedly-given-taxpayers-money-1977-1980.html

• 1978: Working in a junior school in Sweden, with children aged 11 years onwards.  He was visited by Righton.
• 1979: Abuse of a 13-year old boy.
• Peter Righton wrote to the DoE in his capacity as a member of the National Institute of Social Workers claiming to have counselled Napier and also included a letter from a psychiatrist to confirm that Napier was no longer a threat to children.  That psychiatrist was another of their paedophile ring – Dr Morris Fraser.
• 1981: Inclusion on List 99 relaxed to allow Napier to work in colleges and universities.
• 1980s: Assistant head of studies for the British Council in Cairo, during which time he wrote a letter stating that the city was “full of boys, 98 per cent of them available“.
• 1983: Abuse of a second 13-year old boy.
• 1990: Napier applied for his ban on teaching children to be lifted.  His appeal failed after his referee, Morris Fraser, was himself convicted for abuse and struck off.
• 1992: Operation Clarence – police raid on Peter Righton’s home leads to the uncovering of hundreds of letters, including one in particular from Napier.
• 1994-2012 approx: Set up and help run a school in Istanbul, teaching English as a second language.
• 1995: Aged 48, he was sentenced to 9 months imprisonment following a police investigation into Peter Righton under Operation Clarence.  Police found a letter at a South London flat – written by Napier – boasting of his access to young boys.  He lodged an appeal, which was refused.
• 2012: Returned to live with his mother in Sherborne, where he became involved in village life.
• 2014: At the age of 67, he was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment after pleading guilty to the abuse of 21 boys between 1967-1972, following the police investigation, Operation Cayacos.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

• He was a British Council teacher in Cairo, and has boasted about easy access to young boys there, as well as sending obscene images back to the UK via diplomatic bags in a letter found in a South London flat during Op Clarence.
• Spent time living in Sweden.
• Lived in Sherborne, Dorset.
• Lived on a houseboat in Thames Ditton, Surrey.
• Also a respected playright and theatre director.
• He was a very good friend of PIE founder, Peter Righton and his partner, Richard Alston.

Napier (left) and Righton (right)

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BACK TO WHITTINGDALE…

Whittingdale, having graduated from UCL and moved to Earls Court, joined the Conservative Research Department in 1982 (which is essentially the very core of the Tory party), eventually becoming a special adviser to Leon Brittan before then moving on to become the political secretary to Margaret Thatcher.  In these positions he must have been privy to some of the paperwork or conversations surrounding the criticism of PIE and must have been aware of the continual media interest in the group.

This raises questions as to whether he was proactive in addressing and reporting these issues, knowing full well of his brother’s (Napier) role in the organisation, which is picked up in a blog comment in 2013, regarding Whittingdale, Brittan and their seeming inertia when it came to proactively dealing with issues raised in the Dickens dossier, which was handed to Brittan at the end of 1983 during a meeting that David Mellor can’t remember happening (but obviously attended):

…the point I was making that given their {Whittingdale and Leon Brittan} combined knowledge and political/ personal awareness of the seriousness of the Dickens dossier at the time… I would have been surprised if it hadn’t come up in conversation given the alleged closeness of ministers and their special advisers.

The main issue in an argument as to why John Whittingdale is such a key person to… demand answers from today remains that, as Chair of what has become in the last 3 years one of the most powerful weapons of an investigative Parliament, he took a very active and high profile stance over other institutions failing to act in the face of a dangerous paedophile {Savile}… and we must demand he and his all party Committee now adopt the same exacting standards to how this obvious cover up was allowed to continue.

A starting point would be how many referrals did he make to Police/social services over 30 years when he knew (as evidenced in letters written by Napier) that Napier was in professional contact with children and since Napier has returned to live in the family home with their mother was he aware of his contact with Sherbourne School pupils up until the Mirror featured it a few months ago.

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WHICH LEADS US ON TO A BIGGER PICTURE…

The comment goes on to say:

Peter Righton and his partner disappeared after Righton’s convictions and were subsequently traced to Lord Henniker’s ancestral home in Eye in Suffolk.

The Chief Constable of Suffolk took it upon himself to visit and warn Henniker that he had 2 paedophiles with very significant national links on his property. Henniker was not in any way perturbed by this disclosure despite the fact that for many years he had had extremely vulnerable children holiday on his estate. He ran the Islington /Suffolk Project – a scheme for disadvantaged children from Islington to have country holidays in rural Suffolk.

If you Google the late Lord Henniker you will see how influential a role he played in The British Council – Righton’s very close friend/fellow PIE member Charles Napier was employed as a teacher by the British Council in Cairo even though he was already on List 99 as a banned teacher after his early conviction.

I’m not going to go any further down this particular rabbit hole, but now you can clearly see why Tom Watson stood up and asked a perfectly legitimate question, and understand why it might have made a few members of the opposing side feel slightly awkward.

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AN IMPORTANT FINAL QUESTION…

Just who was the paedophile whom Tom referred to, who played a part in the conviction of Peter Righton during Operation Clarence, and who claimed of having a link to an aide of a former Prime Minister and boasted about how he could smuggle indecent images from abroad?  And, more importantly, why were the leads not followed up?

And on that note – what happened to all the correspondence they found?  Where is it now?

Many perpetrators and those with links may no longer be alive, but there are plenty around who have the ability to answer questions.  Who, if anyone, within the Conservative Party, have been called to give evidence to iiCSA regarding the infiltration of paedophiles in public life and explain what exactly was done about it?  Mellor, Whittingdale and others can give first hand accounts, so will they?  Are the Operation Clarence files still fully intact and have they been lodged with iiCSA?   If not, why not?

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Dr Richard Barker‏@swrb1

Peter Righton has since died. His partner, Richard Alston, who lived with him at Thornham Magna, has since been convicted and imprisoned for sexual offences against children.

This Year 35 years ago in 1983 Islington BC gave a grant of £3,233 to the Islington Suffolk Project which a decade later in 1993 gave haven to Peter Righton after his conviction https://spotlightonabuse.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/country-house-hideaway-of-disgraced-care-chief-6-5-93/ …

Why did Peter Righton hide out in Thornham Magna @ Islington Suffolk Project?

Cassandra Cogno‏ @CassandraCogno

If Lord Henniker was such a philanthropist why was he taking money off  islingtonBC for Islington Suffolk Project? Also as @ian_pace noted Richard Alston thanks Islington resident & PIE lobbyist Micky Burbidge in the foreword of Sir Colin Davis bio

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Colin-Davis-For-The-Record/dp/B00E0W8VJQ/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_img_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=D5R28TS6HARC3EVKHVK8 …

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NEWS ARTICLES

The Times, Sept 1995

A FORMER British Council worker, who sexually abused boys at his home, was sent to prison for nine months yesterday. Charles Napier, 48, was a treasurer of the Paedophile Information Exchange and had convictions for child abuse as far back as 1972, Kingston Crown Court was told.

Napier found a job with the British Council in Cairo after being banned from teaching jobs in British schools after a conviction for indecent assault. He was sacked when British Council officials discovered the offences.

He admitted in a pre-sentence report that he was still sexually attracted to boys, and had also expressed continuing sexual feelings for children in a recent letter, the jury was told.

During the two-week trial, the jurors heard that Napier, who had denied two charges of indecent assault between 1982 and 1985, had lured young boys back to his home in Thames Ditton, Surrey, with promises of boat trips and computer games.  One victim, now 25, said Napier had befriended him when he played truant and had later lured him into his bed before sexually assaulting him. Napier had also been given probation as far back as 1972 after being found guilty of similar offences against young children.

Judge Geoffrey Mercer said: ”When these matters eventually came to light it led to the loss of your job abroad.” Information showed that Napier was a continuing threat to children. ”It clearly shows the continuing sexual attraction towards boys and it is clear from the pre-sentence report you do not deny that.” He would have passed a ”considerably greater” sentence had it not been for the fact that the offences had been committed before the maximum sentence had been increased to ten years.

Napier, who has been living abroad, was also ordered to pay Pounds 1,000 costs.

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Daily Mirror, 11 Nov 2012

Charles Napier could provide vital evidence for police investigating a child abuse scandal spanning three decades

In the picturesque Dorset town of Sherborne, Charles Napier is an upstanding member of the community.  He is known as a respected retired languages teacher, a playwright and theatre director.  Only last month he gave a lecture on William Shakespeare at the town’s literary festival.

But Napier’s sordid past threatens to drag him into the heart of new inquiries into a child abuse scandal spanning three decades.  Evidence now being examined by Metropolitan Police detectives links Napier to Peter Righton, one of Britain’s most high-profile paedophiles.

Righton is now long dead. But Napier is not. Now 68 and living with his mother in the West Country, he could prove a vital witness to the unfolding police inquiry into child abuse on a massive scale in this country.  Both men were linked to a shadowy organisation called the Paedophile Information Exchange which campaigned in the 70s and 80s for what they called the age of “child love” to be reduced to four.

Righton was a founder of PIE, Napier its one-time treasurer. Righton, incredibly, was also one of Britain’s leading child protection specialists.  But when police raided his house in Evesham, Worcs, in 1992 they found not only hard-core child abuse images from Amsterdam but a “quarter-century of correspondence” between paedophiles in Britain and around the world.

The probe led police to the kitchen of a flat in South London where they found a letter from ‘Napier – who had a child assault conviction 20 years before – boasting of his life in Cairo as a”British Council teacher.  He bragged of easy access to young boys and how he could send obscene images back to Britain in diplomatic bags.

The scandal erupted again when Labour MP Tom Watson raised the matter with David Cameron in the House of Commons last month suggesting a network of paedophiles working in the UK had links to high levels of Government.  He believes there was an Establishment cover-up of the Righton files and his claims are now being investigated by a Scotland Yard team.

Since Mr Watson’s first dramatic announcement, dozens of victims have come forward with allegations of shocking abuse by paedophiles at care homes across Britain.  Several names of senior politicians have been put in the frame though, it has to be said, without any evidential corroboration. However, what is clear is that there are real concerns that more could and should have been done after Righton’s 1992 arrest and subsequent caution for indecent assault of a boy 30 years before.

Even Michael Hames, then head of Scotland Yard’s Obscene Publications Squad, who handled the Righton files expressed disappointment more was not done. Writing in 2000 of the Righton inquiry, he called for a national team to be set up to investigate paedophiles, adding: “I remain convinced that we have only touched the tip of a huge national and international problem.”

The story of Charles Napier is an extraordinary one that shows how a paedophile was able to operate with impunity while holding down a thoroughly respectable lifestyle.  It illustrates how there was little or no safety net to prevent child abusers from returning to their sick ways. And it begins at Copthorne Preparatory School, West Sussex, in the late 60s.

This week, respected author and journalist Francis Wheen told the Sunday People how he was just 11 when Napier arrived at the school.  He says Napier, then in is 20s, charmed the youngsters with his sports car, dashing good looks and claims that he was a professional actor.

Mr Wheen said: “He recruited a few of us, saying ‘spend more time in the gym’ and appointed himself gym master. There was a room off the gym and that became his haunt.  Four or five of us started regularly going down there, vaulting over horses and things like that, in our gym shorts in all our innocence.

At the end of it he would take us into his room off the gym and give us beer and cigarettes – bottles of Mackeson’s and Senior Service untipped.

We thought this was terrifically exciting. Here we were, 11 years old, being given beer and fags – we were thinking he’s on our side not like any of the other masters.  And of course this was for an ulterior purpose which very soon became clear when he stuck his hand down my gym shorts and I had to sort of fight him off.”

Napier then revealed his terrifying technique for grooming the youngsters by trying to humiliate the 11-year-old Francis.

Mr Wheen said: “He said ‘Don’t be such a baby’ and said I wasn’t grown-up enough for that sort of thing. He would point to a couple of other boys, saying ‘They let me do it. You just won’t let me because you’re so babyish.’

“I think he was hoping I’d say ‘no I’m as grown up as them’ and let him get on with it but I didn’t. It meant I was excluded from his ‘charmed circle’ after that – but by then I knew where he kept his beer and cigarettes so I used to break into his room, steal them and go sit in the woods.

“I could enjoy them without being sexually abused.”

Mr Wheen also described the culture of silence that grew up around the assaults, with youngsters reluctant to report the teacher, feeling they wouldn’t be believed.

He added: “A year or two after I left, my younger brother – who was still at the school – came back from holidays and told me Mr Napier had been sacked.

“At long last one boy who had been sexually molested had been innocent enough to go to the headmaster and report him.

“There was a very hasty exit made by Napier. He had a flashy sports car and as soon as the game was up, he roared off at speed and pranged it on the school gates. I think I got away quite lightly – I can’t pretend I’ve been scarred for life by it, but I’m sure there are children out there who have been badly damaged by Charles Napier.”

In 1972, Napier was found to have indecently assaulted pupils at a Surrey school where he was working. After being banned from teaching, he left the country.

In 1978, he was working in Sweden where he taught at a junior school with pupils as young as 11 – and was visited by Righton.

Napier later surfaced in Egypt, where he worked as the assistant head of studies with the British Council in Cairo.

A letter from the time saw him boast to a friend that the city was “full of boys, 98 per cent of them available”.

He also helped set up and run a school in Turkey. His picture appears on a website offering English as a Foreign Language, where he boasts: “Most of my posts have been in Europe, North Africa or the Middle East, and for the last eight years I’ve been in Istanbul, running my own school and writing a series of course books for Turkish students.”

Back in England, Napier was jailed for nine months in 1995 for sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy he’d lured to his home in the 80s.  He befriended the lad, enticing him with lager and computer games – then abused him.  Prosecutors said: “It wasn’t just a stranger grabbing a boy in the park. This was a slow insidious process. The boy was trapped – not forced.”

Righton, a founder member of PIE, was at one time the UK’s leading authority on the protection of children, yet he used his power to not only hide his paedophilia, but to help other child abusers – among them Napier.

The latter’s ban on teaching meant he was added to List 99, a precursor of the Sex Offenders’ Register.  And Righton – the subject of a 1994 documentary on paedophiles – used his influence to try to have Napier removed from the list so he could be allowed back into schools.  Righton wrote to the Department of Education saying: “Mr Napier is a gifted teacher of both adults and children.

“I believe that during the years since his conviction he has acquired a knowledge and disciplined mastery of himself which would justify the conclusion he no longer constitutes a sexual risk to children in his charge.

“It would give me great pleasure – and cause me no anxiety – to hear the Secretary of State had reviewed his decision of October 24, 1972, in Mr Napier’s favour.”

In 1981, the ban was relaxed to allow Napier into colleges and universities. In 1990 he applied for the ban to be further relaxed – this time enlisting Dr Malcolm (Morris) sic Fraser as his referee.  Dr Fraser was convicted in 1992 for possessing indecent photographs of children. His third conviction saw him struck off – and Napier remained on the banned list.

Mr Wheen thought he’d seen the last of his former teacher but their paths crossed again in 1977, when he was commissioned to write an article about PIE and its desire to lower the age of consent.  A senior group member told Mr Wheen: “You must speak to our treasurer.  He’s very good. Very well informed about the issues.”  Mr Wheen was astonished to discover the expert he was being put in touch with was his former teacher – now PIE’s treasurer – Charles Napier.

Mr Wheen added: “I didn’t really want to speak to him. I couldn’t believe what my old teacher had become.”

Napier declined to comment yesterday.

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BBC News, 28 Oct 2014

A man has been cleared of a charge of historical sex abuse after a judge said there was no evidence to support it.

Ex-teacher Charles Napier, from Sherborne, Dorset, denied inciting a boy under the age of 14 to commit an act of gross indecency with another.

The allegation dates back to between February 1978 and February 1979.

Mr Napier, half-brother of Conservative MP John Whittingdale, remains on conditional bail with regard to further charges of historical sex abuse.

The 67-year-old is due back at Southwark Crown Court on 10 November.

Judge Anthony Leonard QC said that he should be found not guilty of this one specific charge after he was told there was no evidence to support the claim.

Mr Napier’s co-defendant Richard Alston*, 69, of Vinery Road in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of sex abuse against a child dating from January 1977 to February 1980, at the same hearing on Tuesday.

The charges include six counts of indecent assault on a male and four counts of indecency with a child.

His trial, which expected to last 10 days, was set for the same court on 17 August 2015, with a pre-trial hearing to be held on 20 July. He was released on conditional bail.

*Alston was Peter Righton’s partner.  He was also a teacher.

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The Telegraph, 18 Nov 2014

The half-brother of a senior Conservative MP has pleaded guilty to a string of historic sex offences on young boys.  Charles Napier, 67, who is related to Maldon MP John Whittingdale, admitted 28 indecent assault charges and one indecency offence on a child at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

Napier, of Newland in Sherborne, Dorset, admitted abusing 21 boys under the age of 16 between September 1967 and April 1972.  Wearing glasses and dressed in a checked shirt with a tweed blazer, Napier said “guilty” as the court clerk read each of the charges to him.  The court heard he faces a further two separate indecent assault charges involving two other boys, for which he has yet to enter pleas.

Napier was remanded in custody as Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith adjourned sentencing to December 23.  The judge said: “It will enable those victims who wish to be here to be alerted and they can be here.”  One charge involved a boy who was indecently assaulted on eight occasions by Napier between September 1969 and April 1972.   The indecency offence involved a child who was forced to commit a sex act on Napier, the court heard.

Napier was former treasurer of the Paedophile Information Exchange which campaigned in the 70s and 80s for what they called the age of ‘child love’ to be reduced to four.  He also has links to Peter Righton – one of Britain’s most high-profile paedophiles.

Napier was arrested last year under Operation Cayacos, a strand of a wider investigation which was launched following claims by MP Tom Watson.  In 2012, Mr Watson used parliamentary privilege to claim that a file of evidence used to convict Peter Righton of importing child pornography in 1992 contained “clear intelligence” of a sex abuse gang.  He wrote to Scotland Yard, which launched criminal investigation Operation Fairbank. It has since spawned two more inquiries – Fernbridge, which is looking at claims linked to the Elm Guest House in Barnes, south west London, in the 1980s, and Cayacos.

When police raided Righton’s house in Evesham, Worcestershire, in 1992 they found hardcore child abuse images from Amsterdam and a ‘quarter-century of correspondence’ between paedophiles in Britain and around the world.  The probe led police to the kitchen of a flat in south London where they found a letter from Napier, who was convicted in 1995 for sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy, boasting of his life in Cairo as a British Council teacher.  He boasted of easy access to young boys and how he could send obscene images back to Britain in diplomatic bags.  Napier has lived in Sweden and worked for the British council in Cairo and is a respected playwright and theatre director.  Righton has since died.

Mr Whittingdale refused to comment when contacted about the guilty pleas.  When his half-brother was charged, Mr Whittingdale said: “I am aware that my half-brother has been charged with an offence alleged to have occurred over 35 years ago.  I have no knowledge of this, particularly as I had only just left school at that time.  However, obviously I recognise that this is a serious matter and that the law must take its course.”

John Whittingdale MP’s father – educated at Sherborne Preparatory School

https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E007039b.htm

John Whittingdale’s half-brother, convicted paedophile, Charles Napier, was the treasure of PIE and lived and worked in Dorset

Historic abuse allegations at Sherborne Preparatory School back in the spotlight as part of disturbing ITV documentary

Retired police chief makes shocking revelation to documentary makers

19 FEB 2018

An ITV documentary has investigated three decades of abuse carried out by a former head teacher at Sherborne Preparatory School.

The school – one of the top prep schools in the country – was rocked by scandal in 1998 when it was alleged that the then-headmaster, Robin Lindsay, had committed a catalogue of abuse dating back to 1972.

Shockingly, the former Chief-Superintendent of Dorset Police, who investigated the allegations, reveals to documentary presenter Alex Renton that parents of pupils at the school hampered police and social services investigations into the school. They dismissed his behaviour as being “eccentric”, being more concerned about their children’s ability to pass the common entrance examination to other schools.

Lindsay, who was banned from teaching and branded a “fixated paedophile” who posed a serious risk to children, was given a huge send off from the school at Sherborne Abbey, with a standing ovation and parents and pupils singing “for he’s a jolly good fellow.”

What the disturbing documentary reveals

Boarding Schools: The Secret Shame follows journalist and author Mr Renton – himself a survivor of sexual abuse at a boarding school – as he investigates the private schools who appeared to turn a blind eye to predatory paedophiles who groomed and assault pupils for decades.

The documentary is to be broadcast at 10.45pm on Monday (February 19).

During his investigation he interviews a number of abuse survivors and exposes systemic failures that allowed paedophiles not just to go unpunished, but also allowed them to continue teaching.

It also tells the story of one pupil who took his own life after struggling with depression and mental health issues after being abused at a teacher St Aubyn’s in Rottingdean.

In one disturbing scene, Mr Renton meets with a paedophile teacher, who claims the sexual abuse at boarding schools continues to this day because it is “traditional” and has been going on for “generations”.

What does the documentary say about Sherborne Preparatory School?

The abuse at Sherborne Preparatory School is described by Mr Renton as “among hundreds of cases, the one that stood out”.

“Here, the abuser wasn’t just a lowly teacher,” he explains, “It was the owner and head master, whose abuse spanned three decades.

A Western Gazette reporter doorknocks Lindsay following the panel’s findings

“It is a fascinating case,” he says, as he is shown researching the story in old copies of the Western Gazette. “And not least because this man, dismissed as a harmless eccentric, turns out to have been a serious abuser while running that school.

“For a child there, this is the authority figure. There are no governors, no trustees. So where does a child go?”

What happened at the school?

Head teacher and owner of the school Robin Lindsay was accused of committing a serious sexual assault against one pupil of the school, encouraged children to share his bed and joined them naked in the showers.

Police had investigated him in April 1986, but he claimed the accusations against him had been made maliciously. When investigated again in 1993, he admitted a string of allegations and accepted his physical intimacy with pupils was open to misinterpretation.

Dorset Social Services had also warned Lindsay about his behaviour in 1993, while their follow-up report in 1997 was “damning in the extreme”.

But it was not until 1998, when concerns over his behaviour became so extreme that the Department for Education held a tribunal and barred him from teaching.

As a result of the findings he retired from the school, saying he wanted to concentrate on clearing his name.

What did the tribunal find?

The tribunal found that Lindsay weighed boys naked for the rugby team, was sexually abusive, walked about the school in his pyjamas often exposing himself, and repeatedly refused to move out of the boys’ boarding accomodation.

It found three allegations of sexual assault not proven and ordered them to rely on file. The tribunal found that there was enough evidence from police and officials for the notice to have been issued in 1995, at the latest.

Mr Renton interviewed three former pupils at the school, who speak about the abuse they suffered at Lindsay’s hands.

They speak of being watched in the showers, groped, and him rubbing them down with embrocation if they were injured.

Another speaks of being held down in his bed, while Lindsay performs a sex act over him.

Another says that when he tried to talk to his parents, his allegations were dismissed and ignored.

What did the parents say when the allegations came to light?

Despite the tribunal finding him unfit to run a school and branding him a “fixated paedophile” and “a serious risk to children”, parents of pupils at the school rallied to his defence.

When the Western Gazette reported on the allegations against him, parents at the school began to contact the paper in their hundreds, with one claiming: “His only fault is to have a little of the eccentricity that we British are famed for.”

The letter writer continues: “You have denied this headmaster a dignified and happy start to his retirement.”

Another wrote: “We are sicked by your prurient obsession with child sex, and your regular bullying of wretched individuals.”

A former pupil of the school contacted the paper to say: “I firmly believe that many of the allegations made against him, particularly those concerning inappropriate behaviour towards young boys have been blown out of proportion.”

When he was ousted from the school, a service was held for him at Sherborne Abbey, where 700 people sang ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’ and gave him a standing ovation, before handing him a bronze bust as a leaving gift, as well as cigars, chocolates, a T-shirt and socks.

Why did he not face criminal charges?

Gill Donnell was the chief superintendent at Dorset Police and oversaw the investigation in Lindsay in 1993.

When interviewed for the documentary, she said : “I’ve remembered this case over the many, many cases over the many, many years I’ve worked in the police for the challenges that we had getting the evidence that’s necessary. And in the case that we’re talking about, the main place that evidence is going to come from very small children.”

She added that parents of pupils at the school were reluctant to allow police to talk to their children.

 “The majority that I spoke to were very hesitant and some of them made it very clear that they were not going to let us talk to their children.

“It was said to me on more than one occasion that the most important thing for the parents was that their parents went to the required public school and that anything that was done to endanger that, they weren’t terribly supportive of at all.

“Their priority was about the future of their children, and not what may or may not have been happening to them at the time.”

What happened to Lindsay?

Lindsay joined the school in 1953, when he joined his father who was the headmaster at the time. After his father’s death in 1972, he served as the school’s headmaster.

He was 70 when he retired from the school in the face of the findings of the Department for Education panel.

Speaking after his retirement, he said he had withdrawn his appeal against the findings of the panel to spare the school the publicity of a contested hearings.

He said that he “categorically denied” the allegations against him and that they described “events which simply did not take place. The welfare and happiness of the children in the school and those who have been there has been the prime objective of my life.”

 

Following the complaint, he was banned from the school premises and had to sever all links with the school. He said it was “scandalous” that the DfEE banned him from teaching.

In a statement released through his solicitors, he criticised the way evidence was gathered and the handling of the case by the tribunal but accepted that “in years past he, like many other schoolteachers did things which are now considered unsuitable.

“In earlier times those in his position were accepted as being ‘in loco parentis’ and fully justified in doing anything a good parent might have done.

“He absolutely denies he was in any sense a paedophile who put at risk children in his school.”

Lindsay never faced police charges, and died in July 2016.

What have the authorities said about the findings of the documentary?

Sherborne Prep School response to the documentary

Somerset Live contacted the school on Monday (February 19) for a response to the content of the documentary.

Nigel Jones, the current chairman of governors at Sherborne Preparatory School said it is a completely different body to the school owned and operated by Robin Lindsay.

He said: “The preparatory school was formed as a charitable trust when he (Robin Lindsay) was removed from the school. Governors were appointed.

“It acquired the school from him in 1998.

“It is a completely different financial, legal and governance organisation.

“We don’t know what happened because we are not in any way party to things that went on.

“If the allegations are true, they are totally abhorrent and we accept that.

“It is very difficult when we are approached by people. It happened 20 years ago.

“I have huge sympathy for anyone who has been assaulted.

“If there is something we can do to help, we are happy to talk to them.”

“Safeguarding of children is the number one priority in the school.”

“We have a nominated safeguarding governor.

“We have a strict policy and follow it to the letter, which includes talking to the regulatory authorities, police and charity commission.”

The Independent Association of Prep Schools said it is “appalled by the events of the past.”

It added that the education, care and welfare of young people is its primary concern and they demand “the most exacting standards” of themselves and their schools.

• Boarding Schools: The Secret Shame is scheduled to air on ITV on Monday (February 19) at 10.45pm.

Were you affected by abuse at Sherborne Prep School? You can contact us in confidence by e-mail at laura.linham@midsomnews.co.uk

Historic abuse at Sherborne Prep: Council silent over findings of report

Report found shocking conditions at school five years before headteacher was disgraced and ousted

3 MAY 2018

A council has refused to comment in detail on a 25-year-old report that revealed concerns raised by boarding pupils at a school five years before its head was ousted as a “fixated paedophile”.

A report released from Dorset County Council’s archives documented deeply troubling behaviour by the now disgraced head of Sherborne Preparatory School, Robin Lindsay.

These included accusations that he had interfered with male boarding students and dismissed an allegation of abuse made by one pupil as a dream.

Lindsay’s behaviour in the decades before he was forced to leave the school in 1998 has been investigated in recent months after survivors of abuse came forward to Somerset Live and ITV.

Following a Freedom of Information request by this website, Dorset County Council has released the report of an inspection carried out by its social services department in 1993 .

Dorset County Council said it would co-operate with any inquiry into how Lindsay was able to get away with his actions for so long.

But it declined to answer questions about why the second report has gone missing and why Lindsay was able to continue in his role as headmaster at the school given the extraordinary allegations against him.

The questions Dorset County Council refused to answer

We invited Rebecca Knox, leader of Dorset County Council, to say if she believed the council had done enough to help and protect the children who were at Sherborne Preparatory School during Lindsay’s reign.

She did not respond to us directly but the council’s press office did get in touch, to offer a no-comment statement.

Here’s the questions they refused to respond to:

• How do you feel about Dorset County Council’s role in what is said to have happened in the school?
• Can you explain why the second report has gone missing or been destroyed?
• Why was Lindsay was able to continue in his role as headmaster at the school given the extraordinary allegations against him in the ’93 report?
• Why didn’t social services not go back into the school to find out if there had been any progress on the recommendations in the report?
• Do you support calls for an inquiry into the case, as made by Sherborne’s MP and former pupils at the school?

Instead, the council released a short statement which read: “We take allegations of abuse very seriously and would always urge victims to come forward and report it.

“We are not able to comment any further on the matter. However, if an inquiry is called we would fully co-operate if asked to take part.”

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/historic-abuse-sherborne-prep-council-1435620

The Notice of Complaint that was sent to Robin Lindsay

The Notice of Complaint that was sent to Robin Lindsay was signed and dated, on Tuesday 5 May, 1998, by the Treasury Solicitor for the Secretary of State for Education and Employment.

Printed below are the particulars of the matters complained of:

TO MR R. T. M. LINDSAY, PROPRIETOR OF THE PREPARATORY SCHOOL, ACREMAN STREET, SHERBORNE, DORSET DT9 3NY.
SCHEDULE TO NOTICE OF COMPLAINT under section 469 of the Education Act 1996
PARTICULARS OF MATTERS COMPLAINED OF

These particulars (see section 469 (2) of the 1996 Act) set out in more detail the complaints which are made against you grouped under the main headings of the two statutory grounds relied upon by the Secretary of State.
GROUND S. 469 (1) (d) PROPER PERSON
The proprietor of the school . . . is not a proper person to be the proprietor of an independent school or . . . to be a teacher or other employee in any school.

COMPLAINT 1
1. Mr Lindsay has engaged in behaviour of an inappropriate nature. Mr Lindsay places himself in situations where he shows that he has, or could reasonably be suspected of having, an inappropriate interest in children (especially boys) and where he would be in difficulty in refuting allegations of inappropriate behaviour or abuse.

2. Mr Lindsays inappropriate behaviour takes, or has taken, the following forms:
(1) Personally supervising the boys showering arrangements despite numerous warnings in the reports referred to below (see Complaint 2) that this should cease. This behaviour has been coupled with a failure to implement frequent recommendations that the boarders showers be altered from their current institutional layout so as to allow privacy;
(2) Following a visit in June 1985, the Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools warned Mr Lindsay of his foolish and indiscreet behaviour and advised that he should move out of the boarding house by September 1985. While it is believed that Mr Lindsay initially complied with this advice, he has for a number of years been resident again in the boarding house;
(3) Night-time supervision of pupils, including sitting on boys beds in the dormitory and inviting boys into his bed. Mr Lindsay is, or has been, involved in after-lights-out activities with small groups of boys, such as late-night runs, showers and mathematics lessons;
(4) Inappropriate physical contact with boys (and to a lesser extent girls), often causing distress and discomfort to those pupils, to which Mr Lindsay appears to be oblivious;
(5) Inordinate interest in the physical and, in particular, sexual development of pupils and their physical appearance;
(6) His treatment of the rugby team, which manifests itself, for example, in requiring the team members to be weighed while naked, putting them on diets, seating boys on his lap when driving the bus back from rugby matches (supposedly as a treat), and occasionally taking individual boys to a sauna;
(7) The possession of photographs of young boys in swimming costumes, discovered by a member of staff at the school in early 1998. The photographs were not of pupils at the school and may have been taken on one of Mr Lindsays holidays abroad;
(8) The possession of condoms, discovered in his suitcase by members of staff at the school, prior to departure on a ski-ing trip with a group of boys in February 1998. When confronted with one of the condoms Mr Lindsay denied knowledge of it and sought to suggest that it had been brought into the school by one of the boys;
(9) Taking groups of boys on ski-ing trips unaccompanied by other staff members, despite warnings in the above-mentioned reports that he should be accompanied by another staff member. The latest such trip was in February 1998; and
(10) He sexually assaulted pupils of the school, in particular X, Y and Z.

COMPLAINT 2
3. The history of the school over the period since 1993 has been one of considerable and unreasonable delays in implementing the improvements and safeguards recommended by the Dorset County Council Social Services Department and by the Department for Education and Employment. The school has been inspected:
(1) (under section 87 of the Children Act 1989) by Dorset SSD in February and March 1994 and in May 1996. There were brief visits to the school in March 1994 and June 1995. The most recent full inspection occurred in June 1997. Mr Lindsay has been in receipt of reports from Dorset SSD dated 22 July 1993; 16 November 1994; June 1996 (the draft copy of which Mr Lindsay failed to respond to) and July 1997;
(2) By Ofsted/ HMI in November and December 1993, November 1996 and February 1998. There have also been a number of follow up visits (eg 16 February 1995). Mr Lindsay has been in receipt of written recommendations with regard to the school arising out of those inspections.
4. Mr Lindsay has consistently failed to take the action recommended in those reports within a reasonable time or in some cases at all. The DfEE formally requested Mr Lindsay by letter dated 17 January 1997 that (among other things) he should put into place recommendations made by the Dorset SSD without delay. The letter expressed concern as to the length of time that was being taken to implement recommendations.
5. For example, the latest Ofsted report (following inspection on 5 February 1998) noted that at the date of the last Dorset SSD inspection some 47 matters remained outstanding from the previous SSD inspection.

COMPLAINT 3
6. Mr Lindsay has manifested an unco-operative and at times hostile or obstructive attitude towards public authorities, most notably towards Dorset SSD. His attitude to that department and its officers is characterised by an unwillingness to recognise or admit the relevance of their views or advice to the proper running of the school, as demonstrated by:
(1) delay in implementing recommendations contained in the above mentioned reports (see Complaint 2), and his unwillingness to deal effectively with the substance as opposed to the form of such recommendations made over a number of years;
(2) his expressed attitude towards health and safety, as illustrated by his disputing the recommendation of the fire officer to fit fire doors of a modern standard, and his explicit condoning and encouraging of the dangerous practice of wedging existing fire doors open (ostensibly to ease the supervision of dormitories):
(3) his attempts to pre-empt and undermine inspections. For example, Dorset SSD and Ofsted/ HMI inspectors have reported that Mr Lindsay has put pressure on staff and pupils with regards to what they say to inspectors;
(4) his inability or unwillingness to recognise and remedy many of the problems highlighted in inspections (e.g. the issue of the supervision of showers).
7. Further, the school has been dismissed from the professional organisation ISC (formerly known as ISJC) in the light of the most recent Dorset SSD report.

COMPLAINT 4
8. Mr Lindsays management and organisation of the school is confused, inadequate, inappropriate and inefficient. In particular, as regards Mr Lindsay:
(1) he is closely involved in the detailed running of the school and is unable and/or unwilling to delegate responsibility in an effective or consistent manner;
(2) he is unable to manage properly his time as between his teaching and administrative duties and is frequently late for (or misses) lessons;
(3) his teaching methodology is out-moded;
(4) his administration of discipline is fundamentally flawed in a number of respects (see Complaint 5, below)
(5) his inappropriate behaviour (see Complaint 1, above):
(6) his management of staff is poor and unstructured. He is isolated from many members of staff who regard his influence as counter-productive and divisive, especially with regard to discipline. Relations with staff generally are frequently poor and chaotic;
(7) his conduct of staff meetings is dictatorial, unstructured and generally unhelpful. They often are little more than a monologue and do not encourage serious comment or discussion from members of staff.

COMPLAINT 5
9. Mr Lindsays administration of discipline in practice in the school is irregular, inconsistent, unequal and partial. In particular:
(1) Mr Lindsay has shown an inability or unwillingness to back up members of the teaching staff seeking to discipline children appropriately. His interventions are often counter-productive to the proper discipline of the pupils and inconsistent with the approach initially adopted by the member of staff;
(2) on occasions where it has fallen on Mr Lindsay to deal with matters of discipline he has failed to act properly, adequately or consistently;
(3) disciplinary procedures in practice are haphazard, uncoordinated and inadequate;
(4) in the face of bad behaviour (e.g. disturbance in dormitories at night) Mr Lindsay has failed to enforce discipline and has pandered to the wishes of those pupils misbehaving;
(5) on occasions, Mr Lindsay has singled out pupils for punishment or criticism who did not merit such treatment.
10.The above matters have contributed to a worsening of behaviour in the school.

COMPLAINT 6
11. Mr Lindsays treatment of and dealings with pupils are often characterised by unequal and unfair treatment. Such treatment is not only inappropriate but is not conducive to proper discipline and fails to instil in pupils a proper approach to their own conduct. In particular, Mr Lindsays treatment includes:
(1) the singling out of individuals for undue blame;
(2) obvious manifestations of favouritism to certain pupils (including in disciplinary matter): and
(3) the lack of equal opportunities between pupils, including between boys and girls.
12. Mr Lindsays unequal treatment of pupils also manifests itself in relation to discipline (see above).

COMPLAINT 7
13. Mr Lindsays appearance and behaviour are not, or have not been, in a number of regards fitting and appropriate for the proprietor of a school, namely with regard to:
(1) his excessive consumption of alcohol and cough mixture, which has sometimes been apparent to other members of the school:
(2) his personal hygiene and appearance (in particular he strongly smells of smoke, something that causes discomfort to children with whom he comes into close contact):
(3) his appearance from time to time in the school inappropriately dressed (including appearing dressed only in pyjamas): and
(4) the matters referred to above (see Complaint 1).

COMPLAINT 8
14. Mr Lindsay has shown a lack of proper regard to child welfare management, see Complaints 1,2 5 and 6 above and, generally, see below. Further, gap-year staff (who are heavily relied on by the school) do not come to the school with appropriate letters from their local police station.
15. As a result of these matters, the children at the school are exposed to an unnecessary risk of harm in many aspects of their welfare. The fact that the most recent Dorset SSD report contained 47 recommendations which had to be addressed before the proprietor could be said to be properly ensuring the welfare of his boarding pupils in itself raises severe doubts as to his ability to manage the school. This is all the more so given that there have been numerous Dorset SSD reports and recommendations since 1993 (see Complaint 2 above)
SECTION 469(1)(e) CHILD WELFARE
There has been a failure, in relation to a child provided with accommodation by the school, to comply with the duty imposed by section 87 of the Children Act 1989.
Section 87 of the Children Act provides:
(1) It shall be the duty of – (a) the proprietor of any independent school which provides accommodation for any child . . . to safeguard and promote the childs welfare.
The complaints under this general heading demonstrate both failure to safeguard and promote the welfare of the pupils of the school and the creation of situations where that welfare has been put at risk.

COMPLAINT 9
16. The matters referred to under Complaints 1-8 (above) are repeated.

COMPLAINT 10
17. The supervision of boarders and boarding houses and the organisation of staff allocated to supervise pupils is unsuitable and inadequate. The school is over-dependent on young, inexperienced gap-year staff, and rosters do not appear to stay in place for long once Dorset SSD and Ofsted inspections are over. The result is that pupils at the school show increasing behavioural problems and children are exposed to a greater risk of harm than they should be in many aspects of their welfare.

COMPLAINT 11
18. Records of boarders are not kept and are not coordinated with the records of incidents and accidents, the result being that children are exposed to a greater risk of harm than they should be in regard to this aspect of welfare. These failings are another example of the mismanagement of the school and the attitude of the proprietor to child welfare management; for example, members of the care committee find that Mr Lindsay has taken arbitrary action before meetings are held. See also Complaints 4, 5 and 6 above.

COMPLAINT 12
19. Despite the establishment of a Care Committee there are considerable doubts as to its efficacy and as to the level of pastoral care in the School generally. Meetings do not always result in effectual action and the minutes do not clearly indicate in each case what action is required and who has responsibility for his. The Care Committee suffers from the wider problems of mismanagement of the School and the attitude of the proprietor to child welfare management: for example, members of the Care Committee find that Mr Lindsay has taken arbitrary action before meetings are held. See also Complaints 4, 5 and 6, above.

COMPLAINT 13
20. There is, or has been, unsatisfactory management of health and safety issues, in particular as regards fire safety, caused by the expressed attitude of Mr Lindsay towards such matters (see Complaint 3, above). Further, security at the school is poor, which further demonstrates Mr Lindsays failure to manage the school properly.

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/historic-abuse-allegations-sherborne-preparatory-1233264

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The Guardian, 23 Dec 2014

The half-brother of a senior Conservative MP has been jailed for 13 years for carrying out hundreds of sexual assaults on young boys.

Former teacher Charles Napier, 67, who is related to Maldon MP John Whittingdale, conducted a “campaign of abuse” at the school where he worked in the late 1960s and early 1970s, grooming and assaulting 21 victims as young as eight.

In November, he pleaded guilty to 28 counts of indecent assault – including many covering multiple incidents – and one indecency charge in relation to those crimes.

On Tuesday, he admitted two further historical allegations of indecent assault against two 13-year-old boys after he left the school, the first in 1979 and the second in 1983.

Napier stared straight ahead and showed no emotion as Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith sentenced him at Southwark crown court in London.

It was also revealed on Tuesday that he has twice previously been convicted of abuse against boys.

The court heard Napier’s offending was prolific, with more than 100 indecent assaults committed against 21 pupils aged between eight and 13 over a period of around two and a half years.

Referring to the scale of the abuse, Loraine-Smith said: “It must have been hundreds.”

Peter Clement, prosecuting, said: “The offences are characterised by a campaign of sexual abuse involving significant planning, grooming and abuse of many pupils.

“It was sexual abuse of particularly vulnerable victims. The defendant ensured each child’s compliance and silence through grooming to the extent that he abused several of the victims many, many times.

“The defendant abused the high degree of trust placed in him by his colleagues, the children’s parents and the children themselves and exploited his role for his own sexual gratification.”

The court heard Napier would give his victims treats including fizzy drinks and chocolate, often abusing them in a carpentry workshop, which, Clement said, “became something of his den”.

Napier told one victim “don’t be a baby” while another suffered “profound effects” from being repeatedly abused and attempted suicide later in life, the court heard.

Some pupils were targeted as often as once a week, with one boy alone said to have been abused more than 100 times.

Napier abused some victims in the presence of other children, the court heard.

On two occasions he made a boy perform oral sex on him, telling the child: “That’s what grown-ups do.”

If those two offences occurred today Napier would have been charged with rape, the court heard.

It emerged on Tuesday that one boy made a complaint that resulted in Napier pleading guilty to indecent assaults on five pupils not involved in this case in 1972. He was sentenced to a three-year probation order at the time.

In another case, he was jailed for nine months in 1995 after he was convicted of assaulting two children. The two victims contacted police after reading news coverage about their abuser’s arrest earlier this year.

Napier joined the school, which cannot be named, after leaving university. When he was arrested last year he told police he already knew then that he was a paedophile. He said he underwent electric shock treatment but it had no impact on his attraction to children.

The court heard that Napier told police he went on to join the Paedophile Information Exchange as treasurer after being dismissed from the school.

He said when interviewed that he felt “ghastly” and “desperately sorry”, telling officers: “I was a very young man, I was completely out of control and completely out of order, putting it about everywhere.”

Benjamin Hargreaves, defending, said his client was “genuinely remorseful” and “realises how appalling his actions were”.

He added: “He knows that he is responsible for a most serious and grave period [of offending] but he is no threat now.”

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International Business Times: 24 Dec 2014

Convicted paedophile Charles Napier may have “vital” information to help uncover an alleged Westminster sex ring.  Former teacher Napier, 67, sexually abused 23 boys over 15 years while a teacher and was also treasurer of the notorious Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE).  This week Napier admitted 39 counts of indecent assault and one indecency charge on victims, all under 16-years-old. The trial heard he deliberately got a school job because it gave him access to boys to abuse.

Napier, whose half-brother is Conservative MP John Whittingdale, has been asked to disclose any information he may have about historical abuse scandals, such as the Elm Guest House case.  It is alleged the guest house in south west London was used by powerful public figures such as former MP Cyril Smith, to sexually abuse youngsters during the late 1970s and early 1980s.  Napier was on close terms with paedophile Peter Righton, who was the public face of PIE when the group was at the height of its power, and counted Labour politician, Harriet Harman, among its allies.

After Napier was handed a 13-year sentence, Peter Watt the national services director of children’s charity NSPCC, called on him to give up any information that could assist investigations into the alleged Westminster paedophile ring.

Watt said: “He was evidently linked to other convicted sex offenders, and may have vital information for the various police investigations into historical abuse that are underway.  No stone must be left unturned in getting to the truth about the allegations of abuse at locations such as Elm Guest House and others.”

Condemning Napier, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said: “When you applied for the post at the school, you already knew you were a paedophile.  I have no doubt you sought that post because of the proximity you would have to boys. What you did has dramatically damaged their lives.  The passage of time allows me to see just how gravely your actions have harmed some victims.”

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FURTHER READING

• The Peerage
• BBC News: 1 Nov 2015
• Daily Fail, 18 June 2015
• The Guardian, 2005
• SpotlightOnAbuse blog

High level PIE member and diplomat – Sir Peter Hayman with wife Miss Rosemary Eardley Blomefield (cousin of Charles Napier)

The subsequent police investigation revealed a correspondence of an obscene nature between Sir Peter Hayman and a number of other persons. The papers involved an obsession about the systematic killing by sexual torture of young people and children.

“His (Hayman’s) wife stood by him in his dark days.”

Thatcher stopped Peter Hayman being named as paedophile-link civil servant

Elizabeth Butler Sloss chosen by Theresa May to head CSA Inquiry despite the fact that her brother, Sir Michael Havers tried to stop Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens from using parliamentary privilege to name diplomat Sir Peter Hayman as a paedophile.

Sloss has protected 2 child rapists – Peter Ball and her housekeeper’s son (2x)

https://spotlightonabuse.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/sir-peter-hayman-named-as-pie-member-in-the-house-of-commons/ …

Peter Hayman, Morris and Wardell

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

In November 2012, the Mirror reported on Charles Napier who appears to be a central player in the paedophile scandal engulfing the U.K.

…The probe led police to the kitchen of a flat in South London where they found a letter from ‘Napier – who had a child assault conviction 20 years before – boasting of his life in Cairo as a”British Council teacher.

He bragged of easy access to young boys and how he could send obscene images back to Britain in diplomatic bags.(Charles Napier joined the British Council after his 1972 conviction.

(Henniker was Director of the British Council 1968-72).

Many questions remain unanswered including who were Napier’s referees for his employment with the British Council?

The scandal erupted again when Labour MP Tom Watson raised the matter with David Cameron in the House of Commons suggesting a network of paedophiles working in the UK had links to high levels of Government.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Robert Alston was educated at Ardingly College and New College, Oxford. He is Chairman of Governors at Ardingly College.

Paul Righton attended Ardingly College from 1940 to 1944

Righton’s Ardingly College obituary – with mention of Richard D Alston (G1953-63)

Ardingly College – the school has its own Masonic Lodge – Ardingly College Lodge

Robert Alston:

Left: Chairman of the Romney Marsh Skills Festival, Robert Alston together with the Master, Graham Bishop

He became a Freeman of the World Traders (on the firm recommendation of Past Master Peter Gadsden) in 2000, and progressed through the Company to the Mastership in 2007-8. For him highlights of his year were the Sheep Drive across London Bridge in aid of the Lord Mayor’s charities (the brainchild of his wife Pat, also a Liveryman of the Company), and leading a delegation of World Traders to accompany Lord Mayor David Lewis on his official visit to Oman.

Alston served as British Ambassador to Oman between (1986–1990), and as British High Commissioner to New Zealand and the Cook Islands (1986-1990), non-resident High Commissioner to Samoa, and Governor of the Pitcairn Islands between (1994–1998)

THE ANGLO-OMANI SOCIETY – ROBERT JOHN ALSTON, director, 1 Jul 2014–

PATRICIA CLAIRE ALSTON, director, 19 Feb 2009– 3 Jun 2010

The Society holds a number of events at 34 Sackville Street that bring together British and Omani members, friends and guests.

Queen Elizabeth sharing a special handshake with Sultan Qaboos – rumoured to be a paedophile

“Google  Sultan Oman… To pass on these rumors and more, here are a few: the King apparently has a cadre of very attractive bodyguards; his harem is full of men, with women there as helpers and only to avoid widespread scrutiny; the Sultan is rumored to be a pedophile who goes off boys once they hit puberty; that people won’t introduce their sons to him; and much more.”

link

CSA on Pitcairn Islands – Robert Alston

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Soon after the police left Pitcairn, Alston wrote a letter to the  Chief Constable of Kent Police , David Phillips and sent a gift of Picairn coat of arms to be displayed at Kent Police headquarters.

link

He served overseas in Afghanistan, France, Iran, Belgium (in the British Delegation to NATO) also in Belfast on secondment to the Northern Ireland Office.

Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) – 1987

He did National Service with the Royal Sussex Regiment.

From 1961 to 1998 he was a member of the Diplomatic Service.

The Middle East (as a Persian speaker) and defence, security and proliferation issues were the principal themes of his career.

 

Ambassadors to Oman—Laing* (left) 2002-2005 & Robert Alston 1986-1990

In 2012, they co-authored ‘Unshook till the end of time’, a history of Britain’s relationship with Oman.

Stuart Laing found himself under a shroud of controversy in late February 2011 when accompanying a trade delegation to the Middle East, led by the British Prime Minister David Cameron, that contained several delegates from UK defence companies including BAE Systems and Thales Group.

Laing attended in his official capacity as Deputy Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University along with the heads of other British universities such as Imperial College London and University College London. Objections were raised that, as such weapons and devices of public order control had recently been used by the governments of Egypt and Libya, it was irresponsible for the University to be involved in such a trip.

Since retiring from the Diplomatic Service Alston has been involved with

education (as Chairman of the Council of Ardingly College from 2005-10 and Chairman of the Governing Body of the Marsh Academy New Romney fro 2007-13);

the Church (on the staff of Archbishop George Carey* from 1999-2002;

the Commonwealth Institute and its successor the Commonwealth Education Trust;

the Pilgrims, where he serves as a member of the Executive Committee; and the County of Kent as a Kent Ambassador and a Deputy Lieutenant from 2007-13.

The Pilgrims Society, founded on 16 July 1902, is a British-American society

Over the years it has boasted an elite membership of politicians, diplomats, businessmen, and writers who have included Henry Kissinger, Margaret Thatcher, Caspar Weinberger, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Henry Luce, Lord Carrington, Alexander Haig, Paul Volcker, Thomas Kean and Walter Cronkite to mention a very few. Members of the immediate Royal Family, United States secretaries of state and United States ambassadors to the Court of St. James are customarily admitted to membership in the Society.

The patron of the society is Queen Elizabeth II.

Executive Committee members, as of 2016, include :

Robert Alston CMG
Sir Peter Bottomley MP

Noteworthy members

• HM Queen Elizabeth II
• HRH Prince Philip
• HRH Prince Charles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrims_Society

“The Pilgrims Society is a cluster of intermarried old-line rich, royals and robber barons who created the world’s financial structure.”

https://wikispooks.com/wiki/The_Pilgrims_Society

The Pilgrims Society: A Study of the Anglo-American Establishment and Its Historical Support for Fascism

“There are several curious things about these Pilgrims functions. In the first place there is present at these dinners an array of notables such as it would be difficult to bring together under one roof for any other purpose and by any other society… Among the guests were John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan, Thomas W. Lamont and other members of the House of Morgan… We are entitled to know what the Pilgrim Society is, what it stands for, and who these powerful Pilgrims are that can call out the great to hear a British Ambassador expound to Americans the virtues of a united democratic front.”

John T. Whiteford asking very reasonable questions in his 1940 pamphlet ‘Sir Uncle Sam: Knight of the British Empire’.

https://isgp-studies.com/pilgrims-society-us-uk

Robert Alston, Director of Antarctic Heritage

May 1 2009 – April 30 2012

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05450602/officers

The UKAHT’s Patron is HRH Princess Anne, The Princess Royal.

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Diplomat Robert Alston was on the staff of Archbishop George Carey…

*Ball was not charged when the allegations of abuse against him first emerged in 1993. Instead the police and senior figures in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), then led by the late Barbara Mills, agreed to issue Ball with a caution.

Peter Ball was not charged and this was done with the knowledge of the then archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey.

Ball proceeded to resign as bishop and went to live in a property lent to him by his friend the Prince of Wales.

George Carey and Prince Charles:

Bishop Carey and Elizabeth Butler-Sloss have been accused of covering up for Prince Charles’ paedophile mentor and friend Bishop Peter Ball.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3252352/Former-school-teacher-partner-Paedophile-Information-Exchange-founder-sentenced-21-months-prison-molesting-11-year-old-boy-70s.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Laing_%28diplomat%29

http://www.world-traders.org/profileAlston.php

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/08/bishop-peter-ball-victims-accuse-c-of-e-police-and-cps-of-sexual-abuse-cover-up

http://ca.wow.com/wiki/Robert_Alston

https://thecolemanexperience.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/the-british-council-charles-napier-and-the-diplomatic-bag/

https://companycheck.co.uk/director/913897094/MR-ROBERT-JOHN-ALSTON/summary

http://theukdatabase.com/councillorspolitical-party-affiliated/westminster-scandal-114-secret-files-on-paedophile-cases-missing/more-than-10-politicians-on-list-held-by-police-investigating-westminster-paedophile-ring/the-civil-servant-in-the-home-offices-pie-funding-inquiry-and-his-academic-articles-on-boy-love/p-i-e/sir-peter-hayman-high-level-member-of-p-i-e/

https://ianpace.wordpress.com/2014/03/06/two-obituaries-of-peter-hayman-senior-diplomat-mi6-officer-and-pie-member/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2885152/Tory-MP-s-half-brother-known-Napier-Rapier-pupils-jailed-13-years-HUNDREDS-sex-assaults.html

https://ianpace.wordpress.com/2014/07/16/peter-righton-obituary-in-ardingly-college-magazine/

http://www.ardinglycollegelodge.org.uk/

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Diplomat Robert Alston in Belfast on secondment to the Northern Ireland Office.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140709051249/http://www.world-traders.org/profileAlston.php

 

Kincora, links to PIE, Morris Fraser, Secret service etc …Robert Alston,  brother of PIE member Richard Alston, was in Belfast on secondment to the Northern Ireland Office.

What does Robert Alston know about Kincora?

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Historical Abuse Inquiry ignored report on paedophile doctor: Claim

11/02/2017

Dr Roderick Morrison Fraser

A researcher who helped uncover how a paedophile doctor was allowed to continue working with children has lambasted a major inquiry after it refused to include his damning report.

Dr Niall Meehan, head of the journalism and media communications faculty at Griffith College Dublin, found that the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was made aware in 1971 that Royal Hospital Belfast child-psychiatrist, Dr Roderick Morrison Fraser, had abused a 13-year-old Belfast boy in London.

Fraser had pleaded guilty to the sex offences in 1972, however he was not jailed and continued to work with children.

The report exposed major failings by health boards, medical professionals and the RUC after they failed to stop him working within the health service.

Dr Meehan – who produced the report entitled Child Abuse, Corruption and Collusion in Britain and Northern Ireland – said he contacted the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) with a copy of his evidence after references to Fraser were made in its hearings in April last year.

He was told by HAI officials that the inquiry would consider matters “relevant to its terms and conditions”.

However, Dr Meehan has accused the inquiry of ignoring the submission after it was not included in the report.

“I asked the inquiry to investigate why the RUC and London Metropolitan Police failed to inform hospital authorities that Fraser was under investigation since August 1971 for sexual abuse of two Belfast boys in London, aged 10 and 13,” Dr Meehan said.

“But it appears that the inquiry took a very differential attitude towards RUC spokespeople as well as British security and intelligence spokespeople.

“It adapted their narratives and a kind of mindset and wasn’t going to waver from it,” he claimed.

Despite being a convicted sex offender, Fraser continued to remain on the medical register.

A week after his conviction, the paedophile was the main speaker at an ISPCC (Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) conference at Jordanstown.

The Kincora whistleblower and abuse survivor, Richard Kerr, claimed he was abused by Fraser during counselling at the doctor’s medical offices in the Royal Victoria Hospital in the early 1970s when he was aged about 13. Mr Kerr said that Fraser had access to all of the children’s homes in Belfast.

“The police could have told health authorities they were employing a child abuser,” Dr Meehan continued.

He added: “The RUC knew he was a child abuser, they could have told the hospital and said that guy is a paedophile but they didn’t and there is something very wrong there.

“I named the RUC officer who took Fraser’s statement that led to his conviction and who was aware of what he did, but the officer did nothing.

“The officer is still alive today.”

Fraser remained in post for a further year until a publicised arrest in New York in May 1973, when he was exposed as part of a nine-man paedophile-ring.

Dr Meehan claims that one week after that, a ‘certificate of conviction’ relating to Fraser’s 1972 sex offences was sent by police to the Northern Ireland Hospital Authority.

“In other words, it was sent a year late when the police game was up,” he accused.

“It is astonishing that the Hart Inquiry did not investigate why police permitted an admitted abuser to continue interacting with institutionalised children.

“If the inquiry could not accomplish even that simple task, its report is compromised,” Dr Meehan added.

The HIA failed to respond to a request for comment

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/historical-abuse-inquiry-ignored-report-on-paedophile-doctor-claim-35442025.html

Colin Wallace Statement on HIA and Kincora

January 20, 2017 by Ciarán

Statement issued by Colin Wallace following the publication of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry Report.

Although I initially offered to give evidence to the Inquiry, I later decided not to, mainly on the grounds that the Government repeatedly refused to give it the same legal powers as the corresponding Inquiry in London.

I believe that both the perception and the reality of the Government’s decision is one ofunfairness to the victims.

Despite my decision, I did, however, provide the Inquiry with 265 pages of comment and supportingdocuments, drawing attention to false or misleading information contained in the transcripts of thepublic hearings. My reason for doing so was to enable the Inquiry to investigate and corroborate theaccuracy of my past comments about Kincora and related matters, and to provide the Inquiry with theopportunity to correct the relevant errors in the its published transcripts.

None of the information I provided to the Inquiry is new.

Although some of it has not previously been in the public domain, it has been in the possession of the Ministry of Defence and other Government agencies for many years and should have been made available by those authorities to the Inquiry.

It should, therefore, also have been made available by the authorities to previous Inquiries and the Government needs to explain why that did not happen. Even more worrying, is the acknowledged fact that key Army Intelligence files relating to Tara and William McGrath – including the one compiled by Intelligence officer, Captain Brian Gemmell – appear to have gone missing after they were handed over by the Army to MI5 in 1989, prior to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s admission to Parliament (30 January 1990) that Ministers had“inadvertently misled” Parliament about my case.

Clockwork Orange

There also appears to be no record whatsoever of what became of all the ‘Clockwork Orange’ project files which I handed over to my superiors when Ileft Army Headquarters in Lisburn in February 1975. Some of those files related to William McGrath.

To make matters worse, it is now clear from the Inquiry’s transcripts that a senior MI5 officer, Ian Cameron, falsely accused me of ‘leaking’, without authority, information to the press about William McGrath.

The MI5 claim is bizarre.

As my Army superior at the time has confirmed in the press, I was officially instructed by my superiors in Psychological Operations, at the behest of Major General Peter Leng, to brief the press about McGrath as early as 1973, in a bid to attract media attention to his activities.

It is also significant that the MI5 officer who accused me of ‘leaking’ information about McGrath to the press later refused to be interviewed by the Terry Inquiry investigators about why he ordered Captain Brain Gemmell, to stop investigating McGrath.

Intelligence Agenda

Clearly, the Army and MI5 had very different agendas regarding McGrath and his activities.The astonishing claim by the authorities that they knew nothing about the allegations surrounding McGrath’s sexual activities until 1980 is a total travesty.

As my documents clearly show, it is simply not credible that I knew more about McGrath and his activities than the combined Intelligence community did in 1973/74. One must conclude, therefore, that the Intelligence Services did not tell the Inquiry all they knew about McGrath during the 1970s.

Indeed, most of the information I possessed about McGrath in 1973/74 came from within the Intelligence community and was quite substantial. Moreover, my 1973 press briefing document clearly contains more information about McGrath than the Intelligence Services have claimed to the Inquiry that they possessed at that time!

For example, that document states that McGrath “is a known homosexual” and that he “runs a home for children on the (236) Upper Newtownards Road. Telephone: B’fast 657838.”

Finally, to suggest that because I gave the press the exact postal address (including the street number of the property), plus the telephone number of the Kincora home, but did not actually include the name,‘Kincora’, that somehow invalidates my evidence.

That is an unacceptable attempt to avoid facing up to what I have been saying over the years, and also shows that the claim made by the Intelligence Services to the Inquiry that they were not aware until 1980 of where McGrath worked is demonstrably false.

Overall, I believe the Inquiry has been a wasted opportunity to establish the full facts relating to this matter and I feel the victims have been let down yet again, as they were by previous Inquiries.

Further Information by Ciarán

Colin Wallace has been a great supporter of the McGurk’s Bar Campaign for Truth and was actually on-site at British Army Headquarters when word of the bombing was reported by Security Forces on the ground.

He has written that the authorities that Army HQ knew that the bar was attacked and this has since been proved beyond any doubt with my latest archive find.

He also wrote the Foreword of my book which you can read here.

link

Prince Charles – Oman

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3252493.stm

 

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