The four senior figures embroiled in the safeguarding scandal at Lincoln Cathedral
17 May 2018
The Lincolnite can reveal that a fourth senior figure at Lincoln Cathedral has stepped aside amid a police investigation into safeguarding issues.
Chapter Clerk and administrator of Lincoln Cathedral William Harrison was among those to step back in April.
He was responsible for the direction of operation management and administration at the cathedral.
A cathedral spokesperson said: “We confirm that the Chapter Clerk has temporarily stepped aside from his duties while the investigation relating to the Dean and Chancellor of Lincoln takes place.
“We can provide no further comment.”
The Diocese of Lincoln has been rocked by allegations of abuse and high level ‘cover ups’ by senior clergy across decades.
Latest investigations into serious safeguarding matters have seen a wave of bosses step aside, followed this week by the unprecedented suspension of the Bishop of Lincoln Christopher Lowson.
The leave of absence taken by Lincoln’s first female Dean Christine Wilson and Chancellor Paul Overend in April were connected to non-recent allegations of abuse, which took place outside of Lincolnshire.
The two figures are reportedly connected to alleged failures to report issues relating to vulnerable adults.
At the time, the Very Reverend Christine Wilson was said to have stepped down “for personal reasons”.
The simultaneous move from Paul Overend was explained by the cathedral as “for different reasons, connected to one issue”.
Christine Wilson was the 81st Dean of Lincoln and took up her position in 2016. Before this, she was the Archdeacon of Chesterfield in the Diocese of Derby since 2010.
Christine has also been a non-executive director of Ecclesiastical Insurance, the insurer trusted with advising the Church of England’s compensation claims, since 2017.
Lincoln Cathedral and the Church of England did not comment when asked if the company was providing services in relation to the investigation.
Revd Dr Paul Overend led the Cathedral’s work of public theology and Christian education. He came to Lincoln from Norwich, where he was the Lay Development Officer and Assistant Diocesan Director of Ordinands, and also a tutor in spirituality and ethics with the Eastern Region Ministry Course.
Bishop of Lincoln Christopher Lowson was on Thursday suspended from office by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.
He faces allegations that he failed to protect children and vulnerable people, but peers clarified he is not accused of committing abuse.
Lowson is the first bishop to be suspended over safeguarding issues.
He said he was “bewildered”, and would fully cooperate with investigations.
His position has been taken over by the Bishop of Grimsby, Right Reverend Dr David Court.
Church of England officials have declined to provide details about the allegations which led to the suspension.
Operation Redstone
It also comes during an ongoing Lincolnshire Police investigation codenamed Operation Redstone, though it has not yet been confirmed if recent allegations are part of the Lincolnshire Police investigation.
Operation Redstone previously uncovered shocking abuse at the hands of Diocese of Lincoln clergy and staff.
Three men have been convicted by Lincolnshire Police, Roy Griffiths, John Bailey and Stephen Crabtree for historical sexual offences against children and vulnerable people.
The trials highlighted a culture of coverups in the church.
Investigations found decades of allegations had been ignored by former Bishops of Lincoln.
Victims spoke out the first time in a BBC Panorama documentary last month.
Abuse cases were not referred to police until decades later, it was revealed in the Church of England Past Cases Review.
Operation Redstone investigations are still ongoing.
https://thelincolnite.co.uk/2019/05/the-senior-cathedral-figures-embroiled-in-safeguarding-scandal/
Paedophile Celtic Boys’ Club coaches Gerry King (far left), Jim Torbett (centre) and Frank Cairney (far right) and former kitman Jim McCafferty, front right, and the statement in the Celtic View in 1986 saying the abuse claims were scurrilous
Celtic FC cleared Boys’ Club bosses over ‘scurrilous’ abuse claims in 1986
Victims, families and lawyers call for action after Daily Record reveals statement printed in The Celtic View after a club investigation.
17 MAY 2019
Celtic FC investigated and cleared Celtic Boys’ Club “leaders” of wrongdoing after complaints in the 80s, the Record can reveal.
The club’s probe described abuse claims as “scurrilous” and said those “placed under a cloud” would go to court if necessary to make sure the stories “are buried once and for all”.
Concerns were voiced in the 80s about boys being taken out socially when no matches were scheduled, arriving home late, and being taken away to tournaments that did not exist.
But the club’s probe described abuse claims as “scurrilous” and said that those who had been “placed under a cloud” would go to court if necessary to make sure the stories “are buried once and for all”.
The Record can reveal Celtic FC were aware of claims surrounding the boys’ club as far back as 1986.
The Celtic View article confirms that the Celtic FC board thoroughly investigated claims of inappropriate behaviour at the Celtic Boys’ Club
On Tuesday, a former kitman for Celtic, Hibs and Falkirk was jailed for six years and nine months for sexually abusing young footballers over two decades.
Youth coach Jim McCafferty was revealed as a serial abuser more than two years ago following a confession when confronted by the Record.
McCafferty’s imprisonment comes in the wake of Celtic Boys’ Club predatory paedophiles Jim Torbett and Frank Cairney being jailed for sexual offences on boys spanning more than 20 years.
Torbett, 71, was jailed for six years in November for the systematic sexual abuse of boys from 1986 to 1994.
A third CBC official, Gerald King, 66, was convicted of a string of sexual offences against children at a school in Glasgow.
Earlier this year he was given a three-year probation order.
The revelation of the club’s 80s investigation appears to be at odds with Celtic FC’s present stance that the boys’ club is a totally separate organisation, and that it was first made aware of allegations of improper behaviour in the mid-90s.
Helene Gray, 70, the mum of Torbett victim Andrew Gray, said of the development: “This is horrendous and shocking.”
On Tuesday, a former kitman for Celtic, Hibs and Falkirk was jailed for six years and nine months for sexually abusing young footballers over two decades.
Youth coach Jim McCafferty was revealed as a serial abuser more than two years ago following a confession when confronted by the Record.
McCafferty’s imprisonment comes in the wake of Celtic Boys’ Club predatory paedophiles Jim Torbett and Frank Cairney being jailed for sexual offences on boys spanning more than 20 years.
Torbett, 71, was jailed for six years in November for the systematic sexual abuse of boys from 1986 to 1994.
A third CBC official, Gerald King, 66, was convicted of a string of sexual offences against children at a school in Glasgow.
Earlier this year he was given a three-year probation order.
The revelation of the club’s 80s investigation appears to be at odds with Celtic FC’s present stance that the boys’ club is a totally separate organisation, and that it was first made aware of allegations of improper behaviour in the mid-90s.
Helene Gray, 70, the mum of Torbett victim Andrew Gray, said of the development: “This is horrendous and shocking.”
Convicted paedophile Jim Torbett at a Celtic Boys’ Club event
Andrew bravely gave a statement before his tragic death aged 41 in an accident in Australia. The information helped convict the pervert in November.
Patrick McGuire, a partner with Thompsons Solicitors, who are representing the victims, said: “These new revelations uncovered by the Record go further than ever before in disproving the ridiculous assertion that the boys’ club and Celtic were separate organisations.
“The former directors of Celtic have got to be clear about what they thought they were investigating back in the mid-80s.
“The survivors my team represent deserve answers from the club about these investigations and they continue to be shocked and insulted that the board maintain that the boys’ club and Celtic FC are separate organisations.
“The survivors must receive an official apology from the club and be properly compensated for the terrible things that happened to them when, as children, they were under Celtic’s care.
“This is the morally right and decent thing to do but if Celtic continue to ignore us, as I have said before, we will see them in court.”
Kenny Campbell, another of Torbett’s victims – who waived his right to anonymity – said of our probe: “This makes me sick to the pit my stomach. It is a stunning development.”
Boys’ club general manager Frank Cairney, 83, was convicted in December last year and jailed for four years after sexually abusing eight boys.
He wrote in the Celtic View in December 1986 of his gratitude for the “tremendous support” he received from Celtic Park during the “recent difficult times”.
At the time of the 1986 investigation by the Celtic FC board, their then vice-chairman Kevin Kelly was also president of Celtic Boys’ Club.
He was also an employee of Torbett at his trophy business in Glasgow’s Shawlands.
At the boys’ club AGM in 1987 – just months after the allegations came to light – Kelly said that because of the way “true friends” had rallied round, the “criticism” of the boys’ club had made it stronger.
Torbett was previously jailed for two years in 1998 for abusing three former Celtic Boys’ Club players, including former Scotland international Alan Brazil, between 1967 and 1974.
At that trial, former Celtic photographer and boys’ club chairman Hugh Birt claimed Torbett was fired in 1974 after child abuse allegations arose.
But Torbett returned to the fold in the 80s.
Celtic FC’s investigation into the conduct of Celtic Boys’ Club “leaders” came after parents raised their fears.
The then boys’ club chairman Birt, who passed away five years ago, resigned because he believed the issue was not being dealt with properly.
The statement Celtic FC issued in Celtic View
Here is the statement Celtic FC issued in its own newspaper, the Celtic View, in December 1986, in response to claims in our sister paper the Sunday Mail.
The statement was reproduced the following month in the Celtic Boys’ Club magazine.
“A Sunday newspaper recently carried a story which cast a shadow over the Celtic Boys’ Club in general, and some of the leaders in particular.
“It also included a clear inference that the Celtic Football Club had not taken appropriate action with regard to the allegations contained in the article.
“In actual fact, the Celtic Board investigated the rumours and interviewed the men concerned in depth and could find nothing to substantiate the stories that were being circulated.
“During the course of the last 10 days, Celtic Football Club and the boys’ club have been in receipt of hundreds of letters and phone calls from boys and their parents, past and present, stating their complete support and backing of all involved with the boys’ club.
“It must be clearly emphasised that apart from this newspaper article, inspired by the former chairman of the boys’ club, not one single complaint has been received by any other person with a Celtic connection.
“The boys’ club leaders who have been placed under a cloud as a result of these rumours have instructed their lawyers to take the appropriate course of action and, if necessary, to go to a court of law to make sure these scurrilous stories are buried once and for all.”
In 1986, he said: “It appears the Celtic board want to look in the other direction in the hope the troubles will go away.”
But in an article published in the club magazine, the Celtic View, in December of that year, Celtic FC rubbished a story in the Record’s sister paper, the Sunday Mail, about the abuse.
It had listed complaints from parents about boys being kept out late, taken out socially when there was no game, and going to non-existent tournaments.
But the Celtic View stated: “In actual fact, the Celtic Board investigated the rumours and interviewed the men concerned in depth and could find nothing to substantiate the stories that were being circulated.
“The boys’ club leaders who have been placed under a cloud as a result of these rumours have instructed their lawyers to take the appropriate course of action, and if necessary to go to a court of law to make sure these scurrilous stories are buried once and for all.”
On the Celtic board at the time were chairman Jack McGinn, vice-chairman Kelly, Chris White, Tom Grant and Jimmy Farrell.
Helene revealed yesterday that the complaints in the 80s matched Torbett’s pattern of abuse when he preyed on Andrew.
She said : “This was exactly what Torbett did to Andrew. It is the first we have heard of Celtic holding an investigation as far back as that. To think it made Torbett’s position stronger is sickening.”
Kenny added: “I love Celtic. But people need to know the truth. For Celtic FC to claim they are separate from the boys’ club is total nonsense and this information uncovered by the Record shows that.”
Last night, Celtic FC made no comment on our revelations.
Following Torbett’s conviction last November, the club again claimed the boys’ club was not part of Celtic FC and did not refer to the investigation in the 80s.
It said: “Allegations regarding abuse at Celtic Boys’ Club first emerged in the 1990s. Although Celtic Football Club is an entirely separate organisation, we have always taken these allegations extremely seriously because of our historic contacts with Celtic Boys’ Club.”
A club source said yesterday: “It is not true to say that the investigation in 1986 is at odds with our statement released in November.
“That statement referred to the specific allegations against Torbett which led to his conviction in court. These allegations first emerged in the 1990s.”
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/celtic-fc-cleared-boys-club-16158020
Calls for public inquiry into historical child abuse on Caldey Island as another victim comes forward
Kevin O’Connell from Ceredigion recently revisited the island for the first time since he was abused there as an 11-year-old
There are new calls for a public inquiry into historical child abuse on Caldey Island as another victim of paedophile monk, Thaddeus Kotik, comes forward.
Kevin O’Connell from Ceredigion recently revisited the island for the first time since he was abused there as an 11-year-old. He contacted S4C’s current affairs programme, Y Byd ar Bedwar at the beginning of the year, in a bid to get answers from Church authorities who turned a blind eye to Kotik’s crimes.
He invited them to follow his emotional journey back to where he was abused 47 years ago
Caldey Island off the coast of Tenby in Pembrokeshire is renowned as an idyllic tourist attraction, popular among day-trippers. But others view the place as hell on earth due to the dark secrets hidden there for decades.
It is famously home to a group of Cistercian monks, an order of the Catholic Church who avoid unnecessary speech and focus on prayer and hard labour.
In 2017 it came to light that the island has a long history of child sexual abuse after six women received compensation from the island’s abbey after being abused by Kotik. There are 21 victims who have now come forward and reported similar offences to Dyfed Powys Police with cases going back to the 1960s.
On a family holiday to the island when he was six years old, Kevin O’Connell said that he met the monk, Kotik. He said that they became friends and he began spending time alone with him.
“Caldey Island was a paradise. It was beautiful. I played with other children, the beach, volleyball and football, it was special. Father Thaddeus became very special to me, and he gave me the love I didn’t get at home from my Dad.”
Kotik, a former soldier who fought for the Free Polish army during the Second World War, moved to the island in 1947 and joined the strict Cistercian Order. The monk was ordained a priest in 1956 and lived on the island until his death in 1992. It appears he was never questioned by police, who were not informed of allegations against him until 2014.
After the holiday Kevin says that Kotik kept in touch with him and sent him photos of Caldey Island in the post.
After becoming an altar boy he went on several more holidays to Caldey Island, arranged and funded by his local Catholic Church. He never told his parents what Kotic did to him.
In the programme, Kevin embarks on a quest to face his demons and find the ruins where he says he remembers the abuse taking place.
He led ‘Y Byd ar Bedwar’ presenter Dot Davies, to a derelict building in a secluded corner of the island.
“I’m looking for a square stone like a seat, maybe it’s still here, I don’t know.
“In here. This is where the abuse happened and other monks watched.
“This place is just full of nightmares. Every room here has a horrible memory, but I need to get it out of my head. I knew it was here.”
Six women received compensation from Caldey Abbey in an out-of-court settlement in 2016 but it was too late to bring criminal charges against Kotik as he had died in 1992.
It has come to light however that the abbey was told by a victim about the abuse in the 1980’s but did not report it to police until 2014. Instead the abbott at the time, Robert O’Brian, asked the victim for forgiveness.
ITV Wales asked the current abbot, Brother Daniel van Santvoort for his response to the latest evidence that Kevin O’Connell was also abused on the island. Despite contacting the Brother several times, he never responded.
ITV Wales also contacted the Diocese of Menevia in Swansea. Caldey Abbey is not under their responsibility but they have been advising the Abbey on their safeguarding policies and practices for the last 18 months.
The Bishop Tom Burns said that “however, the Abbey has insisted on retaining its oversight of any specific cases, past, present, or in the future.”
Kevin O’Connell is now determined to find the truth and is calling for a public inquiry into historical child sexual abuse on Caldey Island.
Assembly Member Darren Milliar called for a public inquiry in the Senedd in 2017.
“We need answers as to who knew what, when, and why the abbey didn’t report things to the police when they ought to have done when things were brought to their attention. ”
He’s now repeated his call on the Welsh Government to launch a public inquiry.
“This stinks of an awful cover-up, we need answers, who knows what, when and why.”
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “Our position is the same as set out in our response in 2017. We will of course reconsider the matter were new information to come to light.”
David Greenwood is a lawyer specialising in child sexual abuse cases and has worked on several high profile cases involving the Catholic Church.
“It’s a massive systemic problem with the Church. The internal rules and the way in which they defend their reputation has created this space in which paedophiles can get away with it.
“The church are covering things up and have been for a long time. There are still lots of cover-ups that I’m sure haven’t come to light. Their organisations, the way they are set up, their rules, are a danger to children.”
Coming back to the island was difficult for Kevin who says he has suffered with lifelong anxiety and depression.
“I’ve been wanting to come here for a long time to help my nightmares. In the ruins, I see now what I’ve been seeing in my nightmares. I won’t have closure until the truth comes out then maybe I can start living again.”
He’s urging other victims or anyone with information to come forward and tell the authorities.
Judge sets rapid pace to end fight over Jeffrey Epstein ‘sweetheart’ deal
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra set a brisk schedule for prosecutors and the young women’s attorneys to help him unravel an unprecedented legal mess that was created in 2007.
WEST PALM BEACH — By August, a federal judge should have the information he needs to decide whether to throw out a controversial agreement that allowed billionaire Jeffrey Epstein to escape federal prosecution for having sex with teens at his Palm Beach mansion.
In an order on Monday, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra set a brisk schedule for prosecutors and the young women’s attorneys to follow to help him unravel an unprecedented legal mess that was created in 2007 when the deal was inked.
Marra in February ruled that federal prosecutors violated the women’s rights by not conferring with them before deciding to shelve a 52-page federal indictment accusing Epstein, 66, of having sex with minors. However, while finding that prosecutors violated the federal Crime Victims Rights Act, Marra didn’t fashion a remedy.
>>Jeffrey Esptein case: Victims’ attorneys blast prosecutors’ timetable
Attorneys representing two of the politically-connected money manager’s more than three dozen victims have long said they want the non-prosecution agreement to be thrown out.
Marra gave them 30 days to file court papers explaining how that could be done and suggesting others ways to compensate the women.
Federal prosecutors will have 30 days to refute or support the request from the victims’ lawyers. Then, the women’s attorneys will have another 15 days to respond to the prosecutors’ arguments, Marra said.
Epstein’s high-powered lawyers, including Miami attorney Roy Black and New York attorney Jay Lefkowitz, will also get a chance to weigh in before the end of July when all of the legal briefs are due.
Marra’s timetable gives federal prosecutors far less time than they wanted.
In court papers filed Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jill Steinberg and Nathan Kitchens said they needed two months to talk to the more than 30 women who claim Epstein paid them for sex when some were as young as 14. After talking to the women, they said they wanted another roughly five months to decide how to redress the wrongs.
Marra said the prosecutors are free to meet with Epstein’s victims or their attorneys in the 60 days they have before they file their final papers. But, he didn’t make it mandatory.
>>RELATED: Settlement reached in billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein case
Former federal judge Paul Cassell, attorney for two Epstein victims who accused prosecutors of violating their rights, applauded Marra’s decision to move quickly to end the decade-old dispute.
“The Jane Does are pleased that Judge Marra has set up a rapid schedule for bringing this case to a conclusion and ultimately providing the victims with the remedies that they deserve,” Cassell said, referring to the women by the pseudonyms they have used since they launched the court battle in 2008.
The requests the women will make shouldn’t surprise federal prosecutors. In 2011, Cassell and attorney Bradley Edwards outlined 21 ways prosecutors and Epstein could be forced to atone for violating the women’s rights. Their top goal: throwing out the non-prosecution agreement.
While prosecutors have said that such action would stomp on Epstein’s rights, Cassell and Edwards disagreed.
“Such a remedy would not violate Epstein’s constitutional rights because he was and is a party to the illegal agreement — and, indeed, he orchestrated the illegality,” Edwards and Cassell wrote.
Scores of emails that are part of the court file reveal a cozy relationship between then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, his prosecutors and Epstein’s attorneys. Acosta is now U.S. labor secretary. Some of the emails also show the bare-knuckle tactics Epstein’s attorneys used — tactics that at times inflamed prosecutors.
To avoid federal prosecution, Epstein agreed to plead guilty to two minor state prostitution charges. He served 13 months of an 18-month sentence in a vacant wing of the Palm Beach County jail — a cell he was allowed to leave 12 hours a day, six days a week. He also agreed to register as a sex offender and to compensate the women who filed civil lawsuits against him.
While throwing out what many described as a “sweetheart deal” would be a start, Cassell and Edwards also suggested other remedies.
Marra could order federal prosecutors to apologize for their behavior, compensate Epstein’s victims, pay their attorneys and explain why federal charges weren’t pursued. Marra could also spell out how victims should be handled in the future to prevent others from having their rights ignored.
In response, Marra indicated that their requests, including throwing out the agreement, were within the realm of possibilities.
“As a threshold matter, the court finds that the CVRA is properly interpreted to authorize the rescission or ‘re-opening’ of a prosecutorial agreement — including a non-prosecution arrangement — reached in violation of a prosecutor’s conferral obligations under the statute,” he wrote in 2011.
But, Marra emphasized, while he could throw out the agreement and order prosecutors to talk to the victims, he can’t force them to file federal charges against Epstein.
“What the government chooses to do after a conferral with the victims is a matter outside the reach of the CRVA, which reserves absolute prosecutorial discretion to the government,” he wrote.
The Bishop of Lincoln has been suspended by the Archbishop of Canterbury. No allegation of abuse against Christopher Lowson but it comes after @BBCPanorama uncovered a string of failures to act in Lincoln.
Former Kincora boys’ home resident suing police and government over sexual abuse claims
A former resident at a notorious Belfast boys’ home is suing the police and government bodies over claims he was trafficked for sexual abuse on both sides of the Irish Sea, it has emerged.
Richard Kerr has lodged High Court papers alleging a paedophile ring subjected him to years of rape and molestation in a campaign covered up by the state.
The 58-year-old, who spent more than two years at the Kincora home in the east of the city, is seeking damages against the Department of Health, the Northern Ireland Office, the PSNI and the Home Office.
His action involves claims for assault and battery, misfeasance in public office, breach of statutory duty and negligence.
Mr Kerr, who now lives in Dallas, Texas, has detailed a litany of alleged abuse during his time spent at institutions in the 1960s and 1970s.
As well as his time at Kincora, the case involves claims about his earlier treatment in care at Williamson House in north Belfast, and a later period at Millisle Borstal in Co Down.
He repeatedly alleges that he was plied with alcohol and sexually assaulted by a number of men.
Court papers set out claims of being taken to hotels in Belfast, Portrush and Bangor to be abused.
According to his case he was also attacked while working at horse stables near Larne.
Another alleged incident involved being molested by a former soldier after being sent to his home in west Belfast.
Mr Kerr further claims he was put on ferries to England, where he was picked up by men and taken to locations in Manchester and London.
He maintains that all investigations and inquiries to date have failed to expose the full abuse at Kincora, along with the alleged knowledge and role of British state agents.
His lawyers claim failures by the Royal Ulster Constabulary to investigate events at the home.
Based on his allegations, he has not accepted conclusions reached by the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry.
It dismissed suspicions that senior politicians, civil servants and businessmen were complicit in a paedophile ring at Koncora which led to three staff members being jailed.
Confirming the commencement of his client’s civil action, solicitor Christopher Stanley, of KRW Law, said: “Richard Kerr will be seeking damages for personal injury and, importantly, discovery of material relating to his abuse held by the institutions he is suing.
“On issuing the statement of claim on behalf of Mr Kerr the institutions named therein must now respond.
MI5 report on undercover policing in the Troubles to stay secret
13 May 2019
AN MI5 report on policing compiled at the height of the Troubles will remain secret nearly half a century after it was written, Britain’s freedom of information watchdog has ruled.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said police do not have to disclose the so-called Morton Report, which recommended a shake-up of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch in 1973.
In reaching its verdict, however, the watchdog confirmed for the first time how significant the report could be for understanding the history of policing in the Troubles.
The ICO said the report was instigated by the head of MI5, Sir Michael Hanley, who suggested to then RUC Chief Constable Sir Graham Shillington that a senior Security Service officer conduct a review of Special Branch in June 1973.
The officer chosen was Jack Morton, a former colonial police chief in India.
A year after Morton wrote his report on Special Branch, loyalist paramilitaries killed 33 people and an unborn child in a series of car bombs across Dublin and Monaghan. It was the deadliest attack of the Troubles.
An inquiry by former Irish Supreme Court judge Henry Barron concluded: “A number of those suspected for the bombings were reliably said to have had relationships with British Intelligence and/or RUC Special Branch officers.”
Morton’s report on the Troubles is so sensitive that it took the ICO 18 months to reach a decision, in what became one of the watchdog’s top ten longest-running cases.
Over 20 academics from Britain and Ireland have called for the Morton Report to be made available for their research, but to no avail.
This month, the Commissioner ruled the report could stay secret because it was supplied by MI5.
“The Security Service confirmed that the report was directly supplied to the then Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), now known as the PSNI [Police Service of Northern Ireland], by MI5.”
WALKER REPORT
The ruling appears to contradict a move by the PSNI to release a similar report on RUC Special Branch that was compiled by a different MI5 officer later in the conflict.
Last July, the PSNI declassified almost all of a report produced in 1980 by MI5’s Sir Patrick Walker, after campaigners from the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) took the police to court.
Reacting to the latest decision, Daniel Holder, deputy director of CAJ, said: “It is difficult to conceive how the 1973 Morton report can’t be released by the PSNI for national security reasons when the PSNI did – eventually – release most of the 1980 Walker Report to CAJ in a similar case.
“Both relate to the structures of RUC Special Branch, and both were authored by MI5 officers.”
He warned that such reports can “reveal wrongdoing by the state.”
The Walker Report advised the RUC to prioritise keeping informants active in paramilitary groups instead of prosecuting them for crimes they had committed.
Sir Patrick said: “All proposals to effect arrests, other than those arising directly out of an incident, must be cleared with Special Branch to ensure that no agents, either RUC or army, are involved”.
Mr Holder said this showed the importance of declassifying such material, and stressed that the public has a right to know about the past.
“The application of blanket national security vetoes over historic information is not human rights compliant,” he warned, “particularly when the documents in question may contain evidence of past security policies and practices that involved or facilitated human rights violations.”
Mr Holder said the Morton report should be disclosed to prevent “a repetition of past practices that fuelled conflict.”
WHO WAS JACK MORTON?
John Percival Morton, CMG OBE, better known as Jack Morton, was born in India in 1911.
He joined the Indian Imperial Police Service in 1930 in the midst of anti-colonial unrest.
In his memoirs, he expressed racist views, saying: “Indians were a sort of immature, backward and needy people whom it was the natural British function to govern and administer.”
He commanded an armed paramilitary police unit before becoming a colonial Special Branch officer.
While raiding an Indian independence activist’s house in Amritsar, India, he found literature about Michael Collins and Sinn Fein.
“The Irish connection and the wider ramifications of the revolutionary movement made a deep impression on me at the time”, he said. “My interest in Special Branch matters now quickened.”
In 1944 Morton took charge of India’s Lahore District at the age of 33, the youngest officer to command its 4,000-strong police force, earning him an OBE.
As partition unfolded, Morton was offered a job with MI5 in Baghdad.
He rose through the ranks, serving as director of intelligence during the so-called Malayan Emergency and later became a senior figure in the Security Service.
In 1965 he was a Security Intelligence Adviser in the Colonial Office, where he was decorated with the “Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George.”
In 1973, he advised the RUC how to revamp its notorious Special Branch at the height of the Troubles.
In 1979 he made two advisory trips to Sri Lanka where he recommended their army receive SAS training to tackle Tamil separatists.
He died in 1985.
Former Celtic kitman Jim McCafferty jailed after pleading guilty to sex offences
Police officer says McCafferty ‘used football to prey upon’ his victims
14 May 2019
Pervert youth football coach and kitman Jim McCafferty was sentenced to six years and nine months today after pleading guilty to a string of child sex offences stretching back 25 years.
McCafferty, 73, was involved in football in Scotland and Northern Ireland from the 1980s.
A total of 27 men who were coached by him took a claim against the former kitman and 10 claimants appeared on the lengthy indictment.
His crimes were all sexual and he was described as “physically intimidating” and overbearing.
Lord Beckett told Edinburgh High Court McCafferty that his actions had been “manipulative” and his offending had had a detrimental effect on his many victims.
McCafferty was initially arrested in Belfast
@ciabaudo
A few days ago, paedophile Stephen Madge from Sevenoaks in Kent was convicted of child abuse. MSM tells us little or nothing about the man, apart from the fact that he did charity work. Is he being protected? Let’s have a look … https://www.kentonline.co.uk/sevenoaks/news/paedophile-abused-child-during-charity-project-204148/ …
Perhaps his ‘daytime’ job may shed some light on the level of protection he enjoys. Stephen Madge provides training to law companies. He can be seen in the video below being interviewed at the University of Law: https://youtu.be/oq_-1rL_VJk http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=%22principle8%22&d=4850450151441996&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=x31ADhZNUgWdurdffyDYJdB5nXxMT_lr …
He also had high-ranking links to the military community, providing military consultancy and security services. Would he have worked with the vile convicted paedophile, child procurer and VAT expert Colin Peters? http://discover.sentium.uk/training-solutions-tactics-techniques-and-procedures-ttps/ … http://vatattack.co.uk/
Stephen Madge’s LinkedIn page has now been deleted but screenshots were luckily saved by LegalCheek, revealing his top-level connections and the duplicity of his life. https://www.legalcheek.com/2019/05/former-cripps-learning-and-development-manager-jailed-for-historic-indecent-assaults-against-teenage-boy/ … https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:s-B5NECgL8MJ:https://www.cripps.co.uk/profile/stephen-madge/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-b-1-d …
In the mid-Eighties, Stephen Madge, who attended Dover Grammar, became Director of Music at St.Martin’s School, Northwood, where he also taught geography. https://contactout.com/Stephen-Madge-76498937 …
The charity Madge worked for is Janmarek Music Foundation, now disbanded:
Stephen Madge who repeatedly abused teenage boy while involved in charity project jailed
MAY 7 2019
A paedophile who repeatedly abused a child while involved in a charity project more than 20 years ago has been jailed.
Stephen Madge, from Sevenoaks, was convicted of six counts of indecent assault at Maidstone Crown Court after targeting a teenage boy during the 1990s.
Allegations of abuse were first made to Kent Police in November 2014, when it was reported that Madge, 62, had been responsible for multiple offences during his charity work.
He was said to have developed an obsession with the victim, who he came into contact with in 1993 and repeatedly abused him throughout the year.
Officers arrested him at his home in Bradbourne Vale Road, Sevenoaks, in May 2015 and despite denials of any wrongdoing Madge was charged with six counts of indecent assault.
He pleaded not guilty and the case went to trial, where a jury unanimously found Madge guilty on all counts.
He was today sentenced to six years imprisonment, with an extended licence period of a further year.
Madge was also made subject of a sexual harm prevention order and added to the sex offenders register, both for indefinite terms.
https://theukdatabase.com/2019/05/07/stephen-madge-sevenoaks/
Jailed | Twitter Trending Topics UK – TRENDING-UK.com
Stephen Madge, a conductor of St Andrews Cantata based in Hever & founder of now disbanded charity Janmarek Foundation which he set up to invite choirs from Poland and also offer scholarships, jailed for 6 years for abusing teenage boy in 1990s: http://bit.ly/2DWWbGJ
Uxbridge & W. Drayton Gazette – Thursday 22 May 1986
John Mash, former headmaster of St Martin’s Preparatory School in Northwood, has avoided imprisonment despite admitting 7 counts of indecent assault on boys under 14.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=cf293a48-b154-42cc-8f18-83d2befdc74b
Uxbridge & W. Drayton Gazette – Wednesday 15 April 1987
This charity was registered on 05 Apr 1993, It was removed from the register on 31 May 1994.
Reason for removal: Does not operate.
https://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regid=1019739&subid=0&exportcsv=1
Former Cripps learning and development manager jailed for historic indecent assaults against teenage boy
Law firm ‘horrified’ to learn about Stephen Madge’s conviction
A former learning and development manager at recently-merged Cripps Pemberton Greenish (CPG) has been sentenced this week after being found guilty of six counts of indecent assault against a teenage boy.
Stephen Madge, who worked for CPG as an external consultant from January 2016 until April 2019, was sentenced yesterday at Maidstone Crown Court to six years in prison, with an extended licence period of a further year.
As reported by Kent Online, the allegations, first made to the Kent Police in November 2014, concerned abuse by Madge of a teenage boy while involved in a charity project during the 1990s.
Following the allegations, Madge — who according to his LinkedIn page (seemingly now deactivated, though Legal Cheek has retained screenshots) has worked for Holman Fenwick Willan (now HFW), Squire Sanders (now Squire Patton Boggs) and RPC — was arrested in May 2015 at his home in Sevenoaks and was charged with six counts of indecent assault. He was subsequently found guilty on all counts.
In addition to the sentence of six years in prison, Madge, aged 62, has been made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order and has been added to the sex offenders register, both for indefinite terms.
Responding to the news, Gavin Tyler, managing partner at CPG, told Legal Cheek:
“We were horrified to learn about Stephen Madge’s conviction, and his sentencing [yesterday], for such shocking offences. Our knowledge of Mr Madge was in his capacity as a respected legal education and training specialist, used by many law firms besides ourselves. He worked for us as an external consultant from January 2016 to April 2019. We did not know about his offending, the charge and his conviction until after his contract ended.”
1984 – St Martin’s School Northwood
Head of St Martin’s School, Northwood, avoids Jail for Sexual Abuse
John Mash, former headmaster of St Martin’s Preparatory School in Northwood, has avoided imprisonment despite admitting 7 counts of indecent assault on boys under 14.
The 79 year old was appointed headmaster of the boarding school in or around 1980. He used his position to sexually abuse young boys in his care. Mash would enter the dormitories at night and sexually abuse the young boys whilst they were in their beds. The headmaster preyed upon young boys who had been sent to the boarding school by their parents for an enriching education. Instead, they were abused by Mash for his own desire.
Mash received a sentence of 2 years imprisonment suspended for 2 years and a 2 year supervision order. He was also sentenced to 1 year in prison, suspended for 2 years, at Isleworth Crown Court on 1 April 2016. He is also required to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.
The police commended the 4 survivors for their courage in coming forward. The school had over 200 pupils at the time that Mash worked there. It has been commented upon that Mash may have abused more than the 4 individuals who have bravely spoken out against him.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=cf293a48-b154-42cc-8f18-83d2befdc74b
Law chief to rule on ‘legal establishment sex abuse ring’
May 13 2019
Claims that a paedophile ring operated at the highest echelons of the Scottish legal establishment are being considered by prosecutors.
Police Scotland spent five years investigating allegations that senior Scottish lawyers carried out acts of child sexual abuse in the 1970s and 1980s.
Among the alleged members of the paedophile ring were the late Tory MP Sir Nicholas Fairbairn, QC, a close ally of Margaret Thatcher, and the late Robert Henderson, QC.
The investigation was triggered by Henderson’s daughter, Susie, who described being repeatedly raped between the ages of 4 and 12 by her father and other men.
Police Scotland has passed a report on its findings to the Crown Office.
The lord advocate, James Wolffe, QC, Scotland’s chief prosecutor, will now decide whether anyone should face charges. If he does decide to prosecute, it will send shockwaves through the legal establishment.
Ms Henderson, 52, said that she hoped her allegations would lead to the men being charged.
“The awful things I went through as a child, things no child should ever experience, have affected every day of my life and will continue to haunt me,” she said.
“To see even one man on trial and having to answer for what they did to me would mean that the last five very difficult years had not been for nothing.”
Ms Henderson told detectives in 2014 that she had been abused and raped from the age of four or five by Sir Nicholas, the solicitor-general for Scotland between 1979 and 1982, whose responsibilities included the prosecution of sex offenders.
She also alleged that she was subjected to horrific sexual abuse by her father and some men that he brought to the house. Many are dead, but it is understood that at least three of the accused are still alive.
Police Scotland and the Crown have kept a tight lid on all the information gathered by detectives, but it is likely that, as with all allegations of historical child sex abuse, corroboration will be the key to the final decision on whether to prosecute.
Ms Henderson waived her right to anonymity when she made her allegations. Since then she has refused to discuss details of her claims before any possible trial or decision on prosecution.
She said last night, however, that the investigation had been “a nightmare, a brutal ordeal” and that her life had not been her own for almost five years.
Detectives at West Lothian have been carrying out the investigation and have travelled widely to gather evidence and get witness statements. Sources have said that Mr Henderson would have faced charges had he still been alive.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/law-chief-to-rule-on-legal-establishment-sex-abuse-ring-6xd080rv8
Fermanagh: Specialist team to investigate historic abuse
Police have appointed a team of specialist child abuse detectives to investigate reports of historic sex abuse in County Fermanagh.
It follows a series of interviews carried in the Impartial Reporter. More than a dozen people told their stories to the paper.
The PSNI said they were taking the reports very seriously.
Journalist Rodney Edwards said this was a “huge issue” which came to light because of the bravery of victims.
The head of the Public Protection Branch, Det Chief Supt Paula Hillman said: “One of the roles of Public Protection Branch is to investigate historical child sexual abuse.
“Currently we are reviewing evidence and speaking to victims and this will take time. We will take that time,” she said.
“As head of Public Protection Branch, I, and detectives working alongside me, are committed to supporting victims and ensuring we thoroughly investigate these reports of historical sexual abuse, whether in Fermanagh or other parts of Northern Ireland.
“I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult it must be for someone to report historical sexual abuse.”
She said anyone who came forward would be treated with sensitivity and the utmost care.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-48150317
An alleged victim of a suspected paedophile ring in Northern Ireland says he believes “hundreds” of other children were abused. More than a dozen people have made allegations of historical abuse in County Fermanagh – one woman claims that her childminder sold her and other children to paedophiles. The Police Service of Northern Ireland says it is investigating the claims
Gilbert Law & Co.Ltd @RolandMcVeigh1
Could there be a link between the Fermanagh historic sex abuse allegations and the Anglo Irish vice ring including Portora Royal School ?
@ciabaudo
Isn’t it amazing that the man who gave his name to the Hart inquiry (or was it a coverup?) is closely linked to that school?
@AdamLangton1
Truly amazing and it was a whitewash.
The Marquis of Hamilton MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone his cousin, Lord Robert Grosvenor (later Duke of Westminster).
He is also a relative of Diana, Princess of Wales as he is the first cousin of Diana’s father, the 8th Earl Spencer. The current duke’s father, the 4th Duke of Abercorn was the brother of Diana’s grandmother, Cynthia Spencer, Countess Spencer. Their Royal Highnesses The Duke of Cambridge, The Duke of Sussex, Prince George of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, and Prince Louis of Cambridge are his distant cousins.
09 September 1965
Pie-linked Peter Tatchell wants teenagers to be taught masturbation in school. His proposal supported by Stephen Fry
Peter Tatchell Foundation
Stephen Fry backs our call to revise sex education
Stephen Fry is backing calls for the Education Secretary, Damian Hinds, to undertake a further review and upgrade of relationship and sex education (RSE) in schools ahead of the roll out of mandatory RSE in 2020. The aim of this upgrade is to ensure the sexual and emotional health and happiness of young people.
In a letter to the Education Secretary, the Peter Tatchell Foundation says that political, religious and cultural sensitivities should not be allowed to thwart mandatory age-appropriate RSE in every school, including in faith and independent schools, from the first year of primary education onwards.
The letter is co-signed by five other people, including actor Stephen Fry and four others involved in education and school’s work and draws on their experience listening to pupils and teachers. See their names and titles at the end of this news release.
“We are proposing a restricted parental opt out, the promotion of safer alternatives to intercourse and overcoming sex shame to tackle abuse. As well as warning pupils about the risks of sex, lessons should also inform older pupils about sexual pleasure and how to achieve it for both themselves and a partner, with the aim of helping them secure mutual sexual happiness,” said Peter Tatchell Foundation Director Peter Tatchell.
https://www.petertatchellfoundation.org/stephen-fry-backs-our-call-to-revise-sex-education/
Neil Moran @museofwoolwich
The optics don’t look good here. So, you are recommending, inter alia, advice for teenagers on sex / masturbation techniques? Who will provide this? There is something deeply creepy about old men who have an interest in teenage sexuality. Don’t you get this?
#RSE #PeterTatchell
Teachers who have specialist training will do it
A trust setup to teach teenagers how to wank? Sounds a lot like PIE.
@joanna_chivers
David Steel ‘has Lib Dem whip restored and suspension lifted’
MAY 9 2019
DAVID Steel has had the Liberal Democrat Party whip restored and his suspension lifted following an internal investigation into remarks he made about child sex abuse claims concerning the late MP Cyril Smith, according to a senior party source.
Lord Steel, the former Liberal Party leader, was suspended and had the parliamentary whip removed in March following the remarks, which he had made to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
The 80-year-old peer explained how in 1979 he had asked his colleague about allegations that he had abused boys at a Rochdale hostel in the 1960s after an article appeared in the Private Eye satirical magazine.
Lord Steel said he came away from the conversation “assuming” Smith had committed the offences. He explained: “It was before he was an MP, before he was even a member of my party. It had nothing to do with me.”
The inquiry was told that the party had held no formal inquiry into the claims against Smith, which had been investigated by the police in 1969 but no prosecution was brought.
Lord Steel, the former Holyrood Presiding Officer, described recommending his colleague for a knighthood in 1988 and pointed out that he did not pass on any child abuse allegations because “I was not aware of any such allegations other than the matter referred to…which appeared to have been fully investigated”.
Richard Scorer, a lawyer acting for seven victims in the abuse inquiry, said Lord Steel’s “inaction was an appalling dereliction of duty” and that his admission that he had assumed Smith had committed offences would “cause victims great anger”.
The claims against the late Lib Dem politician came to public prominence after Smith died in 2010. In the 1960s, he was a Labour councillor in Rochdale before becoming the Liberal and then Lib Dem MP for the town between 1972 and 1992.
Last night, a senior party source told The Herald: “The fact is the whip has been restored to Lord Steel in the House of Lords and as a result the suspension has been lifted.”
When the party was approached for a response, a spokesman said: “The process is ongoing,” adding there would be no further comment while this was the case.
@craftymuvva
WTAF is going on with the @LibDems? He admitted wrongdoing and you’ve just let him get away with it. You lot deserve no votes whatsoever. You’re a disgustingly shameful excuse for a collective group of apathetic sympathisers who knowingly allowed a grotesque nonce to hurt kids!
I mean, we’re not talking about stuffed toys @LibDems, we’re talking about little children. Innocent little beings violated by that monstrous paedophile, Smith. Steel admitted he knew and did nothing and you have effectively endorsed that by lifting his suspension.
@Therealstevieb
They certainly do look after their own don’t they?. Disgraceful…
Vince Cable defends Lib Dems’ inquiry into Lord Steel
Vince Cable has defended his party’s handling of an investigation into former LibDem leader Lord David Steel about his answers to a child abuse inquiry.
But the current LibDem leader said that the party was now looking at it improving it’s disciplinary systems.
In Scotland to back his European election candidates, Mr Cable denied that the inquiry into Lord Steel was a whitewash, and added: “He had made some comments at the child abuse inquiry that weren’t clear, so there was a detailed inquiry by the Scottish party – as he’s a member of the Scottish party – and there was nothing ultimately to answer.”
Lord Steel, the first Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, was suspended from the party after he told an independent child abuse inquiry that he had “assumed” abuse allegations against the late MP Sir Cyril Smith were true but “it had nothing to do with me”. The Scottish Liberal Democrats investigation concluded that “there are no grounds for action” against Mr Steel.
Asked if he felt the internal process was sufficiently robust, Mr Cable said: “We have made a decision to improve our complaints process and that is due to come into effect, but the one we used is a proper disciplinary process and I’m satisfied it’s been carried out properly.”
The investigation resulted from a meeting the then-Liberal-Party-leader had with Smith in 1979 about claims he had abused boys at a Rochdale hostel in the 1960s. Police had previously investigated allegations about the abuse of teenagers at the Cambridge House hostel but no one was prosecuted.
Lord Steel said he had discussed the allegations with former Rochdale MP Smith after an article appeared in Private Eye magazine. At the child abuse inquiry, Lord Steel – who is now 81 – that “the matter had been investigated by police, no further action was taken and that was the end of the story”.
However, during questioning by inquiry counsel Brian Altman QC, Lord Still suggested he had “assumed” the allegations were true.
Announcing the conclusion of the investigation into Lord Steel, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Willie Rennie MSP, said: “The Executive of the Scottish Liberal Democrats has determined, after careful consideration, that there are no grounds for action against David Steel.
“We take the issue of vigilance and safeguarding incredibly seriously, so it was important to investigate following the evidence that David Steel gave to the independent public inquiry.
“The clarifications that David Steel has provided to us state clearly that Cyril Smith did not confess to any criminality which is why he took no further action at the time.”
Lord Steel added: “I believe in the highest standards of safeguarding for young and vulnerable people. As such, I voluntarily attended the IICSA hearing and offered open and honest answers, some of which have been erroneously reported and taken out of context.
“These inaccurate elements led some to question my own such commitment. Opinions and assumptions are not facts, and those expressed in some quarters have caused me great personal distress.”
Church of England put reputation above abuse victims’ needs, inquiry finds
Report into Peter Ball case criticises ex-archbishop George Carey as well as Prince Charles
May 9 2019
The Church of England put its own reputation above the needs of victims of sexual abuse, with a serious failure of leadership by the former archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, in its handling of the case of a bishop who eventually went to prison, an official inquiry has concluded.
It also found that Prince Charles and other members of the establishment were misguided in their expressions of support of Peter Ball as he battled the accusations.
Ball, a former bishop of Lewes and Gloucester, was jailed in 2015, more than 20 years after allegations were made against him that were largely ignored or downplayed by the church. Ball accepted a police caution in 1993 and resigned as bishop but was allowed to continue officiating in the C of E.
Ball “seemed to relish contact with prominent and influential people”, a 250-page report published on Thursday by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) said. He “sought to use his relationship with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to further his campaign to return to unrestricted ministry”.
The prince and his private secretary spoke about Ball with the archbishop of Canterbury and arranged for the Duchy of Cornwall to buy a property to be rented by Ball after he resigned as a bishop.
The prince had been “misguided”, and his actions “could have been interpreted as expressions of support for Peter Ball and, given the Prince of Wales’s future role within the Church of England, had the potential to influence the actions of the church”, the report said.
It said Carey showed compassion to Ball that was not extended to the bishop’s victims, and displayed overt support for Ball’s innocence despite having no justification. Carey was archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002.
The church’s response to allegations of abuse by Ball and others in the diocese of Chichester was marked by secrecy, prevarication and avoidance of reporting alleged crimes, the report said.
Disclosures of abuse were handled inadequately by the church, and responses failed to display an appropriate level of urgency or appreciation of the seriousness of allegations made.
The report said “clericalism and tribalism” in the diocese of Chichester contributed to an abuse of power. During the inquiry’s public hearings last year, senior clergy squabbled about responsibility for failing to deal with past sexual abuse.
“The damaging consequence of this overriding allegiance to one’s own ‘tribe’ was that child protection was compromised,” the report said.
Perpetrators, about whom there were allegations or even convictions, were provided with unrestricted access to children and young people, the report found.
Apologies given by Justin Welby, the present archbishop of Canterbury, and other senior church figures over the C of E’s failures were “unconvincing”, it said.
Ball’s “charm, charisma and reputation” enabled him to avoid a criminal conviction until 2015, the report said. He was sentenced to 32 months in prison for sexual offences against 18 young men, and was released on licence after serving four months.
Alexis Jay, the inquiry’s chair, said: “For years, the diocese of Chichester failed victims of child sexual abuse by prioritising its own reputation above their welfare. Not only were disclosures of abuse handled inadequately by the church when they came to light, its response was marked by secrecy and a disregard for the seriousness of the abuse allegations.
“Peter Ball is one example of how a senior member of the clergy was able to sexually abuse vulnerable teenagers and young men for decades. The public support he received is reflective of the church’s culture at the time; a support that was rarely extended to his victims.”
The report recommended amending the 2003 Sexual Offences Act to include clergy among those defined as being in a position of trust. Such a move would criminalise sexual activity between clergy and a person aged between 16 and 18 over whom they exercise pastoral authority.
The inquiry held a hearing into the church’s handling of Ball’s case last July, taking evidence in person from two former archbishops of Canterbury – Carey and Rowan Williams – and Welby, the current incumbent. It also received a six-page written submission from the prince.
Carey told the inquiry that with 25 years of hindsight, he should not have been so generous in his views of Ball. He was “under great pressure” from Ball’s supporters to believe his protestations of innocence, he said.
William Chapman, representing survivors, told the inquiry: “The story of Peter Ball is the story of the establishment at work in modern times.”
Ball had been able to call upon the “willing assistance of members of the establishment. It included the heir to the throne, the archbishop and a senior member of the judiciary, to name only the most prominent,” Chapman said.
In his statement, the prince said he had been deceived about the true nature of Ball’s activities, but denied he had sought to influence the outcome of police investigations.
He wrote to Ball in February 1995, saying: “I wish I could do more. I feel so desperately strongly about the monstrous wrongs that have been done to you and the way you have been treated.”
Neil Todd, who made the first complaint against Ball to the police in 1992, killed himself in 2012 after several previous attempts.
A separate independent review of the Ball case, commissioned by the C of E and published last year, found evidence of collusion and a cover-up at the highest levels over a 20-year period.
Responding to the IICSA report, Peter Hancock, the bishop of Bath and Wells and the church’s lead bishop on safeguarding, said: “The report states that the Church of England should have been a place which protected all children and supported victims and survivors and the inquiry’s summary recognises that it failed to do this. It is absolutely right that the church at all levels should learn lessons from the issues raised in this report.”
He added that the church was committed to introducing changes to better protect children and vulnerable adults from abuse, and said it would consider the report’s conclusions and recommendations.
Richard Scorer, a specialist abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon, who acts for a number of victims, said: “We may never know the true harm caused by Prince Charles’s intervention and support for Ball, but welcome the fact that the inquiry did not shy away from highlighting his role in this scandal.
“This report is a damning indictment of years of church cover-up, facilitation of child abuse and denigration and dismissal of victims. It rightly criticises senior church figures for serious failings, but it also exposes alarming cultural and structural problems in the Church of England.
“Yet again this shows the urgent need for an independent oversight of safeguarding and a mandatory reporting law to protect innocent and vulnerable people.”
Inquiry publishes report into the Diocese of Chichester and Peter Ball
The report highlights the evidence heard by the Inquiry of appalling sexual abuse agains children in the Diocese of Chichester and the inadequate response of the Church in cases including Peter Ball.
The report considers how Peter Ball abused his position as Bishop of Gloucester to deliberately manipulate vulnerable teenagers and young men for his own sexual gratification, which included naked praying, masturbation and flagellation.
The report concludes that the Church’s response to claims of child sexual abuse was marked by secrecy, prevarication and avoidance of reporting alleged crimes. It states that the apology given by the Church remains unconvincing.
Professor Alexis Jay, Chair of the Inquiry, said:
“For years, the Diocese of Chichester failed victims and survivors of child sexual abuse by prioritising its own reputation above their welfare. Not only were disclosures of abuse handled inadequately by the Church when they came to light, its response was marked by secrecy and a disregard for the seriousness of abuse allegations.
“Peter Ball is one example of how a senior member of the clergy was able to sexually abuse vulnerable teenagers and young men for decades. The public support he received is reflective of the Church’s culture at the time; a support that was rarely extended to his victims.”
https://www.iicsa.org.uk/news/inquiry-publishes-report-diocese-chichester-and-peter-ball
Rochdale abuse: ‘Insufficient evidence’ for perjury charges
Nxivm cult leader Keith Raniere’s first sex slave is revealed as a Mexican girl aged just FIFTEEN who he ordered to sexually assault a shackled and blindfolded woman, court hears, as jurors are shown an explicit photograph he forced her to pose for
- The trial of Nxivm leader Keith Raniere got underway on Tuesday in Brooklyn with opening statements
- He made a 15-year-old Mexican national his first sex slave after convincing her and her three sisters to travel with him to upstate New York, said U.S. Attorney
- Prosecutor Tany Hajjar said that Raniere began to rape the girl and make her pose for nude photographs, one of which was shown in court
- He also imprisoned her sister for 21 months after she showed interest in a man other than him, said Hajjar
- His youngest victim was also allegedly forced to sexually assault other women for Raniere’s pleasure, said the prosecutor
- Raniere is facing life in prison if convicted, and has been incarcerated since March 2018 when he was extradited after fleeing to Mexico
May 7 2019
The trial of Nxivm leader Keith Raniere got underway on Tuesday with opening statements from both the defense and prosecution.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Hajjar did not hold back in her remarks, outlining how the defendant made a 15-year-old Mexican national his first sex slave after convincing her and her three sisters to travel with him to upstate New York.
Once there, Hajjar said that Raniere began to rape the girl and make her pose for nude photographs, one of which was shown in court.
In that image the teen could be seen lying on Raniere’s bed, one of the hundreds of graphic nude pictures that the cult leader is said to have kept in his possession over the years.
Stephen Madge who repeatedly abused teenage boy while involved in charity project jailed
MAY 7 2019
A paedophile who repeatedly abused a child while involved in a charity project more than 20 years ago has been jailed.
Stephen Madge, from Sevenoaks, was convicted of six counts of indecent assault at Maidstone Crown Court after targeting a teenage boy during the 1990s.
Allegations of abuse were first made to Kent Police in November 2014, when it was reported that Madge, 62, had been responsible for multiple offences during his charity work.
He was said to have developed an obsession with the victim, who he came into contact with in 1993 and repeatedly abused him throughout the year.
Officers arrested him at his home in Bradbourne Vale Road, Sevenoaks, in May 2015 and despite denials of any wrongdoing Madge was charged with six counts of indecent assault.
He pleaded not guilty and the case went to trial, where a jury unanimously found Madge guilty on all counts.
He was today sentenced to six years imprisonment, with an extended licence period of a further year.
Madge was also made subject of a sexual harm prevention order and added to the sex offenders register, both for indefinite terms.
https://theukdatabase.com/2019/05/07/stephen-madge-sevenoaks/
Jailed | Twitter Trending Topics UK – TRENDING-UK.com
Stephen Madge, a conductor of St Andrews Cantata based in Hever & founder of now disbanded charity Janmarek Foundation which he set up to invite choirs from Poland and also offer scholarships, jailed for 6 years for abusing teenage boy in 1990s: http://bit.ly/2DWWbGJ
Uxbridge & W. Drayton Gazette – Thursday 22 May 1986
Uxbridge & W. Drayton Gazette – Wednesday 15 April 1987
This charity was registered on 05 Apr 1993, It was removed from the register on 31 May 1994.
Reason for removal: Does not operate.
https://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regid=1019739&subid=0&exportcsv=1
Former Cripps learning and development manager jailed for historic indecent assaults against teenage boy
Law firm ‘horrified’ to learn about Stephen Madge’s conviction
A former learning and development manager at recently-merged Cripps Pemberton Greenish (CPG) has been sentenced this week after being found guilty of six counts of indecent assault against a teenage boy.
Stephen Madge, who worked for CPG as an external consultant from January 2016 until April 2019, was sentenced yesterday at Maidstone Crown Court to six years in prison, with an extended licence period of a further year.
As reported by Kent Online, the allegations, first made to the Kent Police in November 2014, concerned abuse by Madge of a teenage boy while involved in a charity project during the 1990s.
Following the allegations, Madge — who according to his LinkedIn page (seemingly now deactivated, though Legal Cheek has retained screenshots) has worked for Holman Fenwick Willan (now HFW), Squire Sanders (now Squire Patton Boggs) and RPC — was arrested in May 2015 at his home in Sevenoaks and was charged with six counts of indecent assault. He was subsequently found guilty on all counts.
In addition to the sentence of six years in prison, Madge, aged 62, has been made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order and has been added to the sex offenders register, both for indefinite terms.
Responding to the news, Gavin Tyler, managing partner at CPG, told Legal Cheek:
“We were horrified to learn about Stephen Madge’s conviction, and his sentencing [yesterday], for such shocking offences. Our knowledge of Mr Madge was in his capacity as a respected legal education and training specialist, used by many law firms besides ourselves. He worked for us as an external consultant from January 2016 to April 2019. We did not know about his offending, the charge and his conviction until after his contract ended.”
1984 – St Martin’s School Northwood
Head of St Martin’s School, Northwood, avoids Jail for Sexual Abuse
John Mash, former headmaster of St Martin’s Preparatory School in Northwood, has avoided imprisonment despite admitting 7 counts of indecent assault on boys under 14.
The 79 year old was appointed headmaster of the boarding school in or around 1980. He used his position to sexually abuse young boys in his care. Mash would enter the dormitories at night and sexually abuse the young boys whilst they were in their beds. The headmaster preyed upon young boys who had been sent to the boarding school by their parents for an enriching education. Instead, they were abused by Mash for his own desire.
Mash received a sentence of 2 years imprisonment suspended for 2 years and a 2 year supervision order. He was also sentenced to 1 year in prison, suspended for 2 years, at Isleworth Crown Court on 1 April 2016. He is also required to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years.
The police commended the 4 survivors for their courage in coming forward. The school had over 200 pupils at the time that Mash worked there. It has been commented upon that Mash may have abused more than the 4 individuals who have bravely spoken out against him.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=cf293a48-b154-42cc-8f18-83d2befdc74b
Carl Beech: Trial of Westminster VIP paedophile ring accuser set to last months, judge warns
May 7 2019
Christ’s Hospital ex-teacher Gary Dobbie guilty of abuse
3 MAY 2019
Dobbie will be sentenced on all counts on 12 June.
Daniel O’Donnell comforts Cliff Richard after he’s accused of sex attack on teen
Irish singer shows his support for his old friend as they enjoy a relaxed evening out with friends in Portugal
Daniel and Majella O’Donnell enjoy an evening with Cliff Richard in Portugal
Daniel O’Donnell is comforting his pal Cliff Richard after sex abuse claims were made against him.
The Donegal star, 52, and wife Majella were spotted with the Bachelor Boy on Monday in his first public appearance since the accusations surfaced.
The 73-year-old singer – who is back in the charts with a re-release of his 1992 single I Still Believe In You –
is under investigation over claims he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy at a religious rally in 1985.
The singer emphatically denies the allegations.
These exclusive photos show Daniel and Majella enjoying dinner with Cliff 10 days after a raid at the singer’s UK penthouse.
https://www.irishmirror.ie/showbiz/irish-showbiz/daniel-odonnell-comforts-cliff-richard-4113419
When Marys uncle was called in for questioning to Ballyshannon Mc Eniff put pressure on senior Garda to have him released. The Mc Eniff family have controlled the “Country and Irish” music scene iNW Ireland from the 1970’s till the present day.
One of the most prestigious schools in Ireland changes its name out of the blue and amalgamates with another. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portora_Royal_School…
……………..
SNP activist, Willie McRae, ‘killed over child sex files’
A FIREBRAND SNP activist who died in mysterious circumstances was to expose a paedophile ring that would have brought down the Government, it was claimed last night
Willie McRae was said to have discovered child abuse by cabinet ministers and other leading members of the establishment on both sides of the Border. Shortly before his death he was seen photocopying a dossier of names in case something should happen to him.
Mr Morrison said he believed McRae may have first heard of the ring from his friend Lord Mountbatten, the Queen’s cousin who was killed by the IRA in 1979, or from somebody linked to him.
McRae had been Lord Mountbatten’s aide-de-camp in India, when he was a young lieutenant-commander in the Royal Indian Navy.
McRae never went public with his allegations as he was found shot dead in his car off a remote road in Wester Ross on April 6, 1985.
htts://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/541793/SNP-activist-killed-over-child-sex-files
Neighbors – Cawleys
……..
Boiling Over
Mary Boyle murder and its cover-up may be linked to Anglo-Irish paedophile ring, of which Lord Louis Mountbatten was an alleged member
Mary Boyle’s disappearance. Ever since she vanished on St. Patrick’s weekend in 1977, a veil of secrecy has shrouded the case of the Donegal schoolgirl who is Ireland’s longest and youngest missing person.
There are few scandals that embarrass the establishment more, not least because of the sinister role played by senior political, Garda and media figures in suppressing the truth about what happened to the six-year-old. Yet despite a virtual blackout by the mainstream media on all of the astonishing new revelations in the case, the lid is slowly being lifted on this sad and sordid story, and the public is hungry for justice.
Few believe the story as it was spun in 1977 when Mary went missing during a visit to her grandparents’ home in Cashelard, Ballyshannon. It is implausible that a little girl, who was born in Birmingham, could simply vanish without trace on an isolated farm while in the company of at least 10 members of her family.
A ‘Cold Case’ review, set up in the days immediately after the documentary’s release, has resulted in nothing almost a year and a half on, and there is no conclusion in sight.
Fianna Fáil politician Sean McEniff tried to stop their investigation in its tracks.
Charles Haughey with Sean McEniff
Sean McEniff with President de Valera
It appears now that this review – one of several that have led to nothing – was established to placate public outrage over allegations contained in the film, especially those made by retired gardaí who claim that Fianna Fáil politician Sean McEniff tried to stop their investigation in its tracks.
Expert legal opinion suggests the Gardaí have ample evidence to make charges, yet nobody has been arrested.
Gerry Gallagher
The last person known to have seen Mary, her uncle and local Fianna Fáil stalwart Gerry Gallagher, has given several unconvincing and inconsistent accounts of what happened the day she went missing.
Some officers who were first on the scene that day say they are in no doubt Gerry Gallagher was responsible for Mary’s disappearance.
Sergeant Collins also alleges that another close relation of Mary came to him in tears at Ballyshannon station in the days after her disappearance, repeating the claim that he believed Gallagher was responsible.
Retired detective Aidan Murray, one of the lead Gardaí in the original ‘investigation’ supports Collins’ theories. He claims that during an interview with Gallagher, he was on the brink of getting a confession when he got a ‘nudge’ under the table from his superior officer who ordered Murray to leave the room and get water for the suspect.
More disturbingly, both officers say they are in no doubt Mary was sexually assaulted before her death. Ann Doherty makes the same claim and says Mary was going to blow the whistle on the alleged abuse and had to be silenced.
The retired Gardaí also allege that Fianna Fáil’s longest-serving councillor, the late Sean McEniff, made a phone call to Ballyshannon Garda station ordering that none of the Gallagher family were to be made suspects in the case.
Shortly before his death earlier this year, McEniff denied their claim yet Aidan Murray, the former head of Special Branch in the area, has stated on camera: “I know that as a result of that phone call, certain people were not allowed to be interviewed. It was all hands off them and we were to look somewhere else”.
Given the power McEniff wielded in almost every aspect of Donegal life, there is little doubt his intervention could have derailed the investigation.
His legacy of corruption is notorious and was well documented in a recent obituary of him in Village magazine, not least because of his close relationships with Gardaí whom he seems to have been able to order around with impunity, especially where his illegal gaming operation in Bundoran was concerned.
A 1985 RTÉ documentary ‘Law and Order in Donegal’, reveals the control McEniff had over local superintendent Dom Murray, who was in charge of the Mary Boyle investigation and who told a number of lies about the case in media interviews through the years.
It offers a damning insight into the incestuous relationship between Fianna Fáil and the Gardaí, which has been used to protect the party from scandal on numerous occasions, not least in the aftermath of the Fr Niall Molloy murder in Offaly in 1985.
Gerry Gallagher was a crony of Sean McEniff who canvassed for the politician with his brother Michael in the rural townlands of Ballyshannon.
Like the archetypal mafia don, McEniff’s modus operandi was to acquire dirt on people who might be a threat to him, walk them into compromising positions and dangle the threat of exposure in their faces.
Superintendent Dom Murray’s wife had a gambling habit which McEniff is claimed to have nurtured while she ran up debts in his Bundoran casinos. This ensured the politician had the officer in his pocket and could use him to bend the law when required.
In recent months, more disturbing allegations have emerged about McEniff. a young woman has come forward making claims that he groomed and sexually abused her as a child. She says he also forced her to have sex with other men in some of his hotels, while he looked on.
The woman, who has never spoken publicly about the abuse but is a contributor to RTÉ and other media about another aspect of her life, also says a complaint she made to Gardaí about the abuse went nowhere.
For decades, there have been rumours that a powerful paedophile network operated in south Donegal involving politicians, businessmen, and other VIPs.
Its most southerly town Bundoran was home to two notorious industrial schools which housed many vulnerable children who could have been preyed upon by local and visiting abusers.
St Martha’s, which was run by the St Louis nuns, was dreaded for its brutality. The institution became infamous for the ‘Bundoran shave’, following an incident in 1963 in which eight girls caught trying to escape had their heads completely shorn as punishment.
Sean McEniff was one of the first on the scene in Mullaghmore harbour on the day of the explosion.
Eyebrows were raised when the Donegal councillor later called for the erection of a memorial to Mountbatten in sligo, generating consternation in some quarters as to why a Fianna Fáil politician from outside the area would take such a stance, and questions were asked as to who exactly he was trying to impress.
Fianna Fail’s connections with Mountbatten’s close friend Jimmy Saville are well documented. The ‘Top of the Pops’ host who sexually abused hundreds of children at the height of his fame in the 1970s was a regular visitor to Charles Haughey’s Dublin home ‘Abbéville’ in Kinsealy.
Another close associate of Mceniff, Bundoran beef baron Hugh Tunney, became an unlikely friend of Mountbatten during his stays in Sligo.
The former butcher’s apprentice, who went on to own the Gresham Hotel in Dublin, came to his aid when he could no longer fund the running of Classiebawn.
In 1976, a leasing agreement was put in place between the pair which allowed the British royal to visit the 3000-acre estate every August.
Reported to be a devout Catholic, Tunney was said to be present in the castle saying his rosary on the day the explosion struck.
Local affection for Tunney, who died in 2011, is thin on the ground.
Within the castle grounds, a graveyard containing the remains of dozens of unbaptised infants has become the subject of controversy in recent years. In 2006, a group of locals asked Tunney if they could erect a memorial to the children in the burial ground known as Cill na mBochtan, but he turned them down.
They were forced to place it on the roadside outside the estate instead, leaving a sour taste in the community for the millionaire cattle-dealer. Questions linger as to why he would not grant permission for it.
Earlier this month, Mountbatten’s murder again came under scrutiny when it emerged that a former British military police officer who worked as his security guard in Sligo had warned superiors several times that his old fishing boat was vulnerable to a bomb attack. The officer, Graham Yuill, said his concerns met deaf ears.
He was removed from his post shortly before the bombing and was told that Gardaí would be looking after Mountbatten from then on, an unusual decision given his status in the royal family.
These revelations add credence to theories that his IRA killers may not have acted alone and that he may have been killed for reasons that went deeper than the conflict in Northern Ireland.
Was a darker side to Mountbatten’s life in Sligo about to be revealed? Did others, apart from the Provisionals, want him dead? Why was security around him so lax given the fact that he was such an obvious target?
There’s little doubt that powerful forces were involved in Mary Boyle’s disappearance and the cover-up that followed. Is it possible that the sordid world of Anglo-Irish child abuse trafficking networks in London and Belfast, and of associated secret-service blackmailings, outlined in recent months by Joseph De Búrca in Village, had tentacles that reached into Cashelard in Donegal? This might explain the baffling failure by so many Garda commissioners, justice ministers and Irish governments to deal with a case that many believe could easily be solved. it could also provide an insight into why the British authorities have turned their backs on Mary Boyle, even though she was one of their own who went missing, abroad.
Two of Donegal’s most prominent councilors are working on a proposal to erect a memorial to Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was killed by the IRA thirty years ago this week.
The Mayor of Donegal, Cllr. Brendan Byrne, and veteran councilor, Sean McEniff , are working on a plan to commemorate Mountbatten and the three other victims who died on August 27, 1979.
Cllr. Sean McEniff, who was one of the first on the scene at Mullaghmore thirty years ago, said, “I remember the day as if it was just yesterday-it was a terrible day for Ireland.
Haughey believed Jimmy Savile would be a good mediator for Thatcher dealings
A letter in the National Archives reveals details of a meeting between the pair at the Central Remedial Clinic in the 1980s.
Dec 28th 2013
CHARLES HAUGHEY BELIEVED BBC presenter Jimmy Savile would make a good mediator for meetings between the British and Irish governments.
Charlie Haughey & Sean Mceniff were good friends of Jimmy Savile & Lord mountbatten who were linked with a strong paedophile ring in Donegal & Sligo. A young girl went missing over 40 years ago & Sean Mceniff told garda to stop interviewing the chief suspect. #MaryBoyle
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Sergeant Martin Collins names the Fianna Fail politician who ordered a cover-up in Mary Boyle case
Sergeant Martin Collins, who led the police investigation into the 1977 disappearance of Mary Boyle, names Fianna Fail’s Sean McEniff as the politician whom he claims instructed gardai that certain people known to Mary were not to be considered suspects.
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Haughey believed Jimmy Savile would be a good mediator for Thatcher dealings
Savile said: “All I have to do is call my friends in the IRA. They’ll have someone waking up in hospital the next morning eating their breakfast through a f***ing straw.
“I know the IRA, men from the IRA, and you don’t need to ask these guys twice.
“I’m serious. Don’t f***ing think I’m not serious. I can get them done – just with a phone call. That’s all it takes, young man.”
“More than £8.5m flowed through Haughey’s secret bank accounts to fund his lavish lifestyle.”
Jimmy Savile in Dublin with Charles Haughey, 1980. 1987 papers reveal ‘MI5 plot to kill Irish PM Haughey’
Charles Haughey, the former Prime Minister of Ireland, introduced Jimmy Savile to his daughter Eimear when she was a young teen.
Savile was a regular visitor to the Haughey home in Dublin.
Savile visited Dublin for 15 years from the mid-1970s to lead charity walks for the CRC (Central Remedial Clinic) co-founded by Valerie Goulding.
My meeting with Savile – Haughey girl
Savile is believed to have been an agent of the UK security services at a time when the UK security services were reportedly planning to assassinate Charles Haughey.
Charles Haughey was told that MI5 had ordered his assassination, declassified state papers show.Records from his office while he was ‘taoiseach’ in 1987 reveal that the UVF, the Protestant terror group, wrote to him as follows:
“In 1985 we were approached by a MI5 officer attached to the NIO (Northern Ireland Office) and based in Lisburn, Alex Jones was his supposed name.
“He asked us to execute you.”
According to the letter, on UVF headed paper, the MI5 operative gave details of Haughey’s cars, his home, his island, and his yacht, Celtic Mist.
Given the power McEniff wielded in almost every aspect of Donegal life, there is little doubt his intervention could have derailed the investigation.
His legacy of corruption is notorious and was well documented in a recent obituary of him in Village magazine, not least because of his close relationships with Gardaí whom he seems to have been able to order around with impunity, especially where his illegal gaming operation in Bundoran was concerned.
A 1985 RTÉ documentary ‘Law and Order in Donegal’, reveals the control McEniff had over local superintendent Dom Murray, who was in charge of the Mary Boyle investigation and who told a number of lies about the case in media interviews through the years.
It offers a damning insight into the incestuous relationship between Fianna Fáil and the Gardaí, which has been used to protect the party from scandal on numerous occasions, not least in the aftermath of the Fr Niall Molloy murder in Offaly in 1985.
Gerry Gallagher was a crony of Sean McEniff who canvassed for the politician with his brother Michael in the rural townlands of Ballyshannon.
Like the archetypal mafia don, McEniff’s modus operandi was to acquire dirt on people who might be a threat to him, walk them into compromising positions and dangle the threat of exposure in their faces.
Superintendent Dom Murray’s wife had a gambling habit which McEniff is claimed to have nurtured while she ran up debts in his Bundoran casinos. This ensured the politician had the officer in his pocket and could use him to bend the law when required.
In recent months, more disturbing allegations have emerged about McEniff. a young woman has come forward making claims that he groomed and sexually abused her as a child. She says he also forced her to have sex with other men in some of his hotels, while he looked on.
The woman, who has never spoken publicly about the abuse but is a contributor to RTÉ and other media about another aspect of her life, also says a complaint she made to Gardaí about the abuse went nowhere.
For decades, there have been rumours that a powerful paedophile network operated in south Donegal involving politicians, businessmen, and other VIPs.
Its most southerly town Bundoran was home to two notorious industrial schools which housed many vulnerable children who could have been preyed upon by local and visiting abusers.
St Martha’s, which was run by the St Louis nuns, was dreaded for its brutality. The institution became infamous for the ‘Bundoran shave’, following an incident in 1963 in which eight girls caught trying to escape had their heads completely shorn as punishment.
Meanwhile, in the neighbouring Sligo village of Mullaghmore, the once-cherished legacy of Lord Louis Mountbatten, mentor and godfather to Prince Charles, is gradually being revised as allegations persist about his possible links to the Kincora Boys Home scandal and paedophilia.
His bizarre friendship with predatory sex offender Jimmy Saville, whom Mountbatten introduced to the inner circle of the British royal family, has added fuel to the claims.
Belfast writer Robin Bryans was considered at length in an article by Joseph De Búrca last month in Village. His family connections to the Orange Order gave him access to the secret lives of some members of the British aristocracy. In 1990, he claimed that Mountbatten was involved in an old-boys’ network that held gay orgies in country houses.
There is growing disquiet about what really went on behind the austere walls of Mountbatten’s Sligo castle, ‘Classiebawn’, where he employed young boys to work for him.
One of them, Paul Maxwell from Enniskillen, Fermanagh, was his waiter and ‘boat-boy’.
He was just 15 when he died alongside Mountbatten (79) in an IRA bomb attack during a fishing trip in august 1979.
Maxwell attended Portora Royal College in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland’s most hallowed school, about which allegations have been made that vice rings were able to procure some of its well-bred students.
On summer trips to his imposing Victorian castle, Mountbatten got to know locals with influence and similar interests.
Sean McEniff was one of the first on the scene in Mullaghmore harbour on the day of the explosion. Eyebrows were raised when the Donegal councillor later called for the erection of a memorial to Mountbatten in sligo, generating consternation in some quarters as to why a Fianna Fáil politician from outside the area would take such a stance, and questions were asked as to who exactly he was trying to impress.
Fianna Fail’s connections with Mountbatten’s close friend Jimmy Saville are well documented. The ‘Top of the Pops’ host who sexually abused hundreds of children at the height of his fame in the 1970s was a regular visitor to Charles Haughey’s Dublin home ‘Abbéville’ in Kinsealy.
Another close associate of Mceniff, Bundoran beef baron Hugh Tunney, became an unlikely friend of Mountbatten during his stays in Sligo.
The former butcher’s apprentice, who went on to own the Gresham Hotel in Dublin, came to his aid when he could no longer fund the running of Classiebawn.
In 1976, a leasing agreement was put in place between the pair which allowed the British royal to visit the 3000-acre estate every August.
Reported to be a devout Catholic, Tunney was said to be present in the castle saying his rosary on the day the explosion struck.
Local affection for Tunney, who died in 2011, is thin on the ground.
Within the castle grounds, a graveyard containing the remains of dozens of unbaptised infants has become the subject of controversy in recent years. In 2006, a group of locals asked Tunney if they could erect a memorial to the children in the burial ground known as Cill na mBochtan, but he turned them down.
They were forced to place it on the roadside outside the estate instead, leaving a sour taste in the community for the millionaire cattle-dealer. Questions linger as to why he would not grant permission for it.
Earlier this month, Mountbatten’s murder again came under scrutiny when it emerged that a former British military police officer who worked as his security guard in Sligo had warned superiors several times that his old fishing boat was vulnerable to a bomb attack. The officer, Graham Yuill, said his concerns met deaf ears.
He was removed from his post shortly before the bombing and was told that Gardaí would be looking after Mountbatten from then on, an unusual decision given his status in the royal family.
These revelations add credence to theories that his IRA killers may not have acted alone and that he may have been killed for reasons that went deeper than the conflict in Northern Ireland.
Was a darker side to Mountbatten’s life in Sligo about to be revealed? Did others, apart from the Provisionals, want him dead? Why was security around him so lax given the fact that he was such an obvious target?
There’s little doubt that powerful forces were involved in Mary Boyle’s disappearance and the cover-up that followed. Is it possible that the sordid world of Anglo-Irish child abuse trafficking networks in London and Belfast, and of associated secret-service blackmailings, outlined in recent months by Joseph De Búrca in Village, had tentacles that reached into Cashelard in Donegal? This might explain the baffling failure by so many Garda commissioners, justice ministers and Irish governments to deal with a case that many believe could easily be solved. it could also provide an insight into why the British authorities have turned their backs on Mary Boyle, even though she was one of their own who went missing, abroad.
Seán McEniff, Ray McSharry and Brian Ó Domhnaill canvassing in Donegal town in 2010.
Ireland’s longest serving councillor, Seán McEniff, died on Friday at the age of 81.
The hotelier had been seriously ill in hospital in Dublin following an accident in the Canary Islands last October.
He was a councillor for 55 years, having served first on Bundoran Town Council and later also on Donegal County Council. He served periods as Cathaoirleach on both councils.
He was known as Mr Bundoran because of his enormous contribution, in business and tourism, to his native town.
And he was a brother of former Donegal All-Ireland football manager Brian McEniff.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin led a host of tributes, saying “Seán was a proud Donegal man and played an integral role in the promotion and development of business and tourism in the county and the North West region”.
Brian McEniff (born 1 December 1942) is a former Gaelic football manager. Regarded as a Gaelic football Godfather-type figure,[1] the high point of his managerial career was his masterminding of Donegal‘s 1992 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final victory over Dublin. In his most recent spell as manager of his county team he led them to the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-finals in 2003.
McEniff has also managed Ulster for 25 years from 1982 until 2007,
IRA member’ Seamus Marley jailed for raping two boys
An alleged IRA member, originally from Ardoyne in north Belfast, has been jailed for seven years for raping and sexually assaulting two teenage boys in the early 1990s.
The incident happened at what was described as a republican safe house close to the border in County Louth.
In April Seamus Marley, 45, was convicted of six counts of sexual assault and two counts of rape.
The offences took place when the two boys were 13 or 14 and 16 or 17.
During Marley’s trial, the Dublin court heard he had threatened one of the boys that if he ever told anyone about what happened he would be found dead on a border road.
One of the victims had told the court, in a victim impact statement, that Marley preyed on him, groomed him and ruined him during his most important years.
He said when he later found himself in a psychiatric hospital and rang someone from Sinn Féin to get him out and get the help he needed, he knew he was on his own and that people with power were seeking to protect their own interests.
But he said “if you are right and truthful, keep shouting”, as eventually someone will listen.
The other victim said he had lived in a mental state of despair for 27 years over what had happened.
But he said there would be no more sleepless nights and he was taking his life back.
Both said they had suffered from alcohol abuse and sleeplessness.
The court was told most of the abuse happened in a house where IRA volunteers were brought in the 1980s and 1990s and stayed for a few days or weeks.
The court also heard Marley, who is now a born-again Christian, has been in a relationship with a Spanish man for 16 years and engaged in extensive charitable work in that period.
His father, Larry Marley, was a leading republican who was murdered by loyalists in 1987.
Larry Marley is said to have been the mastermind behind the 1983 IRA mass prison escape from the Maze.
One of the victims said Marley had introduced alcohol to the house and given it to him. He said he did not think anyone would believe him if he complained.
The other man told the court he had been abused by Marley beginning when he was 17 years old. He said he was told by Marley that he could be found dead on a border road if he told anyone.
Detective Garda Seamus Nolan told the court gardaí (Irish police) had no intelligence that he was involved in any paramilitary organisation until the complainants came forward with their allegations.
Marley gave evidence in his own defence and denied the allegations.
Defence counsel John Fitzgerald urged the court to sentence his client as he was now.
Sentencing Marley, Judge Paul McDermott noted that he had pleaded not guilty and had not offered sincere remorse.
The judge ordered that, when Marley completes his sentence, for the protection of society he complete a two-year supervision programme.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48135126
Former Bishops of Lincoln ignored abuse claims, investigation finds
Two former Bishops of Lincoln “turned a blind eye” to alleged abuse cases and did not report them to police until decades later, a BBC Panorama investigation will reveal tonight.
A list of 53 Lincoln Diocese clergy and staff was also eventually referred to the police in 2015, eight years after a review into past safeguarding disclosures was announced.
The Church of England Past Cases Review which examined thousands of records in 2008 and 2009, including some child abuse cases, found that some names could have been referred years earlier.
The police investigation that followed resulted in the conviction of three people.
The BBC Panorama programme Scandal in the Church of England airs tonight on BBC One at 8.30pm.
Viewers in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire can see more on Look North tonight at 6.30pm.
The joint investigation, carried out with Look North, was told by Lincoln Diocese that it was committed to learning from mistakes.
Detective Superintendent Rick Hatton who led the force’s Operation Redstone told journalists the list was “whittled down to 25 names” of staff and clergy who had committed offences or there was an issue with risk to members of the public.
There was also a concern that they were still working with children, he added.
Of the 25 people investigated, seven were arrested and three were convicted by Lincolnshire Police, Roy Griffiths, John Bailey and Stephen Crabtree.
The cases
Roy Griffiths was jailed for six years.
One of the cases that will feature on tonight’s programme is that of abuse carried out by Roy Griffiths, former deputy head teacher at Lincoln Cathedral School.
Investigations found the late Rt Revd Kenneth Riches was told in 1969 about child sexual abuse. Neither the Lincoln Diocese or Lincoln Cathedral School informed police and Griffiths went on to work at a school in Papua New Guinea.
It wasn’t until 45 years later that police were informed about the allegations.
He is now serving a prison sentence of six years and seven months.
Griffiths’ abuse victim Kevin Bennington will feature in the episode on BBC One. He accuses the church of “turning a blind eye”.
John Bailey walking to court to be sentenced. Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Panorama also found that a seconder former Bishop, Rt Revd Robert Hardy, did not act when an employee has admitted to assaulting a young girl but that it was a “one-off”.
The employee was John Bailey, who was the director of education for the Diocese of Lincoln from 1996 until he resigned in 2002. He pleaded guilty in court in 2017 to 25 charges on indecent assault against three girls, more than 60 years later.
Bishop Hardy said he ‘would have investigated’, but that no one contacted him at the time, and that he regretted trusting Bailey’s word.
‘Concern for church’s reputation’
Panorama also saw new evidence of cases that were left out of the review altogether.
Internal investigations had not required the examination of files relating to dead clergy, and the dioceses were also told they were not expected to talk to survivors of abuse.
Spearheaded by orders from the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, all diocese were later asked to investigate cases of dead clergy – but none made the results public.
Rt Revd Nicholas Chamberlain, Bishop of Grantham, and now lead bishop on safeguarding for the Diocese of Lincoln, told BBC Panorama: “The Diocese of Lincoln wishes to acknowledge that past matters have not been handled well.
“The diocese is committed to learn from its mistakes. I am very sorry that it took so long for justice to be served.”
Rt Revd Peter Hancock, Bishop of Bath and Wells, who leads on safeguarding at the Church of England, told the BBC there had been “too much concern about the reputation of the church and not enough care for victims of abuse.”
The Church of England released a statement from the National Safeguarding team: “BBC Panorama this Monday (April 29) will feature interviews with survivors of church-related abuse in a programme entitled ‘Scandal in the Church of England’.
“We have worked with the producers to provide information and a response to the range of issues raised, particularly around the Past Cases Review.
“There will be a personal response from Bishop Peter Hancock, the Church’s lead safeguarding bishop, once the programme has been aired. Bishop Peter has also been interviewed for the programme.”
Investigations and Operation Redstone are continuing.
Lincoln Cathedral’s first female Dean Christine Wilson took a leave of absence “for personal reasons” after three years in the role.
Chancellor Revd Canon Paul Overend has stepped back after just a year at the same time, “for different reasons, connected to one issue”.
Lincolnshire Police are leading an investigation into a historical safeguarding matter. The Church of England confirmed their departures are linked.
There has been no confirmation if the latest investigation falls under Operation Redstone.
JRR Tolkien’s son ‘sexually abused by one of father’s friends’
Lord of the Rings fans who settle down to watch the film Tolkien this week will be told the story of love and young friendships that later inspired the author to write his tales of Middle-earth. What the biopic won’t show, however, is the dark scandal of abuse that continues to haunt JRR Tolkien’s family more than 45 years after his death.
Last year the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) heard evidence of how the eldest son of The Hobbit’s author, Father John Tolkien, abused young boys during his time as a Catholic priest in Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent.
Now it has emerged that the cleric said that he himself was abused as a boy, and that he was assaulted in the family home by at least one of his father’s learned Oxford friends.
In a tape-recording made by one of the priest’s chief accusers and heard by the Observer, a man said to be him is heard discussing his childhood during the 1920s. At the time, JRR Tolkien was professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford and a fellow of Pembroke College. His friends included CS Lewis, a fellow academic and author of the Narnia novels, and among his students was the poet WH Auden.
When the priest was asked if he had been abused himself as a child, he said: “When I was a boy I was constantly surrounded by my father and colleagues of my father. Almost without exception, his colleagues were academics and, you know, some of them were pretty strange fellows …. Often, people would stay the night at our house …. I often awoke in the morning to find someone sharing my bed. More often than not, it would be … well, I don’t intend to name names, just to say that this particular person who I loved dearly, not in a sexual way, you understand, this person would be fast asleep, huddled up next to me when I woke in the morning. Well, let’s say things had gone on in the night. I knew this. If you wake up with your pyjamas off and they were on when you went to sleep you would wonder, wouldn’t you?”
The recording was made in June 1994 by Christopher Carrie, a Birmingham man who told the IICSA that John Tolkien sexually assaulted him twice in 1956. He first made allegations in 2001 but the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to charge the priest in view of his health. He died in 2003. Before then, Carrie had tracked Tolkien down with a view to challenging him. Carrie died last year, but the recording he made of his conversation with Tolkien is in the hands of his family and its solicitor. Carrie received out-of-court compensation from the Catholic church.
Richard Scorer of Slater and Gordon solicitors, which has acted for victims of the priest, said: “Tolkien’s family name and consequent status in the Catholic community probably gave him even more power and he exploited it to the full.”
The Tolkien family declined to comment.
Ex-Army officer Andrew Whiddett admits child webcam abuse
25 Apr 2019
A former British army officer has admitted arranging for children to be sexually abused in the Philippines while he watched online.
Andrew Whiddett, a retired lieutenant colonel appointed MBE for his service in Northern Ireland, admitted six child sex charges at Croydon Crown Court.
He paid thousands of pounds for the abuse, the National Crime Agency said.
A judge warned the 70-year-old, of Minerva Crescent, Portsmouth, he would be jailed when sentenced on 22 May.
In total the defendant made 49 payments totalling £8,584 between January 2015 and July 2017, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
The abuse happened after his army service and after he left employment as head of security at the British embassy in Baghdad.
‘Soul-destroying abuse’
He admitted attempting to cause or incite a nine-year-old girl and another aged under 16 to engage in sexual activity.
He also pleaded guilty to arranging the commission of a child sex offence in September 2016.
The NCA said he told a contact he wanted to sexually abuse a child when he visited the Philippines the following month.
Whiddett also admitted three further charges of making indecent photographs of a child when he appeared in court on Wednesday, the NCA said.
NCA officer Gary Fennelly said: “Andrew Whiddett was directly responsible for the soul-destroying abuse of children thousands of miles away from him.
“He thought he could get away with abusing Filipino children from the comfort of his own home.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-48053050
Timothy Lancelot Fanshawe Royle (born 1931) was founder and chairman of the Control Risks Group.[1]
Andy Whiddett
Guildford, United Kingdom
Independent Security Consultant
Security and Investigations
Control Risks January 2010 – July 2010
Minimal Risk Consultancy Limited July 2006 – July 2009
DHL July 2004 – July 2006
Batelco July 1997 – July 2004 Skills
Personal Security, Firearms, Military, Access Control, Surveillance, Private Investigations, Weapons, Personal Protection, Intelligence Analysis, Security Audits, Physical Security, Security Training, Risk Management, Risk Assessment, Crisis Management, Army, Emergency Management, Security Operations, Tactics, Maritime Security, Counterterrorism, Investigation, Executive Protection, Security Management, Corporate Security, Security Clearance, CCTV, Business Continuity, Contingency Planning, Close Protection, Protection, Security
The McCanns are formal suspects in the inquiry into the girl’s disappearance.
A number of media organisations have reported that private security firm Control Risks Group (CRG) were employed four months ago to check reported sightings and build up profiles of likely abductors.
Mr Mitchell refused to confirm or deny reports.
A new breed of commercial intelligence company
https://companycheck.co.uk/company/04939593/MINIMAL-RISK-CONSULTANCY-LIMITED/companies-house-data
TONY LING LTD
Private security activities – Management consultancy.
| Mr Andrew Whiddett | Director | |||
| Mr Andrew Whiddett | Company Secretary |
https://companycheck.co.uk/company/07362921/TONY-LING-LTD/companies-house-data
@ciabaudo
Anthony Royle, Baron Fanshawe of Richmond, piqued my interest as he keeps cropping up in various guises in the context of 27 Barnes Lane. Royle was MP for Richmond (the Surrey one) from 1959 until he retired in 1983, only a year after the raid on Elm Guest House child brothel.
Rupert Charles Ponsonby is the 7th Baron de Mauley, a life peer, and is married to Hon. Lucinda Royle, the daughter of Anthony Royle, Baron Fanshawe of Richmond. Lucinda stars in the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s famous little black book:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1508273-jeffrey-epsteins-little-black-book-redacted.html…
The name Diana Dors, a car fanatic, frequently crops up in the Elm Guest House context, with her wild orgies and links to the Kray twins. Shirley Worthington, one of Dors’ close friends, married Anthony Royle. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2955656/Diana-Dors-youngest-son-court-claims-punched-girlfriend-head-alleged-screen-legend-mother-father-paedophiles.html…
In 1967, Colin Peters, patron of EGH, was caught ferrying young boys to Ischia for the pleasure of the likes of Benjamin Britten. He was convicted of buggery years later. Peters worked for the Foreign Office where Royle, MP for Richmond, was minister until 1974.
‘Runaway Royle’, a critic of noisy Heathrow overflights, does not appear to have been a good constituency MP, but, unlike the washing machine salesman Keith Vaz, he was keenly aware of the goings-on on Barnes Common as the next tweets will reveal …
https://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/392168.0/
Keith Vaz was duty solicitor at Richmond and worked closely with the equally questionable Louis Minster of Social Services. However, when asked on Twitter what he knew about Elm Guest House, right across from the Common, he responded with a monosyllabic ‘No’.
Isn’t it ironic then that the local MP Anthony Royle considered the problems on Barnes Common, right opposite a known brothel, sufficiently serious to contact the Home Secretary, Thatcher’s Everyone-Needs-A-Willie Whitelaw? And that Vaz knew how Whitelaw would respond?
Kenneth Newman is head of the RUC during a crucial time in the Kincora scandal.
Then Sir Kenneth Newman is the Metropolitan Chief Commmisioner at the time of the Elm Guest house scandal.
Both scandals have been greatly covered up and both involve sinister elements
Islington Gazette, 30th March 1984
On Friday 25th March 1984 the London Programme was broadcast on TV reported on a police inquiry into corruption at Islington Town Hall ran into a “masonic network”.
MP Chris Smith called on Met Police Commissioner Sir Kenneth Newman to initiate an official investigation and said “the operation has interfered with the process of justice. I find this deeply disturbing.”
At the FCO, Anthony Royle, an Establishment man, appears to have played a very dubious role in Anglo-Irish politics. In this role, it is highly likely he was aware of the role Kincora played in this murky relationship, not least because Kincora was on the same circuit as EGH.
Anthony Royle MP even gets an honourable mention alongside a cabinet minister allegedly easily recognised by his ‘shrunken testicles’ in ‘Shame and Modernity in Britain: 1890 to the Present’ By Anne-Marie Kilday and David S. Nash!
Wouldn’t it be good to have the right people overseeing sound broadcasting in an era dominated by Savile and an infiltration of pirate/private radio by paedophiles and far right nutwings (Radio 270, Radio Pennine, Radio Enoch)?
A year after entering the HoC, Anthony Royle was chosen to become Julian Amery’s PPS, a far-right Monday Club member and close friend of Harvey Proctor. Amery’s brother, John Amery was a Nazi sympathiser who made pro-Hitler broadcasts and was hung for treason in 1945.
What a claim to fame: Anthony Royle MP made the plastic and rubber bullets that killed and maimed Irish men, women and children.
Anthony Royle MP was called by PaedoProtector-in-Chief Margaret Thatcher to be Vice Chairman of the Tory party at Conservative and Unionist Central Office, where he worked closely with her bag carrier Alistair McAlpine.
‘I’d like your permission to approach Virginia?’. Anthony Royle, in his drive to get more women into positions of responsibility in the party, put Virginia Bottomley’s name forward after sounding out her hubby, the man who never visited Elm Guest House!
According to Hansard, Anthony Royle suggested withdrawing Westland’s licence to operate the Battersea heliport in 1975. That is interesting because Royle became a director of Westland in 1985 and remained there until 1994. Westland featured in the Barnes Elm Guest House saga …
Anthony Royle worked hand in hand at Westland with Sir John Cuckney (MI5), involved with Millbank Technical Services, the Midland Bank and Jimmy Savile’s Thomas Cook. I covered Cuckney in a thread showing the links between PIE and the Midland Bank:
https://twitter.com/ciabaudo/status/1111934907549388801?s=19 …
Let’s turn our attention to Anthony’s brother, Timothy Royle, son of Sir Lancelot. Timothy is a church man involved with convicted paedophile Bishop Peter Ball. Ball was asked to officiate at his son Nicholas Royle’s wedding and was told he could not.
Royle and Cuckney were joined at the hip at Westland. Royle’s daughter appears on Epstein’s list. Epstein is closely linked to Ghislaine Maxwell who features in the Harvey Proctor story, and now it transpires that Cuckney was tasked with restoring Maxwell’s raided pension funds.
Belvoir castle tour guide ‘Whacko’ Proctor and Barbara Hewson’s criminal cousin Jonathan Denby were two peas in the same right-wing pod. When Denby went on the run for a year, the Government took charge of his shady deals with Iran. Cuckney presided over 5 Iran-linked firms …
Years before the Maxwell blackmail threat, the uncle of Barbara Hewson and Jonathan Denby, Richard Denby, was retained by activists who had aligned themselves with the Duke to oppose NCB plans to mine in the Vale of Belvour. Denby and Cuckney were both knighted on the same day.
It’s uncanny how names keep cropping up. Anthony Royle’s brother Timothy was chair of the Kinsley Educational Trust. Patrons included Adrian Cadbury and Tonypandy. Cadbury was a trustee of The International Students Trust with Hayman and Sir John Henniker-Major and Lord Denning.
Timothy Royle seems to have had more than one finger in the intelligence industry pie. Control Risks was set up in 1975 by former Army officer Timothy Royle. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10632228 …
Timothy Royle seems to have had more than one finger in the intelligence industry pie. Control Risks was set up in 1975 by former Army officer Timothy Royle.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10632228 …
Michael Alison MP was parliamentary adviser to the Lindley Trust and PPS to Thatcher when child abuse among her cabinet colleagues was at its peak. He also had a hand in warmonger and paedophile protector George Carey becoming Archbishop of Canterbury.
https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105399
Lord Coggan also had close links with Timothy Royle’s Lindley Educational Trust. Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Alison also endorsed the Iwerne Trust, later Titus Trust, which spawned the sadistic John Smyth QC, cruel beater of boys.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-45181824 …
Michael Alison MP of the Iwerne Trust was also a Trustee of the OKClub (Oxford Kilburn Youth Club) where Paul Boateng was Patron. Boateng was both a friend of Janner and Michael Jackson, both paedophiles, and had close ties with convicted paedo Carroll.
Michael Alison MP: ‘Almost useless’ but sought divine guidance about which scriptures he would read to Margaret Thatcher, a PM who presided over a cabinet of perverts, during their car journeys together.
Given his multiple contacts to paedophiles, his time in Northern Ireland and his mantle of religiosity, it comes as no surprise that Michael Alison MP was keen to reject calls for an inquiry into Kincora.
Given his status as Health Minister in Northern Ireland at the time, uber-Christian Michael Alison is bound to have been privy to intelligence on McGrath, his links to Paisley and many accounts of widespread buggery at Kincora
Michael Alison MP certainly had a penchant for associating with criminals, above all those who had turned to Christ. One such gangster was the born-again Chuck Colson, Nixon’s fixer, who even visited Alison’s Earls Court flat!
In his early seventies, Timothy Royle embarked on an improbable second career as an undertaker, a very unusual choice. He was also Honorary Alderman if Cotswold District Council.
https://www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/news/6683896.funeral-firm-has-new-owner/ …
Timothy Royle’s son Ivan is married to Tanya Royle née Gordon. Both are involved with the family funeral business. Tanja Royle is also director of the charity Build Africa which started out as International Care & Relief ICR.
Tanya Royle
Tanya was appointed a Trustee in August 2018, having previously served as President of Build Africa Inc. During that tenure Tanya sought opportunities to raise the profile of BA Inc and raise funds. Tanya is a Director of Fanshawe Consulting Ltd and previously worked at Daiwa Europe, Shandwick Consultants and Elegant Days. Tanya has a degree in Modern Languages and among her interests are horticulture and nutrition.
‘Extravagant’ chaplain, 67, at £35,000-a-year private boarding school ‘plied pupil with oysters, Turkish cigarettes and fine wines then molested him as pair watched Morse on TV
- Gary Dobbie is accused of molesting one of his pupils between 1986 and 1991
- The pupil was being bullied and had turned to the chaplain for support
- But at parties and on one-on-one visits he would touch him, court was told
23 Apr 2019
The chaplain at a £35,000-a-year private boarding school is accused of plying a pupil with smoked oysters, Turkish cigarettes and fine wines and molesting him.
Gary Dobbie, 67, assaulted the young boy over a five-year period between 1986 and 1991 when he worked as a chaplain and teacher at the prestigious Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham, West Sussex, his trial heard.
He would invite the alleged victim to lavish dinner parties at his on-site lodgings but also had him over when it was just the two of them, when they would sit in the dark and watch Inspector Morse, Hove Crown Court was told.
It was during these visits the chaplain allegedly molested the boy.
His trial was told Dobbie was an ‘extravagant’ chaplain who liked to dress up in full ecclesiastical robes in church and burn incense in the school chapel.
Opening the case Abigail Husbands, prosecuting, said: ‘He was treated to food and alcohol while at Mr Dobbie’s and offered smoked oysters, Turkish cigarettes and good wine.’
During these visits the court heard Dobbie would molest the pupil, pushing his hands down the front of his shirt and rubbing his chest and back. He would also swing him onto his lap and grope him, she told the court.
Christ’s Hospital is one of the oldest boarding schools in the country, dating back to the 16th century when it was founded in London by King Edward VI, who signed a Royal Charter for it just 11 days before his death in 1553.
Famous alumni include poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Sir Barnes Wallis – the inventor of the bouncing bomb.
Miss Husbands said the pupil in question had suffered a difficult time at the school and had been repeatedly bullied by his peers.
She said he turned to Dobbie for refuge and had become close to him.
But the jury was told the visits were ‘not all innocent’ and on ‘many, many times’ Dobbie had molested the boy at his home.
On one occasion the pupil went on a reading trip with him where Dobbie allegedly got drunk before violently manhandling him and pushing his hand down his shirt.
He was also assaulted on another school trip, the court was told.
The victim left Christ’s Hospital School after completing his A levels and went on to university.
The court heard he put the matter behind him and continued with his life but was contacted by police last year and was later interviewed by them in relation to the chaplain’s behaviour.
Dobbie was later arrested and charged with three counts of indecent assault relating to multiple offences between 1986 and 1991.
The case, which is expected to last more than a week, continues.
Did County Hall paedos abuse vulnerable children? The secret report Essex Council REALLY doesn’t want you to read…
24 Apr 2019
ESSEX Council paid an independent consultant to spend years investigating allegations that some of its employees had molested children – but now refuses to publish her report, claiming she didn’t find anything out.
The Yellow Advertiser has taken legal action in an ongoing battle with County Hall over the report, which was written in 1998 ’to provide senior managers with a view of issues relating to certain individuals’.
It contains ’many allegations’ of abuse and ’identifies people, organisations and places’.
The YA is fighting to force Essex Council to publish the report after learning that at least one witness gave evidence to its author about the ’cover-up’ of a 1980s Shoebury paedophile ring.
The YA has been investigating the ’Shoebury Sex Ring’ since 2015 and was this month nominated for four national awards by the Society of Editors for its work.
Police sources told the press when the ring was uncovered in 1989 that its members were thought to include civil servants.
But in an effort to get out of publishing the report, Essex Council has now rubbished its contents as ’speculative, conjectural, unproven and un-evidenced’, claiming its author was ’unable to reach any concrete conclusions or recommendations’.
The author was Helen Kenward, an independent consultant who had run similar investigations for other local authorities. The Essex document is therefore known as ‘The Kenward Report’. Mrs Kenward has failed to respond to previous approaches for comment from the YA.
Despite Kenward’s supposed failure to deliver on the 1998 report, the YA has seen evidence that County Hall continued to pay her to investigate internal child sex allegations for years afterwards.
A letter sent to one whistleblower by an Essex Council lawyer in early 2001 said Kenward was still interviewing witnesses and her work was expected to continue for ’the next few months’.
Last year, the YA published excerpts of evidence given to Kenward by a whistleblowing ex-social worker in 2000, some of which concerned the ‘Shoebury Sex Ring’.
The YA has filed legal papers with the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) seeking a tribunal, after the Government-funded Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) backed Essex Council’s claim that covering up the report would help keep other children safe in future.
The council’s monitoring officer claimed releasing the 21-year-old report would dissuade Essex Council from commissioning investigations into future child sex complaints, in case somebody asked to see those down the line as well.
They wrote in formal advice to the council: “A report of this nature cannot easily be destroyed for many decades because records relating to allegations of this nature may have future relevance. The only safe option would be to not commission reports of this nature.”
Therefore, they said, by suppressing the child sex report, the council was actually ’promoting the wellbeing of children’.
The ICO’s report revealed the council’s safeguarding director, director of children’s services and executive director for children and families had all also been involved in suppressing the report.
The ICO sided with the council, writing: “The commissioner is convinced by the arguments that disclosure could deter the council’s senior management from commissioning similar reports in the future, thus impacting on its ability to offer an effective public service.”
Peter Saunders, founder of abuse charity NAPAC, said: “What it sounds like to me is, Essex Council is saying that if they are forced to be open and transparent on this occasion, they will ensure that there can be no openness and transparency in future. In my opinion, it sounds almost like they are blackmailing you.
“I’ve never heard of children’s lives being endangered because of appropriate openness and transparency. I’ve only heard of children being endangered by secrecy and cover-ups.
“What has Essex got to hide, that it feels it has to put this pressure on our media, which represents us, the people? It seems very dark and very sinister.”
Essex Council claimed last year it could have redacted and released the report, but that would have taken ’many hundreds of hours’, rendering the YA’s request ’vexatious’.
The YA later discovered the report was only 142 pages long – shorter than some documents the council has previously redacted and released without complaint under the Freedom of Information Act.
The YA complained to the ICO about the council’s extreme time estimate and said that in truth, it was entirely possible for County Hall to redact and release the report.
But when the ICO adjudicated over the case, it failed to even acknowledge the council’s bizarre claim. Thus, the YA has filed papers with the MOJ seeking a tribunal.
Essex Council also claimed last year that there was ’no public interest’ in releasing the report, which the YA is strongly disputing.
*To read some of the evidence given to Helen Kenward about Essex Council, click on the stories below.
Also in the news
http://www.yellowad.co.uk/article.cfm?id=141679
The secret tangled web of Bishop Eamonn Casey’s life exposed: Behind the lovable rogue persona he began a smear campaign against his niece Patricia, allegedly raped and abused, while protecting her brother – Fr Michael Donovan, another alleged abuser
@calamiTcat76
Necker Island, of course is RIGHT BESIDE paedo Epsteins island. which in turn is right beside Haiti.. Funny that eh?!
‘Sex cult’ led by Smallville actress Allison Mack ‘held wild parties on Richard Branson’s private Caribbean island in a bid to recruit the billionaire’
- Members of Nxivm ‘sex cult’ reportedly held two wild parties on Necker Island
- Necker is billionaire businessman Richard Branson’s private Caribbean island
- Members, including co-founder Nancy Salzman, visited island in 2007 and 2010
- Former Nxivm publicist Frank Parlato claimed the visits were Nxivm’s attempt to ‘reruit Branson into the organization’
- A Virgin Management spokesman said that ‘there is absolutely no association between Sir Richard and the Nxivm group or its leader’
- Nxivm founder Keith Raniere did not visit the island during the alleged visits
- Raniere was arrested on the sex trafficking charges in Mexico in March
- Actress Allison Mack was also arrested for her role in the sex slave cult Nxivm
- Raniere and Mack are both facing life sentences in prison if convicted of charges
Members of the Nxivm ‘sex cult’ led by Smallville actress Allison Mack reportedly held wild parties on billionaire Richard Branson’s private Caribbean island at least twice.
According to The Sun, several members, including co-founder Nancy Salzman, visited Branson’s Necker Island for two seminars in 2007 and 2010.
Former Nxivm publicist Frank Parlato told the newspaper: ‘I was told the reason they staged the seminars on Necker was they hoped to recruit Branson into the organization.’
Parlato said that the businessman ‘would have been the biggest score they ever had’.
Nxivm ‘sex cult’ members reportedly held wild parties on billionaire Richard Branson’s private Caribbean island at least twice. The Sun obtained photos that showed Branson and Sara Bronfman (pictured) together. The photos were reportedly taken on Necker Island in 2010
One of the visits was reportedly paid for by billionaire heiress and Nxivm follower Sara Bronfman, whose late father, businessman Edgar Bronfman Sr, knew Branson, according to the Sun.
Sara’s sister, Clare, is also one of Nxivm’s longtime followers. Clare recently took over as leader for the ‘sex cult’ after actress Allison Mack and leader, Keith Raniere were arraigned on sex trafficking charges.
According to the Sun, Raniere did not visit the island during the alleged visits. Raniere was arrested on the sex trafficking charges in Mexico in March.
The Sun obtained photos that showed Branson, Sara and Mack together. The photos were reportedly taken on Necker Island in 2010.
Parlato claims that Salzman ‘said she did the teaching by day. But she said he [Branson] became increasingly restless and hosted really crazy parties that started earlier and earlier’.
Branson told the newspaper that he was not aware of any seminars. He claims he has never heard of Raniere and never met him.
One of the visits was reportedly paid for by billionaire heiress and Nxivm follower Sara Bronfman, whose late father, businessman Edgar Bronfman Sr, knew Branson. Sara is pictured, (right) with her sister, Clare (left), who is currently running Nxivm
A Virgin Management spokesman said that ‘there is absolutely no association between Sir Richard and the Nxivm group or its leader’.
It seems unlikely that Raniere will be able to strike any deals with the US attorney’s office, who successfully petitioned to have him held without bail in a letter to the court stating that the cult leader had sexual relationships with two minor females, aged 15 and 12, in the past.
The allegations against Raniere and Mack were outlined in a Complaint and Affidavit in Support of Arrest Warrant that was filed back on February 14.
Special Agent Michael Lever with the FBI had been investigating Raniere and speaking with former cult members, including two women known as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2.
Lever states that Raniere came up with the idea for Nxivm’s sex slave program, known as DOS, during the summer of 2015.
A woman by the name of CC-1, who was revealed to be Mack in subsequent filings, was his first ‘slave,’ and provided ‘collateral’ which guaranteed she would remain faithful to him by providing Raniere with damning material.
‘CC-1’s email was titled “vow 3” and included an attached letter. The letter pledged CC-1’s “full and complete life” to 14 RANIERE,’ reads the complaint.
‘In the letter, CC-1 used the terms “slave” and “master” to refer to herself and RANIERE. Moreover, the letter identified “collateral” to “cement” the vow made by CC-1.
‘This collateral was described as: (1) a letter regarding CC-1’s mother and father that would “destroy their character”; (2) a contract that transferred custody of any children birthed by CC-1 to RANIERE if CC-1 broke her commitment to RANIERE; (3) a contract that transferred ownership of CC-1’s home if the commitment to RANIERE was broken; and (4) a letter addressed to social services alleging abuse to CC-1’s nephews.’
It is not clear if any of the claims made in those letters were true.
Soon, CC-1 was recruiting slaves of her own and filling out the pyramid that Raniere had hoped to create, selecting Jane Doe 1 as one of these women.
Allegations of Raniere’s alarming and illegal sexual predilections are also outlined in a letter sent by US Attorney Richard P Donoghue to Judge Steven M Gold back in March.
The allegations against Raniere and Mack were outlined in the Complaint and Affidavit in Support of Arrest Warrant that was filed back on February 14
‘According to confidential sources, the defendant had repeated sexual encounters with multiple teenage girls in the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s,’ reads the letter.
‘In one instance, the defendant met a fifteen-year-old girl while he was in his 20s and had repeated sexual contact with her. In another instance, the defendant met a twelve-year-old girl whose mother worked for the defendant and began tutoring her.’
The letter goes on to say: ‘Shortly thereafter, the defendant began having regular sexual intercourse with her, including at his home where he lived with multiple adult sexual partners.’
Raniere is also said to have voiced his belief that the age of consent should be lowered to when a parent believes their child is capable to sexual activity.
Mack was arrested and arraigned on federal charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor.
Those are the same charges thatRaniere, 53, is being charged with, and both are facing a possible sentence of life behind bars.
The group has a large base in Albany, but a number of its most high-profile members decamped to Mexico earlier this year.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire Part two of the boy on the meat rack, the story of Alan Kerr
He socialised with Royalty and was abused by a future Lord, though his brother had revealed the key story about MI5 abuse of Kincora boys
18 April, 2019
RECAP OF PART ONE
In Part One of this story, Alan Kerr described how he was sexually abused by three men at Williamson House, a Belfast Corporation Welfare Department care home in Belfast, in the 1970s. He was only six years of age when he was first raped. One of his abusers was Eric Witchell, the Office-in-Charge of the home. Witchell was a friend of the paedophile gang which ran the infamous Kincora Boys’ Home, also in Belfast.
Later, Alan was moved to Shore House where he was abused by another two men, one of whom may have been William McGrath, the Housefather at Kincora.
Alan eventually fled from institutional care for a life on the streets of Belfast. Desperate, and in need of food and shelter, he worked for a spell at a brothel on the Lisburn Road where boys as young as 13 were made available to Belfast’s paedophile community. At the very least, the brothel enjoyed a measure of shelter from the wall of protection built around NI’s paedophile rings by the UK intelligence community. In order for the spies’ paedophile exploitation and blackmail operations to thrive in NI, it was necessary for the local paedophile population as a whole to flourish. If it wasn’t for this, Alan and many others might never have been abused.
HUNGRY, ALONE AND FIGHTING THE BITING COLD
Alan was abused by Billy ‘B’, a man he describes as a “toilet creeper”: “I met him out of the blue one time [in Belfast] while I was on the run from Rathgael [Training Centre]. He followed me into the toilet and smiled at me”, Alan recalls. B would prove to be one of Alan’s most prolific abusers.
When Alan was 15 or 16 B took him to London via the Belfast-Liverpool car ferry in his silver BMW. At the time Alan was subject to a care order which was not due to expire until he was 21. Alan stayed in London after B headed back to Belfast because he did not want to return to Ireland but this proved no more than jumping out of the Belfast frying pan and into a London hellfire. With no support, trade or qualification, he would spend his youth as a “rent boy” at such places as Victoria Station and on the ‘Meat Rack’ at Piccadilly Circus, also known as the “Dilly”. Over time, he would get to know boys from all over Ireland who were in the same dire straits as he was. The men who abused the young teenagers referred to them as ‘chickens’; the boys called their abusers ‘punters’. Alan would never return to live in NI again.
Victoria Train Station was an infamous hunting ground for paedophiles. “There were pubs inside the station in those days. Some of the men who went to them were only there to have sex with the boys. There was another pub nearby, the Shakespeare, which was similar. Soldiers used to go there a lot. At the weekends there would be a lot of military police outside it”.
The police knew perfectly well what was going on at Victoria Station. Not long after his arrival, Alan was approached by a British Transport Police (BTP) officer who asked him who he was and then went away to make inquiries about him. When he returned, he told Alan that since he wasn’t in trouble in NI, he wasn’t going to do anything about him. Clearly, the officer had been able to make enquiries with Belfast – presumably through the communication facilities in the BTP office in the station – and must surely have discovered that Alan was still under a care order. Nonetheless, he abandoned him to a life as a rent boy.
Finding somewhere to sleep was a priority for Alan, and the Victoria Station offered some shelter. “In those days, the station was open all night. It is unrecognisable now. I slept on trains that pulled into it for the night”. Sometimes he found himself drenched in so much sweat that his clothes would be wet, even in winter. Then, as the night and early morning crept in, he would begin to freeze while still damp if not actually wet. He recalls having to go to the toilets to try and warm himself up by using the hand dryer. ‘In the morning the police would come onto the trains and turf you off”.
One of the visitors to the toilets at Victoria Station was John Imrie, an MI5 officer named by Ken Livingstone in the House of Commons in connection with the Kincora scandal. Imrie was arrested at the station and convicted for exposing himself. See Village March 2018.
QUEER-BASHING AND SEXUAL ABUSE AT THE HANDS OF THE POLICE
During his early years in London, Alan was assaulted by police officers on a number of occasions. Typically, this happened as he was being escorted towards Vine Street Police Station from the Dilly. “They would start pushing and pulling you to make it look like you were causing them trouble. They would use this as an excuse to punch you in the stomach; always in the stomach; up against the wall outside the station. They never bruised your face as you might be going up before the Bow Street magistrates”.
One British Transport Police officer Alan got to know was a pederast, something that would explain how the abuse was able to thrive at the station. He developed a liking for Alan and frequently abused him, even taking him back to his flat. Some of the officer’s colleagues suspected what was afoot and attempted to persuade Alan to talk about it but he refused. The abusive officer has long since died. He operated out of the Transport Police office at Victoria Station. Alan didn’t reveal the nature of the relationship he had with this officer when he was interviewed by his colleagues because he was “afraid of the police”.
THE EARL’S COURT ‘CLINIC’ ON THE LONGRIDGE ROAD
One night Alan was approached by an Oriental man called Peter, in his 30s or 40s at Victoria Station. He escorted him to a house at 51 Longridge in Earl’s Court which masqueraded as a ‘clinic’. What Alan didn’t realise at first was that he was being sampled to see if he might be suitable to work for the man at his brothel; one that catered for older men who exploited teenage boys. “Peter always tested the boys himself to see if they were any good. He gave me a few quid the first time we had sex but never again. He never felt he had to pay for sex and had sex with the boys whenever he felt the urge. You couldn’t say no to him”.
“Peter was friends with another Thai man who ran a brothel on Sydney Street. They were always looking for chickens for their places. When I first started working for him, he was in a house in Earl’s Court called the ‘Earl’s Court Clinic’. It was all done up in an Oriental fashion with Oriental statues and flowers. Oriental boys and some Australian boys worked in it. Some of the Oriental boys looked about 13 or 14 but you had no way of knowing their age. Mainly, the boys were around my age. There was one older lad who was in his late 20s but he was more like Peter’s right-hand man. He would take over running the place when Peter wasn’t there”.
Peter later moved the Clinic to a basement at Nevern Place, also in Earl’s Court.
THE LONDON PAEDOPHILE CIRCUIT THAT REVOLVED AROUND ELM GUEST HOUSE, THE EARL’S COURT CLINIC, THE PHILBEACH HOTEL AND THE BROTHEL ON SYDNEY STREET
By the time Alan had arrived in London in the mid-1980s, Elm Guest House, an infamous boy brothel, had been raided and closed down by the police. Until 1982, the Elm was where the likes of Sir Cyril Smith MP abused boys. Once inside the doors, abusers could mingle with each other. There was, for example, a sauna which was available to all of its patrons. Cyril Smith once reportedly trapped himself inside it due to his obesity.
The closure of the Elm did not put an end to child abuse in London. It just moved – or intensified -at other establishments. One venue where underage boys were exploited was the Philbeach Hotel in Earl’s Court. Both Alan and his older brother Richard were abused at it. Richard had been held in the hotel by two men after he came to London. Richard had also been exploited at the Elm. A return visit he made to Elm guesthouse as an adult with a team from Channel 4 news is available on YouTube.
Richard Kerr says that Peter, the Thai child pimp, was involved in both the Elm and the Philbeach. Richard recalls a picture of Peter which hung on one of the walls in the Philbeach. It featured him amid a group of men.
On the surface, the Philbeach was nothing more than a raucous party venue for consenting homosexual adults. Suffice it to say, many of those who frequented the hotel had no part in the abuse of underage boys. The LGBT Archive recalls it fondly in the following terms: “Philbeach Hotel in Philbeach Gardens, Earl’s Court, was a gay-owned hotel, catering for a gay clientele. Long before Soho became So-Homo, Earl’s Court was the gay capital of London. And if the walls could talk at the Philbeach, London’s most in-your-face gay hotel, they’d have some saucy tales to tell. It’s typically English B&B material, if a bit grubby. But people [didn’t go to it] for the chintz. For the Philbeach had gained a reputation as a cruisy hotel. If you don’t enjoy being propositioned in the bathroom, request a room with ensuite facilities. The Philbeach Hotel was open for 27 years and was one of the largest gay hotels in Europe. The Philbeach hotel was the only gay hotel in London that was owned by homosexuals and run by homosexuals. The hotel closed on January 31, 2008. It had 35 rooms on three floors.”.
The Earl’s Court Clinic and the brothel on Sydney Street run by Peter’s friend, form the third and fourth parts of a London abuse circuit. No doubt there were many other venues in the city.
THE ‘CLINIC’ WAS MORE DISCREET THAN ELM GUEST HOUSE
The ‘Earl’s Court Clinic’, was a far more discreet establishment than the Elm. “The punters who visited it came up the steps outside it and through the front door and into a hall. There was a door inside the hall with a bit of glass in it that acted as a one-way mirror because the hall was kept in semi-darkness but the room next to it – where we were – was well lit. The punters would peer through the glass at us – we would be sitting inside – and pick one of us out. In the first building – the house – Peter would walk into the room after the punter had made his choice and call out the name and shout “upstairs”. After we moved to the basement [premises], we would be sent to a room along the corridor. There was also a darkened window in the basement for the punters to look through at the lads. Peter would make recommendations about who was suitable for the punters who didn’t make up their mind immediately”.
FOR SALE: ASSAULT AND BATTERY
Peter allowed the ‘punters’ to assault his boys if they were prepared to pay enough. “The most I ever got was from a man who wanted to lash me with a leather belt. He paid me £20 per slap. I made a few hundred quid that night”, Alan recalls.
“We always got a cash payment but the commission was half. Peter always took half”.
‘The punters were rich. Most of them wore suits. There were no roughs. Most of them were in their 40s and upwards. The oldest was about 70. The older men were the worst. They were dirty down below. Some of them had already got cum in their pants they were that excited. They made me sick but you just had to get on with it. You had to be good to stay in the Clinic. If you didn’t make money, Peter got rid of you. I worked for him for about a year. Then I went back on the streets again. I haven’t seen Peter in a long time. The last time I saw him he was old and had grey hair”. Assuming the competence of the Independent Statutory Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) led by Professor Alex Jay to look into high-profile instances of non-recent child sexual abuse, it will have long since found out about Peter. If he is still alive, it will have asked him searching questions about what he knows about VIP paedophiles. It is hard to imagine a potentially more important witness for its work.
GREVILLE JANNER MP AND THE APARTMENT AT DOLPHIN SQUARE
After his time at the Clinic, Alan went to the Meat Rack on the ‘Dilly’ at Piccadilly Circus. One night, Greville Janner, then a Labour MP, “came up behind me and started talking to me”. A short while later, he escorted Alan to the bar in Dolphin Square. Alan slept with Janner each night during the week that followed. “I was desperate for somewhere to live at the time. I wanted accommodation, food and security”.
Janner would throw him back on the street in the morning and then hook up with him at night. Janner made no attempt to hide who he was or what he did. One morning Janner warned him he had “a late sitting” that night but that he was to wait for him. This, presumably, was a reference to a late sitting in the Commons.
THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER
During the course of the week, Janner invited him to go to a show in Earl’s Court. Alan was surprised but happy to accept. Janner then told him that he had to submit his – Alan’s – name for security clearance as they would be on Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s guest list. Alan obliged by providing his full name and his sister’s address. Janner subsequently told him that everything was “fine” with the security people.
Shortly afterwards, they attended The Prince and the Pauper at Earl’s Court‘s Olympia with the Royals. Janner and Alan sat directly behind the Royal couple who were in the front row, or very close to it. While they were waiting for the show to begin, Alan and Prince Andrew conversed. They also chatted during the intermission. “I had a good conversation with him. He had character. He was a cheerful guy. He was not snobby or anything. He told me he was going to open a hospital in Northern Ireland. I didn’t feel I had to bow down to him. I wasn’t nervous. Janner let me do the talking. They seemed to know each other quite well. That’s why I was able to talk to him. Sarah Ferguson didn’t speak much. She really just ignored us.”.
The guest list and the vetting records relating to this performance should still exist in an archive somewhere.
WHAT WAS JANNER PLAYING AT?
Janner obviously knew Alan was from Belfast and that his name would be run by MI5 and the RUC Special Branch during the security vetting process. It must have occurred to him that Alan could easily have had one or more convictions for male prostitution under his belt. And Alan did indeed have a number of convictions. He believes – but is not certain – that he incurred some of them before he met the Prince. So, why was Janner prepared to submit his name to the officials responsible for protecting the Royals? Had he reason to believe he had nothing to fear from MI5 and the police?
Why did Janner – a married man, politician and author – take a male prostitute in his early 20s to the performance instead of his wife or some other friend? There must have been many influential people who would have been indebted to Janner for just such an invitation.
If the tabloid media in the UK had discovered that Prince Andrew had enjoyed a social interaction – however fleeting and innocuous – with the brother of a Kincora boy, that fact alone could have generated waves of negative publicity for him, especially with the unrelenting reports about Kincora which the heavyweight campaigning journalist Paul Foot was publishing in Private Eye and the Daily Mirror.
There are other puzzling features about the event. Janner was a great communicator, so much so that he published multiple editions of a book entitled, ‘Janner’s Complete Speechmaking’. So why did he sit back – literally – and let Alan dominate the discussion with Prince Andrew?
MI5’s ‘DOLLY MIXTURES’
If MI5 had done its homework properly, it would have realised that Alan was the younger brother of Richard Kerr, the courageous boy who had exposed the Kincora scandal. Significantly, it was Richard’s social workers who had informed the Irish Independent about it. The link between the brothers was hardly a secret: when he had lived in Belfast, Alan had occasionally visited Richard at Kincora.
MI5 certainly kept an eye on the sexual antics of VIPs in the 1980s. It had a dedicated unit which monitored the sexual antics of Tory VIPs. It was called the ‘Dolly Mixtures’. In February 1985 Frank Doherty reported in the Phoenix magazine, that the ‘Dolly Mixtures’ had been set up on the “personal orders” of Margaret Thatcher to avoid embarrassing Tory sex scandals. It is highly likely that it or a parallel unit also monitored the young Royals. Indeed, the so-called ‘Squidgygate’ tape featuring Charles and Camilla is suspected of emanating from an MI5 leak. There is no space to analyse the Squidgygate affair in this article but it is discussed at length elsewhere, e.g. Wikipedia.
Frank Doherty’s Phoenix article about the ‘Dolly Mixtures’ (published five years before the Squidgygate scandal erupted) revealed that the ‘Iron Lady’ had ordered the establishment of the unit on account of “her fear of a repeat” of the Profumo scandal. ‘Since 1981, on her personal orders, an elite section of MI5, operating from Gordon Street, W1, has kept a discreet eye and an attuned ear on the personal and sexual indiscretions of Tory MPs. This section, known as the “Dolly Mixtures”, is composed of tall, blonde males, green-wellied Sloane Rangers, Young Fogie homosexuals, and young blue-chip ‘wets’ who together form a unit superbly equipped to socialise with and report on the morale, morals and mores of Tory MPs”.
MI5 certainly appreciated the real and present danger posed by Richard Kerr to the British Establishment, and had done so for years before the performance at the Earl’s Court Olympia which his younger brother attended. In the early 1980s Richard had lived in Preston and later in London. He had become the target of heavy-handed officials at both locations. In 1981 he had been warned by the RUC, who visited him in Preston, not to return to Belfast to give evidence at the Kincora trial. The RUC only wanted boys who had been abused inside the walls of Kincora by the staff to get into the witness box; not those like Richard who had been taken out of the home to places such as the Park Avenue hotel where they were made available to MI5 surveillance targets including at least one senior member of the DUP (the ‘Wife Beater’) and his friend John Dunlop McKeague, the leader of the Red Hand Commando. Later, a group of police officers had assaulted Richard in London to keep him quiet. On one particular occasion, he was assaulted by an undercover officer who had been listening to what he was telling his friends about Kincora in a fast food restaurant in London.
JANNER’S FRIENDS ON THE BENCH
Janner knew that Alan occasionally got into trouble with the law. When Alan found himself up before the magistrates at Bow Street on another charge later on, he informed the MP – with whom he had now become quite friendly – about his looming appearance. Janner, who was also a barrister and friendly with a number of judges, penned a letter for him. Janner attended the hearing but didn’t have to move from his seat during the hearing. In the event, Alan was found not guilty.
Alan is aware that at least one of the magistrates Janner knew also visited the Dilly to procure sex from the rent boys at it.
Overall, Alan was impressed by Janner. “He came across as a very intelligent man”, he says.
Others were impressed with him too: Janner was later made a member of the House of Lords.
ALAN NOW
The only occupation Alan has ever had is that of a male prostitute and a brief moment as a model for a pornographic gay magazine. He now lives in a small flat in London. A report from his counsellor states that his experiences have left “him feeling extremely isolated and [he experiences] regular traumatic flashbacks and debilitating bouts of anxiety and depression”. He is a poor sleeper and becomes physically shaky when agitated.
He has attempted suicide by inhaling gas. On another occasion he punched his hand through plate glass resulting in severe injuries. He has engaged in other bouts of self-harm.
He is not in a relationship and has no children.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Looking to the future, he is eager to give evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse in London about the VIP child abuse.
QUESTIONS FOR PROFESSOR ALEXIS JAY
The London-based Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) is currently carrying out its inquiries. A number of questions arise about what Professor Alexis Jay, Chair of IICSA, is and is not doing. They include the following:
• Will she ask MI5 for its files on Alan and Richard Kerr?
• Will Professor Jay let Alan and his brother Richard (who was abused by a string of Westminster MPs and a Tory Cabinet Minister) appear before IICSA? If not, why not? The revelation about the abuse by the Cabinet Minister was broadcast on Channel 4 News a number of years ago. IICSA can hardly be unaware of it. • Will Professor Jay ask the department responsible for the security vetting for the Earl’s Court Olympia performance of The Prince and the Pauper which Alan Kerr attended with Lord Janner, for all of its relevant records?
• Will she ask MI5 for the reports and files generated by the ‘Dolly Mixtures’ about Tory VIP sexual misbehaviour to vet them for child abusers?
• Will she ask MI5 and the Home Office for their files on Lord Janner who abused Alan Kerr and the various other MPs who abused his brother Richard?
• Will she investigate Peter, the Thai child pimp who ran the Earl’s Court Clinic, and his rich clients? Will she ask MI5 for any files it might have concerning him?
• Will she interview Eric Witchell?
• Will she ask MI5 for its files on Haroon Kashir, Carol Kashir and John Imrie?
• Will she also find out why MI5 and MI6 gave evidence to the Hart Inquiry in NI which was manifestly false? (See Village February and March 2017.)
THE DIETRICH GAMBIT?
In the celebrated film of Agatha Christie’s ingenious Witness for the Prosecution, Marlene Dietrich plays a cunning witness for the prosecution who testifies at a murder trial with the premeditated intention of being exposed as a liar and thereby discrediting the prosecution. Village has aired its reservations on numerous occasions that equally dark forces are conducting a comparable gambit in an effort to control the VIP sex abuse scandal with the tacit – if not outright – support of MI5 and MI6.
They have spent years promoting manifest hoaxers with remarkably similar farfetched yarns in the media and on the internet. Ultimately, their wild allegations were exposed as decidedly unhinged.
Some of these characters have tried to present their yarns to IICSA with straight faces. The overarching intention of this audacious stratagem is for the so-called ‘victims’ to paint credible witnesses such as the Kerr brothers with the same absurdist brush with which they have been tarred.
This murky scenario provides a plausible explanation for the otherwise senseless behaviour of the British police and the BBC during the fiasco that engulfed Cliff Richards, a patently innocent man falsely accused of sexual wrongdoing.
The reaction of the British public to the outrageous ill-treatment of such a beloved figure has been to diminish and undermine concern about VIP abuse rings.
There have been other victims such as Lord Brammal and Paul Gambaccini. The common denominator in each case is a police force which seems to have lost control of its senses.
The cumulative effect of these scandals is that quite a number of British TV and radio broadcasters, along with invited guests, have become sceptical about the existence of a VIP child sex abuse network of any sort and antagonistic towards those who are probing it.
This was quite evident after the release of the careful, considered and credible report by the Wiltshire Police concerning the abuse of boys by former Tory PM, Ted Heath, in October 2017.
On the other hand, the Establishment sceptics would have us believe that {i} a string of fantasists, {ii} none of whom knew each other, {iii} concocted absurd stories with similar themes by sheer coincidence and {iv} were then uniformly treated as credible by credulous police forces who {v} all overreacted in a grossly unprofessional manner against entirely innocent men with high profiles such as Richards, Brammal and Gambaccini.
Either way, it is up to Professor Jay to distinguish between the real and the artificial.
The lazy option will be to lump them all together and dismiss them as a motley collection of unreliable fantasists.
Smyth abuse-survivors dispute Welby claim
18 April 2019
SURVIVORS of abuse perpetrated by John Smyth have written to Lambeth Palace to correct the Archbishop of Canterbury’s assertion that Smyth was “not actually an Anglican” — a comment made during an interview on Channel 4 News last week.
In total, the letter lists 14 points of dispute about the Archbishop’s comments.
During the interview on Friday, which explored the Church of England’s response to Smyth’s abuse, Archbishop Welby said that Smyth “was not actually an Anglican. The church he went to in South Africa was not Anglican, and Iwerne was not part of the Church of England.”
Smyth was living in South Africa when a disclosure of abuse was made in Ely diocese in 2013, and died there last year. He was a former chairman of the Iwerne Trust, which ran holiday camps for boys at English public schools, and is now part of the Titus Trust. A six-month Channel 4 News investigation, broadcast two years ago, found that both the Iwerne Trust and Winchester College had learned of allegations of abuse by Mr Smyth in the 1980s, but failed to report them to the police (News, 10 February 2017).
One of the survivors who wrote to Lambeth Palace this week, Graham*, described the claim that Smyth was not an Anglican as “farcical”, given that he worshipped in the C of E.. The letter tells the Archbishop that Smyth had in fact been a licensed Reader in the diocese of Winchester.
A spokesperson for the diocese of Winchester said: “When the allegations first came to light we reviewed our records. There was nothing to suggest that John Smyth had had a formal role within the diocese and so no further investigation was undertaken.”
Graham also listed the many links between the Iwerne Trust and the C of E, pointing out that survivors in the United Kingdom and trustees of the Trust — some of whom were ordained — had attended Anglican churches.
In his interview, Archbishop Welby said: “The Church of England was never directly involved, but we take responsibility because there was a Church of England clergyman, though not on the payroll, who was in charge of the Iwerne Trust and there were Anglicans there . . .”
He also emphasised that the allegations did not pertain to the Iwerne Trust’s camps — the abuse had taken place at Smyth’s home.
But Archbishop Welby did not mention that the report commissioned by the Iwerne Trust and compiled in 1982, prompted by a suicide attempt by a survivor, was written by a C of E priest, the Revd Mark Ruston, when he was Vicar of Holy Sepulchre with All Saints, Cambridge. It described what it called the “beatings” of 22 young men.
“The scale and severity of the practice was horrific . . . eight received about 14,000 strokes: two of them having some 8000 strokes over three years.”
The contents of the report were disclosed to a number of Anglican clergy. Smyth went on to live in Zimbabwe, where he continued to run holiday camps — Zambezi Ministries — and South Africa.
“Had any one of these men spoken out about what they knew, upwards of 60 African children might not have been viciously beaten, and Smyth might have faced the justice he deserved,” the letter says.
Archbishop Welby told Channel 4 News that he had had “no idea” of Smyth’s abuse until 2013. “I heard a report about an allegation of abuse; it was made in Ely diocese, and the Bishop of Ely had contacted the statutory authorities . . . and I wrote to the Primate in South Africa.”
In fact, it was the Bishop of Ely, the Rt Revd Stephen Conway, who wrote to the Church in South Africa.
Asked about a promised review, Archbishop Welby told Channel 4 News that it could not take place until the Church had secured the participation of the other organisations involved: a reference to Scripture Union, Winchester College, and the Titus Trust.
“Unless you can get everyone in you are never going to get anywhere near the truth,” he said. “We’ve written to them; we’ve not had answers from all of them; and I would very much like them to reply promptly and quickly, and let’s get on with it and discover what we need to learn.”
Several survivors of Smyth’s abuse have launched a civil claim against the Titus Trust (News, 24 August 2018), and it is understood that the Titus Trust will consider a review only once these have been concluded (News, 1 March).
Graham suggested that it was “perverse that the decision as to which organisations should have the veto on a review has been taken before the review itself, when all of the facts are not yet known”.
He also disputed the Archbishop’s comment that there had been “very rapid contact” with the survivors, and that the bishop in charge of safeguarding and safeguarding officers had met them.
On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Lambeth Palace declined to clarify the Archbishop’s comments but said that he hoped to meet survivors “as soon as possible”.
@Graham1munro
The Iwerne Camps were endorsed by Lord Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury. Not Anglican !!! What a stupid thing to say
Iwerne Minster Summer Holidays 1983
Leaders
David Fletcher,
Peter Wells,
Mark Bishop,
Simon Brignall,
Ian Gilmour,
Nick Harris,
Mike Keep,
John Knight,
Richard Knight,
James Nairne,
Mike Neville,
Rod Pellereau,
Sandy Russell,
William Taylor.
Lord Coggan, formerly Archbishop of Canterbury,
Bishop of Norwich, Michael Alison MP,
Prof Sir Norman Anderson OBE,
Sir Frederick Catherwood,
Sir Maurice Dorman,
Admiral Sir Horace Law,
Judge Ruttle expressed their appreciation and warm support of previous holiday
ISN survivors tell of Savile link to LBI childrens homes and Cyril Smith visiting Gisburne House LBI home in Watford
Paedophile politicians – the ones that got away
Sympathetic support for lowering the age of consent, child porn, pederasty and even an established Westminster paedophile ring have been covered up in the corridors of power
WHILE the country obsesses about Brexit and the mainstream media feed off each other in their reportage, many stories are passing under the radar which would normally warrant some close attention.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse is progressing slowly but revealing details not widely known, such as the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) being funded for three years in the 1970s by the Home Office. At the time, the PIE was campaigning to legalise sex with children under 16 and was supported by the National Council for Civil Liberties, then led by Blairite stalwarts Patricia Hewitt and Harriet Harman.
The inquiry was ordered by Theresa May when she was home secretary, started in 2014 and now focuses on Westminster and allegations against MPs. It had its origins in the revelations that emerged after Jimmy Savile’s death. Many of his victims were disabled or dying in specialist hospitals such as Stoke Mandeville, and Leeds General Infirmary. The subsequent report showed 214 criminal offences, including 34 rapes, recorded against Savile’s name across Britain between 1955 and 2009. Police said the Top Of The Pops presenter had sexually abused a teenager at a hospice, one of 14 medical sites he used to prey on his victims. He also committed 14 offences at schools across the country, some of them when children had written to him for his popular BBC series Jim’ll Fix It.
Some staff at the BBC have admitted they knew of his activities but declined to report him to the police as he was a big star drawing big audiences. He was a Tory supporter, friendly with Margaret Thatcher and duly rewarded with a knighthood in 1990, the same year Pope John Paul II awarded him a Papal Knighthood.
MPs have also been mired in the paedophilia scandal. The example of former Liberal MP Cyril Smith, another predatory paedophile, is a salient example. Like Savile, he targeted the most vulnerable children, usually in children’s homes and, like Savile, his paedophilia was well-known among senior Liberals, other members of Parliament and top public figures in his home town of Rochdale.
But when Liberal Party leader David Steel appointed him chief whip he had access to and leverage over Liberal and other MPs with secrets to hide. When Steel was questioned recently at the inquiry about Smith he admitted he knew about the paedophile issue but chose not to report anything to the police. He was not asked whether Smith threatened to expose other Liberal MPs or councillors in return for his silence. Recently the police admitted they had avoided three separate chances to prosecute Smith for the rape of minors, suggesting that civil servants and MI5 took control of the case and did nothing.
In June 2014 a senior Downing Street aide Patrick Rock was charged with allegations of downloading computerised child abuse imagery. His brief was to advise David Cameron on internet security for filtering online pornography.
Conservatives Edwina Currie, Gyles Brandreth and Rod Richards have previously made damning statements of how well-known in Westminster circles it was that MP Peter Morrison was a dangerous paedophile, and yet his career was unaffected as he rose to be deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. He was Thatcher’s parliamentary private secretary in 1990 and her campaign manager that same year despite this knowledge having been around for many years.
In 1991 Frank Beck, who ran care homes in Leicestershire, was found guilty of abusing more than 100 children in the 1970s and 1980s. During the trial, a 30-year-old man claimed he had been abused by Lord Greville Janner, who was still a Labour MP at the time. However, Lord Janner was not prosecuted and he insisted there was “not a shred of truth” in the claims.
One of Tony Blair’s former senior aides Phillip Lyon, who previously arranged his weekly prime minister’s question time, was arrested after police raided his Commons office. Lyon was found guilty of downloading child pornography and jailed for a year. Stephen Carnell, who was agent for Labour MP Chris Bryant during the 2010 general election campaign, was caught with more than 12,000 indecent images and 450 films. He was jailed for three years for collecting and distributing what the judge described as “appalling” images of child sexual abuse.
Cameron failed to make good on his promise to order a full-scale investigation into allegations of widespread paedophile activity within Parliament after a request by the Labour MP Tom Watson made in 2012. Hansard recorded that the police file relating to Peter Righton, who was convicted in 1992 of importing child pornography from Holland, needed to be re-examined.
Watson suggested that the evidence file used to convict Righton, if it still existed, contained clear intelligence of a widespread paedophile ring linked to the corridors of power. The central allegation was that a large body of material seized in the police raid on Righton’s home prior to his conviction had not been fully investigated.
Subsequent testimony by retired police officers at the inquiry claimed that police were stopped from their criminal investigations by Special Branch and MI5, and a file containing details of paedophile MPs handed to the Home Office has “disappeared.”
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/paedophile-politicians-ones-got-away
Mike Pulsford, pictured here in 2005, abused three boys and three girls while he was a Christian youth group leader
Michael Pulsford jailed for Christian camp child abuse
18 Apr 2019
A lawyer who represented defendants accused of sexual offences has himself been jailed for molesting children.
Michael Pulsford, 68, abused three boys and three girls while he was a Christian youth group leader between 1974 and 1989.
The victims, who were aged between 12 and 15, were abused in Wiltshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Pulsford admitted 16 counts of indecent assault. He was sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison.
Southampton Crown Court heard Pulsford groomed children while he was viewed as a “pillar of the community” during summer camps, at his home and in his office.
His victims described Pulsford, of Corsham in Wiltshire, as “an evil manipulator” who had taken their “childhood innocence” by “abusing his position of trust”.
One complainant came forward in 2011 but Pulsford denied the allegations and no further action was taken.
‘Appalled at cases’
But police reopened the investigation in 2017 when another victim reported Pulsford for indecent assault.
A man told the court that coverage of the Jimmy Savile scandal prompted him to recall his own experiences of Pulsford, who had qualified as a solicitor-advocate and represented clients in criminal proceedings.
“I remember googling Mike Pulsford and being appalled at the number of child abuse cases he had defended,” the man said.
He said he told police about being molested when asked if he had witnessed any abuse against another victim at a Christian camp in the 1970s.
Two more women came forward with allegations of indecent assault after media coverage of the case began, the court was told.
In mitigation, defence barrister Michael Phillips said the incidents of abuse were “extremely unpleasant, but not as unpleasant as they could have been”.
He added: “He has accepted the title of being a paedophile, which is a rarity in these kinds of cases… hopefully it shows there is remorse.”
Judge Peter Henry said the youth group Pulsford led had the aim of “instilling Christian values”, but he had only been “pretending” to have those values.
“Throughout this period you were in a position of considerable power, influence and trust,” the judge said.
“What you did in this period amounts to a gross abuse of this trust.”
RESPECTED solicitor who defended paedophiles in court has been jailed for more than eight years for sexual assaults on young girls and boys from a church youth group three decades ago.
‘Evil’ Mike Pulsford sexually assaulted three boys and three young girls, forcing them to kiss him, touching them inappropriately and even telling one victim it happened because the then 12-year-old boy was ‘pretty’.
As a solicitor, Pulsford spent decades representing a series of sex offenders in the Swindon courts, despite knowing he had abused children – starting when he was just 23 years old.
The 67-year-old, formerly of Corsham but who gave the courts an address in Streatham, south London, admitted 16 counts of indecent assault which happened between 1974 and 1989.
Pulsford, who had worked for Chippenham law firm Jeary and Lewis before his victims came forward, was a youth club leader and volunteer with the Corsham-based church group Urban Saints for around 30 years.
He was working as a clerk to the justices when he was admitted as a solicitor in 1980, becoming a deputy clerk to the North Wiltshire Magistrates a year later.
The solicitor was one of the first in the country to receive rights of power to be heard in a crown court, despite not actually being a barrister.
He has since defended clients including a number of convicted sex offenders and, at the time, Britain’s youngest drink driver.
The solicitor also represented aristocrat the Earl of Cardigan when he was cleared of assaulting a man in a row over family paintings which were being sold.
One victim bravely stood and faced his abuse, questioning whether Pulsford joined the Crusaders just to get to children and telling him that describing him as a man or even an animal ‘would be a travesty’.
Another told the court Pulsford, who sat emotionless as his victims faced him, would even read a specific chapter from the bible, titled Love to her while they were alone together.
The solicitor carried out the sick sexual assaults on youngsters while volunteering for church group the Crusaders, now known as the Urban Saints.
Judge Peter Henry told Pulsford he had pretended to live by Christian values he was teaching people, but the whole time he took advantage of his position to abuse young children.
The judge said: “You were a sexual predator. Whilst it might be said in the 1970s and 80s the public were less atuned to the serious impact of sexual abuse on children, you would be acutely aware as a solicitor.”
Prosecutor Simon Wilshere told Southampton Crown Court, Hants, Pulsford had been a senior group leader with the Crusaders, where he met all his victims.
The court heard Pulsford forced his victims to kiss him and even showed one youngster a horror film so he was scared enough to join the solicitor in his bed at his home in Gastard, Wiltshire, where he then sexually assaulted him.
The court heard the attacks happened at Crusaders camps on the Isle of Wight, as well as some at his home in Gastard.
Reading a statement to the court, one male victim, now in his 50s, said: “I wonder if he was only in the Crusaders to gain potentially unlimited access to children.
“My childhood innocence was taken away by this evil individual. I was manipulated by an evil individual. Describing him as a person or even an animal would be a travesty.”
The court also heard from one of his female victims, who he ‘groomed’ over a number of years, starting by driving her to a layby in his car where they would chat and ending after they had sex when she turned 16.
However, when she came forward to report him in 2011 Pulsford denied it and continued his work as a solicitor, finally admitting to the offences last October.
As Judge Henry jailed Pulsford for eight and eight months, he told him he will be banned from working with children for the rest of his life.
Mitigating, Michael Phillips told the court Pulsford had ‘accepted the title of paedophile’ but had now changed his ways.
The senior investigating officer for Hampshire Police, Detective Inspector Toby Elcock, gave his reaction to the sentence.
He said: “Michael Pulsford was trusted as a youth group leader to protect the children in his charge, but instead abused this trust over and over again by indecently assaulting them.
“This was a complex investigation carried out by the Operation Marmion team, and we are pleased that the victims have now finally found justice having suffered the effects of this terrible abuse for decades.
“The bravery and courage they have shown during the course of this investigation is remarkable.
“I want to appeal to anyone who has been affected by this type of abuse to come forward and talk to us, and be reassured that you don’t have to suffer in silence.”
23rd November 2018
Swindon solicitor and youth group leader Mike Pulsford admits indecent assault charges
A SOLICITOR who has spent decades defending alleged criminals at Swindon Crown Court is facing the prospect of jail after admitting a string of historic sex offences.
Mike Pulsford, who is also a leader at a Christian youth group, had admitted molesting three boys and a girl in the 1970s and 80s.
As a result the 67-year-old, who has resigned from the solicitors’ firm where he was a director, must register as a sex offender.
Pulsford pleaded guilty to 12 counts of indecent assault when he appeared before magistrates in Hampshire last month.
The case was adjourned when it came before a judge at Southampton Crown Court this week.
It is believed there could be a need to be a trial of issue as there may be a dispute over the age of one of the victims.
Pulsford, who gave the court an address in West Norwood, London, has lived in Corsham for many years where he volunteers for Urban Saints, formerly known as Crusaders.
He has also regularly gone on extended volunteering trips to India, where he has helped in the building of schools.
The first offences took place between July 1973 and July 1975 on the Isle of Wight where he twice indecently touched a boy under the age of 16.
In the five years to the end of 1978, in Hampshire, he indecently assaulted another underage lad.
He abused a third boy in the village of Gastard, Wiltshire, between February 1978 and February 1980.
The remaining eight counts relate to the repeated abuse of a girl in Wiltshire between April 1980 and April 1985.
He has accepted he kissed the girl, who was under 16, as well as touching her inappropriately and also getting her to touch him.
Pulsford was working as a clerk to the justices when he was admitted as a Solicitor in 1980, becoming a Deputy Clerk to the North Wiltshire Magistrates a year later.
He went into private practice in 1985 and in 1994 was one of only 31 Solicitors nationwide to be granted Higher Rights of Audience, meaning he could appear in the crown court.
Since then he has been a regular fixture in both magistrates courts across the county as well as Swindon Crown Court.
In an online biography, now removed, he says he has been involved in several high profile cases.
He represented Lord Cardigan, who was cleared following a number of trials, five years ago.
The biography also says he has been a local youth club leader for the past 30 years and on the Regional Committee of the Urban Saints.
The organisation is a non-denominational group for young people aged 8-16 which meets on Sunday afternoons at Corsham Community Centre.
They also have a large manor house on the Isle of Wight which is used for holidays for members from all over the country
.
He has been released on bail to appear back before a judge in Southampton the week before Christmas.
Woman claims billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein sexually assaulted her when she was 26 and then molested her 15-year-old sister
- In a lawsuit Maria Farmer alleges that her sister, 15 at the time, was sexually abused by Epstein, along with his British socialite friend Ghislane Maxwell
- She then claims that she was also sexually abused by the pair in the summer of 1996, while working at one of the billionaire’s friend’s mansions in Ohio
- Farmer, an ex-art student, started working for Epstein in 1995 to help curate art for his Manhattan mansion as well as logging who entered and exited the home
- During her time in the position, she noticed numerous young girls in school outfits going upstairs for what she was allegedly told was ‘modeling auditions’
- Her allegations come in a suit filed by one of Epstein’s other victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, accusing his attorney of being complicit in the abuse
- Giuffre says Alan Dershowitz was aware of the abuse and even participated in sexual encounters with young girls at various properties of Epstein’s
- Dershowitz has refuted the claims for a number of years and called Giuffre a ‘fake Metoo victim’ in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com on Tuesday
Another alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein has filed a lawsuit claiming that the billionaire pedophile sexually assaulted her and her 15-year-old sister back in 1996.
Filed in Manhattan Federal Court on Tuesday, Maria Farmer, a former art student, says Epstein hired her in 1995 to help curate pieces to furnish his Upper East Side New York apartment, as well as making a note of who entered and left the property.
During her time under his employment, Farmer – 26 at the time – says she witnessed a ‘number of school age-girls’ dressed in their uniforms arriving at the mansion and going upstairs. According to court documents, Farmer was told the girls were coming to the home to audition for ‘modelling’ work.
Now 49, Farmer then claims it was around the same time that Epstein and his friend, Ghislane Maxwell, a British socialite, took a particular interest in her 15-year-old sister.
She alleges that the pair flew the teenager with them to a ranch in New Mexico in 1996, where they forced her to strip naked on a massage table and then sexually molested her.
Just days before, Farmer says Epstein had taken both her and her unnamed sister to see a movie in New York where he allegedly started rubbing the minor between her legs.
Farmer also says that she herself abused by Epstein and Maxwell around the same time, while working at one of the financier’s associate’s mansion in Ohio during the summer.
She says the pair escorted her to a bedroom in the 30-room property where they both proceeded to sexual assault her.
Farmer said the fled to room and and attempted to call the local Sheriff’s office, but received no response. When she tried to leave the property, she says security staff at the estate refused to let her leave.
‘I was held against my will for 12 hours until I was ultimately allowed to leave with my father,’ she says in the affidavit.
Upon her release, she immediately reported both of the assaults to the New York Police Department, before reiterating the allegations to the FBI later that year.
‘To my knowledge, I was the first person to report Maxwell and Epstein to the FBI,’ Farmer writes in the affidavit. ‘It took a significant amount of bravery for me to make that call because I knew how incredibly powerful and influential both Epstein and Maxwell were, particularly in the art community.’
The 49-year-old says she has finally come forward in the hope of that Epstein and Maxwell will be punished for the acts of abuse.
‘I have struggled throughout my entire life as a direct result of Epstein and Maxwell’s actions against me and my hope is that they will be held accountable for their crimes,’ she said in the affidavit.
‘While I am still afraid, I am coming forward because I think it is so important to do so.’
Farmer’s allegations come as one of 15 exhibits attached to a defamation complaint filed by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, against the billionaire’s attorney, Alan Dershowitz.
In her lawsuit, Giuffre claims that Dershowitz, 80, was aware of Epstein and Maxwell’s reported sex trafficking operation involving under-age girls, helped to orchestrate it, and was even complicit in participating in sordid sexual acts.
A teenage runaway, Giuffre was working at Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort in 2000 when she was recruited to be a ‘masseuse’ for Epstein in Palm Beach. It was from that point that she said she became embroiled in a life of sexual abuse and depravity.
Just 16 at the time, Giuffre says she was actually recruited to be a sex slave for Epstein for two-years, where she was ‘regularly abused’ by him and forced to engage in sexual acts with Dershowitz and other wealthy associates of Epstein.
Dershowitz has continuously refuted Giuffre’s account of his involvement, insisting he has never met the complainant and claims to have documents to prove that her allegations are false.
When his client was arrested for sex trafficking in 2006 on charges relating to Giuffre’s complaints, Dershowitz called her, and other children who Epstein was said to have abused, ‘liars and prostitutes’.
In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com on Tuesday, Dershowitz branded Giuffre a ‘fake Metoo victim’ and insisted the lawsuit is the ‘opportunity I’ve been looking for’.
‘I now have subpoena power and the ability to prove that this woman has committed perjury and has made up the whole story about me.’
He went on to call the complainant an ‘inveterate liar’, with a ‘long, long history of lying’.
‘She has claimed to have sex with virtually everyone under the sun from the former majority leader of the United States Senate, to the former Prime Minister of Israel, to the former ambassador to the United Nations, to the inventor of artificial intelligence, to Leslie Wexner, the owner of Victoria’s Secret.
‘And she’s going to have to testify to that in court. And the end result is she going to go to perjury because I am asking the FBI to come to the trial and to listen to my testimony and to listen to hers.’
The affidavit attached to the lawsuit by Farmer is said to have been used to bolster Giuffre’s claims that Dershowitz has both maliciously and intentionally spread false information for Epstein, in order to deter her and other accusers from speaking out.
Despite his protests of innocence, Giuffre believe Dershowitz is ‘hiding behind a curtain of lies’.
‘No sensible person looks forward to litigation, and I know that standing up for myself and others will cause Mr. Dershowitz and Mr. Epstein to redouble their efforts to destroy me and my reputation,’ Giuffre said in a statement to the Miami Herald.
‘But I can no longer sit by and not respond. As my complaint shows, my abusers have sought to conceal their guilt behind a curtain of lies. My complaint calls for the accounting to which I, and their other victims, are entitled,’ she continued.
Dershowitz, however, is saying he is relishing the chance to prove Giuffre is lying. He has previously publicly declared a willingness to take her case to trial in order for settle the matter once and for all.
‘Virtually everything in the complaint is false, and I will be able to disprove all of this in a court of law. I have told the truth throughout and I’ll be able to prove it. … I never met her, I never heard of her,’ he told the outlet in response.
In an unspecified television interview, he is also said to have offered to waiver the statute of limitations so Giuffre could sue him for sex abuse, as detailed in the lawsuit.
However, once Giuffre’s legal team requested him to do so, Dershowitz is said to have refused – ‘and continues to refuse’ even now, the documents claim.
Epstein (pictured left with Donald Trump in 1997), a former Wall Street Financier, was convicted in 2008 of soliciting an underage girl for sex. He served 13-months in jail and was required to register as a sex offender. Virginia Giuffre had been working at Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort when she was recruited to be a ‘masseuse’ for Epstein
Dershowitz (pictured right with Epstein) has repeatedly said he never saw young girls in the homes of his client and didn’t engage in any sexual acts himself. However, eye witness testimony submitted in Tuesday’s affidavit claims otherwise
Giuffre’s lawsuit doesn’t offer any evidence that she ever had sex with Dershowitz or provide concrete dates on which the alleged abuse is said to have occurred.
However, the victim claims the acts took place in several locations on a number of occasions, including in Epstein’s East 71st Street home.
The affidavit also offers a number of examples of statements issued by Dershowitz protesting his innocence, which the plaintiff claims to have proof to discredit.
In one such statement, Dershowitz previously said he had never seen any underage girls in Epstein’s residence during any of his visits to his client’s homes in Palm Beach, New Mexico or New York.
However, Farmer’s excerpt alleges that she regularly saw young girls entering and leaving the home during her time under Epstein’s employment.
‘On a number of occasions I witnessed Dershowitz at the NY mansion going upstairs at the same time there were young girls under the age of 18 who were present upstairs in the house,’ Farmer asserts in the affidavit.
But the defendant says such a claim cannot be true because he says he didn’t meet Epstein until August 1996.
‘I was never upstairs in Jeffrey Epstein’s apartment, never ever,’ Dershowitz rebutted to the Miami Herald. ‘I would not have felt comfortable going upstairs because I didn’t know [Epstein] very well then.’
In her allegations, Farmer didn’t offer a timeline of dates for when she reportedly saw Dershowitz in the presence of young girls at the home.
But her claims are backed-up by the former house manager of Epstein’s Palm Beach residence, Alfredo Rodriguez, who also once told investigators that he observed Dershowitz in the company of young girls and other woman at the waterfront mansion.
Rodriguez later died in prison, having been prosecuted for the FBI for obstructing justice when he tried to sell Epstein’s ‘little black book’, detailing all associates of the billionaire, along with a long list of female masseuses.
In an additional affidavit submitted as part of the lawsuit, Sarah Ransome says she also had sex with Dershowitz, after being ‘lent out’ to him by Epstein.
She says she was 22 when she was first introduced to the billionaire, having sex with his attorney on a number of occasions, including a three-way encounter with Dershowitz and Nadia Marcinkova, another young adult working for Epstein, in New York.
‘I recall specific, key details of his person and the sex acts and can describe them in the event it becomes necessary to do so,’ Ransome claims in the affidavit.
Dershowitz has repeatedly denounced the claims of Giuffre and Ransome, and on March 2, 2019 declared: ‘I hereby accuse my false accusers of committing the felony of perjury and challenge them to sue me for defamation.’
Speaking to DailyMail.com, he said: ‘And I’m repeating the defamation right now. She claims I defamed her by calling her a perjurer, I am now telling you that I’m calling her a perjurer.
‘And the first thing I will say in court is that I am saying right here, right now, that she’s a perjurer.’
Dershowitz dismissed suggestions the suit had anything to do with the Me Too Movement because he insists he has never met Roberts.
‘In every other Me Too case the people knew each other, they had a relationship, they worked together,’ he added.
‘In this case I never met this woman. She made up the whole story from beginning to end.
‘She hurts the Me Too movement terribly because when it’s proved she lied for money the real victims will be people who have really been abused. She is a fake victim.’
Epstein, a former Wall Street Financier, was convicted in 2008 for soliciting two girls as young as 14 for underage sex. He served just 13-months in jail and was required to register as a sex offender as part of a non-prosecution deal struck with the state.
The now 66-year-old was accused of abusing more than 40 teenage girls as part of the lawsuit.
In February, a federal judge ruled that the sentence, secured in a plea deal, had been illegally brokered by former US Attorney Alexander Acosta and other prosecutors, in violation of the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
The deal is now being reviewed by the Justice Department in addition to Acosta’s handling of the case.
‘Jeffrey Epstein is a child rapist and there’s not a single mom or dad in America who shouldn’t be horrified by the fact that he received a pathetically soft sentence,’ U.S. Senator Ben Sasse said after the investigation commenced.
‘The victims of Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring deserve this investigation – and so do the American people and members of law enforcement who work to put these kinds of monsters behind bars.’
Epstein was spotted for the first time in nearly three years in February, as he left his luxe Manhattan townhouse, shortly after the investigation was launched.
After several years of abuse, Giuffre eventually escaped Epstein’s grasp in September 2002, after she was allegedly sent by the billionaire to Thailand where she was instructed to being a ‘young girl’ back to the US for him, according to court documents.
Fearing for her life and unwilling to subject another girl to the abuse that she endured, Giuffre fled to from Thailand to Australia, where she now lives with her husband and two children.
We Found Billionaire Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s Secret Charity
Through a shadowy private foundation, convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein has continued to shell out cash to celebrities, elite universities—and an all-girls school.
4/16/2019
Billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein may have stopped trumpeting his million-dollar donations to charities in light of accusations he molested dozens of underage girls. But he continues to quietly distribute his wealth—including to the nonprofits of Deepak Chopra, Elton John and a doctor linked to President Trump—through a shadowy private foundation called “Gratitude America, Ltd.,” The Daily Beast has learned.
Gratitude America, Ltd. was launched in 2012 to back “organizations around the world that seek to celebrate the United States of America and the American Ideals,” the group stated in its application for tax-exempt status. Those ideals, the nonprofit added, include “liberty, equality, democracy, individualism, unity, and diversity.” At the time, Epstein was three years out of jail, but disturbing allegations from his alleged victims, including one who claimed Epstein kept her as a “sex slave” for his famous friends, continued to hound him.
Epstein apparently needed some favorable news to change the narrative and embarked on a public relations crusade that depicted him as a renowned “science philanthropist,” rather than a convicted sex offender.
Not to be confused with GratitudeAmerica, Inc., a Florida nonprofit for veterans, Epstein’s latest private foundation doesn’t appear to have a website or online presence. The only traces of the group lie in tax returns, a fundraising site for multiple sclerosis, and a book of abstracts from a 2017 academic conference in California.
In 2016 and 2017, Gratitude America Ltd. funded an all-girls school in Manhattan, a youth tennis program, cancer charities, Harvard’s famous theater troupe, posh New York arts societies at Lincoln Center and the Met, and a nonprofit linked to the wife of a former Harvard president who flew on Epstein’s private jet, dubbed the “Lolita Express” by the press.
Indeed, a review of tax returns reveals Epstein’s foundation donated at least $1.84 million to host of causes, including $15,000 to the Hewitt School, the elite private girls school on the Upper East Side; $30,000 to the O’Gorman Garden, a Harlem preschool; and $25,000 to the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland.
Gratitude America’s biggest donations included a $375,000 payout to the International Peace Institute Inc., a New York think tank staffed by former United Nations officials and run by Norwegian diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen, and $225,000 to the Melanoma Research Alliance—both of which Epstein boasted of supporting financially in years past.
As The Daily Beast previously reported, Epstein once cultivated a web presence that portrayed a multi-hyphenate superhero: an “armistice activist” with the peace institute; one of the largest funders of scientists around the world” who helped to curb ivory poaching; and an “education activist” who delivered the Virgin Islands its first Head Start program.
Yet the 66-year-old financier’s philanthropy has failed to repair his reputation.
In the early Aughts, Epstein was known to rub elbows with the likes of Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Woody Allen and Kevin Spacey. His enigmatic rise from Dalton physics teacher to “international moneyman of mystery” who palled around with Prince Andrew and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was chronicled by the tabloids and New York magazine and Vanity Fair, which in 2003 reported, “Epstein is known about town as a man who loves women—lots of them, mostly young.”
“He’s reckless, and he’s gotten more so,” one former business associate told Vanity Fair of Epstein, who owns mansions in Palm Beach, Florida and Manhattan’s Upper East Side, along with a ranch in New Mexico. “Money does that to you. He’s breaking the oath he made to himself—that he would never do anything that would expose him in the media.”
Trump, too, once alluded to Epstein’s penchant for younger women. “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it—Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
Four years later, Epstein was arrested after this “social life” became the subject of a 13-month investigation by Palm Beach detectives.
Gratitude America donated $375,000 to the International Peace Institute Inc., a New York think tank run by Norwegian diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen.
Police say Epstein was sexually abusing girls as young as 13, many of them from poor families and broken homes. And, according to lawsuits filed by victims, Epstein loaned them out to his famous friends. Epstein also allegedly paid girls to recruit other teen victims, telling one recruiter, “The younger, the better.” (The money manager denied trafficking girls to his friends, saying in one court filing that he and his pals were “the subject of the most outlandish and offensive attacks, allegations, and plain inventions.”)
Authorities had enough evidence to send Epstein to prison for life. But under a suspiciously sweet plea deal inked with former U.S. Attorney and current Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Epstein served only 13 months of an 18-month sentence inside a private wing of the county stockade, mostly on “work release” for 16 hours a day, six days a week.
Epstein pleaded guilty to two state charges: solicitation of prostitution and procurement of minors for prostitution. Now the Department of Justice is investigating that secret plea agreement, which a federal judge ruled violated the law, and whether Acosta and other prosecutors “committed professional misconduct.”
In the #MeToo era, calls for justice for Epstein’s alleged victims are growing louder. The Miami Herald and Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claims Epstein forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew and Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz (allegations all three men vehemently deny), are fighting to unseal court records in a defamation lawsuit Giuffre filed against Epstein’s friend, Ghislaine Maxwell. Lawyers for Epstein’s alleged victims say records will show Epstein and Maxwell trafficked girls for the benefit of their high-flying friends. Maxwell, who has denied Giuffre’s claims, settled the case on the eve of trial in 2017.
Last week, the New York Post revealed that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had “graphic and detailed evidence” of Epstein’s assault of minor girls before it argued for leniency during a 2011 sex-offender registration hearing. At the time, a judge balked at the DA’s request to register Epstein as a “low risk” offender, saying, “I have to tell you, I’m a little overwhelmed because I have never seen the prosecutor’s office do anything like this.”
Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770, which includes the university’s historic theater troupe, noted Epstein among its top donors in 2018, under the category “The Guardians of the Sphinx.”
The constant trickle of bad press has resulted in some charities and political candidates keeping their distance from the perverted hedge-funder.
In 2006, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said he’d distribute Epstein’s $50,000 campaign donation to charities throughout the state, while New York’s gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer and attorney general hopeful Mark Green returned donations of $50,000 and $10,000, respectively, from the billionaire.
In 2015, nonprofits including Florida’s Ballet Palm Beach told Reuters they’d no longer accept Epstein’s money following Giuffre’s headline-grabbing allegations. “The further I can keep myself from anything like that the better,” the ballet’s founder said.
When Epstein tried donating to House Democrats last October, they quickly returned a $10,000 offering from the political pariah. One spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee told The Daily Beast, “Without second thought, the DCCC immediately refunded this unsolicited donation.”
Still, others have quietly welcomed Epstein’s cash. His former charity, the C.O.U.Q. Foundation, donated $25,000 to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s charity, according to C.O.U.Q.’s 2006 tax return. The group is listed among past and present donors on the Clinton Foundation’s website.
Harvard also kept a $6.5-million check from Epstein to fund the university’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, the Harvard Crimson reported in 2006.
In March of this year, The Daily Beast revealed Epstein had funded the nonprofit of a Russian model who advocates for women entrepreneurs.
And Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770, which includes the university’s historic theater troupe, noted Epstein among its top donors in 2018, under the category “The Guardians of the Sphinx.”
Dirty Money
In the year leading up to Gratitude America’s creation, Epstein’s connections with his prominent friends were under scrutiny. One of his alleged victims, Virginia Roberts, came forward to the Daily Mail in February 2011, to say she was only 15 when Epstein recruited her “to be a prostitute for him and his friends,” including Prince Andrew.
The same month, Epstein downplayed his Florida conviction, telling the New York Post, “I’m not a sexual predator, I’m an ‘offender’. It’s the difference between a murderer and a person who steals a bagel.” These comments followed a New York judge’s ruling that Epstein must register as a Level 3 sex offender, which meant he’s at “high risk of repeat offense and a threat to public safety exists.”
The shocking allegations didn’t stop Epstein, however, from issuing a flurry of press releases heralding his support of the sciences. In January 2012, “The Jeffrey Epstein Foundation” announced its sponsorship of a conference organized by MIT’s Marvin Minsky, under the headline, “Top Scientists Meet to Discuss Greatest Threats to the Earth.”
In March 2012, another announcement declared, “Science Philanthropist, Jeffrey Epstein, Convenes a Conference of Nobel Laureates to Define Gravity.” It was followed days later with a different bulletin: “Jeffrey Epstein, Science Philanthropist, Organizes a Global Doomsday Conference.”
Epstein’s former charity, the C.O.U.Q. Foundation, donated $25,000 to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s charity, according to C.O.U.Q.’s 2006 tax return. The group is listed among past and present donors on the Clinton Foundation’s website.
One month later, Gratitude America Ltd. was formed in the Virgin Islands “to support the expression of gratitude for the ideals of America,” according to a tax-exempt application filed with the Internal Revenue Service. (Epstein has specified the Virgin Islands, where he owns a private isle, as his permanent address in annual sex-offender registrations.)
“Fundraising, if any, will take place via personal solicitation by the Members of the Board,” the group’s IRS application stated. “The initial contribution to the organization will be from the primary donor, Mr. Epstein.”
The group said it would “carry out its purpose through the direct funding of celebrations and other planned events, including symposiums, lectures, and galas, both within the United States and abroad planned by third parties and other non-profit organizations and governmental entities,” via “private donations from individuals.”
The disgraced financier’s group, however, didn’t list any revenues until 2015 or any contributions to charities until the 2016 and 2017 tax years.
Gratitude America Ltd. donated $150,000 each in 2017 to MIT and the Kuhn Foundation, run by writer Robert Lawrence Kuhn, who hosts a TV program called “Closer to Truth.” (One biography on the Chopra Foundation’s site says Kuhn is “an international corporate strategist, investment banker and expert on China” and has “a doctorate in brain research.”)
Rather than listing Gratitude America Ltd. as a donor in its own 990 tax form in 2017, Kuhn recorded a $150,000 donation from the “Jeffrey Epstein Foundation” in care of “Richard Kahn KBRK Associates 57,” which appears to be a misspelling of Kahn’s business, HBRK. Kahn, who served on Epstein’s previous nonprofit ventures, is the president of Gratitude America, according to tax returns. He runs a corporation called HBRK Associates, Inc., New York state corporation filings show.
Epstein also funded a nonprofit that produces a TV show hosted by the wife of Larry Summers, a Harvard economist and Treasury secretary under former President Clinton.
In 2016, Gratitude America Ltd. shelled out $110,000 to Verse Video Education. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based nonprofit produces the PBS show Poetry in America, whose creator and host is Harvard professor Elisa New. Verse’s 2016 tax return named New as the group’s president but doesn’t include specific donors for its $1.38 million in total contributions.
New is married to Summers, Harvard University’s former president, who hobnobbed with Epstein in elite international relations groups and, like Bill Clinton, flew on Epstein’s private jet. Vanity Fair’s 2003 feature mentions Epstein proudly displaying Summers’ letter of commitment to “the Epstein Program for Mathematical Biology and Evolutionary Dynamics” at Harvard. Epstein “says he was reluctant to have his name attached to the program, but Summers persuaded him,” the article said.
Summers came up again during an October 2015 deposition of Alan Dershowitz, who faced a now-settled defamation suit from two attorneys for Epstein’s victims. Dershowitz testified that Epstein’s former assistant, Sarah Kellen, worked “at the Harvard office” where Epstein held meetings with university brass including Summers.
Asked about the women in Epstein’s entourage, Dershowitz said they served coffee or took notes during academic meetings. “And these people were seen not only by me. They were seen by Larry Summers, they were seen by [genetics professor George] Church, they were seen by Marvin Minsky, they were seen by some of the most eminent academics and scholars in the world. There was no hint or suggestion of anything sexual or improper in the presence of these people.”
Epstein’s largesse has likewise extended to Harvard’s storied theater troupe. The Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770, one of Epstein’s past beneficiaries, received $50,000 from Gratitude America Ltd. in 2016. The Institute includes the Hasty Pudding Club, the country’s oldest social club, and Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the oldest theatrical organization in the U.S., and the Harvard Krokodiloes a capella group.
On The Hasty Pudding Institute’s website, Epstein’s name tops a roster of 2018 donors called “the Guardians of the Sphinx” for their donations of $50,000 or more, while Kahn’s business, HBRK Associates, is listed under a “sponsors” page for a $50,000-plus donation.
The Bruce and Marsha Moskowitz Foundation received $100,000 in 2016 and $50,000 in 2017 from Gratitude America Ltd. Bruce Moskowitz, a Palm Beach doctor, was revealed as one of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago cronies secretly influencing policies within the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Meanwhile, Gratitude America Ltd. has also supported one of President Trump’s allies for two straight years, a review of tax returns shows.
The Bruce and Marsha Moskowitz Foundation received $100,000 in 2016 and $50,000 in 2017, Gratitude America Ltd.’s filings state. Bruce Moskowitz, a Palm Beach doctor, was revealed by ProPublica as one of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago cronies secretly influencing policies within the Department of Veterans Affairs.
But in its own 990 tax returns, Moskowitz’s nonprofit says it received money from Jeffrey Epstein, not Gratitude America.
Moskowitz—whose name was found in Epstein’s “little black book” alongside other doctors, under the category “medical”—listed two donations worth $50,000 in 2016 and 2017 from “Jeffrey Epstein/HBRK Assoc., Inc.”
It’s unclear why Gratitude America Ltd. registered a $100,000 donation in its tax filings for 2017, while Moskowitz recorded a donation for half that amount.
The Crohn’s Colitis Foundation of America, which Epstein has repeatedly funded since at least 2012, received a total of $20,000 in 2016 and 2017.
Epstein also donated $10,000 in 2016 to the Women Global Cancer Initiative Inc., a nonprofit run by Next modeling agency founder Faith Kates. And he gave $10,000 to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai and $5,000 to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
In 2017, Epstein gave $75,000 to the Cancer Research Wellness Institute, a California nonprofit created by a grandson of alternative-cancer treatment doctor Max Gerson, and $25,000 to Nautilus Think, a New York nonprofit that publishes a science magazine. Epstein additionally contributed $50,000 to the University of Arizona Foundation, and the Tucson research university listed Gratitude America Ltd. as a sponsor of its 2017 Science of Consciousness conference inside a book of abstracts.
Epstein’s charity donated $15,000 in 2017 to “Friends of Elton John,” which appears to be the Elton John AIDS Foundation, a charity Epstein announced funding years before.
He donated more money in 2017, with $15,000 going to “Friends of Elton John,” which appears to be the the Elton John AIDS Foundation, a charity Epstein announced funding for years before.
Gratitude America listed a donation of $50,000 to the Chopra Foundation; $60,000 to a group labeled as “Association Mind Education” in Rome, Italy; and $50,000 to the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) Federation of New York.
Epstein appears to have provided all of the funding for the International Police & Fire Chaplains Association in 2017 with a $50,000 donation. The group, based in Taylor, Michigan, reported gross receipts of $50,000 or less in 2017, and for the last several years, IRS records show.
The billionaire has supported a slew of New York nonprofits dedicated to the arts, too.
He gave $25,000 to the Film Society of Lincoln Center and $50,000 to MET Orchestra Musicians in 2017. He also donated $10,000 to a Brooklyn-based group, the Independent Filmmaker Project (Gratitude America appears to have miscalled them “Independent Feature Project” in its tax return but used IFP’s same address).
Gratitude America said it donated $50,000 to the New York Concert Artists Association in 2016, but the Association denied receiving any funds from Epstein or his foundation.
This year, Gratitude America Ltd. apparently donated to prominent litigator Stephen Susman’s fundraising page for Bike MS, a cycling event that raises money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Epstein’s donation of $10,000 was the highest contribution on the website, next to another $10,000 from Susman’s wife, Ellen. (In 2017, Gratitude America noted a $5,000 donation to “Walk MS” in New Jersey that appears to be unrelated to Susman’s payout.)
Epstein and Susman were acquainted as early as 2010, when Epstein was on probation for his Florida sex crimes. Epstein traveled to New York several times to meet Susman, who, according to a letter in Epstein’s probation file, said their meetings were to discuss “potential claims against D.B. Zwirn,” a hedge fund that collapsed in 2008 and reportedly cost Epstein millions, according to the Palm Beach Post.
Epstein apparently donated $10,000 to prominent litigator Stephen Susman’s fundraising page for Bike MS. Epstein and Susman were acquainted as early as 2010, when Epstein was on probation for his Florida sex crimes.
The Daily Beast left messages for all the schools and charities that Epstein’s group listed as beneficiaries. Some representatives said they didn’t know who operated Gratitude America Ltd. Others said they never received any such donations.
In an email, Howard Straus, president of the Cancer Research Wellness Institute, said his group has “NEVER received a donation of that magnitude from ANYONE.”
“I would know,” Straus continued. “We are perennially short of funds, and would love to be the recipient of such largesse, but not from sexual predators.”
Jennifer Park of New York Concert Artists said her group never received a donation from Gratitude America. “I am sorry but you have completely wrong information,” she said in an email, adding that her nonprofit was perhaps confused with another group.
After reviewing Gratitude America’s tax return, Park again stated her group shouldn’t be listed among the foundation’s recipients. “This is false, and whoever put our organization name must be responsible for any consequences,” Park added. “We have never received any donation from what you describe.”
Lisa Thomas, director of publicity for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, said Gratitude America’s $25,000 donation “was an anonymous gift for our 44th Chaplin Award Gala,” which honored actor Robert De Niro in May 2017.
“Mr. Epstein did not attend the event and has not been a patron of ours before or since,” Thomas said in an email.
Epstein’s $50,000 donation to the University of Arizona’s Center for Consciousness Studies in 2017 “was a one-time anonymous gift,” said Chris Sigurdson, the university’s vice president for communications.
John Steele, the publisher of Nautilus Think, told The Daily Beast he met Epstein in 2017 but he couldn’t recall under what circumstances. Steele said Epstein, who’s supported many scientific causes, liked his magazine.
“He made a one-time donation and that was the extent of it,” Steele said.
The Same Players
Gratitude America, Ltd. is run by a trio of Epstein operatives who were also involved in his previous nonprofits. Indeed, they were the only officers of the following now-shuttered groups: the C.O.U.Q. Foundation; J. Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation; and Epstein Interests.
Darren K. Indyke—a longtime Epstein lawyer—is vice president of Gratitude America, per the 2017 tax return. In the years prior, he was treasurer.
Indyke was active in all three of Epstein’s former foundations, as a trustee of Epstein Interests and vice president of both the C.O.U.Q. Foundation (also known as the Florida Science Foundation) and J. Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation (which went by Enhanced Education).
It was Indyke whom New York authorities contacted in March 2015 for information on why one of Epstein’s charities, the Virgin Islands-based Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation, should be exempt from state law, Reuters reported. Months later, Indyke was present for the deposition of Dershowitz, and is currently representing Lana Pozhidaeva, the model whose nonprofit Epstein bankrolled in 2017, in a trademark application for her company.
Erika Kellerhals, a Virgin Islands tax attorney, is Gratitude America’s secretary and treasurer. She was also secretary, treasurer and trustee of the J. Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation, according to a 2015 registration statement filed with the New York State Attorney General’s Charities Bureau.
Kellerhals declined to comment when reached by The Daily Beast. Indyke and Kahn, reached by phone before hanging up, did not return further messages.
Epstein was president of Gratitude America, Ltd. from 2012 until 2015, when one of his associates, Richard D. Kahn, assumed the role. That year, Gratitude America, Ltd. recorded revenues for the first time, with a single $10 million donation from a mysterious company called BV70 LLC, according to a review of tax returns.
Once a licensed CPA and former treasurer of the C.O.U.Q. Foundation, Kahn wasn’t mentioned as a Gratitude America officer until 2015. The 2015 registration statement for Gratitude America lists Richard Kahn as president and Jeffrey Epstein as director.
In the document, the group said it wouldn’t solicit donations in Florida, New York and the Virgin Islands as initially planned.
The C.O.U.Q Foundation filed tax returns in New York as early as 1999 and disbanded in 2012, according to records filed with the state Charities Bureau.
Epstein Interests was active from 1992 to 2012, tax returns reveal, while the J. Epstein Virgin Islands Foundation appears to have been largely inactive. The latter was incorporated in 2000, but The Daily Beast could only find a tax return for 2002, despite the group filing a registration statement in New York for 2015.
Some of Epstein’s groups appeared to shuffle money to each other. In 2008, Epstein Interests noted a $100,000 grant to the C.O.U.Q. Foundation. During the 2009 tax year, C.O.U.Q. listed Epstein’s charity, “Enhanced Education,” as a contributor of $200,000.
Aside from participating in Epstein’s charities, the trio of nonprofit operatives also made donations to political candidates backed by Epstein, according to a review of state and federal election records.
On July 23, 2018, Epstein, Indyke and Kahn each donated $2,700—the federal limit for individual donations—to the primary campaign of Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands. (Kellerhals and partners at her law firm have been frequent donors to Plaskett, records show.)
In an itemized receipt of one donation, Kahn listed his occupation as “attorney” and the name of his employer as “self.” But according to New York’s Office of Court Administration, the 46-year-old Kahn was never registered as a lawyer in the state.
The trio of Epstein, Indyke and Kahn also donated to Plaskett on Aug. 4, 2016, each for a total of $5,400 toward her general and primary campaigns. On July 25, 2016, Kellerhals sent Plaskett $2,200 for the primaries and $1,350 for the general election.
On July 3, 2014, both Kahn and Indyke donated $2,600 to Plaskett’s primary campaign, while Kellerhals donated a total of $1,000 in July 2013 and January 2014.
Meanwhile, Indyke, listing his occupation as “attorney,” donated $5,200 to New Mexico gubernatorial candidate Gary King’s campaign on June 17, 2014. Six days later, Kahn’s business, HBRK Associates Inc., gave King $5,200.
In the weeks that followed, businesses connected to Epstein’s St. Thomas, Virgin Islands address donated more than $35,000 to King’s campaign.
JEGE, LLC, which appears to own Epstein’s private jet, donated $5,200 in September 2014, while “JEGE, Inc” donated $5,000 in July 2014. Companies called “FT RealEstate,” “Laurel, Inc.,” and “Nautilus, Inc.” each contributed $5,000, and “Maple, Inc.” and “Neptune LLC” gave $5,200 apiece.
King told the Santa Fe New Mexican he would return the money, saying, “My campaign has had an ongoing rule that I would not accept any contributions directly from Mr. Epstein and upon further review, we have learned that he has an interest in the companies in question.”
Epstein had also donated to King’s 2006 run for attorney general. At the time, King said he would return a $15,000 donation from Epstein “to avoid any appearance of impropriety,” the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met him personally. He knows other members of my family better,” said King, whose father, former Gov. Bruce King, sold Epstein his 10,000-acre Zorro Ranch in Stanley, New Mexico.
Bruce King and former Gov. Bill Richardson were listed side by side in Epstein’s little black book, which was snatched by Epstein’s former house manager, Alfredo Rodriguez, who worked for the financier in 2004 and 2005.
The address book, obtained by Gawker in 2015, contained the names of suspected Epstein victims, as well as boldfaced names including Courtney Love, David Blaine, Alec Baldwin and Donald, Ivana and Ivanka Trump.
Records show that in 2007, a year after Richardson returned Epstein’s money for his gubernatorial run, Kahn and his wife each donated $2,300 to Richardson’s presidential campaign. Indyke and his wife each donated $2,300 days later.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeffrey-epstein-has-a-secret-charity-heres-who-it-gave-money-to
Daniel Janner with father Lord Greville Janner
Lord Janner inquiry: Senior police ‘influenced decisions’
Apr 16 2019
Senior police officers may have influenced decisions about inquiries going ahead into child abuse allegations against a politician, a watchdog has said.
Leicestershire Police inquiries into Lord Janner are being reviewed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
The IOPC also said documents may have been “inappropriately modified” and allegations not even recorded.
The late Lord Janner and his family have always maintained his innocence.
Leicestershire Police said it could not comment at this time.
The IOPC is examining inquiries from 1991, 2001 and 2006 and said it was considering the conduct and actions of 13 individuals, though none are serving officers.
It has sent an update to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
IICSA has received complaints from more than 30 people alleging the former Labour MP abused victims between the 1950s and 1980s.
While emphasising its investigation was ongoing, the IOPC outlined “matters of concern” including:
- In the early 1990s, before a formal investigation into Lord Janner commenced, police records indicate “a number of references to a relationship, including a sexual relationship, between Lord Janner and a child”, but there is no evidence the claims were looked into
- Once an investigation did begin, lines of inquiry “appear from the evidence not to have been carried out” and “there is an indication that senior officers may have influenced decisions regarding the inquiries being carried out”
- In 2001-2002 “allegations made by former children’s home residents appear from the evidence available not to have been investigated or recorded” and “documented results of investigative actions regarding Lord Janner appear to contain information that could be interpreted as misleading and/or inaccurate”
The update said a new referral was made to the IOPC in February, which “based on the evidence reviewed” indicated “police documents may have been inappropriately modified”.
The IOPC said all those under investigation had been issued with notices regarding potential criminal offences and potential gross misconduct.
It said hoped to produce a final report by the end of June.
IICSA said it had paused its work regarding Lord Janner to avoid any duplication.
Lord Janner, who was born in Cardiff, was an MP in Leicester for nearly 30 years.
He died shortly after a judge had ruled he was not fit to stand trial for alleged child sex offences.
His son Daniel Janner QC said: “This private document should never have been published.
“It is yet another astonishing example of this discredited inquiry’s mishandling of information.”
He described the IICSA inquiry into his father as a “macabre proxy prosecution of a dead innocent man who cannot answer back from the grave”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-47948890
@MySweetLandlord
If Daniel Janner wants to talk about “sly or underhand” behaviour perhaps he would like to dwell on this for a moment.
Paedophile boss of Cardiff children’s home abused boy then threatened to ‘make him disappear’
Patrick Grant was investigated but cleared over abuse allegations in the 1970s and continued to run children’s homes
12 APR 2019
Paedophile care home boss Patrick Grant has been jailed for eight years
A paedophile who ran a Cardiff children’s home repeatedly crept into a teenage boy’s bedroom and abused him before threatening to “make him disappear”.
Patrick Grant’s terrified victim often fled the Walker House Children’s Home in Llanishen in the late 1980s, a court heard, and told police who found him that he was being molested – but they “did nothing”.
Grant was accused of child abuse in the late 1970s but after being cleared of the charges he faces was allowed to return to the profession – enabling him to abuse three more youngsters.
He has now been convicted, along with his special constable accomplice, of abusing young boys.
Grant, 69, of Partridge Road, Roath, was the superintendent at Walker House Children’s Home and would sneak into a young boy’s room at night and molest him under the bedclothes, Inner London Crown Court heard.
His victim, who was in the home having been abandoned by his mother, went on to abuse glue and petrol before turning to cannabis and heroin.
The man, now in his 40s, spent more than two decades homeless on the streets and once made an attempt on his own life, the court heard.
In a victim impact statement he said he often fled from the Cardiff home. “Each time I ran away from the home I was picked up by the police and told them what was happening but they did nothing,” he said.
“Patrick Grant always said to me he would make me disappear – words that have always haunted me.”
Grant was jailed for eight years.
Grant’s co-defendant Bernard Philip Collins, 73, of Worcester Road, Sutton, a former special constable, was convicted of similar offences and will be sentenced on April 23.
Bernard Philip Collins, 73, pictured outside court
Grant and Collins were exposed by an investigation into Lambeth social services employees in the 1970s.
“Each of these three victims have been severely traumatised by what happened to them,” added the judge.
“This was undoubtedly a gross abuse of trust and use of threats – telling a child you would make them disappear and that nobody would believe them.
“Each suffered severe psychological harm that they will carry for the rest of their lives.”
Regarding his acquittal in the 1970s the judge told Grant: “It could be said there was a shot passed across your bows but you continued to offend.”
The court heard the 11-year-old victim at the Shirley Oaks home in South Norwood was often subjected to bare-bottomed corporal punishment beatings carried out by Collins, who also molested him in his own living quarters.
“Once you slapped him in the face and pushed his head under the water. You told [him] no-one would believe him and there was no one for him to complain to.”
These people were all jailed last month:
The boy at Fircroft Children’s Home in Surbiton, also 11, was similarly abused at bath-time by Grant, who told them he would have to inspect they had properly washed between their legs.
The duo’s stint at South Vale ended after six months when they were arrested in July 1978, with Collins going on the run until 1980 when he was convicted of abuse.
Patricia Strobino, from the CPS, said: “This has been a long and difficult trial for all those involved – particularly the victims who had been accused of making the abuse up all this time. They showed immense resolve and courage by coming to court to give evidence and standing up to their abusers.
“These crimes have had a long-term negative impact on the lives of the victims. They were let down by those in authority and by those they should have been able to trust. I hope this outcome offers a degree of closure, enabling them each to begin the process of rebuilding their lives.
“Grant and Collins committed the ultimate abuse of position. They were supposed to provide care for some of the most vulnerable children, including those with special needs and others who had no family support. Instead of keeping them safe in these children’s homes, Grant and Collins together, and individually, systematically targeted and groomed children causing them significant harm.
“This case is a culmination of years of intensive police and prosecution work and I am pleased that justice has finally been served for the victims.”
Manhattan prosecutor ‘IGNORED graphic, verified evidence of Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophile activity’ when arguing for leniency during the billionaire’s 2011 sex offender registry hearing
- An appellate brief from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has revealed details about Jeffery Epstein’s 2011 sex offender in hearing
- It claims that then-Deputy Chief of Sex Crimes Jennifer Gaffney, was given a state assessment which deemed him to be highly dangerous
- The assessment indicated that Epstein should be labeled as level three offender, the most restrictive category meant for the most dangerous individuals
- Gaffney argued for him to be classified as level one offender, the least restrictive
- Epstein ultimately received a level three designation after Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ruth Pickholz deviated from Gaffney’s recommendation
- At least 40 women have alleged that they were abused by Epstein, who is friends with President Trump and has donated millions to the Clintons
Apr 12 2019
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office was allegedly aware of graphic and detailed evidence against Florida financier and accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein when a prosecutor argued for leniency during his 2011 sex offender registry hearing.
A newly-unsealed brief obtained by The New York Post on Thursday revealed that prior to that hearing, then-deputy chief of Sex Crimes, Jennifer Gaffney, was provided with a confidential state assessment which deemed Epstein to be highly dangerous and likely to continue preying on young girls.
Even though the assessment indicated that Epstein should be labeled as a level three offender, the most restrictive category meant for the most dangerous individuals, Gaffney argued for him to be classified as a level one offender, the least restrictive.
The DA’s office reportedly admitted as much eight months after the hearing in its own appellate brief, which The Post sued to unseal.
A newly-unsealed brief obtained by The New York Post on Thursday revealed that prior to that hearing, then-deputy chief of Sex Crimes, Jennifer Gaffney (above), was provided with a confidential state assessment which deemed Epstein to be highly dangerous and likely to continue preying on young girls. She went against the state’s recommendations and argued that Epstein should be considered a level one offender, the least restrictive categorization, instead of level three, the most restrictive
The assessment was made by the New York state Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders, which evaluated the corroborated accounts from dozens of young girls between 14 and 17 years old who’d engaged in sexual contact with Epstein at his Palm Beach compound between 2005 and 2006.
Authorities say the victims were recruited and paid up to $1,000 to give the billionaire erotic massages that included sexual contact, intercourse and rape.
Epstein ended up pleading guilty to abusing just one of the girls in Palm Beach, and was required to register as a sex offender in New York because he has a home in Manhattan.
The brief obtained by The Post alleges that New York prosecutors knew that Epstein had a score of 130 on his risk assessment, which is ‘solidly above the 110 qualifying number for level three’.
Epstein ultimately received a level three designation after Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ruth Pickholz deviated from Gaffney’s recommendation.
‘Our prosecutor made a mistake,’ Danny Frost, spokesman for Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr, told The Post in December after it was revealed that Epstein had reached a non-prosecution deal in 2008 with then-Miami US Attorney Alexander Acosta’s office to secretly end a federal sex abuse investigation involving at least 40 teenage girls that could have landed him behind bars for life.
Questions about Epstein’s deal started to surface after a series of lawsuits were filed by two of his alleged victims.
The women, identified as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, claim in court papers that they were unaware of the secret deal being made between the defense team and prosecutors back in 2007 that guaranteed federal charges would not be brought against Epstein, 63, which could have resulted in a lengthy prison sentence for the millionaire.
They filed their lawsuit a few months after Epstein received his lenient sentence in 2008, with their lawyers saying the US Attorney’s Office violated the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act by not speaking with Epstein’s victims about the details of his plea agreement.
The two victims who filed the suit were 13 and 14 at the time of the abuse.
This filing contained more than 140 exhibits including emails between Epstein’s defense team, the US Attorney’s office and former State Attorney Barry Krischer, which lawyers believe clearly show that victims were being left in the dark.
Bradley Edwards and Paul Cassell, who filed on behalf of the women, previously stated that they hoped US District Judge Kenneth Marra would not force the case to go to trial but rather given what they believe is overwhelming evidence rule in the favor of the two victims.
‘There is good reason to believe that if the prosecutors had exposed their dealings to scrutiny by Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2 and other victims, they would not have reached such a sweetheart plea deal,’ the motion reads.
‘Despite the fact that this case has been in litigation for more than seven years, spanning several hundred pleadings, the government does not write even a single sentence explaining why it entered into an NPA (non-prosecution agreement) with a sex offender who had committed hundreds of federal sex offenses against young girls.’
The motion also says that the deal Epstein received is ‘one of the most extraordinarily lenient plea arrangements in American history’.
Epstein settled both of these suits back in December before the victims would be able to testify in court.
Police in Palm Beach turned over the information they had gathered on Epstein’s victims to federal authorities in November 2006 after investigating the case for roughly a year following an initial call in March 2005 from a woman who claimed her daughter, 14, had been paid $300 to give Epstein a massage in just her underwear.
Local authorities also filed a probable cause affidavit in May 2006 saying they believed there was enough evidence to charge Epstein with four counts of unlawful sex with minors and one count of molestation.
In the end, these charges were taken to a grand jury despite the recommendation of police, who came back with just one charge against Epstein – felony solicitation of prostitution.
On June 30, 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to a single state charge of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution, and ultimately served just 13 months of his 18-month sentence.
That time was served not in a prison, but rather the Palm Beach Stockade, which is a local detention center.
Epstein was also allowed to leave six days a week to go work out of his West Palm Beach office during his time behind bars.
After his release he did have to register as a sex offender.
DA knew Jeffrey Epstein was a dangerous pedophile when arguing for leniency
April 11, 2019
The Manhattan DA’s office had graphic and detailed evidence of pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s depravity when a prosecutor inexplicably argued for leniency during his 2011 sex offender registry hearing, The Post has learned.
In advance of the hearing, then-deputy chief of Sex Crimes, Jennifer Gaffney, had been given a confidential state assessment that deemed Epstein to be highly dangerous and likely to keep preying on young girls, the DA’s office admitted in its own appellate brief eight months after the hearing.
The brief has been sealed since 2011, but The Post obtained it Thursday after suing to get it unsealed.
It describes a state assessment’s findings that Epstein should be monitored in New York as a level three offender — reserved for the most dangerous.
In making its assessment, the NY state Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders evaluated the sworn, corroborated accounts of numerous young girls who had been lured into Epstein’s Palm Beach, Fla., compound in 2005 and 2006.
Girls aged 14 to 17 years old were recruited and paid $200 to $1,000 to give Epstein erotic massages that included sexual contact, intercourse and rape, Palm Beach cops found.
Epstein pleaded guilty in Palm Beach to abusing just one of these young victims, and was required to register as a sex offender in New York since he had an Upper East Side home.
Manhattan prosecutors were aware the state board had assigned Epstein a risk assessment of 130, a number that is “solidly above the 110 qualifying number for level three,” with “absolutely no basis for downward departure,” the brief notes.
Nevertheless, Gaffney argued that he should be labeled a level one offender, the least restrictive, which would keep him off the online database.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ruth Pickholz sided with the board and against Gaffney in designating Epstein a level three offender. Epstein appealed, and the DA’s change-of-heart brief agreeing that Epstein deserved the highest level of monitoring was filed in opposition to that appeal.
The appellate division ultimately upheld that Epstein be monitored as a level three offender, and he remains on the registry.
“Our prosecutor made a mistake,” Danny Frost, spokesman for DA Cyrus Vance Jr., told The Post in December, when news broke that Epstein’s sweetheart Palm Beach deal had buried evidence he had allegedly abused some 80 girls and young women.
Reached late Thursday, Frost declined to say who above Gaffney might have approved her decision to go easy on Epstein. Vance’s office has insisted that he was unaware of the sex-offender registry hearing at the time.
Gaffney could not immediately be reached for comment.
@ciabaudo
Once again, what @InquiryCSA did NOT publish is more telling than what it DID publish in its recent ‘stealth dump’, particularly with respect to the Melanie Klein and Green Lanes childrens’ homes ….
They failed namely to disclose the copy of the diary kept at the time of abuse by a girl who was placed at the homes. The diary that Operation Winterkey’s detectives copied. The one that featured at Lewisham police station during their interviews around the matter.
So what’s in the diary? Everything from names, party venues in London and Sussex, who they had sex with and what type of sex they were forced to have. Did Winterkeys give that evidence to @InquiryCSA? If not, why not? And if they did pass it onto IICSA, why has Jay not put it up?
IICSA: WITNESS STATEMENT – WESTMINSTER STRAND: OHY005577 (Part one)
INDEPENDENT INQUIRY INTO CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
WITNESS STATEMENT
WESTMINSTER STRAND
OHY005577
On the final day of the three weeks of hearings of the Westminster strand of the inquiry, a number of documents were quietly uploaded to the iiCSA site. No mention had been made about them previously, and no announcement was made about their inclusion.
Interestingly, they were far more revealing that then documents that had been referred to in hearings and raised questions as to who and why at iiCSA had decided not to openly discuss the contents during the public hearings.
A number of these documents were very revealing and I have decided to transcribe as many as I can in case it helps people’s research.
(The following is part one of two statements made by GB.)
WITNESS STATEMENT
CJ Act 1967, s.9; MC Act 1980, ss.5A(3)(a) and 5B; Criminal Procedure Rules 2005, Rule 27.1
Statement of: GB
This statement (consisting of 3 pages each signed by me) is true to the best of my knowledge and belief and I make it knowing that, if it is tendered in evidence, I shall be liable to prosecution if I have wilfully stated anything in it which I know to be false, or I do not believe to be true.
Signed: GB Date: 20/12/2016
My name is GB and I live at an address known to police. On Tuesday 5th July 2016 and Tuesday 20th December 2016 DC DRUMMOND and TDC HAYES attended my home address to speak to me in relation to allegations surrounding Green Lane Children’s Home and Melanie Klein House both of which were children’s homes on Greenwich Borough which I have no recollection of having dealing with those children’s homes whilst working in the CID at Eltham between DPA 1985 and DPA 1988. DC DRUMMOND explained that she was from Professional Standards Department within Operation Winterkey which is the investigation into allegations of historic child abuse involving institutions and prominent people. I have been asked whether I am hapy to have the meeting recorded which I am happy to agree to.
My employment history whilst in the Metropolitan Police is as follows: I joined in 1978 and was based at Chelsea where I spent four years. I then transferred to Kensington on the Crime Squad and then moved back to Chelsea on the Burglary Squad until 1984. From 1982 I was based at Brixton Main CID office until 1985 and then in 1985 until 1988 I was based at Eltham CID. From 1988 I transferred to Rotherhithe CID office until 1991 and then in 1991 I went to 3 Area HQ where I was Child Protection Unit at Shooters Hill. I did five years at CPT and in 1996 I moved to the Paedophile Unit based at NSY where I stayed until 1999 and from May 1999 I was specially employed within the Integrity Testing Unit until DPA 2000.
As I have already mentioned I was part of the CID department at Eltham in 1988 and part of my general duties would have been to deal with any prisoners who would have been booked in at Greenwich police station. As a DC I would have been allocated major crimes such as burglaries, assaults, robbery. From memory, the CID team I worked with in 1988 would have been DC John WOOD, DC Bobby THATCHER who is now deceased, DC Tim MYNALL, DC Colin DELL, DS Alistair MACKENZIE and DI Graham whose surname I cannot remember. The CID office was very small and I remember that Eltham Division had about 20 uniformed officers who worked on the ground floor. I do not remember any squads using Eltham Police Station as a base for larger investigations at that time, as it would have been too small to accomodate any outside squads. They would generally have used either Orpington or Bexley Heath as they had more space. The second and third floors were the command for 4 Area HQ.
I have no recollection of having any dealings with Green Lane Childrens Home or Melanie Klein House when I was part of CID at Eltham in 1988. I remember that any allegations which were made involving Social Services and children being abused would be dealt with directly by a DI and it would not be allocated to a DC to investigation nor would we have been expected to assist with Child Protection investigations on our own. I do remember an occasion in around 1988 where by a Councillor by the name of Chris FAY made a complaint. I seem to remember that he lived on the DPA in DPA. If I recall rightly he was involved as a Senior Social Worker and complained about police arresting Social Workers during the investigation of Kimberly Carlile. This investigation was about the murder of a child in care but she was not a resident of either Green Lane Childrens Home or Melanie Klein House. Apart from this occasion that is the only Child Protection investigation I recall being involved with at Eltham. One of the Social Workers I arrested in connection with the Kimberley Carlile murder was related to Chris FAY in some way and I remember that they lived on the same estate. I cannot remember the name of this social worker.
I have been shown a copy of a letter exhibited as CF/104. From my observations of this letter I can see, what I believe to be, a number of discrepencies within the text. I notice that the crest logo at the top is too far over to the right and would normally have been more centred. The phone number for Eltham Police Station is written as ’01-835 8380/8289′ however in 1988 I believe that the phone number would have been changed to 0208. I think the phone number for the CID office at Eltham was something such as 02088536014 and each CID office in each police station the last four digits always denoted the CID office. The last four digits of the phone number would have always been the same. Each station would have had their own prefix.
Within the text of the letter it states ‘The officer appointed to investigate this matter is DC GB”. I was the only DC GB based at Eltham Police station in April 1988 although I do know that there was another officer with the surname GB who was a dog handler at that time. If the letter had related to an investigation involving child abuse at GLCH or MKH I would not have been allocated the investigation as it would have been dealt directly by a DI in accordance with General Orders. I remember that any major crime would not have been reported by the station officer as they would have called for a CID officer to speak to the person at the station face to face at the time of reporting or attend an address or venue to speak to them. I can see that the crime reference number is shown as DPA. The ‘C’ represents a major crime such as robbery, serious assaults and other major crime but I do know that the crime reference number would have been shown as DPA during that time. RD would represent Eltham police station and DPA would represent the year of the crime report. The bottom paragraph of the letter offers Victim Support Scheme however I am sure that there was no Victim Support Scheme in place in 1988 and I find it strange that this letter would mention it. If a victim or witness was attending court they would have had a Case Officer to support them at court. The signature at the bottom of the letter shows that it was signed by ‘PC746R Crime Desk Officer‘ however in 1988 we did not have a crime desk so I find it strange that it mentions Crime Desk Officer. In my opinion, and from my memory, I believe that this letter is a fake. I am sure in 1988 letters were not sent out to people reporting crimes and I am sure that we, as Detectives, had to type and send our own letters out. In my opinion I believe that the letter I have been shown has been generated from a computer but in 1988 we did not have computers and letters were types on typewriters.
I have been asked if I know the name Chris FAY. I seem to remember the name possibly involved in child abuse but not from the time I was a DC in Eltham but from when I was working in the Child Protection Unit in 1995. I seem to remember his name being mentioned during Social Services Case conferences although I do not remember having any dealings with Chris FAY personally. He may have been a Social Worker but I cannot remember. I seem to remember him being arrested for something to do with child abuse. I think this was sometime during my role on the Child Protection Team sometime between 1991 and 1996. I remember Chris FAY‘s name came up during the time I was engaged in Operation Hatton which was around the Paedophile Information Exchange. I think Mr Fay was connected by his telephone number which came up during intelligence gathered around persons connected to PIE.
Generally any investigations involving child protection matters were normally dealt with by the DI and we may have helped out with enquiries.
I have been asked by DC DRUMMOND whether I ever remember working with DI/DCI Richard THOMPSON. I do not remember ever working with DI/DCI Richard THOMPSON whilst I worked on CID at Eltham Police station in 1988. I do remember that there was a DCI Richard THOMPSON based at Greenwich but I never really had any interaction with him. I think DCI THOMPSON may have been the person who made the decision to arrest the social workers.
IICSA: WITNESS STATEMENT: WESTMINSTER STRAND: OP WINTER KEY/OP MILESHOGUE/OP HATTON
INDEPENDENT INQUIRY INTO CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
WITNESS STATEMENT
WESTMINSTER STRAND
OPERATION WINTER KEY / OPERATION MILESHOGUE / OPERATION HATTON
OHY0055776
On the final day of the three weeks of hearings of the Westminster strand of the inquiry, a number of documents were quietly uploaded to the iiCSA site. No mention had been made about them previously, and no announcement was made about their inclusion. It was independent journalist Mark Watts who alerted people to the fact these documents had appeared. Interestingly, they were far more revealing than documents that had been referred to in hearings and raised questions as to who and why at iiCSA had decided not to openly discuss the contents during the public hearings.
A number of these documents were very revealing and I have decided to transcribe as many as I can in case it helps people’s research.
(The following is part two of two statements made by GB. You can find part one here.) Interestingly it refers to the Paedophile Information Exchange being infiltrated by an undercover police officer in 1997, and so PIE was still very much active at that time.
The contents of this statement will be referred to in a future blog post concerning a matter I have coincidentally been working on for some time. Please note: TRIGGER WARNING – some of the contents of this statement are very candid and some may find it upsetting.
METROPOLITAN POLICE
OPERATION WINTER KEY
DPA – GB
- Time/date/location – 20/12/2016 – this is a follow up interview from 05/07/2016
- Persons Present – DC DRUMMOND/TDC HAYES
- Explanation of OPERATION WINTER KEY – Investigation of non-recent allegations of child abuse involving prominent persons. Roles of Professional Standards and IPCC. Request for statement to be taken from yourself. IICSA Enquiry.
- Reason for record the interview is that you had a central position in the enquiry. The SIO, DETECTIVE INSPECTOR DAN SETTER, has deemed that by recording the information discussed today it will ensure that an accurate account is referred to in making your statement.
- Reason for taking the statement is record any information that you may have of knowledge you have of an investigation surrounding GREEN LANE CHILDREN’S HOME and MELANIE KLEIN HOUSE CHILDREN’S HOME in Greenwich.
- An allegation was made in 1988 by an ex councillor, of children from the homes taken to parties where prominent people was present and that no meaningful police investigation was conducted on this allegation.
- We are obtaining a statement from you today in order to assist the investigation with any information that you may have. This is in agreement with the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
- DPA
- Email from DI SETTER (15/12/2016) in which he explains that he has spoken to GB and reassured him that he does not breach the Official Secrets Act 1989 by speaking to us. As he is no longer a Crown Servant, he qualifies as ‘any other person’. We are Crown Servants, so he is specifically protected. Section 7(3) states:
7(3) For the purposes of this Act a disclosure made by any other person is made with lawful authority if, and only if, it is made –
(a) to a Crown servant for the purposes of his functions as such; or
(b) in accordance with an official authorisation.
- DPA
- Explain what Op Mileshogue was? What year did it start? Clarify whether it started at Eltham CPT then moved to Paedophile Unit? When did he start there? How many people worked on Mileshogue? Where based? Who was the SIO for Mileshogue?
OP MILESHOGUE (MH)
- A – (00:00:00) MH was shown as an intelligence gathering operation originally it revolved around a guy called [NAME REDACTED] I can’t recall his surname but that should be in the MH files. He had been a rent boy himself, living in Greenwich at that time. He had a series of young boys. One was WM-A118 another was WM-A119 and another 5 or 6. Those boys I interviewed on tape several times. They claimed another had been abused by other people, were taken to parties and things by [NAME REDACTED] himself, he was like a modern day Fagan. He also had them doing robberies and burglaries but he was also an informant for the police, inform on them and then turn up as their appropriate adult. These were kids all from local Children’s Home. He would befriend them and take them out. There were several named people involved, one was a former Head Teacher who lived in Surrey they were taken to, to abuse. He ran gay/child photography, he was a photographer and Head Teacher. He had been mentioned in Johnny Go Home films years ago and exposed by a newspaper. He was involved in that, he was a named suspect. Several other people were involved. One, a guy who lived in Orpington with another fella. During the investigation we found out he worked for the government in some role. What we do know is he was at a conference for arms sales. We followed him around.
- Q – He was living with someone who was involved in the Government. Do you know anymore?
- A – No, he was something to do with Government arms sales. Can’t remember his name or partner’s name. The pair of them were named people by the children as abusers. The problem was, the kids would never say anything about their own abuse, only ever talk about others abuse. There was never any direct evidence.
- Q – You said the children came from a children’s home, which one?
- A – Green Lanes, it was called Green Lanes and it was in different locations. It was called Green Lanes Children Home. One was in Deptford.
- Q – In Deptford?
- A – Yeah Deptford way – can’t remember where.
- Q – Were you based in Rotherhithe?
- A – Rotherhithe is something different. Same children involved in another thing from Rotherhithe involving an MP. Same Children’s Home. These children – WM-A118 and WM-A119 – never spoke about this man, it was the other kids from within their group. They lived in Southwark and frequented his surgery.
- Q – Whose surgery?
- A – Forgotten his name. He was the DPA
- Q – Is it to do with the recording found in the safe?
- A – Yes.
- Q – Was it WM-F7?
- A – Yes WM-F7
- Q – When did MH start?
- A – I was a CPT in Shooters Hill and took it with me to the Paedophile Unit, so about 1996, to work on. (09:14) Going back to [NAME REDACTED] he would take kids round to various addresses. There was a core group of about 5 people’s homes – 5 suspects that were named. There were others, the boys were taken to what they call the Dolphin Place – we thought that was Dolphin Square. They used to talk about a ‘big dolphin’ there. Also that they were taken out on a boat, a little gin palace. They were abused there. They knew of a network of other children who were abused. We were told that one of [NAME REDACTED] boys had been beaten up in Trafalgar Square – had serious brain injuries. From what the boys say, this lad was going to inform police, tell them everything. [NAME REDACTED] got hold of him, beat him up. He was left brain dead.
- Q – We did cover this last time. How many people were on MH?
- A – Just one – me. It was difficult to get help, get anything started and in the end Surrey took over the one aspect which related to the guy who was a former Head Master. They put him under surveillance. They did come into London to have a look at other people’s habits, but it was really just me.
- Q – Where were you based?
- A – At NSY. There was a guy who used to help me with interviews, we used to help each other. His name was Andy Murray, DC, Professor. He had a degree in Child Protection.
- Q – Who was your SIO for MH period?
- A – Me.
- Q – Who was your line manager?
- A – DI Bob McCloughlin. He would sign the paperwork. Everything had to be perfect, you would submit it and the bosses would change it so by the time it went through it was totally different. It had to be signed by the DI.
- Q – There should be a GR file for MH?
- A – Yes, around that time we were just going computerised for crimint, it was just within SO1 and covered the Flying Squad and things like that, things at the yard. I got help from the intelligence analysis, they didn’t have much to do as the thing was just starting up. They put all of MH on crimint, it was the first thing to go on so it was recorded on crimint. They did a lot of work on telephone communication.
- Q – Was WM-F172 involved in MH?
- A – No it was totally separate. It was from when I was at Rotherhithe.
- Q – Can you remember the names of the analysts?
- A – Jo. No memory of the other one – both female civilian staff. Their names will be in the file for loading it on. (Can’t work out word sounds like Basket) was the first job that went on the system.
- Q – So MH was 1996? (15:02)
- A – Yes it went to Surrey, they got what I could never get – they got telephone intercept for the main suspects. The core group of 5 would talk to each other virtually every other day. We put the intercept on and from that day for the two months they were on, I think, the guy that lived with the man who worked for the Government in Orpington never phoned anyone during that whole period. He didn’t receive phone calls from anyone during that period, all of a sudden he didn’t exist.
- Q – This was MH?
- A – Yeah. It went over to Surrey.
- Q – What Surrey Operation name did it have?
- A – Don’t know it went on Holmes.
- Q – Surrey Holmes?
- A – Yes.
- Q – Did it go in its entirety of MH to Surrey, or just parts?
- A – Just dealt with the one person on their ground, a person of interest to them. For years there had been lots of rumours.
- Q – The name of the person?
- A – Can’t remember. He was Surrey person of interest. Surrey took that part of the MH investigation.
- Q – MH how many suspects?
- A – Can’t remember. They will be on the docket.
- Q – MH – You took that from CPT into Paedophile Unit. There were a couple of boys WM-A118 and WM-A119 and possibly 5 or 6 other boys giving you information?
- A – 5 suspects, there were other boys on the periphery that I couldn’t get to talk to. They were in the wind – one minute here, one gone. There were a few other names, but I never got to talk to the other kids.
- Q – Green Lanes was a collection of Children’s Homes?
- A – Yes.
- Q – Located in different areas?
- A – Yes, the main dealings were with Deptford, the main children. It was called Deptford but was Greenwich, on Greenwich’s ground but that part was called Deptford, down near the Cutty Sark. Those boys were out of the Children’s Home, in care.
- Q – One boy was going to the police?
- A – Yes.
- Q – Name suspects?
- A – Yes.
- Q – The name of that boy?
- A – No, but its in the MH file.
- Q – Before he could give any information he was attacked in Trafalgar Square (20:29) and left brain damaged and all in MH file?
- A – Yes.
- Q – What info was he going to give?
- A – Around people [NAME REDACTED] was taking them to see. More Dolphin Square, it was to do with Dolphin Square.
- Q – Any other details of the boy?
- A – No.
- Q – Where was he living at the time?
- A – I went t see him in a secure [unit] in North London somewhere. His name is definitely in the file and Intel file.
- Q – Any other information or information in the file?
- A – He was a young DPA lad at the time, about 14. He started young. He was about 10 when he started to be abused. He had moments of clarity talking about being abused, talked about [NAME REDACTED] taking him places, talked about a dolphin, the dolphin place and going on a boat. I never got the whole conversation. I interviewed him and took a day to get to know him so he would speak to me. Then a couple of days trying to interview him. I tried it on tape but he was not having that. If he saw cameras he would freak.
- Q – In front of Social Workers as appropriate adults?
- A – Yes.
- Q – Who was the social worker?
- A – Don’t know but it was in the secure unit. He had difficulties. One minute you were talking to him, the next he was masturbating in the corner. It was totally sexualised behaviour. He would try and rape other boys in the secure unit.
- Q – This is the same boy who was brain damaged?
- A – Yes. I only ever saw him in the secure unit. I didn’t speak to him before he was attacked. He was in the secure unit for his mental health after being beaten up. WM-A118 and WM-A119 told me about their friend who was going to tell and this was what happened to him and this why WM-118 and WM-119 were afraid to talk about anything to do with the guy who was running it. (24:20)
- Q – Did the boy (in secure unit) give you any other information?
- A – Nothing that would give me anything to go on or for any prosecution, purely intel, where he had been, some new names and some already mentioned by WM-A118 and WM-A119. He was part of that group and from the Children’s Home.
- Q – What nationality?
- A – WM-A119 was DPA, WM-A118 I can’t remember but he was an DPA lad. These kids were refugees, kids from the Children’s Home.
- Q – WM-A119 and WM-A118 gave you info about Dolphin Square?
- A – Yes.
- Q – What did they say?
- A – There was someone in the Navy that they had met there. Supposed to be a politician involved that they had met, but no name. Things were told by [NAME REDACTED]. Half the time they when they were taken to these places they were drunk out of their brains. They would top them up with more alcohol and they would be abused. (27:20) There was no one specific person from the meetings or on the boat they named. They said a politician, someone in the Navy.
- Q – Any politicians names given?
- A – No, no names of prominent people. Any prominent people I would have remembered, noted it. There were nicknames and bits and pieces. It will all be in the intelligence files. I meticulously recorded everything. The interviews with the boys were videoed so it will all be there.
- Q – How did you identify the venue as Dolphin Square?
- A – Didn’t particularly, they said there were dolphins and it was near Westminster Bridge. They used to call it ‘the place with dolphins.’
- Q – Ever take them for a drive round to identify the place?
- A – No, they mentioned dolphins and Westminster Bridge. I went to see a guy (can’t recall name, he uses four different names), he was running the boys. He had been a rent boy and got the lads to work for him. He also mentioned Dolphin Square – he had been there as a child himself, been abused. He had worked on a programme with Channel 4 to expose people. I saw him in prison. [NAME REDACTED] the Fagan type.
- Q – The two boys WM-A118 and WM-A119 mentioned dolphins?
- A – Not specifically Dolphin Square, just dolphins. Dolphins on a building.
- Q – They described it to you?
- A – Made the jump from dolphins to Dolphin Square. There was a person in the office called GRAHAM PASSINGHAM (now deceased) in the Paedophile Unit. He always chased anything to do with politicians, Houses of Parliament, any other problems. He would never tell you what he knew. If he heard something, he would say ‘I know something about that but I can’t tell you.’ He was the longest serving person on the West End. He came from the dirty book squad. He spoke to TOM WATSON MP a lot, I think they were friends. He was a DC in name. He worked on Child Porn as there was no Paedophile Unit. He had his own files locked away in a bottom drawer, he was into everything. He spoke to the guy they based a lot of allegations on. The job the Met has just done that turned to poo said he was abused, lived in West London. The credible evidence bit. GRAHAM interviewed him years ago. He would talk about it but Graham was one of those who would not share things with you. He left the Paedophile Unit and went to work for a security services as a vetting agent. Died about ten years ago. (33:40) Graham would say there was a mass conspiracy of child abuse. Often if you delved into some of it, if you did get anything out of him, it was crap. There was no substance to it. He was just a vacuum of tiny bits of information – he would suck it up and write it down in his little books. He was convinced there was this enormous conspiracy in Parliament and Government.
- Q – Who else in the office knew about Dolphin Square?
- A – Everyone I suppose. We had briefings. Every now and again we get an operation. It was there that GP would tell me that he had interviewed before and there was a load of prominent people living in Dolphin Square that was all part of his enquiry. When I mentioned that the boys mentioned dolphins, it moved onto Dolphin Square.
- Q – Who was in the office?
- A – Same people who had been there for 15/20 years – the core group of them. Transferred over from the dirty book squad.
- Q – Names?
- A – No (thinks about it) BRIAN FRANCE####. I took over HATTON from him when he retired from the Paedophile Unit on top of (Not sure of name of Op). It was an office of about 10. ANDY RYDON after me, ANDY MURRAY – we were the late additions. We had dealings with child abuse, they had dealt with Child Pornography. I went there to get the Met to have a response to child abuse. (Discussion on lack of ability of Met to deal with child abuse). They idn’t want to know about a mass operation with loads of kids to interview. They didn’t know how to deal with it.
- Q – Did you put requests in for more resources help to assist you? Who did you send that to?
- A – Yes to Commander C1.
- Q – It went to Comdr. C1?
- A – Yes.
- Q – It was bounced back as in refused?
- A – Yes, we thought a good hit on these people would have been telephone intercepts because we could see they were talking to each other every two or three days. I put in a request for the intercepts and it goes on a first come, first served basis, no priorities. We weren’t regarded as a priority so that’s why I went to Surrey and Surrey decided it was a priority.
- Q – Going back to WM-119 and WM-118 they’ve given you a description of a building with dolphins?
- A – Yes.
- Q – But they didn’t mention Dolphin Square?
- A – No it was [NAME REDACTED] the word (can’t understand word) he named DOLPHIN SQUARE.
- Q – There was no drive around to identify the building?
- A – No.
- Q – And these were videoed interviews?
- A – Yes.
- Q – There should be a record of them somewhere?
- A – Yes.
- Q – You mentioned when you interviewed them they would only give information about other boys and not themselves, evidentially they were useless?
- A – Yes, I couldn’t take it further. It was just intelligence. I hoped at some stage to find the other boys.
- Q – Did they name other names of boys as well?
- A – Yes, it would be in the docket.
- Q – From the home?
- A – From the home again trying to get hold of them they were in the wind if they thought a policeman was looking for them they were gone.
- Q – What age range were they for WM-A119 what age was he?
- A – I think they started around, WM-A118 I think was about 8, with him aged 8 through to about 14. He was just 13 or 14 when I was interviewing him.
- Q – You knew him when he was about 8?
- A – No, the abuse started when he was about 8. When I was interviewing him he was about 13 or 14.
- Q – And this is WM-A118 and WM-119 they were explaining to you about being taken to a building with dolphins?
- A – Yes
- Q – Gin palace?
- A – Yes.
- Q – A boat was mentioned as well?
- A – The boat is a Gin Palace.
- Q – What did they say I have not heard that before?
- A – Gin Palace is a boat, certain type of boat. They described it. They used to go off shore. People they met on the boat, it was basically an orgy on the boat. The boat would sail outside of British territorial waters because there were people on there that wouldn’t do it in the UK/didn’t want to be seen in the UK, so the boat used to round and float off and they used to go on the boat.
- Q – Did they ever disclose where it was moored?
- A – No too young, no concept of distance or time.
- Q – Who was taking them there?
- A – [NAME REDACTED] or any of the 5 main core people. [NAME REDACTED] would take them to them and they would take them on, the kids would stop with him for the weekend and do whatever he told them. That person would take them somewhere else and swapsies of boys when they got there. Basically the way the paedophiles were working meet up, meet up in a hotel in a room or something like that, each would bring their own boy, swap boys and be there for the weekend or the night. (44:51)
- Q – Were the boys ever medically examined?
- A – Yes.
- Q – By a police medical examiner?
- A – Yes.
- Q – Was it ever proved?
- A – Yes, according to them they never have been. WM-A118 Dr described him as having the bottom of a 60/16 (can’t make out if 60 or 16) gay man who has been at it for most of his life, at the point where he was going to have to use a tampon just to keep his bum closed.
- Q – Gin Palace, a boat?
- A – Yes.
- Q – Name of boat or expression used?
- A – Expression used by them. They called it a Gin Palace, a floating Gin Palace the boat. They would say to the boys “we are going on the Gin Palace.” We searched names in case it was called the Gin Palace, anything like that, went through insurance records trying to find a boat with that name/description, but the Marine people never identified a boat in particular. There was someone – came from GP – who used Dolphin Square, had a boat which could be described as a Gin Palace but I never got the name or anything like that.
- Q – Were they ever driven round to see if they could locate it?
- A – They had no concept of anything like that. When they went out to Surrey, they would say they were in the car for four or five hours but it was only an hour from where they lived. No concept. North London to them was up North – too young, no concept of time or distance.
- Q – [NAME REDACTED] where did he live?
- A – Deptford part of Greenwich. Had a girlfriend there. Two of them used to house the kids. If any of the kids were ever arrested, him or his girlfriend would turn up as appropriate adults.
- Q – WM-A119 and WM-A118 were from a Children’s Home. The other boys abused, were they from Children’s Home?
- A – Yes, or local lads.
- Q – Back then, how did they manage to leave the Children’s Home for the weekend?
- A – Just a bunk – no one chased them. Kids were wandering around London, used to run away from home. People would meet them at the station, take them off, just used to find somewhere.
- Q – Were they reported missing?
- A – None of the supervision we have now. If a kid goes missing they inform the local police. Didn’t happen then.
- Q – CH wouldn’t inform the police?
- A – No, they wouldn’t tell anyone. If they were missing for a certain amount of time – 2 weeks or something like that – they might let the missing person unit at the Yard know (49:01) or Charity for Missing Persons. The interaction with Police was virtually nothing. I was trying to get a link with Missing Person, Children’s Charity put together, there was nothing.
- Q – Does that apply to the appropriate adult, as to why this [NAME REDACTED] was the appropriate adult, not someone from the Home?
- A – Yes, the kids would say I’m living at the CH. They were arrested a lot, they were the scourge of Greenwich. Like 120 burglaries the pair got off with, that [NAME REDACTED] had sent them to do. He then informed on them, had them arrested and acted as appropriate adult. Talk them into TICs, they would talk about the other burglaries they had done. [NAME REDACTED] would tell them they would get a better deal that way, so the kids would spill their guts. They were both up on about 120 burglaries going to court. The burglaries, the guy sending them there is the police informant so it ended up going before a judge and the whole lot was quashed. WM-A118 and WM-A119 were terrors – scourge of that area. Robbing, stealing everything – whatever they were told. About 20 boys were involved in ripping Greenwich apart.
- Q – All the boys?
- A – Yes.
- Q – A male lived at Greenwhich down the road from the police station, who was it?
- A – (Pause)
- Q – Wasn’t [NAME REDACTED] was it?
- A – No, [NAME REDACTED] lived close to Greenwich within a mile of the nick (discussion on location of Police Station). The boys were committing burglaries in Deptford as well. (Short discussion on the police areas and police stations). All these kids were run by him and he was the police informant. Ridiculous.
- Q – How long were you dealing with MH?
- A – 3 years, all the time, not a 100%. It sat in the background. If I got some time, I dealt with it. We were dealing with the Scout Association and 5 other enquiries, which took up our time. I went back to it when I could. Surrey had it about the same time, and they were still working on it when I left the Paedophile Unit.
- Q – So from you dealing with it, Surrey became involved?
- A – Yes – one aspect, one person.
- Q – Shall I deal with that as a separate entity? What was the state of play when you left?
- A – The state of play, basically the poo hit the fan. (54:16) Surrey were investigating this one person, it was the Crime Squad that did it. The DI was running it but can’t remember his name. The Squad that were doing the surveillance and observations, one of their members was getting married, so for that weekend they were not going to work on it. It was only because I was passing by that I changed the tape. The guy in Surrey’s house was on a permanent video feed from a house in a back garden opposite. I was passing by going to relatives nearby and went in and changed the tape. So the tape went from Friday to Saturday (24 hour tape), so I changed it on Saturday or Sunday – could have been Sunday – anyway, I changed the tape and the guy from Orpington and his partner turned up at the house with a boy aged about 9 or 10 and went into the house. The kid was in there for about half an hour or so and came out. There was no one doing a live active surveillance that weekend so all of a sudden you have this child going into the house brought from the other end of our ground. That was it, they decided all the 5 core suspects would have their houses raided on the same morning, look for stuff and low and behold there wasn’t much there. The guy in Surrey, there was stuff there that I knew was there anyway as he had taken pictures of kids, they were in lots of gay magazines because he was working for them. He used to have false passport details, fake names to say he had seen them, they were over age. I knew who these kids were, I could prove their ages so they charged him and dealt with him on that aspect of those pictures.
- Q – Whilst you were on MH, Surrey became involved with one aspect, on suspect? They deal with that suspect under a different Operation name?
- A – Yes.
- Q – The Operation name you can’t remember?
- A – No, it was a Holmes based Operation.
- Q – It’s not a pattern?
- A – No.
- Q – The name of the suspect?
- A – Can’t remember.
- Q – What year did Surrey do this?
- A – 1998/99 (check dates) believe it went over Christmas.
- Q – 88/89?
- A – Yes, end of 88 into 89 when poo hit the fan when the kid went in and they did the raids. I left shortly after that.
- Q – They had taken one suspect and are dealing on a separate Operation where the suspect was based (58:30). What area?
- A – Woking.
- Q – Name of suspect?
- A – No.
- Q – Remember anything else about that person?
- A – He was the guy who had been mentioned in the Johnny Go Home series, fomer Head Teacher of a school. He was a bit vilified in the press but I don’t think he actually had a conviction.
- Q – Teacher?
- A – Yes.
- Q – When was he in the press?
- A – 1970, Johnny Go Home was a TV series about kids coming down from up north, being met at the station by men who would say they would look after them, get them, they were abused, rent boy scene in the ’70s.
- Q – Surrey – how did they follow up their investigation?
- A – They charged him with possessing photographs, taking photographs. I could not identify the child who was brought to the house. I could never work out how he turns up at their home with the kid during the period. We are listening to his phone and he never talks to any of the others, but on the day it just so happens no one is looking at him or anything like that, he just happens to choose that day to turn up with a child. It just doesn’t ring right. What are the chances of that?
- Q – What kind of resources were they using, Surrey?
- A – A full Surveillance Team.
- Q – Surrey’s resources?
- A – Yes.
- Q – Not the Mets?
- A – No, Surrey’s Crime Squad and Surveillance Team fully on it. The Assistant Commissioner of Surrey, ADRIAN LEPPARD, went on to be Commissioner of the City of London, he authorised everything. He was appalled the Met were not doing anything re: MH. He didn’t have the resources to go into the Met. We would occasionally stray over to see and identify the others to see what they were up to.
- Q – Can you name the Surrey Officers?
- A – JOHN BETSON ran the Surrey Crime Squad. He was the DS in charge of the Surrey Crimes Squad.
- COMFORT BREAK (13:20-13:25)
- A – Surrey pushed the boat out, microphone in the house in the living area. It didn’t pick up anything when the child went there, anything that happened didn’t happen in that room.
- Q – (Discussion on how he felt not having any resources.)
- A – Nobody in charge of child abuse. I wanted to use Social Workers and arranged for NSPCC to work with us and to cover until the social workers could step in. At a conference this was discussed and the ACPO lead said no, it would be too expensive. This was on radio. He said there was only a few cases.
- Q – Did you put suggestions forward to Senior Officers?
- A – Yes, lots (01:05:54). Discussion about training for interviewing and reporting system involving social workers and request to use London wide. Refused by Assistant Commissioner as Met going to crimint so don’t use that system. Could not get anyone interested. It went up on a docket through 4 Area DCI, but they didn’t want to know.
- Q – What happened with MH?
- A – We did the raids after the kid was seen going into the house. They raided all the houses. I think one house, one of the suspects had child pornography the rest of them had nothing. The guy in Surrey was charged because we could prove some of the stuff he had although he claimed they were adults through passports etc, we could prove they were only 13 or 14. These pictures and some of the pictures he used are still out there now in gay magazines. You buy a magazine called Smooth, smooth boys – people would often say its because they are shaved – it’s not, they are kids. These magazines are still sold with pictures of kids in, they are still there. The Met’s attitude was we can’t go removing them because we will be seen to be demonising the homosexual community. We can’t do it so it was a case of, yeah, we know the magazines are there, they have photos of kids in them but people might think they are shaved so we are not going round to try and remove them, we are not going to put anything out to other police stations. You could go round most gay guys’ houses and found this picture in there, you could have arrested them for child pornography quite legitimately because it was a legitimate magazine. This guy was photographing them and putting them in there. Their answer was this is too much just to let it go. MH was about homosexual stuff they were petrified of it. If you had a little girl you could prove it was a little girl, they would do something about it. Frightened to death of being see as homophobic. If they had put it out there most decent people would have gotten rid of it.
- Q – How was MH closed? What state was it in when you left?
- A – I was told they were going to carry on as they had been raided, that was it. I think they used me leaving to shut down HATTON. They had wanted to shut HATTON down for a long time. No one was running it. Just before I joined the Paedophile Unit every 2 weeks they would have a meeting with the likes of REBEKAH BROOKS like that. On the back of my chair was the name ‘REBEKAH‘ in Tippex, where she used to sit and hold court. Lots of press came in there. They were so frustrated they could not get anywhere so they shared the stuff what was going on to the press instead of them actually dealing with it.
- Q – They were having meetings with journalists?
- A – Yes.
- Q – Senior officers?
- A – Yes, and the team. They used to come in every couple of weeks, they would bring a bottle in and sit there. It was only because at the time I got there the Yard went dry – they got rid of the tank downstairs, turned it into a gym. Before that, the journalists were in there on a regular basis.
- Q – They would share information?
- A – They did a lot of good work but it’s not the way it should have been dealt with. There was information shared, there was stuff we would get back, but the Paedophile Unit, it leaked like a sieve. There was one time – I won’t name names – (There was then a discussion about he and his colleagues finding out about who was leaking information to the press using three nicknames and mention of an enquiry concerning the DPA.) (01:14:52)
- Q – This [NAME REDACTED] where you said he sold a story to Channel 4?
- A – He apparently went to Channel 4 and sold them a story, and they spent 6 weeks undercover filming and following him around. It was to do with named people. They withdrew the plug and I went to see Channel 4, found the producer, who told me about being involved in it. It was just like they were petrified that I turned up, I thought I was going there to chat to a producer to tell me what he knew about [NAME REDACTED].
- Q – No senior officers with you?
- A – No, I asked them to come with me, but it was a case of ‘no you won’t need us’.
- Q – They indicated footage had been destroyed?
- A – Yes, they wouldn’t give me any information on suspects, or anything like that. (01:16:10)
- Q – Do you know what it was about?
- A – Supposedly about [NAME REDACTED] was taking them to an identified (or unidentified) people that were abusing WM-A118 and WM-A119.
- Q – This is MH, under MH?
- A – Yes.
- Q – Remember any of the names of the people at the meeting?
- A – No, but there would be a list on the docket. I listed everyone who was there.
- Q – There was no senior officers, it was yourself and people you describe as lawyers.
- A – Yes, we went round the room and it’s as if everyone had their own lawyer. The Director was there, the Senior Manager of Channel 4 was there – he had a lawyer. The camera team was there – they had a lawyer. I said: “Can you tell me what you did?” They said they made a programme but destroyed all the films. Can’t comment, no comment.
- Q – Was it a pre-arranged meeting?
- A – Yes, it took me ages to get the meeting as I kept ringing them up saying I really wanted to come and talk to them about this.
- Q – This [NAME REDACTED] had indicated to you while you had a prison visit with him that he had been helping out Channel 4?
- A – Yes.
- Q – And he had given information to them?
- A – Yes.
- Q – What senior Officers did you ask to go with you?
- A – If you go to see the press (can’t hear answer but something like authority or report), you had to get authority from no lesser rank that DCI. It would have been in the MH docket that I asked to go and then asked for authority. No one came with me.
- Q – Did you ask Bob McCloughlin?
- A – Yes, Bob was the DI.
- Q – Do you remember who your DCI was?
- A – JIM REYNOLDS.
- Q – So nothing came out of the meeting?
- A – No. Confirmed they had a programme, they know [NAME REDACTED], they filmed over a period of 8 weeks, that the footage had been destroyed, they didn’t say why it had been destroyed.
- Q – What year?
- A – It was around when I started there, it would be in the docket – around 97, 97 or 98.
- Q – I want to move onto WM-F172 was that an operational name?
- A – No that was LINDA HOLDEN and myself picked that up from looking into corruption and fraud. A load of houses basically had been bought by criminals, C11 criminals, they were the top criminals in the country – the ARRIFS, people like that. They bought Docklands property. They put locals up, gave them money. It was a way of laundering money. WM-F172 ran these places for them. You would have a high court judge in his beautiful house and next door he would have about 30 refugees, they were just piling people into them.
- Q – At what point have you been investigating WM-F172? Where were you at that time?
- A – I was at Rotherhithe.
- Q – What year?
- A – 1990 – I was on CID.
- Q – Was it your investigation?
- A – No, it was LINDA HOLDEN’S. We got together on this.
- Q – Where did WM-F172 live?
- A – She lived in a flat in DPA – a big six-bedroomed house.
- Q – How did this come to light – there was some kind of corruption or fraud?
- A – I can’t remember exactly how it came about. We ended up looking at her as the prime suspect. I came at it from the fraud aspect. There were many people living in this house. Linda came at it from another way. Discussion on how he found out the villains turned up on the day, threw people out of the queue, put their own in to get the properties and how WM-F172 was linked to the properties.
- Q – There was a search of her business property?
- A – She ran a cafe in DPA. It was a meeting place for villains.
- Q – What was the name of the cafe?
- A – I think the DPA.
- Q – Done a search of her business premises, cafe?
- A – Her office was upstairs where she ran the stuff for the housing. We came across a safe that she wasn’t going to open and didn’t have the key. We were going to call a locksmith when she opened it, and we found the tape recording. We thought it might be more evidence of what we were looking for. We got back and listened to the tape WM-F7. WM-F7 has a distinctive voice. Realised it was his voice on it and he was engaged in having sex with someone – another male. We knew he had an association with WM-F172, as there had been bits in the press attending functions with her on his arm.
- Q – Describe the voice you believed was WM-F7.
- A – I don’t know how to describe his voice – it’s distinctive and it was him, as far as I was concerned it was him.
- Q – Had you seen him on TV?
- A – Yes, he was the local MP for DPA. I had seen him a few time around, I had spoken to him a few times, on TV he is regularly on. He has a twang to his voice. If you heard it you would know it was him.
- Q – What did you hear on the recording?
- A – It was obvious he was having sex with someone basically. Grunts, groans, his voice, encouragement and bits and pieces, and it went on for a while.
- Q – Did you hear what the other person was saying – what the voice sounded like?
- A – I can’t really recall. It sounded a youngish male basically, or you could gather from it.
- Q – How young are we talking?
- A – Impossible to say. (01:29:03)
- Q – Young male, as in teenager or above, or are we talking child?
- A – It was a teenager, child that sort of age. It was a young person. He was in his 40s. This was a significantly younger probably child or young adult, grunts and groans and talking during sex. It wasn’t exactly a conversation. It sounded like they didn’t know that they were being recorded.
- Q – What was the record done on – what type?
- A – Can’t remember if it was an ordinary cassette or micro cassette. I think it was just an ordinary cassette.
- Q – It was just audio.
- A – Just audio.
- Q – Anything written on the cassette, you can remember?
- A – I can’t remember.
- Q – From that recording, this teenager or child – can you remember what they were saying?
- A – No.
- Q – What made you believe it was a young person or child?
- A – The voice was higher – just the whole tenure of it being encouraged to participate as though he was talking to someone young. Couldn’t say if it was a child – could have been a young person. It was definitely someone on the younger side.
- Q – Were there sounds of distress?
- A – No, it was consensual. Our main concern was that he was often protecting her when people were complaining to him about WM-F172. People had gone to his surgery to complain that the villains had got there, but he said no I’m sure not. He was on her arm at places, and it wasn’t until about 10 years later that he came out being gay. Before that the people of DPA would not have voted for him.
- Q – Listened to the recording – was Linda there as well?
- A – Yes. I think the DI as well. We were going to keep it quiet. We couldn’t say if it was a child, was an MP being blackmailed, was he being blackmailed by WM-F172 therefore by most of the villains in South East London?
- Q – When you say you were going to keep it quiet, was there a conversation around that?
- A – Yeah, the DI was going to take it to SB, I think. We didn’t want to make it worse. It needed appropriate people to deal with it. We couldn’t deal with it as the local CID. It was going to be taken up elsewhere as far as we were aware.
- Q – Who was the DI at the time?
- A – MICKY SUETT
- Q – There was a conversation about this going to SB as the local CID couldn’t deal with it?
- A – Yes, the three of us didn’t say anything to anyone else. Then the tape went missing.
- Q – How long after it was booked in did you go back to find it?
- A – It wasn’t me who went to find it, it was Linda, and it wasn’t there. We weren’t sure who had taken it – had SB come along and taken it? It was not booked out, it wasn’t where is should be.
- Q – Was this fed back to the DI?
- A – Yes.
- Q – Do you know what happened from there?
- A – I think he may have done a copy so I don’t think he was that worried. We all talked about doing a copy each and keeping hold of it. If you left it in your drawer though and someone picked it up, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore. (01:36:32)
- Q – Did you know that for certain or was it just a comment saying he would make a copy?
- A – I just felt confident he had made a copy. We talked about making copies ourselves.
- Q – Did you make a copy?
- A – Don’t recall making a copy, no. Abut this time I ended up at the Bailey for about two weeks. I wasn’t much in the office.
- Q – Who would have had access to the property office?
- A – It would have gone to the property store at SOUTHWARK once it had left us because she was a prisoner, it would have been booked in at Southwark.
- Q – It was moved from Rotherhithe?
- A – Yeah, after the arrest was made she went to Southwark as there was no facilities at Rotherhithe. We would have taken the stuff back to the office in Rotherhithe to listen to and book it in and leave it in the property store.
- Q – Would there have been signing out and signing in?
- A – Yeah.
- Q – Was it a 105 the…
- A – Yeah.
- Q – So the book 105 would be signed out and signed in?
- A – Yeah.
- Q – So there was an audit trail?
- A – Yeah, some of the paperwork was kept in the office so we could go through it as you would forget the names. The tape wasn’t something we were going to do anything with so it went back.
- Q – At the time you found this tape, was it a case of you all being worried that an MP was being blackmailed by WM-F172 and other villains, or did you look at it as a child abuse aspect?
- A – Couldn’t say for a 100% that it was a child, it was just things that came later, children in, children I was investigate later from the Children’s Home spending the night at his constituency surgery, seen coming out in the morning.
- Q – So it was later on in your career when you discover all that and that’s when you thought?
- A – Yeah, it was later on. Just as I left Rotherhithe to go to CPT, I remember having a conversation with the CH SUPT there, ALAN EVERSHED. I don’t know how we got on the subject, but it was about WM-F7. He may have been briefed by MICK SUETT about children coming out of his constituency surgery in the early hours of the morning.
- Q – That information was fed to you so you didn’t witness it yourself?
- A – I did later. There were children there that were related to [NAME REDACTED] that group of kids were the ones coming out of his constituency surgery. Those kids like WM-A118 and WM-A119 never said anything about WM-F7. ALAN EVERSHED telling me about the kids coming out of the surgery and we were doing some observations around there about a child we knew who was a prolific burglar we caught him coming out of his constituency surgery.
- Q – What time in the morning are we talking about – half six?
- Q – What was his surgery?
- A – Like a shot front, just like a shop. Kids had been staying there. The one kid I saw, can’t remember his name, was from Rotherhithe. Same sort of thing he was into burglaries, stealing. He was about 15 or 16 and had stopped all of a sudden. He was coming out of there one morning. I don’t think we were doing a surveillance, just driving past. It was towards the end, when I was leaving there. EVERSHED said he had received information that kids were spending the night at the surgery.
- Q – Was it a set up like an office, this surgery? What was it like?
- A – It was like a shop front/come office. The kid came out of it. We might have been doing something on the WM-F172 job in the area.
- Q – Were these children’s home kids?
- A – Yeah, I think he was a children’s home kid.
- Q – Do you know which one?
- A – I can’t remember. It was only later that the links going through the children’s home when I got into it with the CPT. Moves on to the bit when I got upset. The reason I was upset was because I was very close to Linda and I told her about the meeting. I never actually told her they had photographs, she went off alarming when I said [IRRELEVANT]. She went off on one and I never spoke to her from that day to this.
- Q – What happened again at your meeting?
- A – I was meeting a friend of mine in a pub on the way home from Rotherhithe. I got to the pub and outside was what was obviously a police car. I thought it was my mate taking the piss. Got inside and there was someone there who introduced himself as a Supt from the Regional Crime Squad. I thought he might be with my mate, but he wasn’t. We started chatting. He starting blowing smoke up my bum about things I had done, knew a lot about me. He said we should stop the investigation into WM-F172 for everyone’s interests.
- Q – Do you know who he was?
- A – No, I took the car reg at the time and ran it through. Not locally but someone up north, but never identified. Can’t even remember his name, I had it all written down. I didn’t know who he was but he was purporting to be from the job. That’s how he knew I was going to be in the pub because I had phoned my mate once from Rotherhithe and once from Southwark confirming the meeting, so unless it was someone in those offices listening to me, no one else would have known I was going there. He was waiting for me, so we had this conversation. It was a case of me saying, no I don’t think we will stop the investigation. Making life difficult if LINDA [IRRELEVANT] making life difficult for me. That was it, and off he trotted.
- Q – This was Linda’s investigation around WM-F172?
- A – Yes, I meet with Linda the next day and told her what happened. She went off on one and I never actually got to tell her they claimed they [IRRELEVANT].
- Q – Of what?
- A – [IRRELEVANT] We never spoke from that day to this. Shortly after I went to the Paedophile Unit, not the CPT.
- Q – After you told her about that meeting she never spoke to you?
- A – Yeah.
- Q – This male introduced himself as a Supt RCS? (Regional Crime Squad)
- A – Yes, claimed to be from the South East Regional, which made sense with the job car outside that he got into when he left.
- Q – What did he look like?
- A – About 5’10”, slim face, small moustache, quite skinny.
- Q – Was he on his own?
- A – Strangely, when he got into the car, someone else got into the car I hadn’t seen before. The two of them got into the car to leave. I was looking outside the window.
- Q – Was that another male?
- A – Yeah.
- Q – Was he driving this other person who spoke to you in the pub?
- A – No.
- Q – Did he say why he wanted this stopped?
- A – No. There’s two theories. One is about WM-F7 or about WM-F172. I think she may have been an informant. Certainly my life turned to shit afterwards.
- Q – After that meeting?
- A – Yeah.
- Q – Was that investigation still going on, was Linda still dealing?
- A – Yeah, we got to the stage I think we were charging her that week or the following week. This was days before she was charged. Things were said at the trial that came second hand to me. The CPS put a bar on me from attending court.
- Q – Why was that?
- A – Because I was under investigation. Strangely, someone had made a complaint against me. I had received the 163A which meant that the complaint was over. The complaint started again, I was reinvestigated for it. It was to do with the (Fur trader, not clear). I went on a central discipline board.
- Q – So the CPS barred you from attending the WM-F172 trial?
- A – I was barred from attending court in general, all things, I was not allowed to give evidence in any trial (discussion about CPS action for police officer under investigation and giving evidence). I was on gardening leave, although I was acting DI in the office as he was off sick and I was the only one who had passed the exam.
- Q – With regard to WM-F172, when she was arrested was she brought in at that point when you did the search?
- A – Yeah. Searched her home address when she was arrested at her home and her business premises later in the day, I think. Took ages to search her home, took her back to the nick and then took her to her business premises. All the villains from South East London were banging on her door and standing around for the rest of the day.
- Q – Was she ever asked about that recording?
- A – I don’t think we ever did. We were going to pass it over, leave it like we had never seen it or listened to it, we just dropped the subject, left it. I don’t know if it is to do with WM-F7 or general (can’t make out 01:54:27).
- Q – What happened with WM-F172 trial?
- A – I didn’t go but I heard from someone else that she was found guilty on some counts and someone went in to see the judge. That’s what I heard, but of course I wasn’t there.
- Q – Did you ever mention to anyone else, senior officers, about this person threatening you in in the pub to drop the investigation?
- A – No.
- Q – Why?
- A – I didn’t trust anyone, wasn’t going to do it. I wasn’t going to stop, not in my nature.
- Q – Anymore you can tell us abut the WM-F7 WM-F172 element?
- A – No, I can’t be sure but it was always in the back of my mind these were the same group of kids, but ther. But never did any of the lads I dealt with ever mention him, it’s just the tape recording suspect, whether it was a child or not being know and talked about regularly about the kids coming out of his address. He could have been a nice man putting them for the night, nothing a 100%.
- Q – OP HATTON (01:58:26) Can you give me a brief overview?
- A – OP HATTON evolved from the Met’s monitoring of the Paedophile Information Exchange where I got involved. BRIAN FRANC#### was running Operation Hatton. He had a card index system, he tried to get it put on Holmes but got a knock back. It was an old card system, cross referenced a lot of it historic, way back. The main players in it, we got to dealing with it. One guy lived in DPA and they used to meet every 4 weeks, the PIE at his house on a Sunday afternoon. Before my time they managed to get an undercover officer into those meetings but they actually thought he was a member of the security services, they allowed him in and weren’t bothered who he was. They would discuss things like how they were trying to change people’s perceptions They would meet with the likes of [NAME REDACTED] and people like that to see how they’d run campaign to, for their side of it to get homosexuality normalised, they were trying to mirror that to do the same in bringing down the age of consent. I remember one particular a teacher, female, aged about 30 was done for having sex with a 14-year old boy in her school. They were trying to bring that to the forefront of the press trying to make it sound ridiculous. They would send people to talke to the Paedophile Unit at the Yard pretending they had information so that they would get to know us. Basically they were trying to see if they could discredit any of us, the police through the press. The one guy who lived in the house in DPA we kept getting this funny phone number appear, when we were doing the cross checking number. He was actually a computer scientist, he was directing a satellite from home, he was said to run the dark web for paedophiles.
- Q – OP HATTON was Paedophile Information Exhange and you picked up that operation when you were on the paedophile unit?
- A – Yeah.
- Q – When?
- A – When BRIAN retired, I picked up all of it, late ’97. What I would do, any phone calls that came in, again that was put on the crimint system, the new stuff was put on. I tried to get the old stuff put on but it didn’t meet the criteria for going on crimint for the A1, A, because it wasn’t done like that. Just the current but a lot of that we couldn’t put on because it was coming from the undercover.
- Q – Would there be a file on HATTON?
- A – Yes.
- Q – So there would be a GR docket?
- A – Yeah.
- Q – Under the name of HATTON?
- A – OP HATTON, yeah. What we were trying to do was get this persons password so we could get onto the dark web (discussuion about how they tried to get the password by using fixed keyboard).
- Q – You were running Hatton as well as MH at the same time on your own?
- A – Yeah.
- Q – Did you ever ask for any assistance?
- A – (Discussion about workload). The rest of the guys were all busy with the child pornography.
- Q – What was the aim of OP HATTON?
- A – It was an intelligence operation to monitor the activities of PIE and moved on to try and get access to the dark web, where they were all communicating. (Discussion about intel that would be fed through to senior officers, eg: PIE trying to get undercover to go abroad, Asia, and drive a boat and arrange for children to be brought in. 02:07:33)
- Q – Asking for resources?
- A – To follow it through but it wasn’t getting done basically.
- Q – Did you document that, put a report through?
- A – It would go round as a report on HATTON but you weren’t allowed to write in the margins where you say there is a new document. It would go round with a 728 on it, asking for something. If they didn’t like it, it would come back with the 728 ripped in half and a note saying, no, it wouldn’t be added to the docket.
- Q – Did you put a report up asking for resources?
- A – Yes, there were plenty of times. One there was nobody to do it, you couldn’t get anything, you couldn’t get a sausage.
- Q – Who was your line manager at the time? Did you specifically put any report thrugh for assistance for HATTON for resources?
- A – Only time I looked for recourses on HATTON I know from talking to BRIAN FRANCE#### he was pulling his hair our, it was making him ill, he was putting stuff in and asking for resources. They were freely chatting with the undercover about what they were doing. He got really deep in amongst them. As far as the job was concerned, just leave it and concentrate on trying to get into the dark web. (Discussion on dealing with Military as he was liaison trying to get access to dark web).
- Q – OP HATTON information on PIE and you picked it up while working on MH. Did your request anything from your senior officers to assist in your investigations?
- A – I put in a request, previous time before I arrived undercover being asked to drive a boat to Phillipines get children on the boat. It happened again whilst I was running it – they made the same request. We put in a docket to allow the undercover to follow it through – it was a straight ‘no’.
- Q – Why do you think that was?
- A – Money, time, resources. I don’t know what else SO1 was dealing with at the time.
- Q – Was the undercover from your unit?
- A – No. There were onlyt wo undercovers at that time rated for dealing with paedophile jobs. One was in our office [NAME REDACTED] and the other I can’t remember his name, his number DPA. There would be weekends when he went in and there was just him and me. I’d brief him before he went in and debrief him afterwards. I’d be in the house opposite. Because it was overtime, I wasn’t allowed to do it on overtime, I would have to swap my days to do it on a Sunday if I wanted to cover it. They put the meetings on Sunday afternoon because they said no police officer is going to be there. There would just be the two of us.
- Q – Do you think there were missed opportunities by not having the resources to cover it?
- A – Yeah. Plenty of opportunities that could have come out, more could have been made, different people would turn up at different meetings. Half the time we didn’t identify the half of them. I was concerned with the undercovers, I could go chasing people up the road (discussion about safety isues or lack of them fo the UC). The resources, time, money, effort just wasn’t there.
- Q – Was the Paedophile Unit well established by the time you got there?
- A – Yes, but as I said to yu before, it was called the Paedophile Unit but it was the guys from the Dirty Book Squad. They had all been trained to interview children in the early days but not on had interviewed a child. There was so much work coming through, NCIS was giving us work from the Canadians the computer network thing*, people paying for viewing child pornography by credit card and a list came to us. 10,000 names for people in the UK and all of these needed to be turned over. (*I think this is referring to OP ORE)
- Q – What training was given to yu or people on the Paedophile Unit?
- A – None. I bourhg tht etraining there with me. I moaned to the DI that the guys there had no idea how to work with the social services. (Discussion abut lack of skills to deal with child abuse allegation).
- Q – How mahy people on the Paedophile Unit whilst you were working on HATTON?
- A – DCI, DI, I think 3 DSs, 12?
- Q – Can you name them?
- A – No, and 12 DCs.
- Q – Can you remember any names?
- A – BRIAN FRANCE####, DAVE RYDEN (DC), BRIAN was an old school DS from the CID, my line manager. DI was BOB MCCLOUGHLIN, DCI was JIM REYNOLDS, GRAHAM PASSINGHAM (DC) I have mentioned.
- Q – There would be what you describe as a large file on HATTON?
- A – Yeah it was about 6 inches thick.
- Q – That was based on inteilligence gathering?
- A – No, the intelligence gathering was in the cars and the system, the docket was for getting the operation set up in the first place, the original parts of the PIE, the obviously marked secret because of the UC work and the putting in the bug for for the computer stuff, it was all in there and just bounced backwards and forwards. (Discussion on how bad this was. 02:20:11)
- Q – Recap on HATTON. It was you took it on whilst working on MH on Paedophile Unit took with you from CPT late 1997, BRIAN FRANCEWARE ran it originally, it evolved from the Met’s monitoring of PIE, on the cards system?
- A – Separate from the office system, the office had it’s own card system, HATTON had it’s own card system, BRIAN wanted it done that way because he originally wanted it on Holmes but because the card system in the office covered everything from the ’60s. It wasn’t a proper collation system as such. When we went onto crimint they decided they were not going to backdate or go through the old files, nothing was transferred onto crimint. It sat there as a stand alone system and we were told to move onto crimint nothing would be backdated. I think HATTON was updated but only new information. If there was anything of any prominence, was often never marked, it was consult and often you just asked GRAHAM PASSINGHAM. The keeper of secrets.
- Q – You put in a 728 asking for resources to assist with Hatton and you weren’t given any further resources to assist you with undercover operations with HATTON. You think there missed opportunities because of that?
- A – Yeah.
- Q – No training was given, you brought in some training yourself?
- A – Yeah.
- Q – DCI JIM REYONLDS, DI BOB MCCLOUGHLIN, DS BRIAN FRANCE####, ANDY RYDON and GRAHAM PASSINGHAM were some of the officers you worked with?
- A – It wasn’t the case that the guys there didn’t care, they wanted to do stuff but they just couldn’t get the oomph from above to deal with it. When I tried to get MH off the ground, it took a year for the docket to be accepted. I wrote the report and it was about a year later. It bounced back and forward. It took nearly a year for authority just to go and interview. It was so slow.
- Q – Finish off now. Time is now 14:50. (2:24:42)
Ex-Medomsley Detention prison officers jailed after physically abusing boys
More than 1,500 men claimed they had been subjected to abusive treatment while housed at Medomsley Detention Centre in the 1970s and 1980s
4 APR 2019
hree prison officers who subjected vulnerable teenagers to daily abuse at a detention centre in 1970s and 1980s have been jailed after a judge said their behaviour breached the public’s trust.
Durham Police carried out a huge investigation involving 1,800 witnesses into what happened at Medomsley Detention Centre near Consett, from its opening in the 1960s to its closure in 1988.
A total of 1,676 men came forward to claim they had been subjected to abusive treatment while housed at the centre, which was renowned for applying the “short, sharp shock” form of justice.
A team of 70 detectives launched Operation Seabrook in August 2013, and 32 former warders were interviewed, with seven facing court in a series of three trials at Teesside Crown Court, the last of which ended last month.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ex-medomsley-detention-prison-officers-14235997
In March 1985, the Home Secretary Leon Brittan visited Medomsley and praised the positive impact the new regime was having.
https://www.jordanssolicitors.co.uk/2014/04/the-history-of-abuse-at-medomsley-detention-centre/
IICSA chose not to cover abuse at Medomsley
@newsincardiff
Was there a Monday Club meeting at Elm Guest House in 1981?
https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/9706/view/OHY006904.pdf…
@ciabaudo
This raises a few questions: What was the ultra-right wing of the Tory party doing meeting at a London child brothel? And who is fibbing: Proctor who said he never went to EGH? Or Ashley Bramall friend Tremlett who took him there? And how did Tremlett’s name get on the list?
George Tremlett provided officers with a witness statement…he recalled taking Harvey Proctor there for a ‘Monday Club’ meeting in 1981.
@ciabaudo
Ashley Bramall was on the GLC at the same time as EGH patron George Tremlett and Brook-Partridge. Tremlett worked for the People and wrote for numerous music magazines, incl. NME.
CROYDON FEATURES HIGHLY COS SIDNEY COOKE CONTACTS THERE
@craftymuvva
Yes, HP was questioned about him and a “car journey”
And back to Tremlett… here he is meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury in his role with the National Association of Voluntary Hostels...
David Hubert Boothby Chesshyre
Honours system under scrutiny after sex abuser kept title for years
Hubert Chesshyre was recognised for services to the Queen after holding multiple senior positions in the royal household.
Hubert Chesshyre, a lay clerk of Southwark Cathedral from 1971 until 2003,[46] was also a member of the British Royal Household. Chesshyre was responsible for the granting of arms both to the cathedral itself[47] and to the Bishops suffragan of Kingston, of Woolwich, and of Croydon.[48]
King’s School, Canterbury, Cambridge and Oxford, taught French in England and English in France, wine merchant, in the early 60s, as a member of the Honorable Artillery fired the salute at Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965
Chesshyre is mentioned in the diaries of James Lees-Milne, who described him as ‘handsome though over fifty, and charming to talk to’.[83]
Lees-Milne was friends with many of the prominent British intellectual and social figures of his day, including Nancy Mitford, Harold Nicolson, about whom he wrote a two-volume biography, Deborah Mitford
The Most Noble Order of the Garter, which Chesshyre co-authored with Peter Begent and Lisa Jefferson, enjoyed the distinction of a foreword by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (p. 2) and of being ‘Dedicated with permission to|Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Elizabeth II|Thirtieth Sovereign of the Order‘ (p. 4)
Chesshyre was a choral clerk of Trinity College, Cambridge during his time as an undergraduate at the college.[17] From 1979 until 1993 Chesshyre was a member of The Bach Choir, of which he is now an Associate Member.[90] Chesshyre now sings for the London Docklands Singers, which he joined in 2002. He has been, since 1980, a member of the Madrigal Society, the oldest musical society in Europe (see Madrigal). He became a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians in 1994 and a Liveryman of the Company in 1995.[19]
https://companycheck.co.uk/director/902778231/MR-DAVID-HUBERT-BOOTHBY-CHESSHYRE/companies
| Occupation | Officer of Arms |
|---|---|
| Years active | 1970–2010 |
| Employer | Queen Elizabeth II |
| Organization | College of Arms |
Chesshyre – Green Staff Officer at the investiture of Prince Charles
In 1998 the Cambridge University Heraldic and Genealogical Society appointed Chesshyre to deliver its annual Mountbatten Memorial Lecture[110] (Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma was President of the Cambridge University Society of Genealogists and Patron of CUHAGS
David Hubert Boothby Chesshyre
Honours system under scrutiny after sex abuser kept title for years
Hubert Chesshyre, who had many senior roles in the royal household, abused a teenage chorister in the 1990s.
30 Mar 2019
Lawyers have called for an overhaul of the honours forfeiture system after it emerged that a sex abuser retained an honour bestowed for services to the Queen some three years after a court recognised him as a paedophile.
The system is too slow to acknowledge an offender’s offences, say lawyers specialising in abuse claims, and, in the case of those who have died, cannot strip them of their honours, leaving victims feeling that they have been cheated of justice.
Hubert Chesshyre, 78, an expert on heraldry and genealogy, held a number of senior positions within the royal household, rising to become secretary of the most noble order of the garter, the highest order in British chivalry. Among the many honours bestowed upon him over more than 40 years were the Queen’s Silver and Golden Jubilee Medals, and the commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) – the latter for distinguished personal service to the monarch. A fellow or member of several illustrious organisations and charities, he was a heraldic consultant to the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Lord Sugar and Sir Terry Pratchett.
But it recently emerged during the Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) that in 2015 Chesshyre was found to have sexually abused a teenage chorister during the 1990s, a fact that has remained buried from public record. This is because Chesshyre’s case did not result in a criminal conviction. Rather, the inquiry heard “he was found to have committed the acts in question” in a trial of the facts.
These are held when the accused is deemed unfit to plead. The court recognised that Chesshyre had suffered a stroke. It was also said that he had dementia. As a result, despite being found to have committed the abuse, he was given an absolute discharge.
The fact that Chesshyre’s name was misspelled throughout the trial, despite repeated police efforts to have it corrected, has made it difficult to identify him in legal databases.
His victim told the Observer that he believed there may have been others. “I know of other boys from the choir where their parents became concerned and stopped Mr Chesshyre from having anything more to do with them.”
Chesshyre’s case is similar to that of Lord Janner, who was also accused of sexual abuse. Suffering from dementia, Janner was due to undergo a similar trial of the facts but this was dropped after his death in 2015.
In October 2015, Chesshyre’s victim wrote to Sir Alan Reid, secretary of the Royal Victorian Order, calling for forfeiture of Chesshyre’s honour. Reid replied that this would be wrong because Chesshyre had been given an absolute discharge, and no conviction registered. Reid’s position was mirrored by that of several organisations. The Heraldry Society said that it had no plans to remove his fellowship, in an email seen by the Observer.
In another email to the victim, the Society of Antiquaries of London said it would not put the question of his removal to the fellows of the society. The Bach Choir said it was “not incumbent” on it to take any further action as Chesshyre, an associate member, had no involvement with it any more. The Corporation of London emailed the victim to tell him it did not have the power to remove Chesshyre’s status as a Freeman of the City of London. The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies continues to list Hubert Chesshyre CVO as a vice-president.
It was only after the victim contacted his MP, who took it up with the prime minister, that the honour was eventually forefeited. But the victim only learned of this action in October 2018, five months after it happened and three years after Chesshyre’s trial. He was dismayed to learn via a Cabinet Office email that the forefeiture would not be published in the London Gazette, a standard procedure.
The case has led to calls for the honours forfeiture system to be reformed, an issue recently discussed at the IICSA. “A significant overhaul is necessary to ensure that any person who has been found to have committed acts of abuse on children has any and all honorific titles automatically removed, whether or not they are still alive,” said Andrew Lord, abuse solicitor at the law firm Leigh Day. “Survivors of abuse deserve to be safe in the knowledge that when crimes committed against them are proven, any benefits or prestige conveyed to the holder of an honorary title are swiftly removed in a clear and transparent process.”
As of Saturday night, Chesshyre’s Wikipedia page made no mention of his trial. When approached by the Observer, the various societies of which he is a member confirmed that they would not be dissociating themselves from him. The victim said: “As far as most people are concerned, he’s still Hubert Chesshyre CVO.”
He maintains a close relationship with The King’s School. In 2010 he helped design a tie for the school’s Legacy Club, a club for Old King’s Scholars
Partial list of clients for whom Chesshyre acted as ‘agent’ at the College of Arms.
The Rt Hon John Bercow, MP, Speaker of the House of Commons
The Rt Revd and Rt Hon Lord Chartres,
Sir John Hurt, CBE, actor (Chesshyre’s contemporary at St Michael’s Preparatory School, Otford and friend)[14]
Order of the Garter ceremony
Education and early career
Chesshyre was educated at The King‘s School, Canterbury (The Grange 1954–59),[7] and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA French and German and MA). After graduating from Cambridge Chesshyre spent about four years working as a schoolmaster and vintner, including working for Moët et Chandon and John Harvey & Sons. He went to study at Christ Church, Oxford (1966/7) and was awarded a Diploma in Education (1967).[8] Chesshyre also spent some time in Nîmes in 1967, where he met a M. Chassin du Guerny.[9]
http://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/2052850
Former Ampleforth College monk charged with 23 historic child sex offences
North Yorkshire Police have charged a former monk from Ampleforth with 23 non-recent child sex offences. Peter Turner, 79, from Redcar, who was previously known as Father Gregory Carroll, is due to appear at Scarborough Magistrates’ Court on April 8, 2019.
26 March 2019
MI6 officer found with child abuse images had charges dropped
26 Mar 2019
An MI6 officer was discovered to have child sexual abuse images on his work computer but the charges against him were eventually dropped, the intelligence service has told an inquiry.
The illegal material was found in 2006 and the official was dismissed, the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) heard on Tuesday. The case was referred to the police who investigated. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) brought charges but it never came to trial.
Evidence about the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), or MI6 as it is more commonly known, was given by an anonymous officer who testified at the inquiry via video link. Before 2015, he confirmed, the service had no specific policies relating to preventing or reporting suspected child abuse.
The officer, who is responsible for overseeing MI6’s compliance with the law, told the inquiry that pornographic material involving children was found by SIS staff in 2006. “When this material was discovered, it was [examined] and we conducted an internal investigation to find out which employee had been responsible,” he told the inquiry.
The images were passed to the police and an MI6 officer was identified. “The individual was then dismissed and he [faced] two charges of possessing indecent images of children on his workplace computer,” the officer told the inquiry. “Ultimately the prosecutor decided not to offer evidence against the defendant following an abuse of process application.”
The SIS subsequently wrote to the CPS to express its “disappointment” that the prosecution had been abandoned.
The inquiry was also told about an incident when a “contact” was found to have a cache of child sexual abuse images on his computer. In 2009, the man admitted to downloading them. The SIS passed the material to the police’s child exploitation and online protection command (CEOP) but detectives decided there was insufficient evidence to take action.
The anonymous officer also said a search through SIS files on behalf of the inquiry unearthed a note attached to an obituary of the former intelligence officer and diplomat Sir Peter Hayman, who died in 1992. Hayman was subsequently exposed as a member of the Paedophile Information Exchange organisation.
The inquiry heard the note, written by an MI6 officer, read: “An unpleasant and pompous man who used to like playing Father Christmas in Ottawa [where Hayman was high commissioner in 1974] so that he could dandle children on his knee.”
The MI6 officer said the service had found no evidence in its files of the existence of any “paedophile ring” or any suggestion that the government had attempted to conceal information about the existence of such a group.
Earlier this month, an MI5 lawyer gave evidence in a similar manner to the inquiry, revealing that the service told the cabinet secretary in the 1980s about rumours of a minister’s “penchant for small boys” but did not pass this on to police or launch an investigation into the claims.
@inquirycsa
Conservative activist Mary Whitehouse said in 1976: “The support given by this organisation (Albany Trust) to paedophile groups means we are all subsidising and supporting indirectly a cause that seeks to normalose sexual activity between adult males and little girls.”
Jeremy Clarke tells the #westminsterhearing the Albany Trust tried to bring the Paedophile Information Exchange and Paedophile Action for Liberation into a professional network.
@craftymuvva
In short, PIE and PAL generated clientele for AT.
@inquirycsa
https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/9706/view/OHY006904.pdf …
Commander Trestrail had been frequenting the guest house. Mr Osbourne said that their objctive had been to seize the guest book, and effectively protect Trestrail from potential negative media attention. There were two boys acting in a sexually precocious manner who had been wearing nappies and a man wearing an executuiner’s mask.
Albany Trust trustee, Jeremy Clarke tells the #westmisnterhearing that the period of active involvement between the Albany Trust and the Paedophile Information Exchange was from late 1975 – early 1977.
Keith Hose, chair of PIE held a meeting with the Albany Trust to discuss supportive groups for “paedophiliacs” in January 1976. This meeting was arranged followed a conference on sexual minorities.
File on Peter Hayman
Police file on Peter Hayman to DPP: “The sheer filth spread far and wide by him… its content with regard to the sexual and physical abuse of children” made him “one of the worst offenders” for sending such material through the post…
PIE signed its cheques with its full name, according to the Observer on September 4, 1983, so the Midland cannot claim innocence. They knew very well who they were dealing with. PIE spokesman, Steven Adrian said: ‘They have had our account log enough to know what we are about.’
Jimmy Savile helped the Midland Bank to fix it for twelve of our best known charities with the launch of its care card. ..including NSPCC, Save the Children, and The Spastics Society
The GuardianLondon, Greater London, England
…the bribe money … Denby pocketed while doing business with Iranians during corrupt Thatcher years.
That ca. £130k bribe went namely first to Midland Bank and then on to a numbered account at the Pays Bas in Geneva.
From there, monies were transferred to the account of a company called Euro Shipping Ltd. Denby also had access to these funds.
Halcoussis!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Z-G-HALCOUSSIS-CO-LTD/105534846148661
@ciabaudo
The Midland Bank also owned Thomas Cook, a company Jimmy Savile was also very closely associated with. Indeed, he was a paid consultant. But Savile wasn’t the only entity connected to Thomas Cook:
https://twitter.com/ciabaudo/status/1058401534952771585?s=19… https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/it-was-a-relief-when-i-got-the-knighthood-because-it-got-me-off-the-hook-an-exclusive-interview-with-9571057.html…
The Wanless investigation discovered a gap of 3 years between 1977 and 1980 in HO grants to WRVS, the precise period in which Tim Hulbert maintains grants were being paid to WRVS (PIE). So who was at the helm of WRVS and the Midland bank at the time?
Well, Baroness Pike was heading the WRVS, the harmless sounding Women’s Royal Voluntary Service. She joined in 1974 and stayed until she left to head the BBC in 1981.
When forced by public opinion to close their account, PIE had been a Midland bank customer for 8 years.
@ciabaudo
The Midland Bank also owned Thomas Cook, a company Jimmy Savile was also very closely associated with. Indeed, he was a paid consultant. But Savile wasn’t the only entity connected to Thomas Cook:
https://twitter.com/ciabaudo/status/1058401534952771585?s=19… https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/it-was-a-relief-when-i-got-the-knighthood-because-it-got-me-off-the-hook-an-exclusive-interview-with-9571057.html…
Well, Baroness Pike was heading the WRVS, the harmless sounding Women’s Royal Voluntary Service. She joined in 1974 and stayed until she left to head the BBC in 1981.
Chairman 1975-80 Sir William Armstrong – Ted Heath’s most senior mandarin
Revealed: The day Britain’s top civil servant rolled naked on the floor ranting about the end of the world
New job: Sir William Armstrong after he joined the Midland Bank in 1975
Britain’s top civil servant ‘cracked up’ and lay naked on a floor at 10 Downing Street talking incoherently in the final days of Ted Heath’s Conservative Government.
Later, the top mandarin became a life peer as Baron Armstrong of Sanderstead and was chairman of the Midland Bank from 1975 until 1980, when he died.
Downing Street papers released three years ago revealed that Armstrong knew a secret that could have toppled Harold Wilson in 1970.
So:
Heath, attended PIE meetings.
His mandarin Armstrong was CEO of Midland Bank 75-80.
PIE banked with Midland for 8 years (75-83).
Charles Napier was PIE treasurer.
Armstrong was PPS to RA Butler.
RAB’s daughter Lil was Albany trustee and son Adam was Thatcher PPS.
…………….
Angus Ogilvy and Jimmy Savile link to Harold Haywood
In 1975, Sir Harold Haywood became chairman of Albany Trust; soon after he met with four or five PIE members at the MIND Sexual Minorities workshop. Having stated that there was a moral imperative for the Trust to assist pedophiles, he enlisted the aid of Trust director Anthony Grey; he became secretary for Albany Trust in 1962 and director from 1971-77.
Antony Grey:
One of the Booklet’s stated aims was to argue for the positive social benefits paedophiles brought to society:
“In the belief that knowledge dispels prejudice, this booklet sets out to answer the commonest questions and suppositions about paedophilia, and to argue that those involved represent no special threat to society, but on the contrary are often a force for social good.”
In December 1976 accusations of supporting or funding paedophiles either directly or indirectly were denied by the Albany Trust in a recorded letter by Haywood to Whitehouse
In 1973, Haywood was given an OBE for “services to youth,” and in 1974, NAYC organized with Albany Trust to set up a two-day training conference on youth sexuality for people who train youth workers. Haywood’s involvement with NAYC is listed as having ended in 1974, but even after his departure,
“[Jimmy] Savile stopping by was still a frequent occurrence and he maintained close links with both NAYC and PHAB [Physically Handicapped and Able Bodied] beyond Haywood’s tenure. During 1974 and 1975 Savile was holding annual fundraising events ‘Tea-rific’ for NAYC and while writing his autobiography (published in 1974) referred to himself as Vice-President to Angus Ogilvy’s President. In 1974 Savile had also become Honorary President of PHAB when it became an independent charity [Savile did charity runs for them]. During Haywood’s time in 1970 PHAB had launched a TV fundraising appeal with Cliff Richard fronting the advert. Cliff along with Savile, Rolf Harris and Ed ‘Stewpot’ Stewart were to become four major entertainers appearing publicly for PHAB fundraising.”[ref]
Princess Alexandra – Patron of Duncroft
Keith Hose – Albany Trust and PIE
He said he was with Princess Alexandra, a patron of the school
Made claims during police interview, the transcription of which was edited
Rab Butler’s son Adam was PPS to Thatcher
Thatcher, whom he first served as PPS in opposition (1975-79) immediately after her election as Tory leader, rated him more highly as a team player, promoting him to the privy council in 1984 and rewarding him with a knighthood in 1986.
Margaret Thatcher made him minister of state for industry under Sir Keith Joseph, switching him to Northern Ireland in 1981
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/jan/14/conservatives.uk
Sir Adam was appointed to the Whips’ office as one of Mrs Thatcher’s two parliamentary private secretaries after she won the leadership election in 1975.
http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/news/local-news/sir-adam-butler-leaves-4m-3956967
Justin Welby’s family connections with the English establishment – His mother, Jane Portal, a former secretary to Winston Churchill who became Baroness Williams of Elvel, links the future archbishop to
Rab Butler (PIE Paedophile Information Exchange linked)
Jane Portal, Justin Welby’s mother, was the deputy Prime Minister Rab Butler’s favourite niece.
PIE signed its cheques with its full name, according to the Observer on September 4, 1983, so the Midland cannot claim innocence. They knew very well who they were dealing with. PIE spokesman, Steven Adrian said: ‘They have had our account log enough to know what we are about.’
Another Midland Bank director while PIE held accounts there was Angus Ogilvy, Savile’s close friend and charity colleague, who resigned in 1976. Ogilvy was part of the Prince’s Trust and, like Jimbo, was very close to Prince Charles.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1479803/Sir-Angus-Ogilvy.html …
Angus Ogilvy and Jimmy Savile link to Harold Haywood
In 1975, Sir Harold Haywood became chairman of Albany Trust; soon after he met with four or five PIE members at the MIND Sexual Minorities workshop. Having stated that there was a moral imperative for the Trust to assist pedophiles, he enlisted the aid of Trust director Anthony Grey; he became secretary for Albany Trust in 1962 and director from 1971-77.
Antony Grey:
One of the Booklet’s stated aims was to argue for the positive social benefits paedophiles brought to society:
“In the belief that knowledge dispels prejudice, this booklet sets out to answer the commonest questions and suppositions about paedophilia, and to argue that those involved represent no special threat to society, but on the contrary are often a force for social good.”
In December 1976 accusations of supporting or funding paedophiles either directly or indirectly were denied by the Albany Trust in a recorded letter by Haywood to Whitehouse
In 1973, Haywood was given an OBE for “services to youth,” and in 1974, NAYC organized with Albany Trust to set up a two-day training conference on youth sexuality for people who train youth workers. Haywood’s involvement with NAYC is listed as having ended in 1974, but even after his departure,
“[Jimmy] Savile stopping by was still a frequent occurrence and he maintained close links with both NAYC and PHAB [Physically Handicapped and Able Bodied] beyond Haywood’s tenure. During 1974 and 1975 Savile was holding annual fundraising events ‘Tea-rific’ for NAYC and while writing his autobiography (published in 1974) referred to himself as Vice-President to Angus Ogilvy’s President. In 1974 Savile had also become Honorary President of PHAB when it became an independent charity [Savile did charity runs for them]. During Haywood’s time in 1970 PHAB had launched a TV fundraising appeal with Cliff Richard fronting the advert. Cliff along with Savile, Rolf Harris and Ed ‘Stewpot’ Stewart were to become four major entertainers appearing publicly for PHAB fundraising.”[ref]
Yet another chairman (1991-94) was Sir Peter Ingram Walters, also with Lloyds and Blue Circle. It is worth remembering that Hewson cousin Jonathan Denby was tailing a Mr. Whitworth on the night of his crime. Denby and Whitworth had previously done a huge deal with Blue Circle.
Home Office ‘secretly channelled £30,000 to a group campaigning to legalise paedophilia in the late 1970s’, former civil servant tells Westminster child abuse inquiry
- Tim Hulbert worked for the Voluntary Services Unit (VSU) during the 1970s
- He said £30,000 had been secretly channelled in grant money to campaigners
- Money was sent to the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), he said
- The group campaigned for the age of consent to be lowered to four
The Home Office secretly channelled £30,000 in grant money to a controversial organisation campaigning to legalise paedophilia in the late 1970s, a former civil servant has claimed.
Tim Hulbert, who worked for the Voluntary Services Unit (VSU) during the 1970s and 1980s, told the Westminster strand of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse that he had seen the payment recorded on a spreadsheet.
He said the payment to the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) had been marked on official documents as a grant made to the Women’s Royal Voluntary Services (WRVS).
Mr Hulbert said he had been made aware of the grant via a senior colleague called Alan Davies who was new to the VSU – the body responsible for deciding which UK voluntary organisations should receive government funding.
He said in a statement: ‘[Alan Davies] and I got on well and used to talk informally about things we were working on.
‘I believe, though I cannot be sure, that it was during one of these informal chats over coffee that I discovered the unit was funding PIE – about which I knew little except that it was an organisation campaigning for the lowering of the age of consent to four.’
The statement added that he was aware that PIE also had a magazine called Magpie, and that he had seen a copy of the magazine in the VSU’s London offices.
He said the payment to PIE had been listed in the ‘grant renewals’ section of the spreadsheet and marked ‘WRVS (P.I.E)’.
‘This seems improbable but if the intention was to conceal the grant, then to use a cover organisation like WRVS whose grant was one of the largest might have been an option.’
Mr Hubert was approached by police about his claims after he contacted the BBC following the 2013 screening of the film ‘Secret Life of a Paedophile’ about social worker Peter Righton – one of the founding members of PIE.
Earlier on Monday, the inquiry heard evidence from civil servant Mike Box who had assisted a 2014 review of allegations historic child sexual abuse within Westminster.
He said that no trace of any payment to PIE had been found in government documents from the era, and that the review had been unable to track down Alan Davies.
A contemporary of Mr Hulbert at the VSU also had no recollection of grant payments made to PIE, Mr Box said.
The Westminster strand of the far-reaching inquiry into historical sexual abuse in British institutions is scheduled to last three weeks and is due to conclude on March 29.
In 2016, a man alleged that Cliff Richard abused him in 1982 and blamed the attack for turning him into a sexual predator. He also alleged abuse by others including Leon Brittan, and handed cops a Midland Bank cheque book with a list of his abusers. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1296089/serial-rapist-is-one-of-the-men-who-claims-to-have-been-abused-by-sir-cliff-richard/ …
And then there was Stephan Kock, a spook, arms dealer and head of hit squad Group 13, who boasted of his close ties with Thatcher. In June 1984, Kock was taken on by the Midland Bank as a part-time Consultant/Advisor to the Bank’s Defence Equipment Finance Department (DEFD).
New report reveals ‘horrifying scale’ of child sex abuse, naming nearly 400 accused Catholic clergy in Illinois
20 Mar 2019
“We have chosen to reveal this information because the Catholic bishops and the religious orders, who are in charge and have this information and hold it secret, have chosen to conceal it,” said attorney Jeff Anderson.
Redaction – Hayman a 1981 note from Sir Robert Armstrong to Margaret Thatcher.
‘This file had an annotation made on it by an SIS officer which read “An unpleasant and pompous man, used to like playing Father Christmas in Ottowa so that he would dandle children on his knee.”
Paedophile, PIE member, Sir Peter Hayman was trustee of The International Students Trust along with Henniker-Major (who harboured PIE member Peter Righton) , Lord Denning, Earl Grosvenor and Sir Adrian Cadbury
Another trustee
The Lord Adeane
Michael Edward Adeane, Baron Adeane, GCB, GCVO, PC (30 September 1910 – 30 April 1984) was Private Secretary to Elizabeth II between 1953 and 1972, for 19 years.
Their son Edward Adeane, a barrister, was Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales from 1979–1985.
‘INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS TRUST Founded in 1962 by the Duke of Grafton, D.J. Grennan, H.A. Shaw, obe, A.D.C. Peterson, obe, G.F. Lewis, E.J.B. Nelson, H.D.H. Wills, Mary Trevelyan, cbe, and M.J. Gilliat, Kcvo, mbe, to acquire, construct and maintain premises in London with a view to assisting students (including postgraduate students and persons engaged in research) to obtain and benefit from education or to pursue research at the University of London and other institutions of further education, by affording them hostel accommodation and facilities for rest, recreation, study, lectures and meetings. Activities: Operates nationally and internationally in the fields of edu- cation, and social welfare and studies through self-conducted programmes, conferences and courses. Finance: Net assets £1,408,867 (April 1973); annual revenue £310,535, expenditure £337,006 (Sept. 1972). Trustees: The Lord Adeane, gcb, gcvo, pc; Sir Robert Birley, kcmg; D.h Bosanquet; Sir Adrian Cadbury; Viscount Cranborne; the Rt. Hon. Lord Denning, PC; Lady Garner; Lt.-Col. Sir Martin Gilliat, KCVO, mbe; the Duke of Grafton; Earl Grosvenor; J.D. Hambro; Sir Peter Hayman, KCMG, c\'0. mbe; the Hon. Sir John Henniker-Major, kcmg, cvo. mc; S.G. Holliman, MC, N.K. Kinkead-Weekes; Sir Douglas Logan, dphil, ma, bcl; Sir Roy Marshall, cbe, ma, PHD, lld; Philip Mason, obe; Maj.-Gen. Sir John Nelson, KCVO, CB. Dso, obe, mc; Leo Seymour; John R. Slater; A.D. Tennant; Mary Trevelyim, cbe; A.F. Tuke; Major E.J.A. Vaughan; H.D.H. Wills, CBE; the Hon. V.P.H. Wills; Mrs. F.M.G. Willson. Officers: Dir. H.A. Shaw, obe; Warden J.C.M. Paton. Address: 229 Great Portland Street, London WIN 5HD. https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.147421/2015.147421.The-International-Foundation-Directory_djvu.txt in1972 David Steel at the International Students House
John Palmer had friends in high places…here’s one of Palmer’s close friends – Lord Denning
In the UPW‘s anti-apartheid boycott of postal services to and from South Africa, The Freedom Association sought an injunction to prevent the boycott. Denning granted a temporary injunction, and years later wrote of “bad workers” (who joined the boycott) and “good workers” (who worked normally).
In 1980, during an appeal by the Birmingham Six (who were later acquitted), Denning judged that the men should be stopped from challenging legal decisions. He listed several reasons for not allowing their appeal:
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1975/aug/05/picketing-amendment
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/local-news/20000-gathered-see-lord-wed-2903093
Wheelyboat directors
Leonora Anson, Countess of Lichfield,
born as Leonora Mary Grosvenor, a daughter of the 5th Duke of Westminster
The Handicapped Anglers Trust / The Wheelyboat Trust is stocked with royal family relatives and associates
Sir Charles Morrison (brother of paedophile Peter Morrison MP) was also a director and has a boat named after him.
Lincoln Seligman (pictured) has defended his late godfather and called for an end to the ‘vindictive’ investigation
Lincoln Seligman’s wife
Patricia Seligman has a degree in History of Art from London University. As a freelance editor she worked on a number of magazines, including The World of Interiors. She is married to the artist Lincoln Seligman.
MRS PATRICIA VICTORIA SELIGMAN
Director at Wheelyboat – charity for disabled
https://companycheck.co.uk/company/01872144/THE-WHEELYBOAT-TRUST/companies-house-data
1981, March 18th – Peter Hayman recently resigns from post as a governor of International Students House, an organization for overseas students, and as director of a company named Delta Overseas, after the previous week’s trial involving Tom O Carroll mentioning an unamed ex diplomat (Hayman) being investigated for sending pornographic material in the mail.
Hayman and Henniker-Major’s connections to Save the Children:
Hayman and wife Rosemary nee Blomefield Hayman
Sir Peter Hayman’s connections to Save the Children and the International Students House were forged through his wife (not mother) Rosemary Blomefield. (Cousin of PIE member Charles Napier)
Sir John Henniker-Major’s wife Lady Henniker-Major was also ‘very active in the overseas relief and fundraising work of the Save the Children Fund and its Danish sister organisation Red Barnet.” Lord Gore-Booth (of Malty, West Ridings of York), a noted British diplomat and Chairman of The Save the Children Fund 1970 – 1976 wrote Lady Henniker-Major’s obituary.
Simon Doggart / Caldicott School/ Winchester College / John Smyth
Simon Doggart
Alleged victim Andy Moorse told the BBC that barrister John Smyth QC convinced Simon Doggart to join in committing the sadomasochistic abuse at Winchester College in Hampshire during the mid-1970s.
He alleged that the boys would “bleed everywhere” from the attacks.
Mr Doggart, who has been the headteacher of Caldicott preparatory school in Buckinghamshire for the last two decades
Simon Doggart’s father, Hubert Doggart
Hubert Doggart pursued the issue: Chichester’s Dean & Chapter failed to use the word “alleged” when making pronouncements on Bishop Bell’s guilt. Could we not insist on their retracting from this stance?
Peter H replied the word “alleged” was used in the Diocesan statement of October 26 2015.
Mr Doggart doggardly pressed on : Could we not isolate our Dean and Chapter from the Diocese?
Martin Carson was dismissed for sexual abuse of a pupil in 1972, and went on to teach at the Harrodian School. He was subsequently prosecuted and found guilty of indecent assault and possessing indecent images of children in 2003.[4]link
Simon Doggart’s great-uncle: James Hamilton Doggart – member of the establishment and secret society – The Apostles – members included Soviet spies Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess
https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=James%20Hamilton%20Doggart
More claims emerge of alleged abuse at Christian camp
It has been claimed a man at the heart of a child abuse scandal in the Church of England recruited one of his victims to help him carry out beatings.
FA ‘covered up sex abuse of boys by coaches’
An alleged victim’s father claims football’s governing body has suppressed evidence of a paedophile ring
March 24 2019,
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fa-covered-up-sex-abuse-of-boys-by-coaches-v82m6vh87
@anthonydaly01
I will take to my grave, the memory of what Peter Hayman and three other men did to an eight year boy in 1975.
DPP Sir Thomas Hetherington decided in 1978 against prosecuting paedophile “Sir” Peter Hayman, top diplomat and MI6 officer, for obscenity charge after solicitor David Napley said that his client “may commit suicide” if case continue
Paedophile Sir Peter Hayman and wife Rosemary Eardley Blomefield (cousin of convicted establishment paedophile Charles Napier – half brother of John Whittingdale MP)
Detective who sent file on Peter Hayman in 1978 to DPP, Bryan Collins, says that he has “no knowledge of Peter Hayman having suicidal tendencies,” despite ex-prosecutor’s claim. “But I would describe him as a worried man.”
“It seems no harm has been done to anyone.” Staggering comment in DPP’s file on 1978 case of senior diplomat and spy “Sir” Peter Hayman. Jeremy Naunton, formerly of DPP office: note “is at risk of being read out of context.”
IICSA transcript:
Jeremy Naunton, the lawyer in the DPP’s office who wrote the advice note in effect recommending that Hayman should not be prosecuted…
@ciabaudo
Small world, innit? Jeremy Naunton was prosecutor in Harvey Proctor case.
@ciabaudo
£35 commission each time a rent boy was supplied to Harvey Proctor in the early 80s. Let’s say 3 a week over 3 years so 35x3x3x52. That’s £16,380 and doesn’t even include payment for the rent boys! How on earth could Harvey Proctor retain Sir David Napley?
@craftymuvva
The same way he funded his shop and his St Vermin’s performance maybe?
Thatcher stopped Peter Hayman being named as paedophile-link civil servant
The file, compiled between October 1980 and March 1981, is made up of memos and background notes put together for Thatcher, then prime minister, and is littered with her handwritten notes, underlinings and crossings out.
The existence of the file was revealed by Sky News last month. On Friday the Cabinet Office announced it had reviewed the decision to keep the file secret beyond the standard 30-year deadline and was releasing it to the National Archives in Kew. A preview of the file was issued to the media.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/02/thatcher-peter-hayman-named-paedophile-archives
Peter Hayman, Morris and Wardell
Prosecutors behind Jeffrey Epstein plea deal selected a 16-year-old victim over dozens of younger girls so that the accused child rapist would not have to register as a sex offender in 31 of 50 states
- Jeffrey Epstein entered a guilty plea to soliciting prostitution from a teenager who was 16, which is the age of consent in 31 states
- As a result, Epstein did not have to register as a sex offender in New Mexico, where he owns a ranch, and is a low-level offender in the US Virgin Islands
- This was discovered by The Washington Post after it pressed the court, with many believing the 14-year-old who reported Epstein was the victim in the deal
- Just last month, a judge ruled prosecutors violated the rights of Epstein’s alleged victims when they neglected to tell them no federal charges would be pursued
- Forty women had alleged that they were abused by millionaire money manager
- Epstein, who is friends with President Trump and has donated millions to the Clintons, served 13 months at a low-security facility on work release
- He was prosecuted by Alex Acosta, who is currently the Secretary of Labor and had been mentioned a possible pick to replace Jeff Sessions as Attorney General
20 Mar 2019
The plea deal that Jeffrey Epstein agreed to back in 2008 saved the accused child rapist from having to register as a sex offender in 31 of 50 states.
The Washington Post reports that the victim who Epstein admitted to soliciting for prostitution was not the 14-year-old girl who first reported the millionaire money manager, but rather another girl, 16, whose age was left blank on court documents.
That victim’s age means that Epstein did not have to register as a sex offender in states like New Mexico, where he owns a 7,600-acre property called Zorro Ranch, and allows him to be classified as a low risk offender in the US Virgin Islands, which is currently his primary residence.
This revelation comes one month after a federal judge ruled that then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta violated the rights of Epstein’s alleged victims when they neglected to notify them that they were no longer pursuing federal charges.
That was another part of the deal, which in addition to allowing Epstein to have work release and live in a low-security facility also agreed to drop a federal probe into the millionaire moneyman.
Now Acosta – who is currently the Secretary of Labor and had been mentioned as a possible candidate for attorney general – and others are again coming under fire for allegedly catering to the man who donated millions to the Clintons and hosted President Trump at his Manhattan townhouse while keeping his victims in the dark.
‘They were cutting a plea deal. It wasn’t a prosecution,’ said attorney Spencer Kuvin, who represented the 14-year-old girl who alerted police.
‘They had a grab bag of 40 girls to choose from.’
He then revealed that he and his client be
lieved they had been the victim referenced in the plea deal.
‘It’s unbelievably upsetting,’ said Kuvin.
‘The rug has been swiped out from under the one girl who was brave enough to come forward and break this thing.’
Mystery parties seek secrecy in Jeffrey Epstein-related suit
The two said they could face embarrassment if the court makes public records from the suit, which accused a longtime Epstein friend of engaging in sex trafficking.
20 Mar 2019
Two mystery litigants citing privacy concerns are making a last-ditch bid to keep secret some details in a lawsuit stemming from wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein’s history of paying underage girls for sex.
Just prior to a court-imposed deadline Tuesday, two anonymous individuals surfaced to object to the unsealing of a key lower-court ruling in the case, as well as various submissions by the parties.
Both people filed their complaints in the New York-based 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, which is overseeing the case. The two people said they could face unwarranted speculation and embarrassment if the court makes public records from the suit, in which Virginia Giuffre, an alleged Epstein victim, accused longtime Epstein friend Ghislaine Maxwell of engaging in sex trafficking by facilitating his sexual encounters with teenage girls. Maxwell has denied the charges.
“Wholesale unsealing of the Summary Judgment Materials will almost certainly disclose unadjudicated allegations against third persons — allegations that may be the product of false statements or, perhaps, simply mistake, confusion, or failing memories of events alleged to have occurred over a decade and half ago,” former federal prosecutor Nick Lewin wrote in an amicus brief filed Tuesday.
Lewin’s brief doesn’t provide any details about his client — identified in the brief by the pseudonym “John Doe” — beyond saying he “potentially” is mentioned in the underlying court filings and opinion. Lewin, who’s based in Manhattan, declined to comment.
“If the identities of non-parties are not adequately protected, the release of the Summary Judgment Materials in this case would likely cause severe and irreparable harm to a wide variety of non-parties, including those implicated in the conduct and those potentially victimized by it,” the brief says.
The other anonymous brief came from Washington-based attorney Kerrie Campbell, who handles gender equality cases and is affiliated with the Time’s Up movement to combat sexual harassment. Campbell requested that the brief submitted on behalf of a “J. Doe” be put under seal, but said in legal papers that the client is “objecting to public disclosure of specific content pertaining to Doe to protect compelling personal privacy interests.”
Campbell did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Giuffre and Maxwell settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed sum in 2017 after U.S. District Court Judge Robert Sweet turned down Maxwell’s bid to head off a trial. In the lead-up to that ruling, Sweet accepted almost all filings in the case under seal, without specific orders justifying the secrecy.
Three different parties asked Sweet to unseal records in the case: Harvard law professor and former Epstein lawyer Alan Dershowitz — a prominent Trump defender — filmmaker and far-right social media personality Mike Cernovich and the Miami Herald.
Dershowitz said he wanted several records released to disprove and discredit allegations two women have made that they had sex with Dershowitz at Epstein’s direction. Dershowitz has categorically denied the allegations.
Cernovich said the far-ranging secrecy in the case undermined efforts to expose sexual trafficking by American elites.
The Miami Herald sought to open all records in the suit as part of a series on Epstein it was preparing and ultimately published last year.
Sweet turned down all the requests, prompting an appeals to the 2nd Circuit. A three-judge panel there heard arguments on the issue earlier this month and indicated last week that it plans to soon release Sweet’s opinion and related filings. The judges asked any parties in the appeals with specific objections to notify the court by Tuesday.
Maxwell indicated in papers filed by her lawyers Tuesday that she continues to oppose any unsealing. Her attorneys said that if the appeals court believes some unsealing is required, the matter should be returned to Sweet for action, since he is most familiar with the case.
Giuffre is supporting immediate unsealing of some materials in the case and a broader unsealing of all records, but said in a filing Tuesday that some personal information should be held back like names of minors, social security numbers, dates of birth and phone numbers.
“The truth is that Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein sexually trafficked [Giuffre] to their well-connected friends, both in this country and elsewhere,” Giuffre attorneys Paul Cassell and Sigrid McCawley wrote. Unfortunately, critical documents and transcripts proving the truth of Ms. Giuffre’s allegations remain sealed in the vault of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. It is time for the truth to come out.”
Last month, a federal judge in Florida ruled that federal prosecutors broke the law a decade ago by failing to consult with and misleading victims of Epstein before making a deal that waived any federal charges in exchange for him pleading guilty to two state felony prostitution charges. He ultimately served 13 months of a 19-month sentence, much of it working from his office during the day.
The ruling has been a major headache for Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who was U.S. Attorney in Miami at the time and approved the plea deal. A Justice Department ethics watchdog has launched an investigation into the episode. Acosta has denied any wrongdoing and has said the deal was a reasonable move by his office in light of the available evidence and other considerations.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/20/jeffrey-epstein-related-lawsuit-1229908
Crewe claim they did not arrange for boys to stay with Barry Bennell
19 Mar 2019
• Crewe bring in lawyers used by Catholic church in abuse case
• Club say victims’ long silence means case should be thrown out
Peer tells child abuse inquiry she ‘must have’ passed on rumours about Chester Tory MP Peter Morrison
18 Mar 2019
A FORMER MI5 chief has said it was “shocking” that rumours in the 1980s about a Tory MP’s alleged “penchant for small boys” were not passed on to police.
Baroness Manningham-Buller told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) it was not her decision at the time as to whether that should happen.
She said she “must have” passed information on rumours about the late Chester MP Sir Peter Morrison but could not remember specifically having done so.
Baroness Manningham-Buller admitted it was “ironic” MI5’s inquiries into the then-deputy chairman of the Conservative Party appeared to come to an abrupt end within weeks of her writing one of two memos stating she had been told by Sir Peter the rumours were untrue and then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was supporting him.
The life peer, who at the time of the probe in 1986 worked for MI5’s secretariat, said she had trusted those in positions of greater authority to deal with any investigation into the rumours.
She told the inquiry, sitting in London: “I reported what I heard, it was all hearsay, it was all second hand and I trusted those above me to deal with it appropriately.”
Baroness Manningham-Buller said although she had no “independent recollection” of specific rumours she had heard and passed on, it was likely she was the MI5 staff member referred to in a January 1986 letter mentioning that a friend had said Sir Peter had been caught soliciting in a public lavatory and had been lucky not to be charged.
She said: “I think I must have been”, adding: “I would have regarded it as my duty to do so.”
The inquiry heard she wrote two internal security service memos, one dated November 11, stating Sir Peter “vehemently denied” there was any truth in a story that he had an “interest in small boys” and one on November 13, which said he was hoping the press would publish a story so he could “sue and nail the lies”.
A letter later that month from then-MI5 director-general Antony Duff to then-Cabinet Secretary Sir Robert Armstrong subsequently suggested there was “little point in carrying this (investigation) further”.
Lead counsel to the inquiry Brian Altman QC asked Baroness Manningham-Buller whether she agreed the investigation appeared to have ended “ironically because of the information that you had passed to your supervisors”.
She replied: “It is ironic”.
The inquiry heard on Monday from an anonymous MI5 witness who said it was a matter of “deep regret” none of the allegations had been passed to police.
Baroness Manningham-Buller, who was appointed director-general of MI5 in 2002 and served for five years, said it was “shocking” a reference to Sir Peter having a “penchant for small boys” was not highlighted.
She said: “If the – as one wished had been the case – reference to children was given prominence, it would’ve been to pass it to the police and make sure that they had that information. That should’ve been what had happened.”
She added: “That wasn’t my decision”.
Baroness Manningham-Buller said while she had been friends with Sir Peter for much of the 1980s, the friendship was “withering” by the end of the decade for a number of reasons including that she suspected he had been giving people the impression she was his girlfriend, “which was inaccurate”.
The inquiry continues.
France demands Vatican lift envoy’s immunity over abuse
16 March 2019
https://www.thelocal.fr/20190316/france-demands-vatican-lift-envoys-immunity-over-abuse-probe
@Smartcairns11
‘The UN wrongly accorded to the Catholic Church a portentous status that is denied to all other religions and NGO’s.
The Holy See has used its statehood to operate a secret legal system that shields paedophile priests from criminal trial around the world.’
@calamiTcat76
Sir David Steel is just surrounded by paedo eh?!
Sir Clement Freud was visitor to Aikwood Tower.. Whoodathunkit?!
@ciabaudo
Dear David Steel, could you please explain how you can bring a man into disrepute who corresponded clandestinely with like-minded men about their joint interest in the extreme sexual torture and murder of children?
Lib Dems SUSPEND peer David Steel over child sex scandal after he admitted knowing about the crimes of paedophile MP Cyril Smith
- The former Liberal leader said that sexual predator Cyril Smith confessed to him
- Lord Steel didn’t report the allegations and took no action after the confession
- He said he would act in the same way again despite the fact Smith went on to abuse other victims
14 Mar 2019
In astonishing evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Lord Steel said he would act in the same way again, even though Smith went on to abuse other victims. The 80-year-old peer’s remarks triggered a furious backlash and demands for the Lib Dems to suspend him.
The party announced yesterday it had launched a probe into Lord Steel over his comments, and deputy leader Jo Swinson tweeted: ‘Clearly this is incredibly serious and he should be suspended while this takes place.’
Last night the Scottish Liberal Democrats said: ‘Following the evidence concerning Cyril Smith given by Lord Steel to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse on 13th March 2019, the office bearers of the Scottish Liberal Democrats have met and agreed that an investigation is needed.
‘The party membership of Lord Steel has been suspended pending the outcome of that investigation. That work will now commence.
‘It is important that everyone in the party, and in wider society, understands the importance of vigilance and safeguarding to protect people from abuse, and that everyone has confidence in the seriousness with which we take it.
While he was Liberal leader, Lord Steel confronted Smith in 1979 after a Private Eye article revealed the MP’s abuse of children at a care home, the inquiry heard on Wednesday. The article accused 29-stone Smith, then the MP for Rochdale, of abusing teenage boys at the town’s Cambridge House Hostel, of which he was a trustee.
Lord Smith also told the inquiry that he did not raise the allegations to the honours scrutiny committee when he successfully nominated Smith for a knighthood in 1988.
Lawyers representing Smith’s victims questioned whether the peer’s actions paved the way for more abuse. They also expressed disbelief that the paedophile MP was allowed to escape justice.
Lord Steel’s remarks are all the more extraordinary after he last year appeared to dismiss revelations about Smith’s abuse as ‘scurrilous hearsay and tittle-tattle’. He told the inquiry he had ‘grave doubts’ about details of the paedophile MP’s activities published in a book by former Labour MP Simon Danczuk that was serialised in the Mail.
In April 2014, Lord Steel refused to answer questions about his failure to act on the allegations against Smith when the Mail tracked him down to the Azores, where he was enjoying a stop on a luxury cruise.
Richard Scorer, a lawyer representing seven of Smith’s victims in the inquiry, condemned Lord Steel’s ‘appalling dereliction of duty’.
‘The admission that Cyril Smith confessed to him in 1979 that he had abused boys – but that he took no action against Smith despite this – will cause victims great anger,’ he said. ‘We know that Cyril Smith used his power and status to abuse boys at Knowl View in the 1980s, so action by Steel in 1979 could have protected some of Smith’s later victims.’
@ciabaudo
Don’t forget: David Steel nominated not just ONE but TWO paedophiles for an honour – Cyril Smith AND Clement Freud. Who put Steel’s name forward?
https://twitter.com/ciabaudo/status/1004574951800700928
https://twitter.com/ciabaudo/status/1004574951800700928
Honours unit in Cabinet Office received anonymous letter about Jimmy Savile in 1998, after he had been knighted, to claim that investigative reporters were aware of “his homosexual rendezvous with rent boys” and that he had a “paedophiliac nature
He produces a transparent plastic folder. “Read it all,” he urges. “Go on. Have a little dwell on that. That folder encapsulates it all.”
The folder encloses the letter from the Prime Minister offering him a knighthood, the envelope it came in, some bumf about keeping it secret till the proper date and then – proudest of all – telegrams from Charles and Diana, from Prince Philip, a handwritten letter from Angus Ogilvy and a very sweet homemade card with a stuck-on snapshot of Princess Bea, from the Duchess of York.
Many businesses and organisations use him as a conduit to the Royal Family; he can pick up the telephone to most of them and has long worked with Prince Charles (“the most caring fellow I’ve ever met – oh, unbelievable”) on the problems of the disabled.
He is an habitué of Highgrove and Buckingham Palace, of No 10 and Chequers, where he often spends Christmas or New Year – though he carefully points out that he has been friendly with all the past four Prime Ministers because Stoke Mandeville is Chequers’ local hospital.
Honours Committee received anonymous allegations of child sexual abuse against Jimmy Savile in 1998 but did not pass them on to police, inquiry hears
- Lord Armstrong cited interviews with Savile where he boasted about sex
- He also highlighted that Savile’s ‘sexual promiscuity’ was a problem
- Senior civil servant Helen MacNamara gave evidence at the hearing today
- She said that such a letter would now immediately be passed to the police
- The inquiry saw letters between the then head of the Honours Committee and Margaret Thatcher’s secretary
The Honours Committee received anonymous allegations of child sex abuse against Jimmy Savile in 1998 but failed to pass them on to the police, an inquiry has heard.
The Westminster strand of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse heard that civil servants had been wary of Savile’s activities as far back as 1984.
The inquiry saw letters between then-head of the Honours Committee and Margaret Thatcher’s secretary resisting calls for Savile to be knighted despite pressure from the prime minister.
A senior civil servant giving evidence said that today such a letter would have been passed straight to the police.
Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (left) had first attempted to knight Jimmy Savile (right) in 1987 (pictured above Mrs Thatcher presented Savile with a cheque)
A news clipping (pictured above) which shows the reservations from Robert Armstrong in 1983
This comes as ex-liberal leader Lord Steel admitted yesterday that he had known that Cyril Smith had abused children, but that it had never occurred to him to hold an inquiry into the MP.
During today’s inquiry Lord Robert Armstrong cited interviews with Savile published in the Sun the previous year where he boasted about having people beaten up, sleeping with hundreds of girls and giving recommendations to a suicidal man on how to take his own life.
Lord Armstrong said: ‘My committee did not feel that sufficient time has elapsed since Mr Savile’s unfortunate revelations in the popular press in April of this year.
‘He is much in the public eye and it is unlikely that the lurid details of his story will have been forgotten. I fear it would be best if Mr Savile were to wait a little longer.
Lord Armstrong then went on to refuse to include him in the birthday honours list, saying: ‘The lapse of time has served only to strengthen the doubts felt about a knighthood for Mr Savile.
‘Those of whom I have consulted now consider that a knighthood for Mr Savile would give rise to enough unfavourable comment to risk bringing the honours system into disrepute’
In response to Mrs Thatcher’s attempts to have Savile knighted in 1987, Lord Armstrong again highlighted the interviews in the Sun, adding that in the light of the Aids crisis, his ‘sexual promiscuity’ was a problem.
In 1998, the Honours Committee received an anonymous letter referring to ‘reports of a paedophilia nature’ could emerge about Savile and allegations about his involvement with rent boys.
It said: ‘While within limits and bounds homosexuality can be rationalized in a modern society, we must not lose sight that paedophilia goes beyond any boundaries which right-minded people of whatever political persuasions find abhorrent.’
Giving evidence, senior civil servant Helen MacNamara – who currently heads the Honours and Appointments Secretariat – said that such a letter would now immediately be passed to the police.
She highlighted that as Savile had been knighted in 1991, the letter would have prompted further inquiries about whether the case should be brought before the forfeiture committee.
Ms MacNamara said she did not know how the letter was dealt with at the time or if any concerns were raised with the authorities.
The inquiry previously saw documents between senior civil servants relating to MP Cyril Smith, who was investigated for child abuse, and former high commissioner to Canada Peter Hayman who was suspected of being involved in the Paedophile Information Exchange.
They recommended that the men be ‘given the benefit of the doubt’ or be ‘spoken to’ warning them about their future conduct.
As a result, Smith was knighted while Hayman was not stripped of his honour.
When asked if criticism of the honours system for protecting itself rather than considering victims was fair, Ms Macnamara replied: ‘That’s absolutely a fair criticism.’
She said that in the wake of various scandals a much more thorough process had been established before individuals are considered for honours, including background checks.
Ms MacNamara added that the Honours Committee was much more likely to err on the side of caution when making nominations.
She said the forfeiture committee now met more regularly to consider those who should be stripped of their honours.
‘It is important these cases are considered properly, not least because of the impact on the people,’ she said.
She added that at the moment, there are no plans to strip people of their awards posthumously, saying: ‘Honours are a living award. You are a member of the honour while you are alive, and once you are dead the honour dies with you.’
But Ms MacNamara said that depending on the recommendations of the inquiry, this could change in future.
The Westminster strand of the far-reaching inquiry is expected to last three weeks and is due to conclude on March 22.
Lib Dems open disciplinary probe into Lord Steel after Cyril Smith testimony
Operation Pallial – Former North Wales children’s home boss jailed for nine years for sexually abusing young boys
13 Mar 2109
The former Deputy Superintendent of a children’s home in North Wales has been jailed for nine years after being found guilty of sexually abusing young boys in the 1970s.
Huw Meurig Jones, aged 69, from Old Colwyn, was convicted of ten offences, including buggery, indecent assault and gross indecency, following a National Crime Agency investigation.
The offences took place between 1975 and 1978, when Jones was the Deputy Superintendent at Little Acton Assessment Centre, Wrexham, and when he was a social worker in the Colwyn Bay area.
The victims, two males aged between 13 and 15 at the time of the offences, were preyed upon by Jones at the Assessment Centre and also at his home address.
Jones was convicted and sentenced yesterday, Tuesday 12 March following a four-day trial at Mold Crown Court.
Andy Sandham, Deputy Senior Investigating Officer from the NCA, said:
“Jones should have been responsible for taking care of young children. Instead he abused his position and caused lasting damage to these vulnerable boys.
“I would like to commend the bravery of the victims while giving evidence in court and during the years they have waited for justice. We will continue our work to bring justice to those who were wronged at such a young age all those years ago.”
Operation Pallial, the independent NCA investigation into allegations of past abuse in the care system in North Wales, began in November 2012 at the request of Mark Polin, who was the Chief Constable of North Wales Police.
Huw Jones is the 12th person to be convicted under Operation Pallial.
There are three further trials under operation Pallial scheduled to begin this year and in early 2020.
In the six years the operation has been running, 375 people have made contact with the NCA team.
Investigations into the evidence provided by 257 of them have concluded and details provided by 43 complainants are either with the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration of charges, or are part of active investigations.
In 73 instances, the complainant has either been unable, or has declined, to pursue their allegation.
The offences reported occurred between 1953 and 1995, with victims ranging from six to 19 years old at the time.
The investigation has identified 146 suspected offenders, the majority in respect of sexual offending against boys. Of these suspects, 23 have been arrested to date, 42 have been interviewed under caution following voluntary attendance, and 43 suspects are believed to have died.
So far, 21 suspects have been charged, of which matters have concluded against 19.
Longest serving Church of England bishop faces calls to resign after court hears he knew about paedophile priest
His brother-in-law, Kenneth Stevenson, was also a bishop.[12]is facing calls to resign
3 March 2019
The longest-serving bishop in the Church of England is facing calls to resign after it emerged he knew about a paedophile priest in his diocese and did nothing.
The Bishop of Chester, Rt Rev Peter Forster, found out Rev Gordon Dickenson had become embroiled in a child abuse scandal decades earlier when the retired vicar wrote a letter about the affair in 2009.
Dickenson was convicted earlier this month of eight counts of sexual assault after pleading guilty to abusing a boy during the 1970s inside a church hall and even his vicarage.
But ten years ago, Dickenson had written to the Diocese of Chester which was conducting a review of past abuse cases admitting he been accused of the abuse during the 1970s and had promised the then Bishop of Chester he would “never do it again”.
Despite this admission, Bishop Forster failed to pass on the letter to the police or order an internal church inquiry.
Instead, Dickenson was given permission to continue acting as a retired priest for another five years, which allowed him to continue holding services in churches with the diocese’s blessing.
Andrew Graystone, a leading advocate for survivors of clerical abuse and a personal friend of Bishop Forster, has now demanded the bishop stand down.
In a letter to the bishop, he wrote: “It seems clear that Dickenson’s confession of guilt to the Diocese has been either wilfully or neglectfully ignored for at least ten years during which you have been bishop.
“I call upon you to resign with immediate effect.”
Chester Crown Court had earlier heard how Dickenson’s crimes had left his victim filled with shame and ultimately drove him into alcoholism. His ordeal only came to light when police stumbled across the case in 2017 while investigating a previous Bishop of Chester, Victor Whitsey, who had also been accused of abuse.
In a statement, the Diocese of Chester said it would conduct a review into its handling of the case and offered an “unreserved apology to the survivor”.
“Information brought to light to the Diocese in 2009, if acted upon then, may have led to the police bringing a prosecution against Gordon Dickenson much sooner. The Diocese apologises for not acting on this information in 2009.”
Bishop Forster said: “I welcome the opportunity to contribute to a review into the handling of the case by the Diocese in 2009, and will do so to the appropriate authority in due course
In 2003, Forster raised controversy when he was investigated by the police for an alleged “hate speech” after suggesting that homosexual people should seek psychiatric treatment.[7] However, no charges were made, and the police were satisfied that no offence had been committed.[8]
In 2012, amid controversy over the amount of expenses claimed by bishops for attending the House of Lords, it was revealed that Forster had claimed more than any other bishop in 2010/11. He had claimed £34,909 and had attended on 97 days.[11]
His brother-in-law, Kenneth Stevenson, was also a bishop.[12]
MI5 files reveal Thatcher supported key ally over child sex abuse claims
March 12, 2019
MI5 files have revealed for the first time what many suspected. Margaret Thatcher was aware of alleged sexual offences by her Private Parliamentary Secretary Sir Peter Morrison yet chose to defend him.
Testimony as well as documents MI5 have handed to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) suggest a rallying behind the Conservative minister despite concerns laid out about Morrison’s “interest in small boys”.
Peter Morrison, Tory MP for Chester was a junior minister, then Conservative party deputy chairman before becoming Private Parliamentary Secretary to Margaret Thatcher in 1990.
He was one of Thatcher’s most faithful allies, persuading her to stand for the party leadership in 1975. Morrison was knighted in 1991 and died in 1995.
The IICSA is probing how the Conservative Party and secret services dealt with allegations of child sex abuse made against Sir Peter Morrison. He was never charged with the allegations levelled against him.
The MI5 files suggest then PM Thatcher knew of the allegations against him.
In a memo from 1986, revealed to the inquiry yesterday, Eliza The memo also mentions his conversation with another member of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet, Sir Norman Tebbit – a conversation Tebbit referred to shockingly on the BBC’s Marr show years later. When asked if there was a “big political cover up” at the time, the former Chairman of the Conservative Party replied: “you didn’t talk about those things.”
Lord Tebbit has been asked by the inquiry what he knew about Sir Peter Morrison, after reports emerged that an investigating police officer visited Norman Tebbit to warn him about allegations involving boys.
Lord Tebbit’s statement to the investigations said that he thought the police officer was referring to boys of “Sixth Form age.”
A statement read out by Lord Tebbit said that he was aware of “several decades of allegations of Westminster child abuse and cover ups.”
Last week we also reported how the inquiry heard an extract from former Tory MP Edwina Currie’s diary for July 24 1990 (published in 2002).
Junior Health Minister Currie wrote in her diary about Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet reshuffle:
“One appointment in the recent reshuffle has attracted a lot of gossip and could be very dangerous: Peter Morrison has become the PM’s PPS. Now he’s what they call ‘a noted pederast’, with a liking for young boys; he admitted as much to Norman Tebbit when he became deputy chairman of the party, but added, ‘However, I’m very discreet’ – and he must be! She either knows and is taking a chance, or doesn’t; either way it is a really dumb move. Teresa Gorman told me this evening (in a taxi coming back from a drinks party at the BBC) that she inherited Morrison’s (woman) agent, who claimed to have been offered money to keep quiet about his activities. It scares me, as all the press know, and as we get closer to the election someone is going to make trouble, very close to her indeed.”
Asked to explain the entry by the inquiry, Currie said she was worried about the reputational damage consorting with underage boys by her Parliamentary Private Secretary would cause to Thatcher.
She added that she could not explain whether and how Morrison was protected from prosecution, and that it would have been wrong.
Manningham-Buller, who later became director general of MI5, wrote that she met Morrison and regarding the allegations against him, she reported that “the prime minister was aware of it and was supporting Peter.”
The police never questioned Morrison about the allegations against him.
But neither did the Conservative Party.
Former MI5 chief Baroness Manningham-Buller wrote in another memo that Morrison was suspected by the press of being a “prominent Tory [who] was under investigation by the police because of his interest in small boys”.
Sir Antony Duff, who headed MI5 in 1986 passed this information on to Lord Armstrong – then Sir Robert Armstrong, Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet Secretary.
The inquiry heard how Sir Antony Duff advised that the risk of political embarrassment was greater than the security risk to the country, and so no action was taken.
-Despite the potential of risk to any children
In 1987, MI5 advised Morrison to “be on his guard . . . against behaviour which, however innocent, could be misrepresented” and he was warned that “as a public figure he needed to choose his friends with care”.
Lord Armstrong was called to answer questions at today’s IICSA hearing. He told the inquiry that Margaret Thatcher did not think it necessary to have her key ally quizzed over the serious claims against him.
He said if Peter Morrison had been a government minister in a “sensitive” department such as defence or the foreign office, it would have been a “serious matter to think about”.
But the protection of the children concerned clearly were not a factor in the government’s decision.
Inquiry counsel Brian Altman QC asked Lord Armstrong: “to the suggestion that this was all just a cover-up of Peter Morrison, and his activities by the political establishment in particular, what would you say?”
Lord Armstrong replied: “I was certainly not aware of any cover-up, and Peter Morrison had emphatically denied the truth of any of this stuff, and had said that he would sue if any publication was made.”
“But that was to accept Peter Morrison’s word, and take it on trust, wasn’t it?” asked Brian Altman.
Lord Armstrong replied: “That appears to be what the Conservative party did.”
“If looking at matters another way Lord Armstrong,” continued the Inquiry counsel, “the allegations were true, not merely that he had a penchant for small boys, but that he was putting into practice his sexual preferences, there were children who were at risk. Do you agree?”
“If that were so it would be true,” replied the Tory peer.
@Richard_Scorer
Extraordinary evidence at #IICSA today – Lord Steel admits that Cyril Smith confessed to him in 1979 that abuse allegations against him were true – but Steel still did nothing about it, & made no effort to investigate whether Smith posed any continuing risk to children.
@REBELTROOP
Means that Lord Steel was quite happy rewarding a sexual predator with high honours- the knighthood. It’s reprehensible.
The document the Cabinet Office tried to hide showing David Steel put Cyril Smith forward for knighthood
Previously:
Lord Steel: I was ‘perfectly happy’ to recommend Cyril Smith for a knighthood
Lord Steel, former Liberal President, says he did not have ‘slightest inkling’ Cyril Smith abused boys while he was an MP and defends knighthood recommendation
29 Apr 2014
@ciabaudo
Fancy a hair-do? Why not try Stephen August, barber to David Steel, Michael Heseltine and Julian Fellowes. But who is Stephen August? Well, he’s the long-time lover of the convicted paedophile Colin Peters.
Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley Johnson, in- between good friends Norman Lamont and Leon Brittan
Boris Johnson says spending on child sex abuse investigation ‘spaffed up a wall’
The Tory MP described historic child sexual abuse offences as “mullarkey”
Boris Johnson has said police spending on child sexual abuse investigations was “spaffed up a wall”.
Labour demanded an apology, saying his remarks were an “insult to every survivor of child sex abuse.
The former Foreign Secretary said the money spent investigating historic cases of child abuse would be better spent elsewhere.
His comments came just hours after Cardinal George Pell was jailed for six years in Australia for abusing two 13-year-old choir boys in the 1990s.
Johnson told LBC: “Keeping numbers high on the streets is certainly important. But it depends where you spend the money and where you deploy the officers.
“And one comment I would make is I think an awful lot of money and an awful lot of police time now goes into these historic offences and all this mullarkey.
“You know, £60 million I saw was being spaffed up a wall on some investigation into historic child abuse.”
Previously:
Tom Watson must apologise for an ‘absolutely hysterical’ campaign against Leon Brittan, says Boris Johnson
The London mayor accused Labour’s deputy leader of making sex abuse allegations against the former Home Secretary “without a shred of evidence”
14 Oct 2015
Child abuse inquiry asks if former Tory Chester MP Sir Peter Morrison was protected by the elite
There are claims of an establishment cover-up surrounding late MP’s sexual conduct with young males
12 Mar 2019
An investigation into child sexual abuse has been examining whether there was an establishment cover-up surrounding the sexual conduct of former Conservative Chester MP Sir Peter Morrison.
Rumours have persisted for years about the late MP’s ‘penchant for small boys’.
Morrison, who was Tory MP for Chester from 1974 to 1992, was alleged to have received a police caution in relation to a sexual assault on a 15-year-old boy at Crewe Railway Station in the 1980s.
An Old Etonian and barrister by background, he was prime minister Margaret Thatcher ’s trusted parliamentary private secretary and deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.
The Westminster strand of the wide-ranging Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) heard suggestions he may have been protected as his activities had come to the attention of police, MI5, the press and both Tory and Labour politicians.
There was a claim the prime minister’s office intervened to prevent a front page newspaper article about the Crewe incident and that Labour agreed to keep quiet on the understanding Morrison would not fight the 1992 election.
Much hinges on an alleged ‘back street’ meeting between Morrison’s agent Frances Mowatt and Labour parliamentary candidate, the late David Robinson , in the centre of Nicholas Street Mews, Chester, when the Conservative and Labour party offices were at opposite ends.
Mrs Mowatt, who was Morrison’s agent between 1975-88, told the inquiry she had no memory of the meeting nor any recollection of rumours about her former boss.
But the inquiry heard mention of a July 1987 letter by ‘Mr Walker’ from the secret service to cabinet secretary Sir Robert Armstrong which was paraphrased by IICSA lead counsel Andrew O’Connor: “Mr Walker recorded a conversation he had with Mr Peter Morrison and you see Peter Morrison himself mentioning the stories about his alleged homosexual behaviour which surfaced in his Chester constituency during the general election.”
The barrister put it to her: “Are you still sure you didn’t hear those rumours, Mrs Mowatt?”
“I didn’t,” she responded.
The barrister continued: “The paragraph goes on. ‘Unfortunately his election agent, in a well meaning but clumsy attempt to spare Morrison’s embarrassment had spoken, without Morrison’s authority or knowledge, to the Labour candidate’.
“‘’She did so in a back street of all places’. Morrison feared that if his agent’s approach reached the wrong ears it could be misrepresented as an attempted cover-up.”
The barrister asked Mrs Mowatt: “Are you sure it wasn’t you who spoke to Mr Robinson?” “I’m certain,” she replied.
Former Chester Labour MP Christine Russell, who gave evidence, said she recalled the meeting because she was Mr Robinson’s agent at the time.
“David Robinson came back and told not only myself but other people who were in the office at the time, ‘Well, Peter Morrison’s not going to stand down but Frances says that Peter is not a well man and he probably won’t be standing in the next election’. I think that was either during the ’87 election or soon afterwards because he was definitely the candidate.”
“She was trying to protect him, cover up if you like, all the gossip and the rumour-mongering and the allegations that were everywhere,“ said Ms Russell, who claimed all the local newspapers were aware of the speculation and that Private Eye had published stories.
She remembered telling regional party officials about the rumours but denied allegations made by Grahame Nicholls, who ran Chester Trades Council, about a deal being struck with the Labour Party.
The barrister put it to her: “He gave his account which was of a meeting in which you told the meeting that an agreement had been reached that the political parties and the press would cover up these allegations against Mr Morrison in exchange for Mr Morrison standing down at the next election. What do you say to that?”
She replied: “No truth whatsoever.”
An impassioned witness was Jane Lee, previously known by her married name of Leach, a former secretary of Gresford and Rossett Labour branch, who remembered a Labour-supporting journalist turning up at the pub following the monthly branch meeting to relay the news Morrison had been caught at Crewe Railway Station.
“She said with relish ‘Get the paper tomorrow morning,’ she said ‘It’s all set, it’s type set’. What?! What?! What?! She said Peter Morrison has been found in the toilet at Crewe station with, I can’t remember if she said boy or boys – I’m still confused about that – and it will all be in the paper tomorrow morning,” said Ms Lee, who still feels guilty that her instant reaction was to think ‘Great, we’re going to win in Chester’.
But it didn’t appear which the journalist later explained.
“She said the chief constable of Cheshire got a phone call from the prime minister’s office – Margaret Thatcher’s name wasn’t mentioned – but it was from the prime minister’s office and had been persuaded to not press charges but to give an official warning and well, we said ‘Why didn’t that go in the paper?’ and she said , and I don’t know if it’s true or not, but she said you can’t report warnings,” said Ms Lee, who clarified by warning she probably meant ‘official caution’.
She continued: “And that in return Morrison wouldn’t stand at the next general election was the deal.”
But the issue played on her mind and she mentioned it to Labour colleague and fellow branch member Ian Lucas, now Labour MP for Wrexham, and recalled saying: ‘Ian, we need to do something about this. It’s not right’.
She added: “I didn’t get chance to suggest anything because immediately Ian said ‘I have done, Jane, I’ve rung somebody higher up and they’ve told us ‘We just don’t do that’ and these were the words he used ‘For every one they’ve got, we’ve got one’.
“It was so shattering because at that moment I knew my party was in the same position,” added Ms Lee, who accepted a deal could have been struck by Labour to stay silent rather than make the matter public. “If what Ian said to me was true that for every one they’ve got, we’ve got one, then it would have been mutually assured destruction.”
Many years later, in 2014, Ms Lee reported the experience to police because she felt guilty for helping to cover-up what had gone on and expected to be arrested. She claimed a police sergeant told her the only person ‘that’s done anything wrong here’ was the journalist for ‘bandying it about in a pub’.
However, an inspector, who took the case more seriously, said accusations had been made against Morrison over many years including some of a ‘horrific’ nature but ultimately the inquiry led nowhere.
Tearfully, she told the inquiry: “I just feel we are all guilty – everyone who kept quiet. it’s just terrible.”
The inquiry heard that in a statement to the inquiry, Mr Lucas MP recalled being at the pub after a branch meeting in 1988 or 1989 when a member who was a journalist told the group Peter Morrison had been arrested at Crewe Railway Station for ‘some form of sexual offence’.
IICSA counsel Katie O’Byrne added: “You’ve seen references already to Mr Lucas’s denial that he spoke to anyone in the Chester Labour Party or in the national Labour Party about that at the time.”
Searches by British Transport Police about the Crewe incident had failed to turn up any files about Morrison except a ‘nominal record not relating to a crime or intelligence record’. Likewise, Cheshire police searches had not pinpointed any information about the MP being arrested for any matters in Cheshire or that anyone may have intervened to keep issues out of the media.
■ Morrison’s successor, ex-Chester Tory MP Gyles Brandreth, will give evidence during Tuesday’s hearing, along with former cabinet secretary Lord Armstrong and retired MI5 director general Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller.
https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/child-abuse-inquiry-asks-former-15959012
@REBELTROOP
Day 7 of Westminster hearing Thread
We heard from Susan Hogg, Morrison’s Diary Secretary, who worked alongside him arranging appointments.
Mrs Hogg confirms that Peter Morrison moved in high circles, counting the Duke of Westminster and Prince Charles amongst his friends. His sister is still lady-in-waiting to the Queen.
Mrs Hogg recalled an incident when Peter Morrison came back from Downing Street in November 1984. He wasn’t happy.
Eliza Manningham-Buller gave evidence. Confirms she knew Morrison and was told he was telling others she was his girlfriend
Their fathers, both peers knew one another to socialise with.
Finally, because of his serious drink problem and abusive statements about public servants, she tried to avoid seeing him. She did not attend his funeral
Lord Armstrong giving evidence
Confirms Thatcher supported Peter Morrison and concluded there was nothing in the allegations
Manningham-Buller 1986 MI5 Memo and Correspondence between Sir Robert Armstrong and Sir Antony Duff – ex-MI5 Chief @ciabaudo
More correspondence between Antony Duff and Lord Armstrong, alongside Manningham-Buller’s statement. Confirmation Thatcher and No 10 knew about Sir Peter
Robin Butler and Patrick Walker talking about trips abroad for Morrison in light of his ministerial post.
Ex-MI5 chief avoided minister’s funeral after child abuse claims
Manningham-Buller tells inquiry how her friendship with Peter Morrison ‘withered’
12 March 2019
Eliza Manningham-Buller, the former director general of MI5, stayed away from the funeral of the Conservative minister Peter Morrison over allegations of child sex abuse and his pretence that she was his girlfriend.
Her revealing comments about her “withering” friendship with the former parliamentary private secretary to the prime minister was given at the end of her evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
Lady Manningham-Buller told the inquiry on Tuesday that she may have been the source of information passed by the security service to the cabinet secretary which included the comment that Morrison had a “penchant for small boys”.
She was then asked by Brian Altman QC, counsel to IICSA, why she had stayed away from Morrison’s funeral in 1995 since she had previously been a friend.
“It’s an insight into my feelings,” Manningham-Buller said. “By the end of the 80s … my friendship with Peter Morrison was withering.
“He was seeking to give the impression that I was his girlfriend which was not accurate. The allegations [of paedophile activity] which I did not know the truth of … made me uncomfortable.”
She continued: “I wasn’t sure I liked him much. He had a drink problem. He was very abusive to his public servants and I chose not to go to the funeral.”
Morrison, then MP for Chester, had been the minister for energy as well as trade and industry during the 1980s when Margret Thatcher was prime minister.
Questions of his sexual activities led to correspondence between MI5 and the cabinet secretary, Sir Robert Armstrong, about whether he was a security risk.
At one stage, the inquiry heard, Morrison was discouraged from visiting Russia in case he was blackmailed. On a visit to China, it was arranged that he should be accompanied by officials to avoid problems.
Earlier, Morrison’s departmental private secretary, Susan Hogg, told the inquiry: “He clearly had an alcohol problem and used to start drinking at lunch time.” He often got through a bottle of vodka by tea.
He had a temper, she added, and used to be in a bad mood particularly when required by Buckingham Palace to escort Princess Margaret.
On occasions, Hogg said, she used to take phone calls from Morrison when she was still in the department in the evening. “There would be giggling in the background and he would say: ‘Stop it, Eliza. Stop it Eliza.’ I thought she was his girlfriend.”
Morrison was infuriated by the language used by civil servants, calling them “Martians”. He asked her to retype their memorandums, she explained, so that they were no longer written in “Martian”.
Lord Armstrong, as he now is, also appeared before the inquiry and confirmed that Margaret Thatcher had been aware of the rumours but that she had supported Morrison in the absence of any criminal prosecution.
“I took it from the fact that [Margaret Thatcher] didn’t appear to want me to take any further action that she was being fully informed by the [Conservative] party,” Armstrong said.
“I think it was up to the Conservative party as to whether they took the rumours sufficiently seriously to report them to the police. I thought the police had been aware. I was certainly not aware of any cover-up. Morrison has emphatically denied the allegations.”
Lord Armstrong said that Thatcher had evidently not considered the rumours to be true because she appointed him as her parliamentary private secretary in 1990.
Richard Scorer, a solicitor at the law firm Slater & Gordon who represents victims at the inquiry, said: “The Peter Morrison case is a shameful saga of institutions avoiding responsibility despite widespread rumours about his ‘penchant for small boys’.
“It appears police knew of allegations, but did nothing. Security services knew. Cabinet secretary knew, but thought it was for prime minister & Tory party to deal. The prime minister took no action. The Tory party did nothing. What we see here is buck passing across the board and Morrison escaping scrutiny because of his connections”.
@CassandraCogno
there’s so many ways to ignore #CSA but the belittling “in a bit of a jam over boys” “fuss over nothing” attitude is class specific
@InquiryCSA
“I don’t believe that anybody had really thought there was anything in any of this… I don’t think he would have been appointed deputy chairman of the Conservative party,” says Mr Brandreth.
@ShoebridgeC
MI5 admits to UK child sex abuse inquiry that it knew of serious allegations of paedophilia against 1980s govt minister and other senior officials including an MI6 chief, but didn’t inform police and did little if anything to prevent the abuse continuing
Thatcher protected Tory MP suspected of abusing children, MI5 files reveal
Peter Morrison’s alleged ‘penchant for small boys’ was considered only in national security, not criminal terms, witness tells Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse
The witness, who gave evidence anonymously, admitted that memos and a letter from 1986 had discussed claims that Morrison had a “penchant for small boys”, and there was nothing to indicate MI5 passed the information in its possession to police.
The inquiry heard that two 1986 memos were written by Eliza Manningham-Buller, who went on to be the director general of MI5 between 2002 and 2007.
In one 1986 memo, the future Dame Eliza stated Morrison had told her he was being doorstepped by reporters seeking comments about five-year-old allegations that the press had become keen to publish now former Tory deputy chair Jeffrey Archer had been caught paying off a prostitute.
The inquiry heard Ms Manningham-Buller wrote that Morrison did not tell her what the allegations involved, adding: “Peter hoped the press would publish something so that he could sue and nail the lies that were being spread about him.
Her role, the inquiry was told, would have been confined to passing on information, rather than making decisions on what to do about the MP, who had been one of the first backbenchers to urge Thatcher to stand for the Tory leadership in 1975 and her parliamentary private secretary in 1990.
n one 1986 memo, the future Dame Eliza stated Morrison had told her he was being doorstepped by reporters seeking comments about five-year-old allegations that the press had become keen to publish now former Tory deputy chair Jeffrey Archer had been caught paying off a prostitute.
The inquiry heard Ms Manningham-Buller wrote that Morrison did not tell her what the allegations involved, adding: “Peter hoped the press would publish something so that he could sue and nail the lies that were being spread about him
“The prime minister was aware of it and was supporting Peter.”
Admitting that in the 1980s the service considered the allegations only in national security terms, the MI5 lawyer said: “It’s a matter of regret that no consideration was given at the time to the criminal aspects of the matter.
“The knowledge and understanding of child sexual abuse at the time was much, much lower than it is now. So I’m to some extent unsurprised that wider consideration wasn’t given in 1986. With hindsight, it’s a matter of real regret.”
The MI5 lawyer added that MI5’s reasoning in 1986 would have been: “If the prime minister [Thatcher] knew of the allegations and was not particularly, on the face of it, concerned about them, if this is a true account of the situation, then there would be little point in MI5 investigating them further.”
Brian Altman QC, lead counsel to the inquiry, also quoted from the 2014 independent Wanless-Whittam review of information held in connection with child abuse between 1979 and 1999, which had summarised MI5’s handling of the Morrison allegations by saying: “In response to claims from two sources that a named member of parliament has ‘a penchant for small boys’ … Matters conclude with acceptance of his word that he does not, and the observation that ‘at the present stage … the risks of political embarrassment to the government is rather greater than the security danger’.”
Mr Altman said: “The risk to children is not considered at all.”
The witness said that if the same information came into MI5’s possession today, it would be referred to police.
Mr Morrison, who between September 1986 and June 1987 was deputy to Conservative party chair Norman Tebbit, was knighted in 1991 and died in 1995 aged 51.
The inquiry has already been told by Mr Altman that there will be exploration of “whether there was a culture whereby people of public prominence were shielded from investigation at the expense of their victims”.
Mr Morrison is forming one of three case studies, along with the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith and Green Party member David Challenor who was jailed for 22 years in August after being convicted of sexual assault against a 10-year-old girl.
Mr Altman said a question by Labour deputy leader Tom Watson in the House of Commons in 2012, in which he said there was “clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to parliament and No 10”, could be seen as the “catalyst for the establishment of this inquiry”.
But he clarified that some allegations had already been shown to be false.
Geoffrey Robertson QC, acting for Harvey Proctor – whose home was raided under the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Midland before the probe closed in 2016 without a single arrest – claimed Mr Watson and “various febrile journalists” had “started a moral panic” over an alleged paedophile ring.
The inquiry continues.
mw:
1989 Police seized an audio tape from a woman’s safe during a probe into organised crime in south-east London. An MP is heard on the tape “engaged in a sexual activity” with a “teenager”, an ex-detective anonymised as “GB” says in statement to CSA inquiry.
Name of MP on audio tape, engaging in sexual activity with a male “teenager”, redacted by CSAinquiry, although it has identified him (presumably by mistake). Inquiry failed to call “GB” to testify, but instead has skated over his bombshell evidence
Tape of MP engaged in sexual activity with a teenager mysteriously DISAPPEARED from storage at a police station, ex-detective GB reveals to CSA inquiry in statement
There was other evidence that raised concerns about the MP on the “sex tape” with a “teenager”… “Children were seen leaving the constituency office of [redacted name of MP],” GB tells CSA inquiry in his statement…
In interview with Met’s ‘Operation Winter Key’ in 2016, GB says that children from care system were “spending the night at his [ie MP’s] constituency surgery” and were “seen coming out in the morning,”
GB tells Met in interview that the evidence against MP on “sex tape” and who had boys staying overnight at his surgery was not definitive. “He could have been a nice man putting them [up] for the night, nothing a 100 per cent.”
“It sounded like they didn’t know that they were being recorded,” GB tells Met in interview. Police suspected that organised crime gang in south-east London was “blackmailing” the MP…
@InquiryCSA
Mr Altman asks the witness whether she (Mannigham-Buller) thinks the Security Service should have waited before deciding not to take matter further, to have checked that what Peter Morrison was saying regarding the Prime MInister being aware and supporting him?
Mr Altman – “which would have been of importance to the narrow focus that was being taken towards this issue in Peter Morrison’s case?
Eliza Manningham-Buller – “Yes.”
Mr Altman – “Do you agree that the police should have been involved, whether there was a safeguarding policy or not?”
Eliza Manningham-Buller – “Obviously, they should have been.
There was a potential crime. There were two reports of small boys.”
@InquiryCSA
Turning to events of November 1983, Lord Armstrong confirms that the Prime Minister was aware of the rumours about Morrison, and that they agreed that they were no more than rumours.
If a criminal offence had been committed then the police were aware of it and it was “consequently their responsibility to deal with it”
Mr Altman asks whether there was any suggestion of involving the police at any time. Lord Armstrong – “I think it was up to the Conservative Party to consider whether they took the rumours sufficiently seriously to report them to the police”
Medomsley detention centre: Ex-officers convicted over abuse
Mar 12 2019
Five former staff members at a youth detention centre have been convicted over the physical abuse of young prisoners in the 1970s and 1980s.
The men, who are now aged in their 60s and 70s, worked at the former centre in Medomsley, near Consett, County Durham.
They were found guilty of a range of charges including assaults, wounding and misconduct in public office.
Jurors at Teesside Crown Court were told much of the violence was “for the enjoyment of the officers”.
The five will be sentenced at a later date.
Their convictions follow a series of trials resulting from Operation Seabrook, which was launched by Durham Police in 2013 and became one of the largest investigations of its kind in the UK.
The guilty men are:
- Christopher Onslow, 72, convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm, wounding and misconduct in public office. Acquitted of indecent assault
- John McGee, 74, convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and misconduct in public office. Acquitted of sexual assault
- Brian Johnson Greenwell, 71, convicted of misconduct in public office. Acquitted of sexual assault and physical assault
- Kevin Blakely, 67, convicted of two counts of misconduct in public office. Acquitted of two counts of wounding and two of assault
- Alan Bramley, 70, convicted of misconduct in public office. Acquitted of wounding and two counts of assault
- Neil Sowerby, 61, was acquitted of misconduct in public office, sexual assault and physical abuse
- David McClure, 63, was acquitted of misconduct in public office, wounding and four counts of assault
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-47228358
Claims local media and political groups kept quiet over child sex abuse allegations and arrest of former Chester MP
Mar 12th, 2019
Local MP Ian Lucas says he is ‘shocked’ at claims made in the evidence session, and says “I did not take part in a cover up and would never do so” – you can read his full statement here.
Original story below…
Claims have been made that Conservative and Labour groups in Chester worked together in the late 1980s to ensure an MP stood down rather than be revealed as a paedophile, with assertions that local media at the time knew of the allegations but also helped a ‘cover-up’.
The allegations discussed yesterday at the inquiry looking into allegations of child sexual abuse linked to Westminster centre around former Conservative MP for Chester Peter Morrison, who was also a well connected Parliamentary Private Secretary to the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and alleged Bryn Estyn ‘visitor’.
The serious and numerous child abuse allegations regarding Morrison are long documented with the new inquiry looking at a range of related issues as part of it’s scope, including who was aware of the involvement of people of public prominence associated with Westminster in the sexual abuse of children, and failed to take adequate steps to prevent any such abuse from occurring and/or took steps to prevent such abuse from being revealed.
Wrexham’s MP Ian Lucas also has had his submission to the inquiry branded ‘disappointing’ by a witness at yesterday’s hearings.
Jane Lee the former secretary of the local Labour branch for Gresford and Rossett gave evidence to the inquiry in London yesterday (Full transcripts here) and spoke about various interactions she had in the late 1980s with Ian Lucas, then Chairman of the branch, as well as conversations with a local reporter for the Wrexham Leader on the topic of Morrison.
The evidence given by Ms Lee stated that the Leader reporter and Labour party member ‘Eileen Neidermyer’ (also named as ‘Eileen Nederlof’ by Mr Lucas) attended a post-meeting gathering in a pub in Gresford that she claims was also attended by Mr Lucas and his wife Norah. At that gathering, the Leader reporter ‘said with relish’ the paper would be running the story about MP Morrison being arrested for an incident involving a young boy or boys in toilets at Crewe station.
It is alleged the reporter told those present the story was ‘all set, it is typeset’, ready to print, and encouraged them to buy a copy of the paper the very next morning.
Ms Lee explained, with regret, how the mood was buoyant at the news, “We just thought great”, “We are going to win in Chester, he is going to be all over the front page”.
The story never appeared.
At a similar meeting a month later Ms Lee explained the Wrexham Leader reporter was asked why the story never appeared. Recounting the conversation from memory Ms Lee told the inquiry: “I can remember it virtually word for word.
“She said the Chief Constable of Cheshire got a phone call from the Prime Minister’s office — Margaret Thatcher’s name wasn’t mentioned, but it was ‘from the Prime Minister’s office’ and had been persuaded to not press charges but to give a warning, an official warning, and, well, we said, ‘Well, why didn’t that go in the paper?’, and she said — and I don’t know if it’s true or not, but she said, ‘You can’t report warnings. You can’t put warnings in the paper’.
Later Ms Lee clarified ‘warning’ could well have been a ‘caution’.
In the submission from Mr Lucas he recalls a member called Eileen Nederlof, a journalist working in Chester, raising the question of Peter Morrison. In a group discussion Nederlof ‘reported to us all an incident which occurred at Crewe railway station, with Morrison being arrested for a sexual offence’. Mr Lucas was clear to say the discussion was not official business of the Branch.
Mr Lucas added said he was ‘expecting it to be reported in the local press but it was not’.
Ms Lee was asked if she raised the matter with Ian Lucas.
Ms Lee said yes: “We always used to arrive at the branch venue early, Ian and I, a sort of pre-meeting meeting, and I just said to him, after a month of thinking about it, I simply said, ‘Ian, we need to do something about this. It’s not right’.
“Immediately Ian said, ‘I have done, Jane. I have rung somebody higher up, and they’ve told us, ‘We just don’t do that’ ‘, and these were the words he used, ‘For every one they have got, we have got one’.
Ms Lee was asked what she meant by ‘somebody higher up’, she replied: “I didn’t ask. I was so shocked at what he said that it was like — I didn’t say anything.
“I knew not to say — it was awful, really. I knew not to ask. Because it seemed to be such a serious statement, not just, ‘There is one’, and, ‘If they tell about us, our one, we will tell about their one’, but it was the fact that he was saying, everyone they have got, every paedophile they have got, we have got one. So it was so shattering, because, at that moment, I knew that my party was in the same position.”
Ms Lee added later: “The only exact words I can remember are the words ‘For every one they’ve got, we’ve got one’. I can remember those words precisely. He said something else before that to the effect of, ‘We don’t tell on them and they don’t’ — ‘There is an unwritten rule: we don’t tell on them, they don’t tell on us’.
Ms Lee said it was a ‘tumbleweed moment’ saying she did not ask anything further, and she ‘kept quiet for many many years’.
The written submission to the Inquiry from Mr Lucas was referenced (below) with Ms Lee told “Mr Lucas states here that he did not discuss the incident concerning Peter Morrison with anyone at Chester Labour Party or the national Labour Party or, indeed, with anyone outside the group that evening in Gresford and Rossett.”
The below section of Mr Lucas’s statement was pulled up for reference yesterday:
Ms Lee was asked for her reaction to it: “I’m disappointed that he — I understand that what I’m saying — he’s a member of parliament. He was going to stand as a member of parliament very shortly after that. Dr John Marek was resigning — was retiring. I just feel this was a chance for Ian to say — he’s got two children. It was a chance for Ian to say, ‘We did have that conversation’, and I’m sorry that he didn’t find it in himself to do that.”
Ms Lee’s evidence can be viewed in the below video with her written statement in this PDF. Ms Lee also wrote a letter to the inquiry where she notes Mr Lucas’s ethical position over Facebook and Bradley Wiggins, and contrasts it to her historic claims.
Mr Lucas’s statement can be found on this PDF.
The Inquiry also heard from Frances Mowatt ( agent and secretary to the City of Chester Conservative Association during Morrison’s time), Grahame Nicholls (Labour Party official) and former Chester MP (1997 to 2010) Christine Russell. (Full transcripts here).
Grahame Nicholls spoke of how ‘everyone in the political elite in Chester’ knew of ‘rumours’ that Morrison ‘liked little boys’. A section of his written statement (parts here, redacted) was referenced:
Nicholls added in his verbal evidence that a Chief Reporter at a local newspaper ‘would talk about it all the time’ and that ‘the press certainly knew’, adding he first became aware of the Crewe station incident via said reporter, “The press certainly knew. The chief reporter on one of the newspapers that I was very friendly with, she would talk about it all the time, you know. So the press knew, certainly.”
Nicholls characterised an ‘agreement’ between political parties that Morrison would not stand in the 1992 election in return for ‘not breaking cover on the story’.
A ‘strong relationship’ between the ‘main newspaper’ and the Conservative party was referenced, and he ‘presumed’ the local media had bought into some kind of agreement to keep stories about Morrison out of print.
Nicholls added: “The local media wasn’t at that time … didn’t want that published, because there was a very strong relationship between them particularly the main newspaper and the Conservative Party.”
A question was asked, “So were the press involved in this agreement too, that they weren’t going to publish?
Nicholls replied: “Yes, they weren’t going to publish. She told me they weren’t going to publish.
He was asked: “Was that because they had also bought into some agreement of this nature?
Nicholls replied: “I presume, yes.”
Christine Russell gave details of ongoing rumours prior to the Crewe station incident, including that circulated by ‘mainly Conservative councillors’ of ‘wild parties’ at Morrison’s constituency home called The Stables in Puddington village where ‘a select list of guests’ would attend mainly young men.
Rumours about excessive drinking ‘were then embellished’, and were known widely ‘not just in the political community but throughout Chester’.
Russell was asked: “What did you or anyone else do about these rumours during the 1980s?
She replied: “I think because the allegations were coming from police officers, from Conservative councillors, I would say to them, ‘What have you done about it?’ And it was, ‘Oh, he’s being protected, isn’t he?’ That was the common response.”
An odd meeting between Labour and Conservative party representatives in Nicholas Street Mews in central Chester was referenced, where the outcome was it became known Morrison would stand down. The meeting, apparently common knowledge and now ‘mythology’ in political circles, was described in detail being in on a ‘wet rainy day’ and the meeting in the middle of the street with the conservative offices at one end and labour’s at the other.
Russell said there was no truth in claims of ‘agreement’ taking place in effect consisting of various entities covering up for Morrison in exchange for him to step down, when directly asked: “You heard Mr Nicholls give evidence. You have his account, which was of a meeting in which you told the meeting that an agreement had been reached that essentially the political parties and the press would cover up these allegations against Mr Morrison in exchange for Mr Morrison standing down at the next election. What do you say to that?
Russell replied: “No truth whatsoever.”
Russell was asked, “Can you explain why Mr Nicholls and Ms Lee have both remembered something that you can’t?
Russell replied: “I can’t explain it.”
Russell noted three local papers were fully aware of various allegations, naming them as the Chester/Cheshire Observer, Chester Chronicle and Evening Leader, and that none reported on it.
Russell was asked: “It seems to have been the position that none of them reported it.
She replied: “No, they didn’t report it. There was no coverage.”
Later an anonymous person from MI5 gave evidence off camera, and said of the matter: “Today, as a matter of formal policy, MI5 does report all allegations of this sort to the police and, if the same information had come to MI5 today, it would be passed to the police”
Evidence sessions continue today regarding Morrison, with Gyles Brandreth another former MP of Chester appearing in person to give evidence on oath.
Locally further accounts may surface in publications who will be able to give their insider facts on if stories were pulled and other claims relating to their non-reporting, and will likely be able to locate and quiz employees from that era.
In other evidence media not running stories is also referenced with an arrest of Morrison in 1988 for ‘cottaging in Piccadilly Circus’ not published by the Mirror, with a reporter confronting him at home but being threatened with a libel action.
In the same evidence pack in 2012 there is an unsettling reference to a mystery call to a reporter who had just commented on Jimmy Savile allegations live on Sky News. The caller said they were aware of Morrison and claimed the ‘story went much deeper’.
A page from submitted documents also gives an insight to the lengths the Mirror went to while trying to get elements of the story out in this internal note from 1987:
The full three hour evidence session from yesterday can be viewed below and the text based transcripts in this PDF.
MI5 did not tell police of minister’s ‘penchant for small boys’, inquiry hears
Security service lawyer says it ‘regrets’ claims against Peter Morrison were not investigated
Mar 11 2019
Peter Morrison, the former MP for Chester, at Downing Street
MI5 warned the cabinet secretary in the 1980s about rumours that a minister had a “penchant for small boys” but did not inform the police or launch an investigation into the allegations, according to a member of the security services.
Giving evidence anonymously to the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA), a lawyer with the security service apologised for it having taken a “narrow, security-related view” of the accusations against Sir Peter Morrison.
“With hindsight,” the lawyer, whose voice was heard via remote video link, said “it was a matter of deep regret” that MI5 had not cooperated with police or made inquiries into the activities of the former MP for Chester, who died in 1995.
The official said the security service did not investigate people merely because they had a public profile but only when there was reason to suspect they posed a threat to national security. Not all files were “adverse”, he added, saying that some might be opened if a person was targeted by a terrorist group or could be susceptible to approaches by a foreign intelligence organisation.
A letter from the then head of MI5, Sir Antony Duff, to Sir Robert Armstrong, the then cabinet secretary, that was sent in 1986 was read out to the inquiry. It said that stories about Morrison, who was then minister of state for trade and industry, “persist”.
A member of MI5, Duff wrote, had heard from two sources that Morrison had “a penchant for small boys”. The source was understood to be Donald Stewart, the Conservative party agent for Westminster.
The security service was not sure whether it was based on rumours previously aired in 1983 or on more recent events. Duff ended the letter saying: “I would just as soon that we didn’t get involved for the time being.”
An internal MI5 memo in November 1986 from Eliza Manningham-Buller, later director general of the security service, said she had seen Morrison and his family the previous night for dinner and he had told her that the prime minister was supporting him. Morrison said he hoped the press would publish so that he could sue and “nail the lies”.
The security service also recorded reports that Morrison had been picked up for importuning. Manningham-Buller, who is due to appear before IICSA on Tuesday, has told the inquiry that she was not the member of MI5 staff who had first heard the rumours against Morrison, who later became parliamentary private secretary to Margaret Thatcher.
Brian Altman QC, counsel to the inquiry, suggested that the statement that Thatcher knew about the allegations against Morrison and was nonetheless supporting him depended entirely on the MP’s version of events. The MI5 lawyer agreed that appeared to be so.
“Wasn’t the obvious route,” Altman suggested, “that an inquiry should have been made of Sir Robert Armstrong to ask if the prime minister was supporting Morrison in those terms?” The service had been “rather blinkered” about the proper approach, he added.
The inquiry also heard evidence about MI5’s investigation into the activities of Sir Peter Hayman, a former high commissioner to Canada, who retired in 1984 and died in 1992.
He kept detailed diaries about his sex life which were seized when his flat in Bayswater, central London, was raided. The director of public prosecutions (DPP) later gave MI5 access to them.
The security service interviewed Hayman’s friends and then him, particularly about reports that in the 1950s when he was in Baghdad local boys had visited him for sexual purposes. The DPP, Hayman told MI5, had given him immunity from prosecution.
The outcome of the investigation, the MI5 lawyers said, was that Hayman had rendered himself vulnerable to blackmail but that there had been no actual prejudice to security.
The MI5 officer was also taken through a list of prominent individuals whose activities had raised questions about child abuse. Among them was Maurice Oldfield, a former head of MI6, who had told Thatcher that he had had “homosexual encounters”, dating back to the 1940s and 1950s, with “house boys” and “hotel stewards” in Asia.
Allegations against the former home secretary Leon Brittan were said to have come only from a disgruntled prisoner who resented having been denied parole.
The agency’s records, the inquiry was told, also mentioned unsubstantiated allegations against the former Conservative MPs Christopher Chataway, Charles Irving and Sir William van Straubenzee. All have since died. It is not clear whether any information on them was ever passed to police.
@perryscope21
IMPORTANT – IICSA have posted my statements on the website:
See what they were trying to hide about SB dirty tricks, false D-notices, interviews with ex SB officer, Flying Squad, and top cop who buried C Smith files:
https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/9729/view/INQ003722.pdf … … and https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/9731/view/INQ003723.pdf … …
Investigative journalist tells child abuse inquiry he was given a list of ’16 paedophile MPs’ but it was seized in raid
Don Hale, former editor of the Bury Messenger, says he was handed the dossier by late Labour peer Barbara Castle in the 1980s.
8 MAR 2019
Don Hale, former editor of the now defunct Bury Messenger, says he was handed a cache of documents by late Labour peer Barbara Castle about the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) during the 1980s.
The organisation advocated abolishing the age of consent and Mr Hale alleges that the documents revealed many senior figures supported its aims and were involved in fundraising.
Mr Hale, who was awarded an OBE for campaigning journalism for his involvement in the acquittal of Stephen Downing for murder, said then home secretary Leon Brittan was supportive of the group.
He said over a period of about eight weeks in the summer of 1984, Baroness Castle handed him a number of sensitive documents to photocopy relating to parliamentary committee meetings discussing the PIE.
The documents revealed who was present, who chaired the committees and who had sent apologies for their absence, the Westminster strand of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse heard.
Mr Hale claims that the entire store of documents was confiscated by officers from special branch as soon as he started trying to verify the allegations made by Baroness Castle.
The inquiry, which is expected to sit for three weeks, is examining ongoing allegations of historical abuse by politicians and systemic cover-up by institutions.
In his opening address, Brian Altman QC said Labour MP Tom Watson’s comment in the House of Commons in 2012 saying there was “clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10”, could be seen as the “catalyst for the establishment of this inquiry”.
Mr Altman emphasised the inquiry will look at how organisations responded to child sex abuse allegations rather than the truth of claims against individuals.
Mr Hale went public with his allegations about the documents and special branch in a series of articles in national newspapers including the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail in 2014.
He claimed that Leon Brittan chaired several of the meetings discussing the PIE and had been exploring the possibility of lowering the age of consent.
Other names implicated were former education minister Rhodes Boyson, Liberal MP Jeremy Thorpe and Conservative MP Keith Joseph.
Mr Hale also claims that among the documents was a list compiled by the parliamentary committee of 16 MPs actively involved in paedophilia.
He said that he was initially visited by Cyril Smith, then Liberal MP for Rochdale, who furiously demanded he hand over the documents, and that a day later they were seized by special branch.
The inquiry heard that there is no mention in either the Met or Greater Manchester’s special branch records of the raid on the Bury Messenger’s offices.
A statement from an officer sent to find the files said this could be because it was not recorded, the records had been destroyed, or because the raid never took place.
In his evidence to the inquiry on Friday, Mr Hale said: “(Baroness Castle) wanted me to write a story about the fact the meetings were taking place and what the subject was likely to be – she wanted me to expose quite a number of things.”
He added: “Barbara felt that everything seemed to go through Leon Brittan, he seemed to be the centre of things regarding these matters.”
He said Baroness Castle had details of 16 politicians who were involved in paedophilia in addition to supporting the PIE.
Mr Hale said: “In regards to the 16 names contained in the files who were involved in paedophilic activity, I have been asked many times to recall the names that I saw but I have been unable to recall them.”
When asked by Mr Altman if he could think of even one name on the list, he replied: “I wasn’t a political animal, I had only come into the job a few months before.”
He added: “I have no copy of that document – my recollection is that there were some important names but I just can’t remember.
“The whole experience of being raided by special branch was a complete shock and you want to block things out of your mind.”
There were no witnesses to the raid, Mr Hale said, and he alleged he was served with a “D-Notice” requiring him to hand over the documents in the interests of national security.
He said he could face two years in prison if he refused to co-operate.
Describing the visit by Smith, he said: “He was absolutely furious – I thought he was going to hit me. He’s a very big guy as you can understand.”
He added: “The strange thing was that his name, as far as I can remember, never appeared in any of the documents.
“You could wonder considering his history whether he did think his name was mentioned in the documents or whether he was acting on behalf of his liberal colleagues.
“I was quite stunned by what had happened – when someone as powerful as him comes and spits in your face and threatens you, you are concerned.”
He said one officer had given his name during the raid, but that he could not remember the name and had not noted it down in the wake of the raid.
Mr Hale said there were multiple discrepancies between the evidence he gave to the Independent Office for Police Conduct and the final written statement that he was asked to sign.
The statement said no copies of the documents had been made, when he had repeatedly told them that “no other” copies had been made other than those locked in a drawer in his office.
But he said there were 48 emails between him and the Independent Office for Police Conduct over a period of six months to try to clarify and amend his statement.
“You get the impression they are trying to discredit my evidence,” he said.
Mr Hale accepted that he had been paid for the newspaper articles that ran in 2014.
He will return to give further evidence before the end of this strand of the inquiry.
Ms Castle alleged to Mr Hale that PIE was funded by the Home Office – and received cheques directly from it. “It’s difficult to remember now but I think she mentioned substantial funds… £20,000 plus,” adds Mr Hale
Mr Hale says Ms Castle told him that a man who was eventually knighted, Mr Rhodes Boyston, was “directly involved” in the distribution of the PIE’s magazine ‘Magpie’ to people in Westminster.
@CassandraCogno
Boyson was former headmaster of Islington’s all boys’ school Highbury Grove 1967-1974 – he moved straight from teaching in Islington to becoming an MP #Islington #PIECentral
@InquiryCSA
Mr Hale’s statement reads: “The Chair of the meeting would be Leon Brittan or Ted Heath. Regular attendees at the PIE meetings were Charles Napier, Keith Joseph, Jeremy Thorpe, Rhodes Boyson and Peter Hayman.”
@CassandraCogno
Was Michael Burbidge from the Department of Environment there?
https://bitsofbooksblog.wordpress.com/
So what’s being described sounds very similar to the proto All Parliamentary Party Group (APPG) for pro-paedophile rights that Righton, Ian Greer and Antony Grey started lobbying for in 1968-1969 – cross party lobbying was essential
@InquiryCSA
The Inquiry hears Ms Castle inferred that the NCCL (the National Council for Civil Liberties) was “also trying to help with funding and protection of the PIE organisation”.
@CassandraCogno
Without the NCCL there would have none of the substantial shadow network supporting child abusers & PIE that existed within legitimate organisations – housing, legal advice, employment, trade unions etc #Islington councillor Henry Hodge was Chair of NCCL when PIE affiliated
@InquiryCSA
Mr Hales says Mr O’Carroll’s comments are a “way of having a pop at me”. He says the funding issue was told to him by Ms Castle in 1984. “From what Barbara said, there was a distribution office in Westminster.”
@CassandraCogno
Like the one Steven Adrian Smith boasted about running with Barry Cutler in the Home Office in his brief history of PIE ?
………………..
PIE had at least physical proximity to power. During his chairmanship of PIE, Smith actually worked as a contract electrician in the Home Office, which oversees Britain’s police and other security agencies.
Smith kept PIE’s files in a locked cabinet in his office, according to a biographical essay published in 1986 and quoted widely in UK media. His security clearance was annually renewed, he wrote.
PIE Secretary Barry Cutler also worked in the Home Office but was fired in 1983 when a UK tabloid outed his affiliation with the group.
A Home Office spokesman would not confirm or deny either man’s employment.
Other members had high-profile jobs in the public and private sectors, like Peter Righton, a social worker, child protection expert and consultant to the National Children’s Bureau. Righton, who died in 2007, wrote openly in defense of pedophilia even while working in child care homes in the 1970s.
https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-03-18/man-pedophile-and-proud-it
The former Tory Prime Minister backed notorious paedophile Savile for an OBE just two years after the perverted presenter was passed over for a lesser honour.
Sir Edward Heath also attended more than half a dozen meetings of the notorious PIE group at Westminister.
In relation to Edward Heath, he continues:”I can say that I saw him inside the flat on more than one occasion and I am certain that it was him.” He says that he still stands by this statement. #westminsterhearing
@craftymuvva:
CYRIL SMITH, JEREMY THORPE, EDWARD HEATH and LEON BRITTAN were seen by Sinclair entering the flat in Cricklewood. Sinclair is positive he identified the four MPs with his own eyes.
InquiryCSAVerified account@InquiryCSA
His statement reads: “I can say that the team observed various men frequent the flat I am sure that four of them were MPs who I recognised as Cyril Smith, Jeremy Thorpe, Leon Brittan and Edward Heath.”
Day 4 of #westminsterhearing thread Witness testimony from Sue Simpson, retired police officer, claims Jimmy Savile and Jonathan King were often mentioned!
Robertson called on the inquiry to clear the names of those, such as Proctor, who have been wrongly accused of abuse.
@CassandraCogno
@InquiryCSA
Adam Wagner will now deliver a statement on behalf of Harvey Proctor. He is led by Geoffrey Robertson QC who could not be here today. “The evidence to this Inquiry has cleared him [Proctor] completely. There is no evidence of any Westminster paedophile network,” he says.
@CassandraCogno
Spartacus’ PAN December 1980 reported @RobertsonQC had withdrawn as O’Carroll’s defence barrister after second committal of 1980 in November (first committal February 1980) when trial date of 5 Jan 1981 set https://www.brongersma.info/images/Pan7.pdf@InquiryCSA
From Pan magazine
December, 1980
LONDON, ENGLAND The number of PIE defendants was reduced to four on 28 November when charges against David Grove, who is seriously ill with throat cancer, were dropped. On the same day the other four were informed that the trial was definitely going ahead on 5 January as scheduled in the Old Bailey. Three days later Geoffrey Robertson, their barrister, author of a book on obscenity, informed them that he would not argue their case, leaving them now without senior legal representation. Most of the PIE defendants have been fired from their jobs and have thus had to go to Legal Aid in order to receive any kind of defence at all, while the prosecution has all the wealth of North Sea oil to pay for the best legal minds in Britain. The defendants are trying to get the trial postponed until they can recover from this eleventh-hour decision of Barrister Robertson to pull out — and rebuild some kind of defence strategy.
In 1998 Robertson QC identified sir Peter Hayman as having had a long & distinguished career with MI6 in his book The Justice Game
@CassandraCogno
Policeman Collins at iicsa – Collins was cross examined by Robertson (pre QC) at PIE first committal in February 1980 was that acknowledged at @InquiryCSA ?
@ciabaudo
Err, has it been mentioned that Geoffrey Robertson QC who represents the former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor at @InquiryCSA was part of PIE-linked NCCL?
GEOFFREY ROBERSON, NCCL executive member 1974.
Colleagues: members of the Paedophile Information Exchange and their supporters
Geoffrey Robertson QC, Nettie Pollard, Tom O’Carroll, Roland Jeffrey, Ivan Geffen, Antony Grey
London Friend’s 1st General Secretary
(September 1975 – September 1977)
THE PLACE TO MEET PEOPLE JOCKEYING FOR INFLUENCE IN THE LATE NINETIES – Islington
Location matters. We know where to find the old Establishment, the people and networks, the clubs, salons and dynasties that Henry Fairlie meant when he gave the term currency in the Fifties, through an article in the Spectator. They are in the clubs of St James’s, the ministries of Whitehall, at home in the grand houses of Belgravia, Knightsbridge, Kensington and Chelsea. Never too far from the Queen.
Tony Blair, famously, lives in Islington. Some of his closest political friends live in the north London borough, some practically on his doorstep: Margaret Hodge MP, former head of Islington Council; her husband, Henry Hodge, a leading figure in the Law Society; Geoffrey Robertson, the prominent barrister.
Madame Cyn’ – who died this week – made prostitution seem like a lark for pensioners. Geoffrey Robertson QC, her defence barrister, salutes an accidental campaigner
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“If you had not asked that question,” moaned a Lord Justice of Appeal as I attempted to overturn the over-severe 18-month prison sentence on Cynthia Payne, “this case would have attracted four …
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Cynthia Payne was organising fetish parties
Cynthia Payne with Lord Longford
Another QC member of NCCL – PIE member Adrian Fulford
Back in the late 1970s he was a newly qualified Left-wing barrister when he joined the NCCL, now known as Liberty, which had links to known paedophile groups and attempted to lower the age of consent to 14 and water down child pornography laws
Fulford’s involvement with the radical movement to legalise child sex goes even further than that of the Labour Ministers, documents uncovered by The Mail on Sunday show.
He personally set up a group to support the ‘executive committee’ of PIE in the summer of 1979, after they had their homes raided by police.
Images of child abuse and group literature were seized and five leaders, including chairman O’Carroll, were charged with the rare offence of ‘conspiracy to corrupt public morals’.
Fulford and his colleagues called the organisation the Conspiracy Against Public Morals (CAPM), and it went on to distribute leaflets calling for the PIE ‘show trial’ to be dropped, and held protests outside courtrooms.
In October 1979 Fulford wrote a full-page article in gay rights magazine Broadsheet, in which he was described as ‘the founder’ of the PIE support group.
He claimed that classified adverts placed by PIE members, which led to the trial, were ‘simply to enable paedophiles to make friends and offer each other mutual support’ rather than to contact children or exchange banned images.
A leaflet distributed by CAPM and available through PIE’s mailing list went further, claiming: ‘This is a trumped-up charge designed to silence a group merely because it is unpopular with the guardians of public morality.’
And the prosecution was condemned as ‘an attack on PIE’s right to freedom of speech and freedom of association’.
A longer briefing note put together by the CAPM called the paedophiles a ‘minority group ripe for bashing’ because they were open about their aims.
In 1980, a Marxist collective used the almost identical name, Campaign Against Public Morals, and the same Central London PO Box address as Fulford’s group to publish a 60-page diatribe that called for the age of consent to be scrapped ‘for the liberation of children’.
Convicted Barrow paedophile, Tom O’Carroll, is thanked at charity event at the House of Lords
Mar 5 2019
A NOTORIOUS paedophile – who campaigned for sex with children as young as ten to be legalised – was invited to a House of Lords bash by a charity.
Tom O’Carroll, a former head of the Paedophile Information Exchange (Pie), which campaigned to lower the age of sexual consent, was among 60 guests who were thanked at a reception for donating money to Book Aid International.
Book Aid International is a charity which sends books to children in Sub Saharan Africa and around the world.
Speaking to a national newspaper at his flat in Barrow, the 73-year-old said: “I was kind of a guest of honour.
“A few years ago I did give a pretty substantial amount.
“I was invited by one of the members of the Lords, who is patron or chairman.”
In 1980 he wrote a book entitled Paedophilia: The Radical Case, in which he argues some sexual relationships between an adult and a child should be “normalised”.
O’Carroll was a key activist for PIE – which was set up in 1974 to campaign for a change in the law – and was once described as ‘one of the most infamous perverts on Earth’.
He was jailed in 1981 for ‘corrupting public morals’ and again more than two decades later for child sex offences.
He received a two-and-a-half year jail-term at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court in December 2006 for two counts of distributing indecent images of children.
Book Aid International’s chief executive Alison Tweed said: “We were all shocked to learn of Mr O’Carroll’s history. We have already taken action to sever all ties and will increase our vigilance for future invitation-only events. We hope that this incident does not in any way affect our ability to continue our vital work helping children around the world to achieve their potential.”
She confirmed O’Carroll donated less than £500 in total over three separate occasions since 2015 and this money had been refunded. No children were at the event.
PAUL BOATENG, NCCL executive member. NCCL linked to PIE – of which Tom O’Carroll was a leader
A House of Lords spokesperson said: “The event sponsored by Lord Boateng, on behalf of Book Aid International, met the rules regarding the use of banqueting facilities in the House of Lords.
“Those who were invited to attend the event went through airport-style security on entry to the estate and were not left unsupervised. The organisation arranging an event and the member who sponsors it are responsible for who they invite to attend.”
Barrow MP John Woodcock said: “It is alarming that the charity apparently did not conduct checks on their donors given their focus on children, and I hope that this will be a wake-up call to this organisation and other publishers.”
He became Chair of Book Aid International in June 2014.
I was invited by one of the members of the Lords, who is patron or chairman.”
Twice-jailed Tom O’Carroll, 73, was among up to 60 guests who were thanked last December for donating money to a children’s book charity.
Book Aid International, which provides books for children in sub-Saharan Africa, said it was unaware of O’Carroll’s past and has launched an investigation.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8548584/paedophile-tom-ocarroll-invited-to-house-of-lords-bash/
According to his research, the NCCL officer Nettie Pollard, who worked in the organisation until the late Nineties, ‘wrote a letter inviting the Paedophile Information Exchange to affiliate in 1975’.
Pollard, a militant lesbian and gay rights campaigner and a member of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality’s executive, was a powerful voice in support of a more relaxed approached to child sex.
In 1980, she even helped Tom O’Carroll with the writing of his proselytising book Paedophilia: The Radical Case. Such support reflected her own belief that children are sexual beings and that Britain ‘should eliminate harmful age of consent laws’.
‘We thought we could manipulate the Establishment and find allies within it,’ said the former PIE chairman Tom O’Carroll. Through the NCCL, he achieved a degree of success in that aim, at least within the Left.
Boateng was also involved with the NCCL, the National Council for Civil Liberties, which at one point allowed PIE to become affiliated to it – PIE being the organisation that campaigned to legalise sex between children and adults. Boateng was an executive member of the NCCL. Many other leading lights in New Labour were involved with NCCL, including Harriet Harman, Patricia Hewitt, Jack Dromey and Henry Hodge.
http://www.drsallybaker.com/uncategorized/tower-hamlets-paul-boateng-and-tessa-jowell/
Vicar found guilty of child sex abuse after Church of England cover-up
Church of England twice alerted to former bishop chaplain’s behaviour but failed to act, court hears
Mar 7 2019
Former vicar and child abuser Charles Gordon Dickenson leaves Chester Crown Court after pleading guilty to eight counts of sexual assault
A retired vicar is facing prison after he admitted to sexually abusing a young boy, as it emerged that the Church of England twice covered up his crimes and promoted him.
Charles Gordon Dickenson, 89, admitted to eight counts of sexual assault against his victim in the 1970s. He assaulted his victim in the church hall, vicarage and invited him to his home when his wife was away.
The survivor, who attended Christ Church in Latchford, Cheshire had felt unable to speak about the abuse for over four decades.
Chester Crown Court heard the Church of England were twice alerted to Dickenson’s behaviour but failed to act on the information.
He was eventually caught when officers interviewed the victim in 2017 while investigating sexual abuse allegations of former Bishop of Chester Victor Whitsey.
He told police it was the first time he had spoken about the abuse after “burying it away”, calling it a “dirty secret”.
Dickenson, of Crewe, ordered his victim not to tell anyone about the abuse, the jury was told.
“The first incident occurred on a Saturday evening when the church would host dances in the hall, Dickenson told the victim there was a problem with the boiler and lured him into the basement,” Prosecutor Myles Wilson said. “Dickenson, aged 45 at the time, sexually assaulted the boy and afterwards told him he ‘hoped he enjoyed it but not to tell anyone about it’.
“A few weeks later, while the church was preparing for Warrington Walking Day, the boy visited the vicarage to drop off decorations. As he went to leave, Dickenson took him into a side room and locked the door.”
The victim told police he was “full of dread” and was sexually assaulted again.
The assault only stopped when Dickenson’s wife shouted out his name.
Dickenson then told the boy: “I miss seeing you around, I hope you are not avoiding me.”
The third incident took place in the private sacristy after Dickenson lured the boy into the back entrance of the church, telling him others were inside.
He locked the back door and the doors to the sacristy behind him before abusing the boy.
On another occasion, he approached the boy outside the toilets before assaulting him.
After the final incident, Dickenson told the victim his wife was going away and that he wanted the boy to visit him at the vicarage.
The court heard he was moved to another parish and given a promotion after a female organist told her parents she had seen him “embrace” the boy.
When confronted by the church warden, Dickenson admitted: “I interfered and succumbed to temptation.”
He was appointed as a bishop’s chaplain and worked for another 20 years until retiring in 1994 although he was still allowed to officiate services until 2014.
A letter uncovered by police from Dickenson to the church, sent in 2009 as part of a vetting procedure, acknowledged the accusation of indecently assaulting a young boy.
It stated that Bishop Whitsey made him “promise never to do it again”.
When interviewed last June, Dickenson told police he “couldn’t remember interfering with the boy but could remembering being accused of it”.
However, when the archdeacon visited him last year to offer pastoral care, Dickenson admitted his crimes.
In a personal statement, the victim said: “These crimes made me question myself. Why was it me? Was I a homosexual? The shame made me not tell anyone, the first time I spoke about it was in December 2017 to the police. The shame came out in alcohol abuse and the way I treated girls, until I met my wife.”
Judge Steven Everett said: “He was regarded as a man of God and was wholly trusted. He was put in a position where he could get away with what he wanted – he certainly has never said sorry to the victim.”
Speaking after the case, a spokesperson for the Diocese of Chester said: “We offer an unreserved apology to the survivor.
“He has shown bravery and courage to share his experiences with the police and we acknowledge how difficult and distressing this must have been for him. The Diocese of Chester has provided full co-operation with the police throughout the current investigation and anyone affected by today’s news should contact the Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser.
“Information brought to light to the church in 2009, if acted upon then, may have led to the police bringing a prosecution against Gordon Dickenson much sooner. The Diocese apologises for not acting on this information in 2009. A review will now be conducted into the handling of the case, to identify where any failures in procedures arose and what lessons can be learned.”
Dickenson will be sentenced later this month at Liverpool Crown Court.
Witches, abuse and murder – The pagan paedophile ring that rocked Cornwall
The main players are either locked up or dead
4 MAR 2019
Peter Solheim and Margaret James pictured at a pagan ceremony
It was a paedophile ring that saw men indulge in their sick fantasies wearing hooded robes and terrifying their young victims with daggers.
Decades of abuse culminated in a trial which dramatically implicated a parish councillor ‘witch’ and the victim of a partly unsolved murder that shocked the county a decade earlier.
The two men accused of being part of a paedophile ring that ran a witches’ coven in St Ives carrying out “ritualistic, sickening” sex abuse of young girls, were given lengthy jail sentences in December 2012.
Jack Kemp and Peter Petrauske, both from Falmouth, spent years tormenting their female victims, one said to be as young as three years old.
Both men had denied any involvement in the abuse, claiming they were victims of a “witch-hunt”.
But a jury at Truro Crown Court dismissed their protestations, convicting the pair of a string of offences dating back to the Seventies, as well as finding Kemp guilty of several more recent sexual assaults unconnected to Petrauske.
Petrauske was said to be the “high priest” of a witches’ coven that met in an undisclosed location in St Ives and ordered the girls to carry out his sick fantasies. The court heard Kemp videoed the abuse.
He also took part in the assaults, along with friends Peter Solheim – who was later found murdered and mutilated floating off the Lizard – and Stan Pirie, a notorious paedophile who died in jail following his conviction for sex abuse in the mid-2000s.
Petrauske described himself as the high priest of a white witches’ coven
Judge Cottle told them: “You are two of the surviving members of a paedophile ring, together with others whose names have been repeated frequently in this trial who were members of a ring that operated in Falmouth in the Seventies and Eighties.
“I’m satisfied that you have both had a lifelong sexual interest in young, female children.
“It [the trial] has featured ritualistic, sickening abuse of young, young children. The scars left on (two victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons) are so obvious that it would seem extremely unlikely that either of them have any real prospect of recovery.
“Finally, the truth about your lies and your undoubted propensities has caught up with you.”
The duo’s victims gave harrowing evidence from behind a screen during the three-week trial. They told how they had been abused by their tormentors before being given money and sweets to buy their silence.
Petrauske was convicted of rape, aiding and abetting an attempted rape, and indecent assault. Judge Cottle sentenced him to 18 years in prison.
Kemp was found guilty of ten sexual offences including indecent assault and indecency with a child, and was handed a 14-year term.
Child abuse complaints against late Tory MP `not reported to police´
4 Mar 2019
Allegations about a Conservative MP’s “penchant for small boys” were passed to the security service but not investigated or reported to police, an inquiry has heard.
The claim concerned the late Tory MP for Chester Peter Morrison, the Westminster strand of the wide-ranging Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was told.
The inquiry, which is expected to sit for three weeks, will deal with “extremely serious issues” and aims to address “outstanding questions of public concern” related to abuse allegations against people linked to Westminster, Monday’s session heard.
Lead counsel to the inquiry Brian Altman QC said that during its work the inquiry has obtained a copy of a 1986 letter, written by then-director general of the security service Sir Antony Duff.
Mr Altman said: “The letter makes it clear that the information that Mr Morrison had ’a penchant for small boys’ had been passed to the security service by a member of the Westminster establishment, who had heard it from two sources.
“We have obtained other documents relevant to this correspondence from both the Cabinet Office and the security service.
“Those documents make it clear that neither the security service nor the Cabinet Office took steps to investigate this allegation, nor did they report them to the police.”
Former MI5 chief Baroness Manningham-Buller, who the inquiry heard was a friend of Peter Morrison, will be among those called to give evidence at the inquiry’s London headquarters.
Leon Brittan’s attendance at Cricklewood flat, alongside Jeremy Thorpe, Cyril Smith and Edward Heath New revelations have emerged of how Sir Peter Hayman tried to bribe officers investigating his case
Roddam Twiss – He rented a room to vile paedophile
When police investigated Roddam Twiss in the late 1970s, it appears they had no idea that one of Britain’s most vicious paedophiles, Lennie Smith, was renting a room from him.
Twiss confirmed that Smith, jailed in 1992 for his part in a paedophile gang that killed five boys, once rented a room at his Cricklewood Broadway flat.
Twiss said he helped police to investigate Smith, adding: ‘He was a nasty individual and I was content to provide police with information they deemed useful.’
The paedophile, above, was reportedly 23 when he left Twiss’s flat, which suggests it was around 1978 or 1979 – the same time police were investigating Twiss after following Cyril Smith to Cricklewood.
Tim Hulbert
https://www.itv.com/news/2014-07-09/westminster-pie-grant-home-office-whistleblower-tim-hulbert/
Former MI5 chief Baroness Manningham-Buller, who the inquiry heard was a friend of Peter Morrison, will be among those called to give evidence at the inquiry’s London headquarters.
@rebeltroop
The investigation into Sir Peter Morrison Part 1 Met Police would later confirm that Peter Morrison’s activities were known about at the highest levels of government
The investigation into Sir Peter Morrison Part 2
The investigation into Sir Peter Morrison Part 3
Greville Janner (far left)
Inquiry will hear from 33 men who say Greville Janner sexually abused them
No date has been set for the inquiry into the former city MP to begin in earnest
6 FEB 2018
A date is still to be set for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), to begin in earnest its investigation into Greville Janner.
The inquiry team has confirmed up to 40 people or organisations, including 33 alleged victims, have been granted core participant status.
Core participants will be granted special rights throughout the inquiry, such as receiving documents, making legal submissions, suggesting questions and receiving advance notice of the inquiry’s report.
The seven organisations include Leicestershire Police, Leicestershire County Council and the Labour Party – all of whom will be asked about why he was not charged with offences against children when he was alive and well and what was known about his alleged sexual interest in children.
Speaking at the inquiry’s first preliminary hearing in the Janner strand, in March 2016, the former counsel to the inquiry Ben Emmerson QC said: “The allegations in summary are Greville Janner exploited children and perpetrated a full range of sexual offences against them, including what would now be termed as rape.”
The offending was alleged to have taken place at children’s homes in Leicestershire and hotels, and dated between 1955 and 1988, the hearing was told.
https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/inquiry-hear-33-men-who-1176847
Ex-spy boss to be grilled about Tory MP who escaped investigations into child sex abuse
4th March 2019,
Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller is expected to appear before the child abuse public inquiry next week about her contact with Sir Peter Morrison, a close aide to Margaret Thatcher
Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller is understood to have told her bosses in the mid-1980s about Sir Peter Morrison.
But the allegations were suppressed by then-head of MI5 Sir Antony Duff, who died in 2000.
Sir Peter, a close aide to Margaret Thatcher, died in 1995.
Dame Eliza, who later became the MI5 boss, is expected to appear before the child abuse public inquiry next week, The Times reported.
Mr Duff wrote to cabin secretary Robert Armstrong that two sources had claimed Morrison’s “penchant for small boys” but asked that no further action be taken because “the risks of political embarrassment to the government is rather greater than the security danger.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8553991/spy-boss-tory-mp-child-sex-abuse/
Eliza Manningham-Buller has always been interested in science, particularly biology, and is intrigued by many aspects of the Trust. The work at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute holds particular appeal as she is “fascinated by genetics” and currently sits on the Board of Directors.
Alongside her Governor role, she is vice chairman of the council of Imperial College London and an advisory board member for the Centre for Security and Resilience Studies, University College London.
Eliza Manningham-Buller is a crossbench life peer in the House of Lords and patron of a “very rewarding and successful small charity” called Street Kids International.
https://blog.wellcome.ac.uk/2011/05/31/eliza-manningham-buller/
2011
Event Success
Thanks to all who joined us on Monday 12th July to learn more about our Innovative Youth Entrepreneurship Programmes. The event was hosted by our patron, Baroness Manningham-Buller with the kind support of Hogan Lovell’s LLP. It was a great evening allowing existing supporters and those interested in our work to come together and learn more about Street Kids and the Street Work programme. We will be hosting more of these events in the future so watch this space if you’d like to attend…
https://web.archive.org/web/20110508083651/http://streetkids.org/#ceo
2012
Trustees, volunteers and patrons
Our hard-working team in London is supported on all sides by a fantastic Board of Trustees, and a group of very generous volunteers, without whom we would not be able to function.
We are also fortunate enough to have some spectacular patrons; Baroness Manningham- Buller, and the Royal Ballet’s Golden Couple, Marianela Nunez and Thiago Soares.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140222070646/http://uk.streetkids.org/who-we-are
https://www.gramilano.com/2014/03/marianela-nunez-thiago-soares-giving-back/
Mannigham-Buller still patron in Oct 2014
Street Kids International UK is a member of a range of networks.
Street Kids International Charity Founder, Peter Dalglish, arrested on suspicion of Paedophilia
A United Nations adviser and the founder of Street Kids International was arrested on suspicion of pedophilia after he was caught with two young children during a police raid.
Peter John Dalglish, United Nations adviser and founder of the Street Kids International charity, was arrested on suspicion of pedophilia, at a home that he was staying at in Nepal. During the arrest, two young children, ages 12 and 14, were “rescued” from the home.
Latest on his trial from 1 month ago:
Peter Dalglish’s final hearing coming to an end
Feb 6 2019
A source told Kathmandu Tribune that Canadian Peter Dalglish’s final hearing is likely to happen at the end of this month or in the first week of March.
Dalglish was arrested last year for pedophilia charges. If convicted he will serve a minimum sentence of seven years in jail.
@ciabaudo
Eliza Manningham-Buller has been Chair of Wellcome since 2015, having served as a Governor since 2008. A conference, held at Cambridge and financially supported by the Wellcome Trust, made headlines:
Conference summary
This conference brings together social and political scientists, feminist scholars, sexologists, psychiatrists, historians of science, as well as mental health practitioners and sexual rights activists to critically explore the sexual classifications produced by the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published in May 2013. The DSM is the standard reference for the classification of mental disorders, and its first major revision since 1994 is consequently an important global event. The conference will explore which categories of ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’, ‘healthy’ and ‘pathological’ sexualities and identities the new manual produces, and critically scrutinise their consequences for diagnostic practices as well as their wider social and political implications. The conference will take place on 4 and 5 July 2013 at the interdisciplinary Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) of the University of Cambridge. It is financially supported by CRASSH, the Wellcome Trust, the Sexual Divisions Study Group of the British Sociological Association, the French Institute, Northumbria University, the Laboratoire de Sociologie of the University of Lausanne, and The Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES).
Supported by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge, the British Sociological Association Sexual Divisions Study Group, The Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES) and Northumbria University.
Philippa Frankl- between 2006 and 2008 she was Head of Programmes at the Prince’s Trust; Member Board of Trustees at Khulisa (http://www.khulisa.co.uk/)
Plan UK – board of trustees https://plan-uk.org/about/our-people/our-board-of-trustees
Lady Amanda Ellingworth (nee Knatchbull), Chair of Plan International UK
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Amanda_Ellingworth
Lady Amanda Patricia Victoria Ellingworth (née Knatchbull; born 26 June 1957) is a British social worker and non-executive director of several NGOs.
She is the daughter of the 7th Baron Brabourne and the 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma; therefore she is the granddaughter of Admiral of the Fleet the 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, a first cousin once removed of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and a third cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II.
Amanda Knatchbull turned down Prince Charles’ marriage proposal in 1977. https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/779944/amanda-knatchbull-prince-charles-girlfriend-proposed-royal-house-windsor
The Channel 4 documentary revealed how Charles’ “honorary grandfather” Lord Mountbatten tried to manoeuvre the Prince away from his future wife Camilla, and instead set him up with his granddaughter Amanda.
http://aanirfan.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/prince-philip.html
Prince Philip, aged 9, was sent to England to be looked after by George Mountbatten, the 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, and by Lord Louis Mountbatten.
The Marquess of Milford Haven had the largest collection of sadomasochistic pornography in Europe.
Nicholas Knatchbull, killed alongside Mountbatten http://pierrejoubert.blogspot.co.uk/2005/05/mountbatten-oldfield-kitchener-haig.html
“Mountbatten was particularly attracted to boys in their early teens ; it was this characteristic which made him especially vulnerable to the IRA , because he needed to slip away from his personal bodyguards to keep dates with such boys , some of whom came in contact with IRA men.”
https://www.voat.co/v/pizzagate/2517598
Lady Amanda Ellingworth (nee Knatchbull), Chair of Plan International UK
I worked in child protection and child services within London Local Authorities. I have experience as a chair, working with social care and housing providers, The Guinness Partnership, and as deputy chair of Barnado’s.
However, after sponsoring children through Plan International UK for 27 years, I was delighted to be given the opportunity to become chair of this organisation. Through sponsorship, I was lucky enough to gain first-hand knowledge of Plan’s lasting work – now I’m keen to contribute in a more substantial way.
https://plan-uk.org/about/our-people/our-board-of-trustees/meet-our-trustee-amanda
St Aloysius’ College crisis deepens as top Glasgow private school faces five new abuse claims
It has further emerged that the family of a former pupil who took his own life believe that he too was a victim.
10 MAR 2019
Five new claims of abuse have emerged at one of Scotland’s top private schools.
They have been made to solicitors representing a former pupil of St Aloysius’ College who reported serious allegations to police, revealed in the Sunday Mail last week.
Detectives investigating were unable to progress the probe because the man’s claims of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of three Jesuit priests and a lay teacher lacked corroboration.
The new allegations made to Thompsons solicitors are likely to end up with Police Scotland.
It has further emerged that the family of another former pupil, who took his own life, believe that he too was a victim.
Patrick McGuire, a partner with the firm, said: “We have new accounts of abuse at the school covering two distinct periods of time.
“Three people have contacted us regarding the mid-1960s.
“One describes physical abuse in the form of high levels of corporal punishment, while the other describes both sexual and physical abuse.
“The third involves someone who attended the school and later took his own life.
“His family have had concerns for many years over what happened at the school and got in touch after reading the article last week.
“Two further cases relate to the mid-1980s involving allegations of sexual and physical abuse.
“We can’t direct survivors to police but explain steps they can take both in terms of pursing financial justice and criminal justice.
“If a survivor wants to make a formal complaint to police, we explain what’s involved and can put them in touch with survivors charities who can support them.”
All of the men involved in the claims attended Scotland’s only Jesuit private school school between the 60s and 90s.
The Catholic Church has faced a series of damaging abuse claims but the cases were the first time St Aloysius’ has been investigated by police.
A former pupil, now aged 66, named two Jesuit priests to officers as carrying out sexual abuse in the 60s. Detectives established the pair had died.
The ex-pupil also told officers about a third priest who he claimed had been involved in carrying out physical abuse.
A fourth man, a lay teacher, was identified as another alleged abuser. The man, who now lives in England, was also interviewed but not charged.
Police Scotland said they carried out an investigation but there was insufficient evidence to report the matter to the Crown Office.
The former pupil, who asked to be named only as Andrew, said: “I’m pleased that other people are coming forward.
“I always knew there would be other victims. I knew I couldn’t be the only one.”
A St Aloysius’ spokeswoman said: “The College has not received any notification or complaint of historical abuse since the article last week.
“If we were to receive any notification or complaint of historical abuse, we would liaise with all relevant authorities, including the police, in accordance with our procedures.”
A spokesman for the Jesuit order insisted they take claims of abuse serious and employ a safeguarding officer.
He added: “Any Jesuit who perpetrated the kind of abuse described in the Sunday Mail article is a source of shame for us and we deeply regret the hurt caused to any victim.”
A Jesuit priest stood in the showers wearing his sports kit and watched pupils as they washed, a former St Aloysius pupil claimed.
The clergyman, who died last year, has been named as an abuser by several alleged victims. The ex-pupil, now 30, told the Sunday Mail how the priest told the boys he was making sure they “were washing properly”.
Named only as Anthony, he said: “There was a big square in the changing rooms with showers around it.
“The priest would stand in his kit and look at you. He’d say he was making sure all the boys were washing themselves properly.
“I used to come home with my kit still on under my blazer as it got to the point where I didn’t want to go for a shower in school.” The man also claimed the priest would whip boys’ legs with his whistle if he thought they were not running fast enough at the school training grounds in Millerston, near Glasgow.
He added: “I told him I thought he was a pervert.”
Cops probe historic sex abuse allegations at top Glasgow private school St Aloysius’ College
A former pupil claims he suffered 50 years of hell after being systematically abused by Jesuit priests at the prestigious school
3 MAR 2019
Shocking claims of historic sexual abuse have emerged at one of Scotland’s top private schools.
Police opened an investigation into allegations against two staff at St Aloysius’ College in Glasgow.
A former pupil, now aged 66, claimed he suffered systematic abuse over two and a half years by two Jesuit priests, one of whom was a teacher at the college, which is among the UK’s most prestigious schools.
He also said he was subjected to sustained physical abuse by another two teachers – a Jesuit and a lay teacher.
As a result of the claims, police interviewed two suspects one of whom has since died. The two others implicated were dead when he came forward. Detectives did not rule out criminality but could not corroborate the claims.
The dad today tells his story publicly because he believes there are other victims.
The fee-paying college was founded in 1859 and remains highly regarded.
The victim, now retired, and who asked to be named only as Andrew, said: “Sexual abuse began towards me from about the age of 12 in my first year at the school and lasted about two-and-a-half years.
“The first incident happened just before Christmas. There was a crib on the teacher’s desk, which I always remember. He asked me if I knew where babies came from. There was inappropriate sexual talk and then he made me perform sexual acts on him.
“I was only 12 at the time and we wore short trousers, which made it quite convenient for him.
“He told you that you were fortunate to have been chosen as one of the lucky ones. It escalated from this first time and there were about 10 incidents in just over two years.
“You were always reminded you were lucky to be picked as a special one. The sexual abuse was mainly cases where they forced me to do things to them, apart from one case where he forced himself on me.
“The Jesuits at the time wore these long black gowns and, to my parents at least, they were the nearest thing to God.
“I went to one of the priests and said that another had touched me under my shorts but unfortunately he stuck me in to the others.
“I was summoned and given nine lashes on the bare back, bottom and legs.
“I couldn’t even sit down on the bus home. I told everyone who came on to have my seat and all the passengers thought I was so polite. They didn’t know what had happened.”
Andrew lived at the time in Glasgow’s east end and attended the school for about four years. He named two Jesuit priests to police as involved in the sexual abuse.
Detectives established the pair had died years previously. Andrew told officers about a third priest, who he claimed had been involved in carrying out physical abuse. He was interviewed by police but never charged. He died last year.
A fourth man, a lay teacher, was identified as another alleged physical abuser. The man, who now lives in England, was also interviewed but not charged.
Andrew told how his parents were not wealthy but paid for him to attend the school as “they thought they were doing the very best they could for me”.
The Catholic Church has faced a series of damaging abuse claims but this is the first time St Aloysius’ has been investigated by police.
Andrew said: “It was a very strict regime, with attendance at mass every morning, which is fine, but the level of control felt like psychological torture to me.
“The headmaster would walk along the corridor with a ruler and would measure how long people’s hair was at the side. If your hair came down past the ruler he would crack you with it. If a lay teacher or one of the Jesuits considered you had done something wrong, they would give you a piece of paper known as a bill. They put a letter F on it which stood for ferula, the Latin for cane.
“Next to that was a number, such as a two, for the number of lashes. This would be known as a bill for two.
“You could choose whether to cash your bill that afternoon or the next morning.
“If you put it off, you would be thinking about it all night. I looked on that as like a form of mind control. It was like psychological torture.”
He recalled an occasion, aged 15, where he was subjected to nine lashes after accidentally knocking a ruler off his desk.
He said: “It was carried out at 4pm. I couldn’t even carry my schoolbag home afterwards as my hands were numb. At home, I began to kick up a fuss without ever saying precisely what was happening.
“School was horrendous. It ruined my life and made me feel I was a waste of space. Eventually my parents agreed to send me to another school.
“I was left with an overwhelming sense of not being good enough.
“I was in my 40s before I sought help and have seen a psychiatrist and clinical psychologist since then.
“I would say to anyone affected in such a way to come forward. You have to accept you need help to get through.
“After years of counselling, I was convinced by a psychologist to report my childhood traumas to police.
“I gave statements at London Road police station in Glasgow in 2017. This was not done lightly or with a view to taking the Catholic Church to court.
“I merely wished to stand up and be counted. I want to, perhaps, give some other poor soul the courage to hold their head up and seek help.
“In my statement, I named four people – three Jesuit priests and a teacher – and police established two of the priests were dead. The two remaining men were brought in for questioning. Both turned up with lawyers – one in Glasgow and one somewhere in England – and I was told both declined to make any comment.
“My case, I’m told, lacks corroboration. People describe it as historic sex abuse but it never leaves you. They have cost me 50 years of pain.” Patrick McGuire, a partner with Thompsons solicitors which is representing Andrew, said: “His testimony is as powerful as it is compelling and we will do everything in our power to obtain justice for him.
A police spokeswoman said: “We can confirm officers received a report in 2017 of historical sexual abuse on a 64-year-old man, which occurred in the 1960s at St Aloysius’ School. Inquiries were carried out, however, there was insufficient evidence to report to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.”
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/cops-probe-historic-sex-abuse-14079320
Former pupil of St Aloysius’ School – lGerald Malone MP
He was appointed a Minister of State at the Department of Health in 1994, when Virginia Bottomley was the Secretary of State.
Malone was chairman of Regent-GM, one of Britain’s biggest suppliers of generic drugs to the National Health Service (NHS) and a subsidiary of Nadhmi Auchi‘s General Mediterranean Holding.[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Malone
Allegations against dead politicians will form part of Westminster strand of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse
1 March 2019
Anthony Gilberthorpe, a former antiques dealer, was paid thousands of pounds by a tabloid newspaper in 2014, for a story in which he claimed to have supplied cabinet ministers with underage boys for sex parties in the 1980s.
The 56-year-old said the drug fuelled orgies had taken during the Conservative Party conferences between 1981 and 1984 and were attended by a string of high profile figures.
Mr Gilberthorpe, who would have been a teenager himself at the time, claimed he had scoured the streets of Blackpool and Brighton for rent boys, before taking them back to the main conference hotel where they had sex with male politicians including members of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet.
On one occasion he claimed the sex party took place in the hotel’s swimming pool with participants taking large quantities of cocaine.
An IICSA spokeswoman confirmed that Mr Gilberthorpe’s claims would form part of the hearing and would also feature briefly in the opening statement by its lead counsel, although he would not be called to give evidence.
Mr Gilberthorpe, 57, said: “I just think that for I and others like me to have our say is important.”
IICSA is also expected to explore a series of claims against the former Prime Minister, Sir Edward Heath, who died in 2005.
Harvey Proctor, who has been afforded core participant status for the Westminster strand, said it was increasingly looking as if IICSA would provide a platform for further lies to be spread about those who cannot protect their reputation.
It is not clear if Mr Gilberthope has submitted any material to IICSA, but a statement given to Scotland Yard by the Sunday Mirror journalist who interviewed him in 2014, has been submitted.
A former Tory councillor in Gloucestershire, Mr Gilberthorpe, once tipped himself as a future Prime Minister.
But a series of failed business ventures resulted in him being declared bankrupt.
In 1988 he sued a number of newspapers over a story which alleged he was promiscuous and was suffering from Aids.
He won the initial case, but it was later overturned by the Court of Appeal.
Claiming to have been on board the same flight and insisting he had a photographic memory, he contacted Mr Trump’s campaign team saying he would testify that he had seen nothing untoward.
Number of documents about Shoebury Sex Ring disappear from Essex County Council’s archive
7 February 2019
A NUMBER of potentially vital documents about the Shoebury Sex Ring have disappeared from Essex County Council’s archive.
A legal action by the YA has revealed that more than a year’s worth of records from the Southend child protection committee are missing from the vault.
The dates of the missing documents coincide directly with the duration of a police and social services investigation into a paedophile ring which abused dozens of Southend children.
In May 1989, Essex Police arrested two men for being the ringleaders of the child sex network. They were convicted and jailed just over a year later in May 1990.
But seven whistleblowing child protection workers, who each had a professional link with the case, have raised concerns with the YA about the way the investigation was conducted.
They claimed the child victims were not given the support and treatment they needed and that other men involved in the ring were never prosecuted.
Last year the YA used Freedom of Information legislation to demand the release of all the minutes from the Southend child protection committee between January 1989 and December 1991.
In December, the county council released a batch of documents, but every set of minutes from between April 1989 and April 1990 was missing. The records picked back up in mid-May 1990, one day after the paedophile ringleaders were jailed.
Minutes then continue as normal until mid-1991, when another crucial record about the Shoebury Sex Ring is missing.
After the ringleaders were jailed, the county council ordered a series of meetings to investigate failings in the authorities’ handling of the case.
They ran from autumn 1990 until spring 1991 and were attended by representatives from County Hall, Shoebury High School, children’s charities, the Southend Health Authority and other bodies.
After the final meeting, the group was asked to write a report for the child protection committee, recommending changes to procedure which might improve future investigations.
The minutes from the meeting where the committee received and discussed that report are also missing from County Hall’s archive.
. The records of these meetings are not the only official documents about the Shoebury Sex Ring to mysteriously disappear.
http://www.yellowad.co.uk/article.cfm?id=140676
‘Lonely’ paedophile, 68, behind notorious 1970s group that advocated abuse is allowed to contact another child sex offender because he’s ‘socially isolated’ and has no friends
- Barry Cutler, 68, jailed in 2011 when he was arrested with other paedophiles
- He was arrested with former members of the Paedophile Information Exchange
- Cutler given sexual prevention order (SOPO) to stop him talking to paedophiles
- But a judge allowed Barry Cutler to talk to Anthony Zalewski, an ex-PIE member
A former member of a defunct paedophile ring which wanted the age of consent to be abolished has been allowed to talk to a fellow member because he is ‘socially isolated’ and has no other friends, a judge ruled.
Barry Cutler, 68, was jailed in 2011 after he was arrested alongside members of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), which became infamous in the 1970s for advocating sex with children and was officially disbanded in 1984.
Cutler was arrested when police raided the home of PIE ringleader Steven Freeman, in Putney, south west London, and found 15,000 indecent images and films, along with 3,000 obscene sketches, in July 2008.
Barry Cutler bottom) was arrested when police raided the home of PIE ringleader Steven Freeman (top), in Putney, south west London, and found 15,000 indecent images and films
Cutler, from Beckenham, south east London, was jailed for 12 months in July 2011 after he pleaded guilty to four counts of possession of indecent photos of a child and one count of failing to disclose a key to protected information.
He was given a sexual prevention order (SOPO) which banned him from meeting or communication with anyone who has been convicted of sexual offences against a child.
But Judge Nicholas Cooke, QC, agreed to alter the SOPO order by allowing him to contact Anthony Zalewski, an ex-PIE member with two child sex convictions dating back to 1976 and 1985.
Judge Cooke said he was concerned Anthony Zalewski, who was present when Cutler was arrested for the offence which led to his conviction, but added the matter had been investigated and was concluded he had not offended.
Speaking at the Old Bailey, Cooke said: ‘His former membership of the Paedophile Information Exchange is also worrying.
‘However, the prosecution or Commissioner has never sought an order preventing the applicant from having any contact with former members of the Paedophile Information Exchange, per se.’
Judge Cooke refused to roll back to SOPO any further after Cutler demanded for it to be removed.
Cooke labelled Cutler a ‘sad figures’ who ‘lacks insight into the damage done by child pornography.’
He added: ‘I am convinced that unrestrained by the parts of the sexual offences prevention order with which I decline to interfere he would be likely to offend again.’
Cutler had tried to argue his social circle was ‘extremely limited’ by the order, and tat a ‘restriction on ‘associating with individuals who he saw as friends, some of whom he had known for over 30 years, was disproportionate’.
But again, appeal judges refused the application, ruling that doing so would do nothing to prevent the perverts passing sick child abuse images between them.
They found Cutler ‘was a member of a determined and sophisticated paedophile ring’ which utilised data encryption ‘to avoid detection’.
There was there was still ‘an obvious risk’ of them continuing to offend, adding that ‘the abhorrent views of the individuals were reinforced by the group and the meetings between them’.
Cutler’s friends, John Parratt, 70, and John Morrison, 44, were jailed alongside him in 2011.
On his initial sentencing, Oliver Sell QC told him: ‘It is plain beyond doubt that you were all part of what has been described as a paedophile ring engaged in the possession, the viewing and the distribution of indecent images of children.
‘The photographs I have seen necessarily involved and encouraged the abuse and the exploitation of children who are vulnerable and unable to protect themselves from such perverted adult behaviour.
‘In your different ways and to varying degrees you have all contributed to that abuse of children wherever they may be.’
Freeman was told by the judge he posed significant risk to children and should be locked up indefinitely for the protection of the public.
The twisted paedophile drew sickening child rape scenes with young boys which he shared among the group he dubbed ‘My Paeds’.
He also had a sick board game called ‘Epicenium’ which could be played by children and adults.
The players took the parts of Roman slaves and masters and various pictures were displayed as the game continued.
‘The nature of the game is adult men having sex with boys. A computer version of this game was at the home Mr Freeman shared with John Morrison,’ said prosecutor Mark Gadsden.
The court heard the aim of the computer games was to have as much sex with as many boys as possible.
One of the instructions reads: ‘You will score highest with fully-consummated anal sex. In short, buggery wins.’
Police who raided Cutler’s home found if so full with magazines, photos and clutter that they had to walk through the hallway sideways to get past.
Three weeks after his arrest, Freeman posted an internet message under the name ‘Alcibiades’, which read: ‘Time for some more bad news then I’m afraid.
‘For over ten years now I’ve been hosting regular weekly gatherings of former PIE colleagues with occasional visits from other paed friends or friends of friends.
‘Four weeks ago on one of those evenings, at about 8pm, my house was invaded by a dozen or so shouting people brandishing weapons.
‘It was a police raid. I an five of my friends were arrested.’
In another, he heralded the internet as an ‘enabling technology’ which allowed paedophiles to further their sickening cause.
He wrote: ‘The anonymity of the internet allows paedophiles to communicate more freely with one another than was physically or legally possible before.
‘It’s a massive enabling technology. The question for the thinking paedophile of today is: how do we make best use of this technology to further our collective interest?
‘How do we translate the limited freedom of the web into the greater social freedoms we seek? How can this cyber community help us to promote greater tolerance and understanding?
‘When we finish talking to one another sooner or later we must begin talking again to the world at large, addressing its fears and suspicions.
‘How, where and when we take that step should be the abiding question for all of us.’
What was the Paedophile Information Exchange?
Judge Nicholas Cooke QC
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Full Title: His Honour Judge Nicholas Cooke QC Category: Ordinary Bencher Bench Call Date: 29.6.2010 Call Date: 22.11.1977 Bio:Resident Judge at Cardiff Crown Court and Honorary Recorder of Cardiff, Nick spent his practising life at the Bar with his family in Cardiff near where he still lives. He is Deputy President, Mental Health Review Tribunal for Wales; Chancellor of the Diocese of St David’s; and Chairman, Governing Body of the Church in Wales. He was Leader of the Wales and Chester Circuit (elected 2007 but appointed to the bench in the same year), contributed to the Wales Law Journal and Welsh Legal History Society, lectured on ethics at the BVC in Cardiff, and, on a variety of legal subjects, to the professions. He was appointed a Deputy High Court Judge (QBD) in 2010. |
https://www.middletemple.org.uk/bencher-persons-view?cid=34523
Shoulder to shoulder with Australia’s worst paedophile priest: George Pell accompanies his housemate who assaulted 65 children to court in chilling footage taken 25 years before the cardinal’s own conviction
- Cardinal George Pell was in December convicted of molesting two choirboys
- Footage emerged of him accompanying Australia’s worst paedophile in 1993
- In the video, Pell walked into court in support of his housemate Gerald Ridsdale
- Ridsdale is in jail aged 84 for assaulting 65 children in Ballarat over decades
Cardinal George Pell walked into court with Australia’ worst paedophile priest who assaulted 65 children in the hope his support would lessen the pervert’s sentence.
Walking shoulder to shoulder in footage broadcast around the country, Pell accompanied Gerald Ridsdale to Melbourne Magistrates Court in May 1993.
The image sat uneasily with Australians because it suggested the church was more interested in protecting itself and its priests than the innocent young victims who were abused.
Twenty five years later, Pell walked into court again – this time for his own despicable crimes.
Pell, Australia’s highest-ranked Catholic, was in December convicted of raping one choirboy and assaulting another in a verdict made public on Tuesday.
During a royal commission into child sex abuse within Australia’s Catholic Church in 2016, he admitted it was a ‘mistake’ to support Ridsdale all those years ago.
‘I had some status as an auxiliary bishop and I was asked to appear with the ambition that this would lessen the term of punishment, lessen his time in jail,’ he said.
He is now 84 and still in jail – but will be eligible for parole from April this year.
It comes as Pell is set to take one last shot at freedom by requesting to stay on bail as he appeals his conviction for molesting two choirboys.
Pell will face County Court at 10am on Wednesday for a pre-sentence hearing before he is likely sent to jail next month.
He was convicted of one count of sexually penetrating a child and four counts of committing an act of indecency in December in a verdict made public on Tuesday.
Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years’ jail.
Victorian County Court chief judge Peter Kidd said Pell, 77, would be remanded in custody after the hearing until his sentence.
However, Pell’s lawyers filed a bail application at the court of appeal for 2.30pm on Wednesday, hoping to keep him out of jail until his appeal is heard.
It was not clear whether Pell would be forced to spend the few hours in between in a holding cell.
The Court of Appeal can grant bail at its discretion while it reviews an application to quash a conviction, which can take months.
Should the court end up overturning Pell’s conviction, prosecutors would have to decide whether to re-try the case in the County Court.
Investigations related to Pell during the Royal Commission into sex abuse in institutions would remain sealed until his appeals were exhausted.
Judge Kidd wanted to have Pell thrown in jail immediately after the verdict, but let him stay free so he could have a double knee replacement.
A suppression order against making the conviction public was only lifted on Tuesday after prosecutors abandoned a second case against him.
Two boys had claimed Pell molested them in a Ballarat swimming pool in the 1970s when he was a parish priest there.
Australian media was forced to report Pell had stepped down from his role as the Vatican’s chief financial officer due to old age.
n reality, he was sacked by Pope Francis immediately after his conviction.
Pope Francis also banned from saying Mass in public and from going near children until his appeal against the conviction is over.
Acting Holy See spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said Pope Francis was pained by Pell’s conviction and knows it has shocked many people in Australia.
But Francis also noted that Pell ‘has reiterated his innocence and has the right to defend himself’, Gisotti said.
The two 13-year-old boys were on scholarships to the prestigious St Kevin’s College in late 1996 and were caught swigging sacramental wine in the priest’s sacristy by Pell, newly installed as Archbishop of Melbourne.
FROM ALLEGATIONS TO CONVICTION: A TIMELINE OF THE CARDINAL GEORGE PELL CASE
1996
– Pell appointed Archbishop of Melbourne by Pope John Paul II
– Pell sexually abuses two 13-year-old choirboys after a Sunday solemn mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral
– A second indecent act is committed by Pell against one of the choirboys in a corridor at the Cathedral.
2016
– The Herald Sun reports Pell is being investigated by Victoria Police’s Sano taskforce for ‘multiple offences’ committed while he was a priest in Ballarat and Archbishop of Melbourne
– Pell says the allegations are ‘without foundation and utterly false’ and calls for an inquiry into how the police investigation became public
– Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton asks the anti-corruption watchdog to investigate the leak, but denies it came from police
Cardinal George Pell, 77, is known as the Vatican’s treasurer and had been granted a leave of absence while facing trial over child sex offences in Australia. He has surrendered his passport
– Pell gives evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’s inquiry into abuse in Ballarat
– Under Vatican rules, Pell gives Pope Francis his resignation on his 75th birthday, as is customary. It is not accepted
– Victoria Police investigators hand over to the state’s Office of Public Prosecutions a brief of evidence on allegations of sexual abuse by Pell
– Officers travel to Rome to interview Pell over the abuse claims. He voluntarily participates in the interview.
2017
– Police present their final brief of evidence to the Office of Public Prosecutions to consider charges
– Prosecutors give police the green light to charge Pell.
JUNE 2017
– Pell is charged with multiple counts of historic child sex offences
– He denies the charges and vows to clear his name
– Lawyers for Pell appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court
– Pell takes leave from his Vatican finance chief role to fight the charges.
JULY 2017
– Pell returns to Australia
– He hires top barrister Robert Richter QC
– Supporters set up a fund to help Pell fight the charges.
MARCH 2018
– Prosecutors drop one of the charges against Pell
– A month-long committal hearing begins to determine if Pell will face trial
– Prosecutors withdraw more charges
– Mr Richter claims police conducted a ‘get Pell operation’ and accuses magistrate Belinda Wallington of bias. She refuses to disqualify herself from the case.
MAY 2018
– Magistrate Belinda Wallington orders Pell stand trial on some charges, but throws out others
– Pell formally pleads ‘not guilty’
– Two trials are ordered, separating the 1970s and 1990s allegations
– A Victorian County Court employee is sacked for looking up information on the Pell case.
AUGUST 2018
– The 1990s ‘cathedral trial’ begins in the Victorian County Court in Melbourne
– Pell pleads not guilty again to one charge of sexual penetration of a child under 16 and four of indecent acts with a child, over incidents involving two 13-year-old choirboys at St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996.
SEPTEMBER 2018
– The jury is discharged, unable to reach a verdict following a week of deliberation. Some jurors weep.
NOVEMBER 2018
– A retrial begins. The jury aren’t told of the previous hung jury.
DECEMBER 2018
– Pell is found guilty on all charges by an unanimous jury
– Mr Richter says Pell will appeal
– Suppression orders prevent Australian media reporting the verdict but it spreads through international media within hours.
FEBRUARY 2019
– Hearings begin ahead of the second trial. Prosecutors drop another charge
– An appeal is filed against the cathedral trial conviction
– A County Court judge deems vital evidence inadmissible
– Prosecutors withdraw all remaining charges against Pell and drop a second trial over allegations Pell indecently assaulted boys in Ballarat in the 1970s when he was a parish priest
– Pell is due to be taken into custody on Wednesday February 27 as the plea hearing begins.
MARCH 2019
– Pell is due to be sentenced by County Court Chief Judge Peter Kidd.
Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell found guilty of child sex charges
February 26, 2019
One of the most powerful men in the Roman Catholic Church was found guilty of multiple historical child sex offenses at a secret trial in Melbourne in December, the existence of which can only now be revealed.
Paul @Oatcake1967
Former HK Governor Lord Chris Patten is George Pell’s spin doctor
LORD PATTEN OF BARNES is Cardinal George Pell’s covert personal media advisor, head of his “black ops” propaganda unit and chief strategist of damage control.
Independent Australia has been informed that Patten owes Pell his job and felt obliged to respond to Pell’s plea for help after a series of public relations blunders and manoeuvres scripted in Rome and Australia backfired on the increasingly beleaguered Cardinal.
Further, IA is aware that some Vatican and Australian communications personnel have become increasingly disaffected with what they interpret as Pell’s disingenuous conduct, and his continuing lack of duty of care and compassion for victims/survivors.
As well, there is also some antipathy between Pell’s Roman staff and the office of the Archdiocese of Sydney whom, we are told, are getting fed up with being on call 24/7 and acceding to the demands of the autocratic Pell and his various acolytes.
Pell apparently still treats Sydney HQ as his own turf.
PATTEN RECRUITED BY PELL FOR HOLY SEE
In July 2014, the erudite and personable Patten was made president of the Vatican’s extensive media and communications divisions, charged with overhauling all print and electronic matters and to usher the Vatican into the digital age.
Much to the ire of many, Patten was recruited in a phone call “out of the blue” by George Pell, but why was the Prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy now lording it over the Vatican’s communications unit and hiring staff, and overruling incumbent administrators ?
On the surface, Patten’s appointment was ostensibly to cut costs but it was enough to ruffle the feathers of angels.
In response to an earlier report on the Vatican’s media and communications by consultants McKinsey & Company – famous for their Anil Kumar and Rajat K.Gupta insider trader scandals – to overhaul media, Patten was eventually appointed and now oversees a committee that includes former Singapore Finance Minister, George Yeo.
http://linkis.com/independentaustralia.net/L9yst
Patten patron of St benedict’s where a paedophile ring has been operating for decades
Patten’s former PPS – paedophile Patrick Rock
Patten involved with the BBC cover up of Jimmy Savile’s crimes
Patten accused of a cover-up on BBC Savile probe blunder: Chairman knew of a tape where inquiry author admit he had made a ‘mistake’
- Nick Pollard headed inquiry into why Newsnight dropped Savile report
- In taped phone call he says director-general knew of Savile accusations
- Mark Thompson denies being told about planned Newsnight inquiry
Theresa May in cover-up row as it emerges GCHQ spy chief who ‘was allowed to resign for family reasons’ actually quit after he helped a paedophile Catholic priest avoid jail
Foreign Secretary William Hague with the blessing of Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg appointed Robert Hannigan
Gloucestershire-born Hannigan, meanwhile, previously had the ear of one-time Labour PM Tony Blair, whom he advised on Northern Ireland’s peace process.
He later headed up Blighty’s national security strategy in 2007 under Blair, and appears on the steering group for the Cabinet Office’s 2008 review of the government’s handling of personal data [PDF] – he also wrote its interim progress report the year before [PDF]. This study was launched after HMRC lost a couple of CDs containing personal records on every child-benefit-claiming family in the UK. At the time, Hannigan was Head of Security, Intelligence and Resilience, at the Cabinet Office.
The top spook grew up in Yorkshire and studied classics at Wadham College, Oxford.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/15/brit_spymasters_gchq_get_shiny_new_spook_boss/
Are Peter C M Hannigan and Pamela (nee Atkinson) Hannigan, the parents of Robert Peter Hannigan…
Hannigan has a particular interest in the history of cryptography and Bletchley Park, where he is a Trustee.
https://companycheck.co.uk/director/923882735/MR-ROBERT-PETER-HANNIGAN/summary
The Holy Father (Pope John Paul) also met the Headmaster of the Westminster Cathedral Choir School and his wife – Peter and Pamela Hannigan.
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| Married Lowe, who taught English and Maths and who now lives in Bristol, was found guilty of abusing six young boys while teaching at Westminster Cathedral Choir School in London (above) in the 1970s and 1980s |
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| Lowe was also convicted of abusing four young boys while working at Ampleforth College, near York (above) |
Housemaster at Westminster Cathedral Choir School guilty of molesting ten boys including chorister who sang at his wedding
- David Lowe, 61, abused 10 boys aged under 14 between 1978 and 1984
- Guilty of sexually abusing boys at Westminster Cathedral Choir School
- Also convicted of abusing young boys while working at Ampleforth College
- Jury told he assaulted boys as they lay in their beds in school dormitories
- English and music teacher also fondled pupils in one-on-one vocal lessons
- Lowe convicted of 15 counts of indecent assault at Southwark Crown Court
One of the victims later told his mother he had been touched by Lowe, who then reported it to the then-headmaster of the Westminster school, Peter Hannigan, via a family friend.
Mr Hannigan, who worked at the school between 1977 and 1995, and hired Lowe in 1978, earlier told the court: ‘Mr Lowe was a good teacher. There was never anything sexual.’
Mr J McIntosh, headmaster of the London Oratory School, admitted that the cane was still used in his school but was unable to say what, if any, the Cardinal’s recommendation would have on this policy.
But Mr Peter Hannigan, Headmaster of Westminster Cathedral Choir School over which Cardinal Hume has direct authority, said that corporal punishment had not been used in the eight years that he had been at the school. “In a school of 90 people it would be absurd if such a sanction was required”, he said.
Similarly at Ampleforth College, the well-known Catholic public school attached to the monastery of which Cardinal Hme was Abbot until 1976, it was being said that corporal punishment had been phased out sometime during the Cardinal’s period of office there.
Westminster Cathedral Choir School has been rescued from the threat of closure. Cardinal Hume, Archbishop of Westminster, has told parents in a letter published yesterday.
Mr Peter Hannigan headmaster or a preparatory school in Doncaster, is to take over as head-master of the choir school from Father F. Comer ford in September.
A new board of governors will be set up, including the Duke of Norfolk, Cardinal Hume, Father Patrick Barry, former chairman of the Headmasters’ Conference and Head Master of Ampleforth College, Dr John Rae chairman of the Headmasters’ Conference and Head Master of Westminster School, and Mr David Willcocks, Director of the Royal College of Music.
Notable former pupils
Robert Hannigan, Civil Servant, Director of GCHQ
Peter Hannigan and paedophile Lowe mentioned in IICSA documents
NYP000104
Westminster Cathedra] Choir School Mr Charles Foulds, at present Assistant Headmaster of Slonyhurst College, has been ap¬ pointed Headmaster from Septem¬ ber 1995 in succession to Mr Peter Hannigan. who retires after 18 years in the post.
Like SAVILE and JACONELLI, HUME was a Freemason, of high degree, and with infinite loyalty to fellow brothers.
Basil HUME died on 17th June 1999, two weeks after receiving the Order of Merit.
In the light of the on-going Ampleforth revelations, Basil HUME’s relationship with Jimmy SAVILE merits the closest scrutiny.
And what about any relationship between Basil HUME and Peter JACONELLI?
Are we to believe that that Abbott Basil HUME, Athenaeum patron of one of the two most prolific predatory paedophiles of our times – both of them Catholic, both of them Freemasons, both of them perverts who offended together as well as separately – knew nothing of SAVILE’s co-offender and alleged sexual partner, Peter JACONELLI, the Roman Catholic Freemason?
- Robert Hannigan helped a paedophile priest avoid jail, Mail on Sunday reveals
- He stunned Whitehall with his exit after just two years in charge of GCHQ
- The MoS learned he stepped down after the NCA discovered he helped a family friend avoid a custodial sentence for possessing 174 child pornography images
- Mr Hannigan provided a reference for Father Edmund Higgins at his 2013 trial
One of Britain’s top spy chiefs quit after it emerged that he helped a paedophile Catholic priest avoid jail, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Prime Minister Theresa May was last night accused of a cover-up over the scandal as she knew of GCHQ director Robert Hannigan’s connection to the child sex offender when he stood down in 2017.
At the time, Mr Hannigan had cited ‘family reasons’, with this crucial link kept secret.
The high-flying civil servant, who was lauded for his role in striking peace in Northern Ireland, stunned Whitehall with his exit after just two years in charge of GCHQ.
This newspaper has learned he stepped down after the National Crime Agency discovered that he helped a close family friend avoid a custodial sentence for possessing 174 child pornography images.
After his conviction, Edmund Higgins, who had served at St Elizabeth’s Church in Richmond, South-West London, was defrocked and changed his name to Edmund Black
After Mr Hannigan provided a character reference for Father Edmund Higgins at his 2013 trial, the priest’s eight-month sentence was suspended. The judge said Higgins had ‘struggled with his sexuality’. But Higgins went on to reoffend, and during an NCA probe his links to Mr Hannigan were discovered and No 10 was alerted.
The powerful mandarin gave the reference ‘in good faith’ a year before his appointment as director of the 5,000-strong Government Communications Headquarters, the notoriously secretive eavesdropping agency.
With the Prime Minister’s blessing, he was allowed to resign on January 23, 2017, citing family commitments. Anonymous briefings were given to the media that he would be caring for sick relatives. That same year, Mrs May said: ‘The sunlight of transparency acts… as an important check and balance, and helps ensure the highest standards of public life among senior Government representatives.’
Last night Mr Hannigan, who began to train as a priest before joining the civil service, confirmed that Higgins had been a family friend for two decades. But he admitted his ‘judgment was completely wrong’ in providing the character reference.
After his conviction, Higgins, who had served at St Elizabeth’s Church in Richmond, South-West London, was defrocked and changed his name to Edmund Black, but continued to offend.
The Mail on Sunday has learned that No 10 was alerted in early 2017 that the NCA was investigating Higgins as part of a major probe into online chatrooms that hosted abuse of babies. His connection to Mr Hannigan was highlighted to figures at the very top of Government, including the Prime Minister.
Mr Hannigan offered to step down to avoid dragging GCHQ into the scandal but the significant reason behind his departure was never made public. Even senior officials within the Foreign Office, GCHQ and Cabinet Office were unaware.
In his resignation letter to Boris Johnson, who as Foreign Secretary had oversight of GCHQ, Mr Hannigan wrote: ‘After a good deal of thought I have decided that this is the right time to move on and to allow someone else to lead GCHQ through its next phase.’ He added that his job ‘demanded a great deal of my ever patient and understanding family, and now is the right time for a change in direction’.
Mr Johnson replied: ‘You have led the renewal of some of our most important national security capabilities. I wish you the very best for your future career.’
Last night, Scottish National Party MP Pete Wishart said the ‘shocking episode reeked of a cover-up’, adding: ‘The Prime Minister is immersed in this up to her eyes.
‘No 10 must give a full account of what they knew, when they knew and why they have failed to do so before. The Prime Minister must come to the Commons tomorrow and explain the Government’s role in this appalling episode.’ Government insiders said in Mr Hannigan’s defence the truth was not revealed because the investigation into Higgins was still active. Higgins’s home was raided by the NCA the following January.
However, the truth remained classified long after Higgins was charged. He was jailed for 31 months in June 2018 in a case the NCA described as ‘horrendous’.
They had caught Higgins boasting online of his sexual interest in babies and he later confessed to possessing and making child abuse images. He visited chatrooms when child sex abuse was being shown, and in May 2016 he hosted a chatroom where nine videos were played showing horrific child abuse, with one victim thought to be just three months old. When his house was raided, the NCA found more than 800 illegal images, 201 of which were in the most severe category. Even while he was on bail he returned to the depraved online forums to reoffend.
After his conviction, senior NCA officer Martin Ludlow said: ‘Every time these horrendous images are shared that child is victimised… [Higgins] has shown no remorse. He went out of his way to encourage others to view and share images.’
Mr Hannigan has since gone on to a lucrative career in the private sector. He said last night: ‘Mr Higgins had been a close family friend for 20 years. After he pleaded guilty to child sexual imagery offences in 2013, we submitted a character reference on our knowledge of him to the court in good faith.
‘His subsequent criminal actions appalled us and have shown that our judgment was completely wrong. When I later became director of GCHQ, all the correct steps were taken in relation to my involvement in this case and this was verified by Government lawyers. This is a personal family matter. We will not be making further comment.’
How his diamond table rescued the Ulster peace deal
Seat solution: Ian Paisley, far left, and Gerry Adams, far right, at Mr Hannigan’s diamond table
Robert Hannigan’s meteoric rise to the top of the British Establishment began with an ingenious diamond table that helped unlock power-sharing in Northern Ireland.
During testy negotiations in Belfast in 2007, Republicans demanded they must sit next to Unionists, but they in turn demanded they must sit opposite their former adversaries.
As an adviser to Tony Blair, Mr Hannigan came up with a diamond-shaped table that allowed the key players to sit both opposite and next to each other, breaking the deadlock.
He quickly rose up the diplomatic ranks, counselling Gordon Brown and David Cameron on security affairs, before being appointed head of the country’s largest spy agency GCHQ, with a seat on Whitehall’s all-powerful Joint Intelligence Committee.
At the time, Mr Hannigan was named the country’s third most powerful Catholic by religious newspaper The Tablet, which noted that he ‘enthusiastically follows hurling and Gaelic football.’
Before entering the Civil Service, Mr Hannigan trained to be a priest at Allen Hall seminary in Chelsea. But friends say he ‘fell in love and could not go down that path’.
It was through his wife that he first met Father Edmund Higgins, a notorious paedophile.
That friendship would help destroy Mr Hannigan’s otherwise blemish-free career when a sister intelligence agency discovered his past support for the clergyman – support which he would come to regret.
Mr Hannigan has since gone on to take a host of jobs in the private sector, commenting publicly on national security and most recently defending Chinese technology firms.
Fr Higgins, who had been a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary before being incardinated into the Archdiocese of Southwark in January 2011
Higgins had practised as a priest since he was 18.
Head of Catholic order failed to tell police of sexual abuse at London school
The head of one of the country’s most powerful Catholic orders was made aware of sex abuse allegations dating back to the 1970s at one of its schools but did not alert the authorities – contrary to the recommendations of a church commission on which he sat.
The wide-ranging Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse has been shown a handwritten document compiled by Abbot Richard Yeo, who as president of the Benedictines conducted an inquiry at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, west London, in June 2010 following reports that there had been widespread abuse of pupils by teachers and monks.
The year before Yeo’s visit, Father David Pearce, the former head of the junior school, had been jailed for eight years – reduced to five on appeal –after being found guilty of abusing five boys over a 36-year period.
According to notes Yeo took when he visited St Benedict’s, and which will soon be uploaded on to the inquiry’s website, many at the school had been concerned about Pearce decades before he was jailed. Yeo’s notes state: “Mid 70s knew David engaged in dubious activities.” Another monk told him: “Knew since I was junior school head there was something wrong. Graffiti ‘Fr David is bent’.” A third said he was aware of rumours of abuse when he arrived 25 years ago, and expressed disbelief that a former abbot claimed to Yeo he “never knew anything about it”.
The Catholic church’s failure to confront systemic clerical sexual abuse was acknowledged last week at an unprecedented summit on the issue opened by Pope Francis, attended by 180 bishops and cardinals. “The holy people of God are watching and expect not just simple and obvious condemnations, but efficient and concrete measures to be established,” he warned.
Yeo, who stood down as president of the Benedictines in 2017, told the inquiry he did not pass his 2010 notes on to the police because Pearce had already been jailed and that he did not know if they had any evidential value.
But Richard Scorer, specialist abuse lawyer at Slater & Gordon, who is representing several of the victims at the school, and referred to Yeo’s note in a blogpost, said it was not for the abbot to determine what was relevant to the inquiry. He described Yeo’s failure to share his notes with the police as remarkable given that he had been a member of the 2007 Cumberlege commission, the Catholic church’s review of its child safeguarding policies in England and Wales.
“The Cumberlege commission report from 2007 is clear that ‘all allegations of abuse are required to be reported to the statutory authorities who must decide whether a statutory investigation is required,’” Scorer said. “Yeo was a member of this commission, yet when allegations of abuse came into his possession in 2010 he failed to follow the Cumberlege commission’s own rules and report them to the statutory authorities. This demonstrates yet again that senior figures in the Catholic church are happy to ignore the church’s own rules when it suits them and self-policing in the Catholic church always fails.”
Jonathan West, the father of a former pupil, who was instrumental in raising concerns, said repeated failure to investigate abuse at the school highlighted the need for mandatory reporting, which would require all staff working with children to report concerns about the welfare of a child to the local authority.
“Mandatory reporting would make it almost impossible for a long-running situation such as occurred at St Benedict’s to happen,” West said. “First, there will inevitably be a greater climate of awareness making reporting more likely. And second, no head teacher is going to risk being prosecuted for suppressing a report of somebody else abusing. These two factors will make it extremely dangerous for abusers to operate in schools. They won’t dare. Abuse will be prevented as a result.”
The inquiry has heard that there were numerous warning signs which should have triggered intervention.
Katherine Ravenscroft, a drama teacher, said that when she joined the school in 1990, “it was spoken about quite freely among the boys in the school that Father David Pearce would oversee swimming while they were in the junior school and that he would line the boys up naked after swimming to feel them in order to check that they were dry”.
Ravenscroft told the inquiry in a statement now published on its website that there were also rumours about Abbot Laurence Soper – who was convicted in 2017 of 19 charges of rape and other sexual offences against 10 boys at the school.
Ravenscroft raised her concerns with police the same year. When she told the new headmaster, Christopher Cleugh, that she wished she had reported the concerns about Pearce earlier, she said he responded: “You can rest assured he will seek absolution for his sins.”
Ravenscroft said it seemed child protection at the school was not taken seriously until its deputy head master, Peter Allott, was sentenced in 2016. “It still seemed as if things were being brushed to one side,” she said in her statement.
Penny Jones, a deputy director of the independent education and school governance division in the Department for Education, said in 2010 ministers were alarmed to learn monks who had committed sexual offences were still living in Ealing Abbey next to the school. “We lacked the powers necessary to require the abbot to remove monks who had offended from the abbey, as the power to remove monks fell [outside] DfE’s jurisdiction,” Jones told the inquiry.
Gerry Adams’ ex-IRA commander brother who was jailed for 16 years for raping his own daughter dies behind bars aged 63
- Convicted paedophile Liam Adams dies aged 63 after a battle with cancer
- He was jailed for 16 years for sexually abusing his own daughter Aine Dahlstrom
- He was ex-IRA commander and brother of former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams
Adams, a former youth worker, was convicted of 10 offences – three counts of rape, four of indecent assault and three of gross indecency.
Gerry Adams gave evidence at his brother’s first trial – which collapsed in April 2013 for legal reasons.
During the 2013 trial, Mr Adams told the court that in 2000, during a walk in the rain in Dundalk, his brother had admitted sexually abusing his daughter, Ms Dalhstrom.
Mr Adams made his first report to police about the allegations in 2007 shortly after his party voted to accept the PSNI, but did not tell officers about the confession until 2009, when he made a second statement.
Mr Adams was criticised for not informing police about the confession at an earlier date.
In 2015, the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman found that police were not politically motivated when they said Gerry Adams should not be prosecuted for allegedly withholding information about his paedophile brother.
The police watchdog said there was no evidence of misconduct, or that officers had been influenced by the former Sinn Fein president’s status.
Ms Dahlstrom first took the matter to police in the mid-1980s. This was in the midst of the Northern Ireland Troubles and a time when many people in republican communities distrusted and refused to co-operate with the security forces.
She did not pursue the matter at that stage, claiming that detectives were more interested to hear information about her famous uncle than about the allegations she was levelling against her father.
It would be another 20 years before she went to police again, after finding out that her father was working in a west Belfast youth club that her children attended.
Federal prosecutors broke law in Jeffrey Epstein case, judge rules
February 21, 2019
Federal prosecutors, under former Miami U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, broke the law when they concealed a plea agreement from more than 30 underage victims who had been sexually abused by wealthy New York hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
While the decision marks a victory for crime victims, the federal judge, Kenneth A. Marra, stopped short of overturning Epstein’s plea deal, or issuing an order resolving the case. He instead gave federal prosecutors 15 days to confer with Epstein’s victims and their attorneys to come up with a settlement. The victims did not seek money or damages as part of the suit.
It’s not clear whether the victims, now in their late 20s and early 30s, can, as part of the settlement, demand that the government prosecute Epstein. But others are calling on the Justice Department to take a new look at the case in the wake of the judge’s ruling.
“As a legal matter, the non-prosecution agreement entered into by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida does not bind other U.S. Attorneys in other districts. They are free, if they conclude it is appropriate to do so, to bring criminal actions against Mr. Epstein and his co-conspirators,’’ said lawyer David Boies, representing two of Epstein’s victims who claim they were trafficked by Epstein in New York and other areas of the country.
Earlier this month, the Department of Justice announced it was opening a probe of the case in response to calls from three dozen members of Congress. Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Oversight Subcommittee, on Thursday asked the DOJ to also re-open Epstein’s plea deal.
“The fact that it’s taken this long to get this far is heartbreaking and infuriating,’’ said Sasse. “The Department of Justice should use this opportunity to reopen its non-prosecution agreement so that Epstein and anyone else who abused these children are held accountable.”
Epstein’s lawyer, Martin Weinberg, did not return a call from the Miami Herald.
Brad Edwards, who represents Courtney Wild — Jane Doe No. 1 in the case — said he was elated at the judge’s ruling, but admitted he is troubled that it took 11 years to litigate. He blamed federal prosecutors for needlessly dragging it out when they could have remedied their error after it was brought to their attention in 2008.
“The government aligned themselves with Epstein, working against his victims, for 11 years,’’ Edwards said. “Yes, this is a huge victory, but to make his victims suffer for 11 years, this should not have happened. Instead of admitting what they did, and doing the right thing, they spent 11 years fighting these girls.’’
Marra, in a 33-page opinion, said prosecutors not only violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act by not informing the victims, they also misled the girls into believing that the FBI’s sex trafficking case against Epstein was still ongoing — when in fact, prosecutors had secretly closed it after sealing the plea bargain from the public record.
The decision follows a three-part series published by the Miami Herald in November, “Perversion of Justice,’’ which detailed how federal prosecutors collaborated with Epstein’s lawyers to arrange the deal, then hid it from his victims and the public so that no one would know the full scope of Epstein’s crimes and who else was involved.
The 66-year-old mogul lured scores of teenage girls from troubled homes — some as young as 13 — as part of a cult-like scheme to sexually abuse them by offering them money to give him massages and promising some of them he would send them to college or help them find careers. Future president Donald Trump, former president Bill Clinton, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Prince Andrew and other world leaders, scientists and academics were friends with Epstein, who also owns a vast home in Manhattan, a private jet, and an island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he now lives.
Marra, noting that he reviewed affidavits, depositions and interrogatories — presumably some of them sealed — showed “Epstein worked in concert with others to obtain minors not only for his own sexual gratification, but also for the sexual gratification of others, ’’ the judge said.
Instead of prosecuting Epstein under federal sex trafficking laws, Acosta allowed Epstein to quietly plead guilty in state court to two prostitution charges and he served just 13 months in the Palm Beach County jail. His accomplices, some of whom have never been identified, were not charged.
Epstein’s victims were not told the case was closed until it was too late for them to appear at his sentencing and possibly upend the deal. Two of them filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in 2008, claiming that prosecutors violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, which grants victims of federal crimes a series of rights, including the ability to confer with prosecutors about a possible plea deal.
Marra said that while prosecutors had the right to resolve the case in any way they saw fit, they violated the law by hiding the agreement from Epstein’s victims.
“Particularly problematic was the Government’s decision to conceal the existence of the [agreement] and mislead the victims to believe that federal prosecution was still a possibility,’’ Marra wrote. “When the Government gives information to victims, it cannot be misleading. While the Government spent untold hours negotiating the terms and implications of the [agreement] with Epstein’s attorneys, scant information was shared with victims.’’
The U.S. attorney’s office in Miami declined to comment.
Acosta, who was nominated as labor secretary in 2017, issued a written statement through a spokesman:
““For more than a decade, the actions of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida in this case have been defended by the Department of Justice in litigation across three administrations and several attorneys general. The office’s decisions were approved by departmental leadership and followed departmental procedures. This matter remains in litigation and, thus, for any further comment we refer you to the Department of Justice.”
Michelle Licata, who was molested by Epstein when she was 14, said the judge’s decision was “a step for justice.’’ But she still questions why federal authorities have failed to open a new case against Epstein, given that more victims and evidence has come to light in recent years.
“They should see if they can prosecute him for something. I mean, really prosecute him — instead of giving him 13 months where he was allowed to come and go as he pleased. I just want to see him face some consequences for what he did.’’
Francey Hakes, a former federal prosecutor, said the Crime Victims’ Rights Act doesn’t spell out any punishment for violating its terms, so it would set a precedent to re-open Epstein’s agreement.
“Epstein will surely argue he complied with the agreement, relied upon it, and plead guilty under it so it can’t be overturned in fairness to him,’’ she said. “I will be very interested to see what the parties say the remedy for the violation should be. Ultimately, it is simply shocking the Government went to the lengths they did to keep the victims in the dark in order to make a serious predator’s high priced defense team happy. Justice should not, and does not, look like this.’’
There has been no statute of limitations for sex trafficking since 2002, but Edwards and other lawyers involved in the case said they tried without success to get federal authorities to investigate whether Epstein’s crimes went beyond Palm Beach.
In an op-ed published Sunday in the Herald, Jeffrey H. Sloman, the former first assistant U.S. Attorney under Acosta during the Epstein case, defended their decision to give Epstein federal immunity. He claimed that many of the victims were too frightened to testify against Epstein.
He also noted that there were “significant legal impediments to prosecuting what was, at heart, a local sex case.’’
Marra suggested otherwise in his decision, saying: “Epstein and his co-conspirators knowingly traveled in interstate and international commerce to sexually abuse Jane Doe 1 and Doe 2 and others, [and] they committed violations of not only Florida law, but also federal law.‘’
The bulk of his opinion quoted emails exchanged during the tense negotiations between federal prosecutors and Epstein’s legal team, which included Roy Black, Jack Goldberger, Alan Dershowitz, Jay Lefkowitz and former Whitewater and Clinton prosecutor Kenneth Starr.
Those emails suggested ways in which both parties tried to keep Epstein’s victims in the dark, he said.
“The CVRA [Crime Victims’ Rights Act] was designed to protect victims’ rights and ensure their involvement in the criminal justice process…’’ Marra wrote.
“…Under the facts of this case, once the Government failed to advise the victims about its intention to enter into the [non-prosecution agreement], a violation of the CVRA occurred.’’
Victims advocates applauded the judge’s decison.
“This is a tremendous victory for crime victims and for the rule of law. The Court made clear that the statute was enacted to make crime victims full participants in the criminal justice system,’’ said Jeff R. Dion, executive director of the Zero Abuse Project. “And when the Government gives information to victims, it cannot be misleading. The Government’s conduct was a clear violation of the CVRA, and the court must now consider a remedy.’’
Penelope Mellor jailed for breaching restraining order
2/19/19
AN obsessive woman who breached her restraining order by posting a series of aggressive Tweets towards an anti-abuse campaigner has been jailed for four months.
Penelope Mellor denied two counts of breaching the order, which was put in place in March 2015 and banned her from contacting or posting messages online about Shy Keenan, who lives near Colchester.
However, yesterday a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court found the 57-year-old guilty on both counts.
Judge David Turner sentenced Mellor to four months in jail for each offence to run concurrently.
He said: “In spring 2015 I explained, I hope with clarity, what the consequences of breaching the order would be.
“I told you if you breached the other you would receive a prison sentence of up to five years and breach the order you did.
“There is no doubt at all the victim is a vulnerable person and I have no doubt she has been seriously affected by these Tweets.
“You convinced yourself she was a bad person in this field and you have made it part of your life’s work to make her life more difficult.”
The five year order had banned Mellor from publishing any information relating to Ms Keenan or her family directly or indirectly online.
It also banned her from posting complaints or documenting any complaints about the book Broken or any other book or article written or published by Ms Keenan.
However, in October 2015, it was found Mellor had posted a Tweet where she made reference to “Joanne Pepper” – an alias used by Ms Keenan.
The other breach took place in August 2016, when Mellor posted a cryptic message which the prosecution said referred to Broken as “utter drivel”.
She also used gun emojis in both posts.
During the trial, Mellor declined the opportunity to take to the witness stand.
Anthony Abell, prosecuting, said the ordeal had been extremely distressing for the Ms Keenan, who is an anti-abuse campaigner and founder of the Phoenix Chief Advocates’ Consultancy.
Reading a statement from the victim, Mr Abell said: “As a result of the distress caused I have been enforced to increase my on and offline security.
“It has had a negative impact on myself, my family, my friends and supporters’ lives.”
Imran Khan, mitigating, said mother-of-eight Mellor had recently been forced into caring for her mother and asked for a suspended sentence to be passed.
He said: “There is no intention on her part to contact Ms Keenan again or any other activists. Because of her children and her mother it is not likely she will repeat the same mistake.”
Mellor, of Coven, Wolverhampton, was also ordered to pay £1,500 in costs and the restraining order was extended for five years.
Penny Mellor’s supporters:
During the 2015 trial, high-profile child rights campaigner, Esther Rantzen, gave evidence on behalf of Mellor.
Childline founder Dame Esther Rantzen has denied being told Jimmy Savile was a paedophile decades before he was unmasked.
Rantzen, 74, appeared in court as a witness during the trial of a woman accused of cyberstalking child abuse campaigner Shy Keenan, 52, on Twitter.
Ms Keenan has previously alleged that she told the former TV presenter that Savile, Gary Glitter and Jonathan King were paedophiles in 1986.
Rantzen said: “Shy Keenan was telling them that I said they were too rich, too powerful and that I, Esther Rantzen, could do nothing about it.
Lennie Smith (who lived with Roddam Twiss – son of Black Rod, Sir Frank Twiss) linked to Shoebury Sex Ring
Roddam Twiss confirmed that Lennie Smith, jailed in 1992 for his part in a paedophile gang that killed five boys, once rented a room at his Cricklewood Broadway flat.
Southend:
Yellow Advertiser helps Essex Police reopen Shoeburyness ‘child sex ring’ investigation for a second time
It resulted in four whistleblowers – all child protection workers in the Southend area during the 1980s and 1990s – raising concerns with the YA over a ’sex ring’ they felt had not been properly investigated.
Two men were convicted of child sex charges, relating to six victims, after the original Essex Police investigation in 1990.
http://www.yellowad.co.uk/article.cfm?id=128447
Address given to Essex Police by ‘Shoebury Sex Ring’ victim belonged to Jason Swift murder suspect Lennie Smith
A PAEDOPHILE murder suspect has been definitively linked to a Southend address given to police last year by a known victim of the “Shoebury Sex Ring”.
The property in Westcliff has been linked through public records to Lennie Smith, a member of the “Dirty Dozen” paedophile gang which killed at least three schoolboys, Jason Swift, Barry Lewis and Mark Tildesley.
Smith, who died in prison in 2006, was implicated in all three killings but evaded prosecution by arguing that the only witnesses against him were unreliable paedophiles.
However, he was convicted and jailed for other serious child sex offences.
In November 2018, as part of a series of interviews with sex crimes officers in Rayleigh, a man in his late 40s gave detectives a list of addresses connected with his childhood abuse.
The man was approached by police in 2017, who said they had reason to believe he was a victim of a Southend paedophile ring in the 1980s. He is named as a victim in social services documents from 1990 and 1991.
Among the addresses he gave police was in San Remo Parade, Westcliff.
There is no suggestion that anybody living at that address now is linked to any abuse.
He told police he would visit the property in the 1980s as a teenager to buy marijuana. He said that on one occasion when he did so, a man who lived there led him to a property in nearby Finchley Road, where the boy was then sexually abused by another man.
Smith’s prison records, released under the Freedom of Information Act, include two documents from 1983 which list his address as the house in San Remo Parade, Westcliff.
The witness, who completed his final on-camera interview with police in November, told officers he did not believe he had ever met Smith, but that one of the paedophile ring’s leaders had often threatened boys that if they were not compliant, they would be taken to Lennie Smith.
He told police the remarks had left the boys baffled, as they had no idea who Smith was or why they should be frightened of him.
In fact, the witness still had no idea who Smith was when he gave police his name last year. Smith’s notoriety was revealed to the witness by a counsellor after his interviews had ended.
It was already known that Smith had lived in Westcliff in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
A list of Smith’s convictions, released under Freedom of Information, places him in the area in June 1980, as he was convicted of theft at Southend Magistrates’ Court.
According to a now out-of-print book about the “Dirty Dozen” gang, called Lambs to the Slaughter, Smith moved to Westcliff from London and entered into a relationship with an older paedophile called Jack Parsons, who ran an amusement arcade.
The men used the arcade to lure and abuse children, then sell them as rent boys, as well as to deal drugs.
Investigation by the YA has found that while Smith never appeared on the electoral register at the property in San Remo Parade, Parsons did, from 1979 until the late 1980s.
By the mid-1980s, Smith had moved to the Kingsmead estate in Hackney.
He was living there when police first visited and questioned him over the disappearance of Jason Swift. After they left, Smith attempted suicide and then fled to Southend, although it is not known exactly where he stayed.
The letter was written by Doreen Pond, a secretary at the Children’s Society – a charity contracted by Essex Council to work with the Shoebury victims.
Doreen – who has since died – wrote the letter to after two policemen showed up at her home on September 12, 1990, asking questions about a number of people.
She used her shorthand skills to take comprehensive notes of the meeting, then sent the notes – plus a typed transcription – to one of her superiors.
She wrote: “They said that King and Tanner were only a small part of what was going on.”
Grayshott is in Petersfield.
Petersfield is near where Vishal Mehrotra was found & where Lennie Smith’s death was registered…
A few months after his son’s disappearance Vishambar Mehrotra said that he had been contacted by an unidentified man thought to be in his twenties.[3] This man suggested that Vishal had been abducted, and that this event may be connected to a group of influential paedophiles associated with the Elm Guest House.[3] The man stated that he had informed the police but they had not followed up his report.[3] Vishambar gave a recording of the telephone conversation to detectives, however, they dismissed it as a crank call and it was not followed up.[3][4] The location of Vishal’s disappearance was less than a mile from the Elm Guest House.[3]
In June 1987 Lennie Smith was jailed for 2 1/2 years along with pop star Adam Ant’s father Leslie Goddard for taking part in a child sex racket…’
Adam Ant’s mother was an embroiderer or the Queen’s dressmaker Norman Hartnell and worked at Paul McCartney’s house as a cleaner.
Like Sidney Cooke, Leslie Alfred Goddard was also a chauffeur to rich families.
Jailbird Jonathan Aitken was closely linked to RELEASE. He is even mentioned in connection with David Offenbach, lawyer for Lennie Smith who assisted Sidney Cooke in the rape and murder of Jason Swift.
SECRET FILES REVEALED: Children abused by Southend paedophile ring were transported to Basildon, Havering and Tower Hamlets – and claimed their abusers included police officers
Was the Shoebury sex ring ‘covered up’? Secret documents detail ‘corruption, beatings, threats and missing evidence’.
N MARCH 2016, Essex Police made national headlines by announcing a review of a historic paedophile ring investigation. It was a direct result of a Yellow Advertiser investigation, in which three whistleblowers had voiced concerns that the 1989/90 ‘Shoebury Sex Ring’ case had been bungled.
Announcing the 2016 review, police commissioner Nick Alston said the whistleblowers were ‘eminently credible’ and the review was to determine whether the failings could be chalked up to ‘cock-up or cover-up’.
Two-and-a-half years later, the YA i