So, after the Jimmy "Yorkshire Ripper" Savile diversionary trail was laid, today the Prime Minister plays the Politically Correct card, and warns of a "witchhunt against gays".
Elite power structures are clearly deeply concerned.
Quote:David Cameron has warned that accusations of paedophilia against senior Conservative politicians risk creating a witch-hunt, particularly against gay people.
The prime minister made his comments after being confronted on daytime television with a piece of paper listing names circulating on the internet of Tory politicians possibly involved in child sex abuse allegations. It was accidentally briefly flashed on air.
Speaking on ITV1's This Morning, Cameron appealed to anybody with information to contact the police but raised concerns over the internet speculation about who may be embroiled in the scandal, dating back to the 1970s and 1980s.
"I've heard all sorts of names bandied around and what then tends to happen is everyone sits around and speculates about people, some of whom are alive, some of whom are dead," he told This Morning.
"I do think it's very important that anyone who's got any information about any paedophile, no matter how high up in the country or whether they are alive or dead, go to the police."
The presenter, Phillip Schofield, passed Cameron a piece of paper listing names he had gathered from the internet, telling Cameron: "You know the names on that piece of paper, will you be speaking to these people?"
Cameron replied: "There is a danger if we are not careful that this can turn into a sort of witch-hunt, particularly about people who are gay, and I'm worried about the sort of thing you are doing right now, taking a list of names off the internet."
He said the allegations were "extremely serious" and the government had "moved quickly to try to get to the bottom of what they are".
Source.
I have to wonder what the resident MI5 spook was doing apart from stamping the files of any one with a progressive bent with a Christmas tree. Did all of this simply escape their attention....?
And locally there are calls for a Royal Commission into the Catholic Church and sex crimes against children. But this of course does not go far enough. Many other institutions have been involved.
Quote:Unreported deaths linked to paedophile brotherhood
DateNovember 9, 2012
Rory Callinan
"One of these boys was thrown down a staircase" ... Dr Wayne Chamley alleges in the Broken Rites submission. Photo: Penny Stephens
A GROUP of religious brothers led by an ''alpha paedophile'' are suspected of the unreported bashing deaths of two boys and the sexual abuse of more than 40 wards of the state and others at homes for the mentally impaired over three decades in Victoria, an inquiry into child abuse is expected to be told on Friday.
The 15 suspected paedophile brothers from the Hospitaller Order of St John of God have never been charged in Victoria because of a lack of police resources, said Wayne Chamley, a researcher for the church sex abuse victims group Broken Rites.
While the majority of the suspected paedophiles are dead, Fairfax is aware of three men who have left the order and moved away, but are in roles where they could have access to children.
The allegations relate to the order's operations at Cheltenham and Lilydale where they provided homes for wards of the state, orphans, boys given up by their parents and those with intellectual disabilities from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Advertisement
In 2002, the order paid more than $3.6 million to 24 men who alleged they were abused as children by brothers from the order. Victorian police at the time confirmed they had launched an investigation into the allegations and had taken statements from a number of victims, and the Director of Public Prosecutions would decide how many of the suspects would be charged.
But Dr Chamley and former victims have confirmed more than a dozen suspected paedophile brothers had never faced charges in Victoria.
Dr Chamley is to read his submission to the Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations on Friday, which will detail horrific abuse at the order's homes.
This will include allegations boys were subjected to pack rapes and beatings, being drugged and committed to mental institutions where they received electro-shock therapy, and in two extreme cases may have been killed and their deaths not reported.
He will also mention research that out of one group of 69 boys, who went to the order's homes, seven had committed suicide.
On Thursday a spokesman for the order said it acknowledged Broken Rites' work and believed the parliamentary inquiry was the appropriate venue for it to present all its claims. He said the order would make itself available to appear at the inquiry if asked.
The most serious claims Dr Chamley will make are allegations two boys may have died in suspicious circumstances at the order's farm at Lilydale, and two others were committed to a mental institution by the ''alpha paedophile'' brother and given electro-shock therapy, impairing one so badly he was unable to care for himself and later died.
Dr Chamley alleges Broken Rites is aware of two statements made by former inmates who alleged two different boys sustained injuries as a consequence of beatings, with at least one case possibly resulting in death.
''One of these boys was thrown down a staircase (according to a witness) soon after he arrived at Lilydale,'' he alleges in the submission. ''We are also aware of at least two boys who both experienced serial sexual abuse, who were as juveniles certified under the Lunacy Act (1915) and then incarcerated within the Royal Park Asylum.''
The order's spokesman said the Australian provincial of the order, Brother Timothy Graham, was in Portugal and was unable to be contacted for comment.
The spokesman said in 1997 the order first became aware that there had been sexual abuse in facilities it ran in Victoria and immediately opened internal and police inquiries.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/unreporte...z2Bmqm35QP
The BBC has been well and truly fucked over.
Investigative journalism is suspended.
Quote:BBC in turmoil as Newsnight's Tory abuse story falls apart
Newsnight apologises for implicating Conservative peer and suspends all investigations
Dan Sabbagh, Ben Quinn and Josh Halliday
The Guardian, Saturday 10 November 2012
The BBC said that it was suspending all Newsnight investigations after the programme's accusations that a "leading Conservative" had been involved in child abuse unravelled, with the programme's star witness admitting hours earlier that he had mistaken the peer's identity.
The broadcaster, which is still coping with the fallout from the shelving of a Newsnight investigation into Jimmy Savile, also apologised unreservedly as a senior executive was parachuted in to supervise Friday's edition of the programme, on which the question of its own continuing survival was raised by presenter Eddie Mair.
Steve Hewlett, a Guardian columnist and BBC Radio 4 journalist, also claimed the BBC had investigated Steve Messham, who made the claims about the Tory peer, Lord McAlpine, on at least two separate occasions "and found them wanting".
It also emerged earlier on Friday that the BBC decided it was not appropriate to contact McAlpine, a former treasurer of the Tory party, for a right of reply on Friday of last week because it had no intention of naming him in the Newsnight film. It opted instead to accuse a "leading politician of the Thatcher years" of being involved in child sexual abuse linked to care homes in North Wales.
However, the accuracy of Newsnight's claims collapsed after the Guardian had suggested that McAlpine was a victim of "mistaken identity".
The director general of the BBC, George Entwistle, appointed a senior news executive Fran Unsworth, head of BBC Newsgathering, to supervise Friday night's programme, which carried a full apology.
Referring to its Newsnight programme on 2 November, in which Messham, a former resident of North Wales care homes, appeared and said he had been abused by a political figure, the statement said: "We broadcast Mr Messham's claim but did not identify the individual concerned. Mr Messham has tonight made a statement that makes clear he wrongly identified his abuser and has apologised. We also apologise unreservedly for having broadcast this report."
Entwistle also ordered an immediate suspension of all Newsnight investigations to assess editorial robustness and supervision, a suspension of all co-productions with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism across the BBC, and that Ken MacQuarrie, director of BBC Scotland, will write an urgent report, covering what happened on the investigation into the North Wales children's home scandal.
Friday night's Newsnight was presented by Mair, who normally presents BBC Radio 4's PM, but who has been standing in for more regular anchors such as Jeremy Paxman and Kirsty Wark in recent times. Looking uncomfortable throughout, Mair told viewers: "Obviously we wanted to ask questions of the BBC but no one was available for interview."
However, the most poignant moment came when he was interviewing Rob Wilson, a Tory MP on the Commons culture, media and sport select committee, who momentarily said that he could not hear what he was being asked.
"Oh great. Now not even the sound is working. The journalism is not working," replied Mair, who also later asked Wilson "Is Newsnight toast?"
As well as carrying the recorded comments from Messham and McAlpine's lawyer, the programme included a panel discussion which the BBC press office said had been due to be part of the programme.
On Friday, McAlpine issued a strongly-worded statement saying reports linking him to allegations of abuse at a North Wales children's home were "wholly false and seriously defamatory".
As questions mounted about the veracity of the allegations, Messham admitted he was wrong. Making a public statement of apology, he said he had accused the wrong person: "I want to offer my sincere and humble apologies to him [McAlpine] and his family. After seeing a picture in the past hour of the individual concerned, this is not the person I identified by a photograph presented to me by the police in the early 1990s, who told me the man in the photograph was Lord McAlpine."
Earlier, McAlpine's solicitor said he had "no choice" but to take legal action. Andrew Reid told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: "What I think is so wrong is that Newsnight trailed this and encouraged people that some major revelation would come about and that they were going to name someone.
"Then they took the coward's way out, they ran the programme, then told everyone where to go to find [McAlpine's name in connection with the allegations]. That's creating the defamation."
Newsnight is already under fire for failing to broadcast a previous investigation into child sexual abuse perpetrated by Jimmy Savile with its editor, Peter Rippon, obliged to step aside after making erroneous claims as to why he chose to abort the story.
Against that backdrop, Newsnight's most recent investigation into child sexual abuse was keenly anticipated as providing an opportunity to make amends.
Organised in conjunction with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, information about Newsnight's film of last week leaked out the day of transmission when Iain Overton, the editor of the bureau tweeted: "If all goes well we've got a Newsnight out tonight about a very senior political figure who is a paedophile."
The bureau's Angus Stickler, a former BBC journalist, had persuaded Newsnight to put out the film he was preparing. Had Newsnight successfully contacted the peer ahead of transmitting the film, it might have been given McAlpine's denials.
Journalist Michael Crick, of Channel 4 News, who became aware of Newsnight's investigation, spoke to the peer twice on 2 November the day of transmission and was told that McAlpine was prepared to sue the BBC, had he been named.
It is understood that the production team at Newsnight had been told in confidence by Messham that McAlpine was the man he was referring to.
The production team, was headed by acting editor Liz Gibbons, and overseen by Adrian van Klaveren, the controller of Radio 5 Live, on secondment to oversee any coverage relating to Savile and child sexual abuse more generally.
Despite the secrecy at the BBC, the name of McAlpine swiftly began circulating on the internet. The peer had previously been linked to allegations of abuse at care homes in North Wales, but several reporters who covered the Waterhouse public inquiry that examined the claims were sceptical of the link.
The Guardian reported that McAlpine was a victim of "mistaken identity" creating the first doubts about the accuracy of the Newsnight investigation. On Friday McAlpine repeated details that he had shared with Crick a week ago, stating that he had only ever visited Wrexham once in his life.
There was also criticism of people who had named McAlpine on Twitter, including the Guardian columnist George Monbiot, who has since apologised. The journalist admitted it was "stupid" of him to have named McAlpine during a week of fevered internet speculation.
The link
here is to this morning's interview by BBC Radio 4 of the BBC Director General George Entwhistle.
Entwhistle has so far declined to be interviewed by non-BBC media organisations.
This won't save him though.
His defence is that he's a bumbling, no nothing, fool who has no idea what's going on inside the BBC despite being Editor In Chief.
Quote:The original Newsnight report was broadcast on Friday 2 November and had been promoted hours before its broadcast by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Iain Overton, the editor of the bureau, tweeted that, "all going well", Newsnight would make explosive revelations. "We've got a Newsnight out tonight about a very senior political figure who is a paedophile," he wrote.
This immediately prompted a Twitter row with Newsnight's former political editor Michael Crick who told Overton that the politician had not been contacted about the allegations.
Entwistle also said he was unaware of the Twitter row, or of the newspaper website reports earlier that day flagging up the extraordinary claims about to be made by the BBC.
"This tweet was not brought to my attention, so I found out about this film after it gone out," Entwistle said, to which Humhprys asked: "Nobody even mentioned it?" Entwistle replied. "No. In the light of what's happened, I wish this was referred to me."
Asked when precisely he found out about the film in which Steve Messham, a victim of child abuse in a Welsh care home made the claims, Entwistle said: "I found out about the film the following day." Asked why he had not seen it on Friday night, he replied: "I was out."
Entwistle compounded this apparent lack of awareness of the controversy swirling around the BBC for the past week by saying he only became aware that McAlpine had been wrongly implicated when Messham made his statement withdrawing the claim on Friday afternoon.
An increasingly incredulous Humphrys, who discussed the McAlpine affair on Friday's Today programme following reveletions in the Guardian that McAlpine was the victim of mistaken identity, then asked Entwistle whether or not he read the papers or listened to the corporation's output.
"Did you read the Guardian yesterday morning?" he asked, to which Entwistle replied: "No, John, I was giving a speech yesterday morning."
The admission that he was unaware of the Newsnight investigation until the day after broadcast will further fuel criticism that the BBC director general had shown a lack of interest in the corporation's controversial output. Last month, a parliamentary select committee lamented his "extraordinary lack of curiosity" about a Newsnight investigation into Jimmy Savile last December.
Entwistle on Friday ordered an immediate suspension of all Newsnight investigations to assess editorial robustness and supervision, a suspension of all co-productions with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism across the BBC, and that Ken MacQuarrie, director of BBC Scotland, will write an urgent report, covering what happened on the investigation into the North Wales children's home scandal. But the director general said on Saturday he would not be closing Newsnight down.
It also emerged on Friday that the BBC decided it was not appropriate to contact McAlpine for a right of reply on the Newsnight report because it had no intention of naming him. It opted instead to accuse a "leading politician of the Thatcher years" of being involved in child sexual abuse linked to care homes in north Wales.
Entwistle told BBC Breakfast that Steve Messham made "an inaccurate identification" but stressed he was not blaming him "at all".
He said: "It was our responsibility, Newsnight's responsibility, to make sure that any misidentification did not end up on television and I am afraid we did not manage to do that, therefore we have to absolutely take the blame."
A BBC Trust spokesman said on Saturday: "This is a deeply troubling episode. The Trust notes the BBC executive's apology and would like to offer its own apology also. The Trust has impressed upon the director general the need to get to the bottom of this as a matter of the utmost urgency and will expect appropriate action to be taken as quickly as possible."
The BBC issued an unreserved apology on Friday night after one of the victims spoken to admitted he had wrongly identified Lord McAlpine as the man who had abused him in the 1970s and 1980s.
Entwistle admitted the corporation was facing a "bad crisis" of trust in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, including a decision to drop a Newsnight investigation exposing the late DJ as a serial child abuser.
Although Newsnight did not name Lord McAlpine, the peer has indicated he now intends to sue the BBC after it led to him being identified on the internet.
Source.
This is the James Murdoch defence, and the criticism is exactly the same.
Either Entwhistle knew and is complicit in journalism which failed to do due diligence and should never have got past the BBC lawyer. Or, as he maintains, he didn't know but he clearly should have done.
Entwhistle is revealed as incompetent and unfit to be DG in either scenario.
This clown is paid as follows according to the
BBC:
Quote:George's annual substantive salary as Director-General is £450,000 excluding taxable benefits.
There is no doubt that the systematic abuse of children in Welsh care homes took place.
Quote:Exclusive: Eyewitness 'saw Thatcher aide take boys to abuse'
A former resident of the Wrexham care home at the centre of abuse allegations tells Channel 4 News that he saw evidence of abuse, and remembers seeing Sir Peter Morrison at the care home five times.
(Video at link)
Warning: you may be distressed by the interview above
The former resident told Channel 4 News that although he did not recognise Sir Peter at the time, he later realised it was him.
Sir Peter, who died in 1995, was Margaret Thatcher's parliamentary private secretary and was at the heart of the Tory establishment during the 1980s. Recently, he has been publicly linked to abuse at the care home.
The former resident, who was not abused himself, said: "Going through some stuff recently and I saw his face. I know now he was the MP for Chester at the time. Morrison. Red, wavy hair. I recognised him straight away.
"I saw him at Bryn Estyn, he turned up in a car, boy went off in his car, don't know if he was in it. It was definitely his car, I saw him arrive in it then we went to bed and we saw it drive off.
"We used to see a lot of people we didn't recognise, not staff. They couldn't have been there for the same reason the staff were there. They turned up at odd hours, early evening and the night. Really nice shoes, I always remember the shoes. And the cars, we were interested in the cars."
David Cameron ordered an urgent investigation into whether the north Wales child abuse inquiry "properly did its job" after fresh allegations of abuse at Bryn Estyn emerged. It is alleged that a senior Thatcher-era politician, who has not been named, was involved.
WATCH: Photographs of north Wales abuse 'were handed to police', Steve Messham tells Channel 4 News
'Properly constituted'
Home Secretary Theresa May has also ordered a seperate inquiry led by the National Crime Agency into claims of abuse.
Describing allegations of abuse from other residents, the former resident told Channel 4 News: "They said there was more than one, they said they were made to drink, there was a lot of people there, there was a party almost.
"It was almost like pass the parcel, I knew a few boys who were marked up, like a stamp in the post office, I know one lad ... he had to go off to hospital. He had tremendous problems."
The former resident told the programme about other physical evidence of sexual abuse: "The state of them, they were quite obviously extremely upset - some of them quite marked around the face and body … cut quite badly around the arms and chest area.
"Some of them were quite upset...they were quite disturbed about it, very ashamed…Every week we used to have a laundry change, we used to strip the beds. Some of the boys who'd been taken off in cars ... they were embarrassed."
'Well dressed'
Talking about those who would come to the care home to abuse the boys, he said they stood out: "Their mannerisms, they were obviously well dressed. I noticed their shoes and their watches more than anything.
"Their shoes were always really shiny, which was unusual. One guy wore his coat around his shoulders, a tan coat. They seemed to have the run of the place, if they wanted to do or see anything they could do it. I thought they must own the place because everyone is being so nice to them, deferential. We were told not even to look."
The resident said he did inform police: "I made a statement to South Wales Police with regard to some alleged offences in SW area - a statement was taken but didn't hear anything else about it."
However, describing the effect the events had had on him, he said: "I've been carrying this around for 35 years. It's destroyed every relationship in my life. I don't trust anybody.
"I've tried to commit suicide on three occasions. Rather than actually tell anyone. I never even told my family. Nobody in my family knows about it because you were made to believe that you were wrong, nobody would believe you. You'd be shunned and it would be your fault."
06 November 2012
The Daily Mail version - photos at the
link.
Quote:How the BBC nailed the wrong man and the REAL story behind the care home child abuse scandal
By Paul Bracchi
PUBLISHED:23:44, 9 November 2012| UPDATED:10:42, 10 November 2012
Steven Messham was just 13 when he arrived at the Bryn Estyn children's home, a forbidding mock Tudor mansion on the outskirts of Wrexham in North Wales.
It was not long before he was placed on what was known at Bryn Estyn as the flat list'. To those like Steven, now 51, who used to live at the now infamous establishment, the list still evokes chilling memories.
The flat list' was compiled by one of the men who ran Bryn Estyn and on it were written the names of his favourite' boys; the prettiest' ones, in other words. Steven was one such boy.
Alleged victim: Steven Messham accused a senior Tory politician from the Thatcher years of being involved in a widespread paedophile ring
Most evenings, he and up to seven other youngsters would be summoned to the senior staff member's private flat (hence the term flat list') near their dormitories in the main building, ostensibly to watch television and enjoy some light refreshments.
They were always told to come dressed in pyjamas, though, and not to put on underpants. Steven discovered why on his first visit to the flat. There is no need to dwell on the details of what happened next, or on many subsequent occasions.
Suffice to say, Steven was sexually abused day after day, week after week for the next five years; not just in the flat. He was also passed to other abusers who worked at Bryn Estyn or were connected to the home, until he was allowed to leave, psychologically scarred, shortly before his 18th birthday.
By then, he says, he had been violated by more than 50 different men. I realised the best thing was to do whatever they said to survive,' he said.
He went to the police, of course, as others had done before and since, but no one in authority was listening back then; not the police, not social services, not even the local Pentecostal minister, who had heard the rumours about Bryn Estyn, but thought the boys must be lying.
It seems the same culture which allowed Jimmy Savile's monstrous reign to go undetected also existed in North Wales in the Seventies and Eighties.
Only in 2000, with the publication of a damning report into the regime at Bryn Estyn and 39 other children's homes in the area during that period, did the extent of the scandal finally begin to emerge.
The suffering of hundreds of victims all children like Steven Messham at the time and the wickedness of the adults entrusted with their care is laid bare on every one of the 1,000 pages.
Youngsters were not just subjected to sexual abuse, but almost daily thrashings, beatings, threats and ritual humiliations; witnesses spoke of being forced to lick the feet of staff, eat soap, cut the grass with nothing more than scissors and clean toilets with toothbrushes.
Many of the culprits including sadistic deputy head Peter Howarth, who drew up the notorious flat list' were brought to justice and jailed.
The report that exposed their vile activities, following a three-year public inquiry led by former High Court Judge Sir Ronald Waterhouse, should have marked the end of one of Britain's biggest and most controversial child abuse investigations.
This week, we discovered that it hadn't. David Cameron has now ordered new inquiries into whether links to a wider paedophile ring potentially involving politicians were suppressed.
The dramatic development follows an investigation by BBC2's Newsnight into claims by Steven Messham that a Tory grandee from the Thatcher era was implicated in the Bryn Estyn scandal.
His central explosive allegation was that he was taken outside the home or the Colditz of Care' as it was called by those unfortunate enough to end up there and sold' to men for sexual abuse, and that the Tory in question was among the perpetrators.
It was widely reported that Newsnight intended to name the Tory paedophile suspect and although it ultimately stopped just short of doing so, it triggered a frenzy of speculation on Twitter, with Lord McAlpine, the former Tory treasurer, being identified on scores of messages on the social networking site.
Betrayed innocence: Children in a play at the Bryn Estyn home run by John Allen (centre), who was jailed in 1995 for indecent assault on six boys
The controversy culminated with ITV presenter Phillip Schofield handing a list of well-known Tory figures all named as paedophiles on the internet to Mr Cameron live on television, when he appeared on This Morning on Thursday. Mr Cameron was visibly taken aback by the stunt and accused the show of fuelling a witch-hunt'.
Within 24 hours, his words were borne out in circumstances that could hardly be more embarrassing for the BBC and indeed for Mr Cameron himself.
For it now emerges that this story of the senior Tory and young boys' is false.
The Guardian newspaper yesterday revealed evidence that the claims against Lord McAlpine are based on mistaken identity. The Tory peer himself issued a furious denial of any wrongdoing. Steven Messham has since apologised to him.
Newsnight, the BBC's flagship current affairs programme, has now left itself open to the charge that it was so eager to recover from its failure to broadcast an investigation into Jimmy Savile and so eager to pursue sex allegations against a senior Tory that it triggered just the kind of witch-hunt' of which Mr Cameron warned.
The latest revelations raise questions about Mr Cameron's decision to reinvestigate the North Wales child abuse scandal although it does seem paedophile activities there were wider than previously thought.
Sick: Peter Howarth, the former Deputy Head of the Bryn Estyn Boys home was jailed for sex crimes
The chain of events which led to this week's furore began 15 years ago. It was on April 21, 1997, that Steven Messham testified before the Waterhouse inquiry at a former council chamber in the village of Ewloe, near Chester.
Steven Messham revealed, in pitiful detail, how he had become one of Bryn Estyn deputy boss Peter Howarth's favourites', how he had even been abused in the sick bay while recovering from tonsillitis, and how, before one assault by another member of staff, he was told: Come on, I know you enjoy it.'
The effect on his life since leaving Bryn Estyn had been devastating. Steven Messham had been in and out of psychiatric hospitals, taken two overdoses, slashed his wrists and been given electric shock treatment.
His account was tragically similar to many of the other poor souls who poured out their pain in the witness box until Gerard Elias QC, leading counsel to the tribunal, put the following question to him: Does the name ****** mean anything to you.' It can now be revealed that the name Gerard Elias put to Steven Messham was McAlpine. Messham's reply to the question was: Yes, sir.'
The subsequent exchange between Elias, Messham and Sir Ronald Waterhouse was taken down in shorthand by the local reporter who covered the inquiry. This is how it unfolded.
Elias: In what context [does the name mean anything to you]?'
Messham: I was also abused by him sexually.' Sir Ronald: Is the person you referred to alive or dead?'
Messham: I believe he is dead.' [This is a crucial inconsistency, to which we will return.]
Elias: Were the acts you speak of while you were at Bryn Estyn or elsewhere?'
Messham: Bryn Estyn, sir.'
Elias: How many times did you see the man?'
Messham: Three times.'
Elias: Who told you his name?'
Messham: I'm not saying, sir, I'm not trying to be awkward. I would like to tell the tribunal the full story to stop it happening again. But I've been banging my head against the wall for years. I have made numerous complaints to police.'
More information about Steven Messham's alleged encounters with the abuser he mistakenly believed to be Lord McAlpine are contained in the statement he previously gave to police and which are referred to in the Waterhouse report.
Steven Messham lived at the now closed Bryn Estyn boys home, Wrexham (pictured) during the 1970s
The abuser had several cars and a chauffeur. They would wait for Steven Messham at the bottom of a lane near Bryn Estyn when he had a late pass from the home. He said he was abused in the car in a lay-by and at the Crest Hotel in Wrexham. Why he thought that the man in the car was supposedly a senior Tory figure is not disclosed. Nor does he identify the person or persons at Bryn Estyn who introduced' him to the abuser.
Steven Messham cannot be the only source of the allegation, however.
In 2000, in fact, BBC Radio 5 Live broadcast a brief interview with an unidentified victim who gave a remarkably similar account to Steven Messham. He believed he had been abused by the same person. The original 5 Live material, using an actor's voice, was repeated on Newsnight earlier this week because the source himself could not be traced.
The interview is short on detail, but the victim apparently met his abuser in a car park in Wrexham.
That is where I was told to meet him,' he said.
We went for something to eat and he pulled over in a lay-by and then hey presto oral sex took place. He gave me some money. He was probably just trying to keep me quiet.'
Later, he says, he gave a photograph of his abuser to the police, but they took no action. Did Sir Ronald Waterhouse find Steven Messham's account credible? No. He dismissed the allegations as embarking on the realms of fantasy'. Although he did find Messham gave evidence in good faith.
He said: On this evidence we cannot be satisfied that any member of [Lord McAlpine's] family was involved in paedophile activity ... and the evidence [of Steven Messham] has been demonstrated to be incorrect in some respects.'
Savile is now believed to have been one of the UK's most prolific abusers, with about 300 possible victims but the BBC faces questions about whether they helped cover-up his sexual crimes
In his original police statement, for example, Steven Messham says he was raped on four or five occasions'. When he appeared before the inquiry itself, it was three times'. On the recent Newsnight programme, more than a dozen times'.
As we know, Steven Messham also told the inquiry he thought his abuser was dead. Lord McAlpine is very much alive, of course.
The person Steven Messham apparently mistook for Lord McAlpine was allegedly a member of a different branch of the family who lived in North Wales, and who is indeed dead. But beyond this testimony, there is no evidence that this man ever abused children, either.
A local councillor, Keith Gregory, who was himself abused at Bryn Estyn, told the Guardian yesterday that he believed there was no truth in the allegations against Lord McAlpine.
Given Steven Messham's horrific experiences and no one doubts for a moment he was a victim of the most appalling and sustained sexual abuse it would be surprising, many might think, if his testimony were not blurred and confused in parts.
This does not mean there is no substance whatsoever to his story: that the tentacles of Bryn Estyn stretched much wider than has previously been acknowledged.
The fact also remains that both the public inquiry and the police investigation into the North Wales child abuse scandal attracted criticisms at the time.
If Peter Morrison was implicated in the Bryn Estyn child abuse scandal, was he the only member of the Establishment to have been involved?
I still have lingering suspicions that neither the inquiry nor the police investigations pushed hard enough to get to the truth,' said Malcolm King, formerly social services chairman in the Clwyd authority, who was instrumental in calling for the Waterhouse inquiry to be set up.
Indeed, the authority had commissioned its own report into children's homes in the area beforehand and urged Sir Ronald to address the wider areas of concern . . . this includes the suggestion that public figures may have been involved in the abuse of young people in North Wales'.
Was one of them the late Peter Morrison, a former close aide to Margaret Thatcher? An unnamed former Bryn Estyn resident said he saw Morrison, MP for Chester between 1974 and 1992, visit the home several times in the 1980s and take boys away in his car.
The claim is not implausible. Why? Because it was common knowledge in Westminster circles that Morrison had an unhealthy interest in boys.
Edwina Currie a junior health minister in the Thatcher government spelled it out, in black and white, in her diaries which were published in 2002.
One appointment in the recent reshuffle,' she wrote, has attracted a lot of gossip and could be very dangerous: Peter Morrison has become the PM's PPS [Parliamentary Private Secretary].
Now he's what they call a "noted pederast", with a liking for young boys. He admitted as much . . . when he became deputy chairman of the party but added: "However, I'm very discreet" and he must be!'
She [Thatcher] either knows and is taking a chance, or doesn't; either way, it's a really dumb move. 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.'
If Peter Morrison was implicated in the Bryn Estyn child abuse scandal, was he the only member of the Establishment to have been involved?
Clearly, these are dark waters. But the events of the past 24 hours prove that any further investigations must be rather more careful and rigorous than those apparently undertaken by the BBC's Newsnight.
![[Image: 035-300x225.jpg]](http://leahmcgrathgoodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/035.jpg)
![[Image: gordon-on-patrol.jpg?w=446&h=164]](http://eyreinternational.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/gordon-on-patrol.jpg?w=446&h=164)
![[Image: tara-photo.jpg?w=224&h=252]](http://eyreinternational.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/tara-photo.jpg?w=224&h=252)
Spy, or ex-Spy? Agent Andrea Davison pictured on camping trip.