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Police tell me a post mortem will be carried out on #LeonBrittan. Amb & police called to his home yestrdy AM, see my report @ScotNational

Quote:Leon Brittan faced cop quiz over claims he was at VIP parties where kids were abused

• Jan 23, 2015 22:44
  
• By Nick Sommerlad
  

Tory grandee died before probe into paedo network could quiz him over child sex allegations


Tory grandee Leon Brittan died before he could be *quizzed over claims he was at parties where children were sexually abused and killed.
The former Home Secretary was named by an alleged victim as being among a group of powerful men who he saw at the luxury Dolphin Square apartments close to Westminster.
The claims, including allegations the VIP paedophile ring murdered three children, are being treated as "credible and true" by Scotland Yard.
Lord Brittan made no public comment on the abuse network allegations before his death from cancer at the age of 75 on Wednesday night, but it is understood he was horrified by them.
Dossier: Geoffrey Dickens Conservative MP Yesterday, former officer Jim Gamble, who ran the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, said: "Leon Brittan's death is a personal tragedy for his family, friends and former colleagues, to whom I offer my condolences.
"But a wider tragedy stretches beyond that intimate circle, as the opportunity for him to give evidence to the child abuse inquiry, to clarify issues concerning allegations of a missing dossier, has been lost forever."
Lord Brittan had come under fire over his handling of papers on high-profile paedophiles, passed to him by MP Geoffrey Dickens while he was at the Home Office.
He confirmed he received the dossier and passed it to his civil servants but denied accusations there was a cover up.
Claims: Abuse allegations against Brittan Police said the allegations of abuse by a Westminster-based paedophile network spanned a decade at locations across London and the Home Counties.
Det Supt Kenny McDonald, who is leading the murder inquiry called Operation Midland, said last month that detectives believed the witness's claims.
The allegations emerged when a man known only as "Nick" claimed he was abused during a decade of his childhood when he was driven to "parties" in the capital and Home Counties.
He said one of the locations was the flats at Dolphin Square, an upmarket residential development near Westminster. Nick claims to have identified a number of high-profile individuals attending the gatherings in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The names include Lord Brittan, former diplomat Peter Hayman and a former Tory MP who is not being identified.
Two further alleged victims have told investigative journalism website Exaro that they saw the same cabinet minister at similar events where children were abused at Dolphin Square.
Yesterday, a Scotland Yard spokesman refused to confirm whether officers from Operation Midland had made any contact with Lord Brittan.
WENN
Dolphin Square: Linked to a paedophile ring The spokesman added: "We would not discuss individuals we may speak to as part of any *investigation. Operation Midland remains a live investigation."
It is not the first accusation made against the peer.
Last October he was accused in the House of Commons by Labour MP Jim Hood of "improper conduct with children".
Under parliamentary rules, politicians can make accusations at Westminster without being sued for libel.
Separately, Lord Brittan was being investigated by officers over an alleged rape of a 19-year-old woman following a date in 1967.
The woman, who is now aged 66, complained to the *Metropolitan Police back in 2012.
Lord Brittan, who denied the allegations and said they were "wholly without foundation", was questioned under caution last summer. Scotland Yard said on Thursday that their investigation was continuing.

Quote:Leon Brittan A guest post by Tim Tate on the investigations into and evidence relating to him
Posted: January 23, 2015 | Author: Ian Pace | Filed under: Abuse, Conservative Party | Tags: chris fay, Conservative Party, elm guest house, home affairs select committee, Independent Panel Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, leon brittan,Magnal Solanki, paedophile information exchange, tim tate |27 CommentsFollowing the news of the death of Leon Brittan yesterday, the distinguished writer and film maker Tim Tate (author of Child Pornography, sections from which I have earlier posted on here) has written a piece concerning important information he knows concerning the investigations into Brittan, which I am printing here. I am most grateful to Tim Tate for writing this and giving me the permission to post it. I would also like to echo strongly his call for this information to be thoroughly investigated by the Home Affairs Select Committee and the Independent Panel Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
Tim Tate writes as follows:
Last Spring I sat for two hours with a senior detective involved in historic child sexual abuse enquiries. It was not the first time we had met, but on this occasion and prompted by some highly inaccurate reporting elsewhere he had decided to be open about the progress of the investigation into allegations about Leon Brittan.
His openness, of course, went only so far: we were not speaking on the record, but on conditions of anonymity. I have no way of independently verifying what he told me, but I did not feel at any point that he was either deliberately misleading me or stonewalling my questions.
However, what he said if accurate is very disturbing: I believe it needs to be taken up by the Home Affairs Select Committee which has been examining the Home Office's role in historic allegations of paedophilia and by the official Historic Abuse Enquiry (assuming it continues).
The backdrop to our meeting were allegations in the media that a former Customs Officer had seized child pornography films or videotapes in the early 1980s, one of which "featured" a former Conservative cabinet minister. The customs officer was called Maganal Solanki, who is now in his 80s and in poor health. Mr Solanki's name was on a 1982 Customs seizure notice which impounded obscene or indecent material sent, by mail, to the UK by a British paedophile based in Holland.
A reporter from Express newspapers had tracked down Mr Solanki, doorstepped him and recorded an attempt at interviewing him about the Tricker material. The subsequent reports of this encounter stated that Mr Solanki had claimed that the films or videos depicted the former cabinet minister involved in child sexual abuse. Although the politician was not named, it was evident that he was Leon Brittan.
The detective told me that officers had subsequently visited Mr Solanki and asked him about these allegations. According to the detective, Mr Solanki had denied the press version of events and insisted that he could not remember the Tricker seizure, much less had he ever identified Brittan as a participant in filmed child sexual abuse.
However, Mr Solanki did according to the detective recall stopping Brittan on another occasion as he came into the UK at Dover. Further, Mr Solanki had searched Brittan's car and had found child pornography tapes. He viewed these and was able with some embarrassment to describe their contents: boys and girls, under the age of 12, being filmed having sex with each other. He impounded the tapes as indecent or obscene material.
According to the detective, Mr Solanki wasn't able to put an exact date on the incident other than it having taken place in the mid 1980s. However, he told the officers he was certain the man he had stopped was Leon Brittan because he had asked to see his passport.
Brittan had also told Mr Solanki that he was "an MEP" something which the detective suspected was either a mishearing of "MP" or a misunderstanding of Brittan's role as a European politician.
Mr Solanki told the officers that he filed a report of the seizure and sent it up to Customs & Excise head office. He heard no more about it.
The detective said he was certain that Mr Solanki was telling the truth and that the latter's recollection of the incident was reliable. A statement was taken detailing these recollections.
At the time, Operation Fernbridge was also investigating allegations about Elm Guest House the former gay brothel shut down after a police raid in 1982. Persistent allegations have been made notably by a former NAYPIC worker, Chris Fay that the guest house was used by politician and celebrities, and that children from local care homes were sexually abused there. Mr Fay had also alleged that officers from the former Metropolitan Police Special Branch had threatened him for trying to expose the truth about EGH. His claims and suggestions (sometimes sourced to him, sometimes anonymous) were widely published in the press and on-line media.
The detective was adamant that Mr Fay was a fantasist and that his evidence' was largely worthless. However, he (the detective) had come to the belief that one child a young boy had indeed been routinely sexually abused at EGH and that although the evidence was incomplete and troublesome, he had formed the very clear belief that one of the abusers had been Leon Brittan.
The reason for this belief was that on the night of the original raid the boy whose identity the detective gave me, but whom I will not name here had told a police officer and a social worker about being sodomised by adult men at EGH; he had, however, told the interviewers they should not worry about this because "Uncle Leon" from "The Big House" would sort it all out.
The detective had, in 2014, taken steps to track down this boy now an adult and had initially thought he would provide a statement. Unfortunately, by the time internal Metropolitan Police procedures had authorised the travel costs to visit him, the allege victim had decided not to speak.
There was a great deal of further circumstantial evidence concerning this boy and his suspected involvement with Leon Brittan. The detective said he planned to have this followed up and pinned down. But he also voiced concerns that he was about to be removed from his position and that if this happened he was not wholly confident the enquiries would be thoroughly pursued.
I have not spoken with the detective for almost a year. Colleagues of mine have tried to do so, but report that it appears he may as he feared have been removed from the historic child sexual abuse enquiries. It is not clear whether he is even still a serving police officer.
I repeat that I have no way of independently corroborating what the detective told me. But if the Home Affairs Select Committee and the official Historic Abuse Enquiry are serious about uncovering the truth and particularly about unearthing the role of the Home Office handling allegations of organised and/or Westminster-based paedophile rings in the 1980s they should require that the detective and Mr Solanki give evidence to them, and that all statements relating to Mr Brittan and child sexual abuse held by the Metropolitan Police Service be provided to them.
Because Leon Brittan was not just a former cabinet minister. He was a former Home Secretary the man in charge at the time that PIE infiltrated government and the man to whom the now-infamous Dickens Dossier on high-profile paedophiles was handled, only to disappear.
If the HASC and the Enquiry are serious, if they are honest, if they are to live up to the public's trust, they must subpoena these witnesses and offer them protection from retaliation by Whitehall or New Scotland Yard. If they do otherwise we will know that they are none of these things.

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Tory Mandarins Close Ranks' Following Leon Brittan's Death

You'd have thought that these senior Tories who when asked to comment on an embarrassing development are the first to hide behind the need to not jeopardise ongoing police investigations when it suits them, would refrain from pressuring others to go public with information which might still be part of an important police investigation into VIP paedophiles.
I've a message for them;
The police will not be cowed by establishment pressure from political has-beens. The police will not be given the bum's rush because friends of a person who has come under police investigation think that he will be exonerated if more information is made public prematurely.
The Tories claim to be the party of law and order. That espoused respect for the law seems to be distinctly absent as they use the power of the Tory media to put pressure on the police with these juvenile responses.
"Put up or shut up'" a playground response to a grown up issue.

Politicians fuelling rumours about Leon Brittan's involvement in a Westminster cover up of child abuse were this morning ordered to come clean about what they know or shut up'.
Former Cabinet colleague John Gummer, now Lord Deben, said MPs were making innuendos and insinuations in order to make themselves look as if they know something when they don't'. He said it was wicked' to make allegations without any evidence.
The Tory peer's outburst comes after campaigning MP Simon Danczuk said Lord Brittan's death was a sad day' for the victims of child abuse who wanted to question the former home secretary about the missing Dickens dossier' of paedophile allegations handed to him in the 1980s.

Daily Mail

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Leon Brittan abused me and other children at Westminster VIP paedophile parties: What child-sex victim told police

• Jan 24, 2015 22:30
  
• By Keir Mudie, Mark Conrad
  

The former Home Secretary who died last week was at the centre of allegations involving an establishment paedophile ring operating in Westminster


An alleged victim of a Westminster paedophile ring claimed to police that Leon Brittan abused him more than a dozen times.
The witness known as Nick said he also saw most of his friends molested by the former Home Secretary who died on Wednesday aged 75.
Making the bombshell claims, Nick first spoke to investigative website Exaro last year and identified Mr Brittan as being present at VIP abuse parties.
Asked how he knew who he was, Nick told the website: "Well, he told me. Not his full name. He told me that it was Leon. And it was only later in my adult life that I then knew who it was."
Friends and colleagues of Mr Brittan, *including former Cabinet Ministers Michael Howard, John Gummer and David Mellor, last week defended his legacy and poured scorn on the allegations.
Mr Howard said: "I think it is a tragedy that his last days were dogged by these quite unsubstantiated allegations."
Mr Gummer, now Lord Deben, branded *unsubstantiated claims as "wicked" while Mr Mellor said: "I am especially sad he died after he was subjected to unwarranted criticism and innuendo."
Mr Brittan himself had always strenuously denied any allegation of sexual wrongdoing.
PA
Well connected: Brittan was a key member of Margaret Thatcher's Tory government But a major police investigation into paedophile rings at the highest level of the Establishment which includes testimony against Mr Brittan continues and witness Nick stands by his account.
Police are also examining claims based on Nick's evidence that Mr Brittan was present when two unidentified men, who were part of the network, murdered a boy in a physical beating following sexual abuse around 1981 or 1982.
And they have received *further allegations he sexually abused boys at the Carlton Club in the St James's area of London, as well as Dolphin Square and elsewhere.
The Sunday People has published a number of stories in the past 12 months into the allegations made about Mr Brittan.
The paper decided not to name him because of *on-going police investigations into the claims.
Campaigning MP Tom Watson has worked closely with survivors since he first raised the issue of a VIP paedophile network with links to Downing Street in 2012.
He said: "Many have urged me over the past two years to reveal allegations against Brittan using parliamentary privilege.
"This allows MPs to say things that are not subject to libel laws. Some will ask why I've waited until his death to speak out. The reason is simple. I didn't want to prejudice any jury trial he might have had to face."
Questions: Campaigning MP Tom WatsonNick says he is devastated after learning of the death of the former Cabinet Minister and fears it may now be too late to get justice.
After handing a list of prominent people who allegedly abused him, including Mr Brittan, to police he is worried that the death will bring *investigations to a halt.
During an interview with reporters last year, Nick described the abuse he allegedly suffered by Mr Brittan during VIP sex *parties in London.
Nick said the top *politician treated boys with "complete contempt", sexually abusing him "probably every time I was there".
He added: "He would treat me like I was not even human."
Asked how he would describe Mr Brittan, he said simply: "Nasty, cruel, sadistic and hateful."
Although he has declined to comment publicly after an agreement with Scotland Yard detectives, Nick said he was devastated by the death of the man he claims raped him repeatedly at Dolphin Square and feared for the future of the investigation.
exaronews.com
Allegations: VIP abuse witness 'Nick'He urged police to continue.
A source close to the Metropolitan Police team confirmed they were preparing to revisit an alleged female victim "Jane" who claims Mr Brittan raped her while she was a student.
The Met said in a statement on Friday: "A further review of case remains ongoing."
Jane alleges she was raped by Mr Brittan in 1967 before he became an MP and when she was a student in London aged 19.
The Sunday People revealed Jane's allegations of how, on a blind date, he tricked her into his flat, locked her in, then raped her .
Following Exaro's report, Mr Watson wrote a strongly worded letter to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders, asking her to *review the case.
Ms Saunders put pressure on the Met to interview Mr Brittan about the allegations, in line with police guidelines.
Mr Brittan denied to police that he even knew of the complainant, and entirely rejected the rape allegation.
Rex
Powerful: Brittan before leaving to take up his post as European CommissionerAfter learning of his death, Jane said: "We cannot be left high and dry. People need to know the truth about Leon Brittan.
"It was particularly difficult to hear ex-politicians coming forward with flowery tributes at a time when he was still *under investigation for rape.
"I am sure it is also difficult for all of his alleged victims to hear senior figures refer to these allegations as mere conspiracy theories'."
Michael, Jane's partner, added: "It is despairing for his alleged victims to hear lavish tributes."
Campaigning journalist Don Hale said former Labour cabinet Minister Barbara Castletold him that Mr Brittan was "a man she could not trust".
She said he was "a powerful man with many secrets" and claimed colleagues "dare not get the wrong side of him".
REX/POPPERFOTO/GETTY IMAGES
Not to be trusted: Barbara Castle said Brittan was 'a powerful man with many secrets'And she was highly critical of Mr Brittan's handling of a dossier said to have contained the names of VIP *paedophiles which Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens handed to him in 1983.
Mr Brittan confirmed last year he had received the dossier and it had been handed on to police. But a search of Home Office files could find no trace of it.
Mrs Castle's own files on the notorious Paedophile Information Exchange, which was urging ministers to legalise sex with children, were seized by Special Branch officers who raided Mr Hale's weekly *newspaper office in Bury, Lancs, in 1984.
Mr Hale claims Mrs Castle had warned him that Mr Brittan used Special Branch as his own outfit.
Now campaigners are desperate for the dead politician's own files to be preserved for investigators.
Alison Millar of law firm Leigh Day, representing abuse victims, said: "It is absolutely vital that fresh efforts are now put into preserving his documents and files to enable the *inquiry to learn more about what he knew about abuse among Establishment figures during his time in Government."
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "We do not comment on ongoing enquiries."
VIEW GALLERY Voice of the Sunday People: Our biggest duty is to victims of abuse

The Sunday People did not take the decision lightly to name Leon Brittan as an alleged member of a Westminster paedophile ring.
We know we may be accused by his friends of spitting on his grave. We know we may be accused by his family of causing them more pain.
And we know we may be accused by the Establishment of shredding the reputation of a distinguished public servant who can no longer defend himself.
But to do otherwise would be to abdicate our duty towards the *victims of historical sex abuse.
This newspaper has spent months investigating allegations against Lord Brittan. They are many, varied and credible.
We did not name him because police were also carrying out *investigations. They believe the *allegations to be credible too.
Lord Brittan may have appeared before a jury. So our concern was prejudicing a criminal trial.
Not our fate in a libel trial.
His death means survivors of abuse have been denied a shot at the justice they believe they deserve.
Whatever the truth, we are in no doubt that there was a disgraceful Establishment cover-up to protect high-profile paedophiles.
Had that not taken place, this shameful episode would have been resolved long ago.
That is what Theresa May's *historical sex abuse inquiry was designed to unveil.
Yet 203 days after she announced it there is still no progress. And Lord Brittan cannot now be a witness.
That is not good enough. It is not good enough for the survivors. It is not good enough for the country.
It is manifestly in the public *interest for the allegations against Lord Brittan to be publicly tested.
It is a matter of common decency and humanity to ensure survivors get the closure that is their due.
Whatever the truth about Lord Brittan, it cannot be allowed to die with him.

Quote:Top Tory Leon Brittan 'photographed entering underage sex den during police investigation'

• Jan 24, 2015 22:30
  
• By Keir Mudie, Nick Dorman
  

The former MP for Cleveland and Whitby is said to have been snapped by officers on a 1986 surveillance operation focusing on rent boy orgies

PA
Under fire: Leon Brittan is said to have been snapped by officers on a 1986 surveillance operationLeon Brittan was photographed entering an underage sex den during a police investigation, it has been claimed.
The Tory Lord, who died on Wednesday, is said to have been snapped by officers on a 1986 surveillance operation focusing on rent boy orgies run in North London buildings.
Detectives were watching premises where the boys picked up at King's Cross were dropped off to be repeatedly raped, say friends of an officer involved.
Big names believed to have been photographed entering the dens included former Home Secretary Brittan, MP Cyril Smith and some top judges.
Sources claim up to 16 high profile figures were due to be arrested.
But the day before the swoops were to be carried out, officers on the investigation, called Operation Orchid, were allegedly told it had been disbanded.
Accused: Former Cabinet minister Leon BrittanOur sources say it is unclear what happened to the photographs or why the raid was called off.
A friend of the officer on the investigation said: "The rent boys would be driven to flats or garages where large groups of men were waiting.
"These included Brittan and Smith. Pictures were taken as men entered or left buildings where the abuse was taking place."
The revelations emerge as *Brittan's name is dragged ever deeper into the growing scandal over an alleged cover-up into sex abusers at the highest level of the Establishment in the 1970s
and 80s.
His old friends and colleagues have defended his legacy and called on his accusers to put up evidence or "shut up".
But a major police investigation into VIP paedophile rings, which includes testimony against Brittan, continues.
Mirrorpix
Allegations: A number of witnesses and victims have provided statements to policeAnd a number of witnesses and victims have provided statements to police.
One key witness known as Nick, who has been described by police as "credible", has told officers he was abused by Brittan at the luxury Dolphin Square apartment complex, near Westminster.
He gave a lengthy statement alleging three boys were murdered by the VIP paedophiles.
Speaking before Brittan's death, Nick said: "He would treat me like I was not even human."
He claimed the top Tory was "nasty, cruel, sadistic and hateful".
Nick is now said to be *"devastated" by the former cabinet minister's death and fears it may be too late to get justice.
Brittan, who died of cancer at 75, was already under investigation for allegedly raping a woman in 1967. An allegation he denied.
Mirrorpix
Investigated: Trade and Industry Secretary Leon Brittan leaving Downing Street in 1986Scotland Yard says this will continue despite his death.
Brittan's name also appears on a web list of purported visitors to Elm Guest House, near Barnes Common in South West London.
The B&B is said to have operated as a gay and underage brothel in the early 1980s and is at the centre of a huge historic abuse police *investigation called Operation *Fernbridge.
The Metropolitan Police has refused to discuss any potential suspects in this investigation.
Last year Brittan became mired in the historical sexual abuse scandal after claims that he was handed a dossier containing details of the abuse allegations in the 1980s.
He was accused of failing to act on the evidence passed to him by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens in 1983.
While he admitted he had met Mr Dickens and had been handed a file, he said he had passed it on to officials and was not contacted about the issue again.
Brittan was elected as MP for Cleveland and Whitby in 1974 and then for *Richmond, Yorks, in 1983.
PM David Cameron led the *tributes to him last week, describing the former cabinet minister and European competition *commissioner as a "dedicated and fiercely intelligent public servant".
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said yesterday: "We do not comment on ongoing enquiries."