The Power of the Paedos - another high profile case hits the 'never happened' wall?

[Malcolm Pryce]

It's interesting you saying that Jan, I do remember being struck while watching the programme by how well spoken the girls were. Quite the opposite of the image conjured up by the phrase 'approved school'.

[Magda Hassan]

I wonder why the notification before the event?

BBC sex scandal: UK Police to make arrestsBritish police investigating alleged sexual abuse by one of the BBC's most celebrated TV stars said on Thursday that some 300 victims had come forward and they were preparing to make arrests in a scandal that has thrown the broadcaster into disarray.

Detectives said that they had been staggered by the number of people who had come forward since the late Jimmy Savile's crimes were first revealed nearly around three weeks ago.
The head of the BBC's governing body called the allegations a "tsunami of filth", and police said Savile was "undoubtedly" one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders ever.
"It's quite staggering," said the police inquiry leader, Commander Peter Spindler.
Having interviewed 130 of the alleged victims, officers had recorded 114 reports of sexual assault or serious sexual assault, mostly against Savile - the outlandish, cigar-chomping DJ turned TV host who was one of the BBC's top presenters of the 1970s and 1980s.
The allegations, which first emerged in an expose on the rival British TV channel ITV, have rocked the BBC, with its chief George Entwistle admitting that the broadcaster has been damaged by the scandal.
The revelations have generated huge attention, not least in the United States where Entwistle's predecessor at the BBC, Mark Thompson, is poised to take over as chief executive of the New York Times.
On Wednesday, lawyers representing some 30 alleged victims of abuse told Reuters that their clients said other celebrities were also involved, while some of those abused by Savile have told the media they were targeted on BBC premises.
"We are preparing an arrest strategy now," Spindler told reporters, adding he could not identify who their suspects were or whether they also had worked for the BBC.
"We do have a number of other people that we can investigate," he added.
Entwistle, who only took over the most prestigious role in British media in September, appeared before a parliamentary commission this week to explain why the BBC had dropped its own investigation shortly after Savile died last year.
His performance in parliament was described as "lamentable" by one lawmaker, and his overall handling of one of the worst crises in the BBC's 90-year history has been widely condemned.
Prime Minister David Cameron has said that BBC, paid for by an annual tax on all households with a color TV, had serious questions to answer.
"TERRIBLE DAMAGE"
"We have to deal with the terrible damage to the reputation of the BBC which has hitherto been a national institution which people have trusted," Chris Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust which oversees the broadcaster, told BBC Radio.
"It was a very, very difficult initial baptism of fire for a new director general of the BBC, this great tsunami of filth broke over him 11 days into the job."
Savile, knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his charity work and famous for his garish outfits and long blonde hair, was a household name in Britain but little known beyond its shores.
Such has been the publicity surrounding the case that Spindler said that the number of historic abuse allegations reported to police in London alone had trebled, calling their inquiry a "watershed moment for child abuse investigation".
He said they were investigating three categories of offences; those that involved just Savile which made up the vast majority of cases; those involving Savile and others; and those which had no direct link to Savile.
At this stage there was no evidence of any organized pedophile rings and offenders appeared to be opportunists, Spindler added.


He revealed that a retired officer had come forward to say he had investigated Savile in the 1980s over allegations of indecent assault but there had not been enough evidence to pursue a prosecution.

http://entertainment.in.msn.com/tv/bbc-s...ke-arrests


Oh, ffs! Nice to see they have their priorities in orderangryfire Crying for the damage to the poor victim of brand BBC (which isn't what they think it is by the way) and not a thought for the real victims in which it is clear that some in BBC management have been complicit in covering up, if not perpetuating.

"TERRIBLE DAMAGE"
"We have to deal with the terrible damage to the reputation of the BBC which has hitherto been a national institution which people have trusted," Chris Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust which oversees the broadcaster, told BBC Radio.
"It was a very, very difficult initial baptism of fire for a new director general of the BBC, this great tsunami of filth broke over him 11 days into the job."

[URL="http://entertainment.in.msn.com/tv/bbc-sex-scandal-uk-police-to-make-arrests"]
[/URL]

[Jan Klimkowski]

Nothing to see here.

Detectives have not found evidence of a paedophile ring involving the organised procurement of children for others but are examining individuals who might have had access to vulnerable children, some of whom were associated with Savile.

Hold the line - there was no paedophile ring.

Move along.

Alternately, a proper investigation could be conducted before the rozzers rule out a paedophile ring...

Jimmy Savile inquiry looking at alleged sexual abuse by three doctors

Names of at least three doctors passed to police investigating claims of sexual abuse at hospitals linked to former BBC DJ

Sandra Laville and Lisa O'Carroll

The Guardian, Wednesday 24 October 2012 19.15 BST

Detectives investigating the Jimmy Savile scandal have been passed details of three doctors who are alleged to have abused young people in their care, the Guardian understands.

The doctors, identified by victims who have come forward in the last fortnight, worked at hospitals where Savile had links over several decades. The former DJ had an office and living quarters in Broadmoor, a bedroom in Stoke Mandeville, and was given free rein at Leeds general infirmary.

It is understood the names of at least three doctors have been passed to police investigating living individuals over claims that they were at the centre of a loose network of child abusers connected with Savile.

Detectives have not found evidence of a paedophile ring involving the organised procurement of children for others but are examining individuals who might have had access to vulnerable children, some of whom were associated with Savile.

The Guardian can reveal that Stoke Mandeville was at the centre of a child sex abuse scandal in the late 1980s when a consultant paediatrician was investigated after a whistleblower came forward to the health authority.

Dr Michael Salmon, a consultant paediatrician at the Aylesbury hospital, was suspended in 1989 after an investigation by government auditors prompted by concerns about possible financial improprieties. During the inquiry investigators found evidence relating to teenage patients of Salmon and a criminal investigation was launched.

Salmon was jailed for three years in 1990 after admitting indecent assaults on two 13-year-old girls and a 16-year-old girl. Three years earlier he had been praised by Diana, Princess of Wales, for helping to organise a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida for 300 disabled children. He was struck off the medical register in 1991. The GMC committee said at the time it was "appalled by the disgraceful behaviour towards vulnerable patients which led to Dr Salmon's conviction".

Dr Raymond Brown, who worked as a consultant paediatrician with Salmon, said he would have known Savile because everyone at the hospital knew him. Savile, who raised £40m for Stoke Mandeville, had boasted that he "lived" in a bedroom hospital managers had given him and could do as he pleased.

"We all knew [Savile] because he was such a presence at Stoke Mandeville," said Brown. "I personally had no inkling about Savile's behaviour. This was all as much as a surprise to me as anyone else.

"He wasn't a person I was mad about but he was a philanthropist and he was responsible for getting an enormous amount of money for the hospital. He would come into the wards, and I never saw a problem with him doing so all the doctors knew him. I am absolutely shocked by all of this."

Brown said he had had no contact with Salmon since he was sacked and struck off the medical register. Salmon could not be contacted.

The NSPCC said it had received 161 calls directly relating to allegations against Savile, which it had passed to police. The charity has also passed 24 allegations of abuse by others to Scotland Yard.

Peter Saunders, of the National Association for People abused in Childhood, said it had been contacted by 35 alleged victims directly accusing Savile or other people close to him.

The development comes as the director of public prosecutions announced he was to review the original police file sent to the Crown Prosecution Service alleging child abuse by Savile. Keir Starmer will investigate why the CPS took the decision not to prosecute over allegations in 2009.

He has also asked to speak to the attorney general, Dominic Grieve, about whether the CPS should start referring Savile sex abuse cases to other relevant agencies, including social services, where the evidence is not deemed strong enough for a criminal prosecution.

At the time the CPS advised the police that no further action should be taken because of lack of evidence against the BBC star, who was still alive. Savile died in October 2011.

David Cameron said during prime minister's questions that the DPP had ordered a review of the evidence considered by the CPS in 2009 relating to indecent assault allegations against Savile from the 1970s. The evidence was submitted by Surrey police, which began an investigation in 2007. In a brief statement on the scandal, the prime minister said he did not rule out further inquiries into the BBC, hospitals and other establishments where Savile is said to have abused vulnerable children.

"The government will do everything it can do, other institutions must do what they can do, to make sure that we learn the lesson of this and it can never happen again," Cameron said.

"The most important thing is that the police investigation is properly resourced and is allowed to continue."

[Jan Klimkowski]

Nothing to see here either.

Everyone was doing their job.

Not.

So, reports were made to the police that Savile assaulted a child on BBC premises and a boy at Haut de la Garenne. And nowt happened.

Jimmy Savile: police heard seven sexual assault complaints before he died

Scotland Yard team investigating Jimmy Savile abuse claims say Operation Yewtree now being treated as major incident


Sandra Laville, crime correspondent

The Guardian, Thursday 25 October 2012 19.25 BST

At least seven alleged victims of Jimmy Savile made complaints of sexual assault against him to police while the TV presenter was still alive, according to the Scotland Yard team investigating the abuse scandal.

Officers said Operation Yewtree had been contacted by around 300 alleged victims and is being treated as a major incident. "We are dealing with a major criminal investigation. This is a watershed moment for child abuse investigations and Yewtree will be landmark investigation," said Commander Peter Spindler

As police prepare to make a number of arrests of individuals who allegedly sexually assaulted children with Savile or alone, Scotland Yard revealed that a criminal inquiry was mounted into an alleged indecent assault of a girl on BBC premises in Shepherd's Bush more than 30 years ago.

The complaint, which was investigated by a Scotland Yard officer, was one of at least seven allegations of sexual assault made to police while Savile was alive. None of the complaints led to him being prosecuted.

Spindler said the investigation into Savile in the 80s emerged after a retired Met officer came forward in the last week to inform his team that he had investigated a complaint of indecent assault on BBC premises.

The officer said the victim claimed to have been indecently assaulted in a caravan on the BBC TV centre site, but that there had not been enough evidence to bring a prosecution.

Spindler said on Thursday that his officers were now looking for the file on the case.

He also revealed that a woman had come forward to the Met police in 2003 to complain of an alleged assault by Savile in the early 1970s.

It has already emerged that four victims came forward to Surrey police who investigated Savile in 2007 and passed a file to the CPS. The CPS decided there was insufficient evidence to prosecute in 2009.

A boy from the Haut de la Garenne children's home in Jersey is also known to have told police that he was assaulted by the celebrity.

Spindler said the number of victims who had now come forward over the last three weeks alleging sexual assaults by the late TV celebrity and other living individuals was around the 300 mark. "It is quite staggering the numbers of women and they are predominantly women who have come forward," Spindler said.

Detectives have recorded 114 alleged crimes of sexual assault and serious sexual assault, mostly relating to Savile but also to other individuals from a number of different institutions. Officers are using the Holmes computer database, normally use in homicide inquiries.

Of the 300 alleged victims, the majority had made complaints about Savile but a number of allegations related to living individuals, Spindler said.

He said detectives were now drawing up an arrest strategy, suggesting arrests might be imminent.

Living individuals being investigated include people who have allegedly abused with Savile and others who abused independently of the BBC TV and radio star.

Working with the child exploitation and online protection unit, a risk assessment was being made in each case. Those individuals who might still be in positions which put children are at risk would be detained first, Spindler said.

Searches are being carried out at Savile's cottage in Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands and other premises as part of the criminal investigation into possible living abusers.

Forces across the country are now involved in what amounts to one of the biggest child abuse inquiries ever mounted.

Spindler praised the victims who had come forward and said their accounts all corroborated each other. "That is why we can be so confident of their accounts. We believe them because they are all saying the same thing," he said.

The inquiry involves 30 officers but is also drawing on detectives from homicide and rape teams at the Met.

Officers have spoken on the phone to 130 alleged victims so far in difficult and lengthy interviews of up to four hours a time.

"We are trying to speak to the victims as quickly as we can. This may be the first time that they have actually spoken in any detail of what happened and we don't underestimate how significant an event that is for them to describe sexual abuse as a child," Spindler said.

This article was amended on Friday 26 October. An editing error meant that the number of alleged victims was missing from the second paragraph. This has been corrected.

[Jan Klimkowski]

So, earlier in this thread we learnt that Savile was appointed to run Broadmoor, Britain's most notorious criminal lunatic asylum, housing the likes of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe.

In 1997, a few years after the government put Savile and his mate in charge of Broadmoor, there were allegations that a paedophile ring was operating in this hospital for the criminally insane.

The Telegraph reveals the following.

Kincora, Bryn Estyn, Haut de la Garenne. Deja vu all over again....

A Sunday Telegraph investigation today reveals:

* Edwina Currie appointed Savile to run a taskforce in charge of Broadmoor in the 1980s, where he is accused of sexually assaulting patients;

* the taskforce he presided over was given temporary powers to oversee the running of the hospital following a series of industrial disputes - despite the fact Savile, a disc jockey and television presenter, had no professional qualifications;

* a friend of Savile's from his hometown in Leeds was then given the most senior job at Broadmoor;

* the BBC investigated a lurid sex scandal at Top of the Pops and Radio 1 in the early 1970s, but never made the report public;

* Savile was interviewed by the BBC as part of that inquiry but refused to cooperate, according to a senior source.

Scotland Yard last week announced it was launching a full-scale criminal inquiry into other members of Savile's alleged sex ring who remain alive. The Met police is now looking at 400 separate lines of inquiry and more than 200 potential victims.

Savile, despite having no expertise in mental health, was given the job of chairman of the taskforce overseeing Broadmoor in 1988 after the hospital had been placed under direct control of the Thatcher government following a series of strikes.

Mrs Currie at the time was health minister with responsibility for the country's high security hospitals under the auspices of Kenneth Clarke, the then-Health Secretary. Savile counted himself as a friend of Margaret Thatcher and reportedly stayed at Chequers on a number of occasions.

Savile had had a long association with Broadmoor, having been a volunteer worker there in the 1970s and 1980s with the unofficial title "honourary entertainments officer". He had his own set of keys and living quarters on site.

Pete Saunders, the chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said of Savile's role at the mental hospital: "It really is akin to giving Dracula the keys to the blood bank. It really is outrageous that a disc jockey was given unfettered access to Broadmoor."

Savile's appointment to the taskforce is now subject to a Department of Health official inquiry but last night Mrs Currie said: "The Department of Health are digging out the papers from the archives and I just don't know - I'm ransacking my own notes to try to work out what happened, so I am not denying it, it is just very hard to tell."

The former minister told The Sunday Telegraph that having checked her personal diaries, she had found a note of a meeting with Savile in Leeds in September 1988 - the month the taskforce was appointed. In the entry she described his thoughts on Broadmoor as "intriguing".

Mrs Currie recorded that during the meeting Savile had told her that he suspected staff were inflating their salaries - and that he had threatened to pass the information to the tabloid papers if the staff caused him any trouble.

Savile also told her he had uncovered millions of pounds missing from budgets and poor use of the hospital's housing stock.

"In my diary, I wrote 'Attaboy', she said. "This was what he claimed to be doing; now it is hard to know whether any of it is true. And obviously when you look back, it does suggest he was prepared to use blackmail to ensure people did what he wanted."

Mrs Currie, who had previously met Savile on his television programme Jim'll Fix it and on visits to Leeds General Infirmary, where he also worked, said she now thought the presenter was "totally evil" and that she was glad criminal investigations were underway.

Savile once described himself in a newspaper interview as "the boss of Broadmoor" and in 1989 said he was responsible for the freeing of 60 patients and intended to introduce "mixed sex wings" so patients could fall in love with each other.

Following Savile's appointment at Broadmoor, Alan Franey, an administrator who spent 10 years working at Leeds General Infirmary, also began work on the same taskforce, with progress to be reported to Mrs Currie.

In a book about psychiatric care, Mr Franey described having "an unusual meeting" with health officials in the Athenaeum Club in London, where his new role on the temporary taskforce was proposed.

He neglected to mention in the book that Savile, who was a member of the Athenaeum, was also present. When asked by The Sunday Telegraph if Savile was also there, Mr Franey agreed.

In 1989, Mr Franey was put in overall charge of Broadmoor, where he remained for nine years before retiring as chief executive.

Mr Franey worked as an assistant general manager at Leeds General Infirmary from 1975 to 1985, when the television presenter was volunteering as a night porter. Savile is also accused of sexually abusing girls at the Leeds hospital.

Mr Franey said he got to know Savile because they were among half a dozen men who ran charity marathons together. He said: "I am absolutely astonished. There was absolutely no indication that he was doing what was alleged."

Mr Franey insisted his friendship with Savile did not help him to get the job on the taskforce, and that he later got the job as general manager of Broadmoor through open competition.

Mr Franey took early retirement from Broadmoor following an inquiry into the hospital in March 1997. The inquiry followed claims made in newspapers that a child pornography ring was operating at Broadmoor.

Although the full report was never published, a summary found no evidence to support the allegations but made some criticisms of lax security while pointing out the hospital had actually improved under Mr Franey's management.

Mr Franey is insistent that he only resigned because he wished to write a book and was ready to retire. He is now a Conservative councillor in Welwyn Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

Last night, Ray Rowden, a former senior NHS executive supervising England's three high-security hospitals - a job he took up in 1996, a year before Mr Franey's retirement - said: "He [Mr Franey] used to boast that he would drive him [Savile] around nightclubs in Leeds in the 1980s."

Mr Rowden said that on his first visits to Broadmoor, he was shocked that Savile appeared to be able to turn up at whenever he wanted - as did Princess Diana - and tackled Mr Franey about it.

"I said to him how can you let Princess Diana and Jimmy Savile into Broadmoor to wander about whenever they want? This is a high-security hospital - would you let any other Tom, Dick or Harry in?"

Mr Franey said claims he had driven Savile to nightclubs was "rubbish". He added: "I have never been to a nightclub in my life." He said the conversation with Mr Rowden about visits from Savile and Princess Diana never occurred.

Savile was caught up in a sex scandal that engulfed Top of the Pops and Radio 1 in the early 1970s when police investigated claims that music companies hired prostitutes for disc jockeys and producers in return for playing their records on air.

The same officers also investigated the suicide of a 15-year-old dancer on Top of the Pops, who Savile is alleged to have abused. The Sunday Telegraph has been told that an independent inquiry launched by the BBC and run by a senior QC questioned Savile over the sex scandal but its findings were never made public.

Savile's activities on Top of the Pops and other programmes where he is accused of raping and sexually assaulting girls on the corporation's premises will form part of a new BBC inquiry into the time.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Then there is this testimony from Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, who murdered 13 women and attempted to murder at least 7 more.

Sutcliffe was declared sane at his trial.

Hearing voices is a classic sign of paranoid schizophrenia.

However, once again, Sutcliffe was declared sane at trial, sent to a normal high security prison, HMP Parkhurst, and only once in the prison system sent to Broadmoor.....

Mr Sutcliffe said that he was in the Catholic section at the top of the cemetery, but could not remember which grave he was digging at the time. Mr Sutcliffe: "I was digging and I just paused for a minute. It was very hard ground. I just heard something - it sounded like a voice similar to a human voice - like an echo. I looked round to see if there was anyone there, but there was no one in sight. I was in the grave with my feet about five feet below the surface. There was no one in sight when I looked round from where I was. Then I got out of the grave. The voice was not very clear. I got out and walked - the ground rose up. It was quite a steep slope. I walked to the top, but there was no one there at all. I heard again the same sound. It was like a voice saying something, but the words were all imposed on top of each other. I could not make them out, it was like echoes. The voices were coming directly in front of me from the top of a gravestone, which was Polish. I remember the name on the grave to this day. It was a man called Zipolski. Stanislaw Zipolski."

Mr Sutcliffe was shown a photograph of Bingley cemetery, and pointed out the grave of a man called Stanislaw Zapolski. Mr Chadwin: "There are a number of graves in that photograph. Which one is the grave of Stanislaw Zapolski?"

(NOTE: The name on the gravestone is really Bronislaw Zapolski.)

Mr Sutcliffe: "It is the one with the statue of Christ on the top."

Mr Chadwin: "In relation to what we can see on that photograph, where had you been working when you heard the voice you described?"

Mr Sutcliffe: "To the left of the grave, lower down the slope."

Mr Chadwin: "Up to that moment in time had you ever heard a voice which you could not identify, a voice which you could not attach to some human source?"

Mr Sutcliffe: "I had never heard this voice before. That was the first occasion."

Mr Chadwin: "Did you look at Mr Zapolski's grave?"

Mr Sutcliffe: "Yes."

Mr Chadwin: "Why did you look particularly at this grave?"

Mr Sutcliffe: "Because that is where the sound was coming from. That is what made me walk closer to it."

Mr Chadwin: "What did you see on that grave when you looked at it?"

Mr Sutcliffe: "I remember getting a message from the grave. I looked at several graves. I was looking round to determine where the sound came from. After looking at the grave I walked back. I was kind of transfixed because of the voice. I just stepped back and I didn't know what to think at first." Reading on the gravestone the Polish word "Jejo", he assumed it meant "Jesus".

Mr Chadwin: "Did that convey anything to you in particular?"

Mr Sutcliffe: "Something did, because immediately afterwards as I stepped back to the path immediately in front of the grave, I saw what I took to be a definite message about the echoing voice. I always thought it was on the same grave."

Asked what the message was, Mr Sutcliffe replied: "I recall, as Jesus was speaking to me." He also remembered the phase: "We be the echo."

Mr Chadwin: "What is your recollection, not of what you heard, but of what you saw, that conveyed a message to you?"

Mr Sutcliffe replied he read the words "Wehvy" and "Echo" in Polish. "Echo" was spelt "Ecko." Mr Sutcliffe: "I thought the message on the gravestone was a direct message telling me it was the voice of Jesus speaking to me."

Mr Sutcliffe was then asked to look at a photograph of the gravestone. He agreed that the words he had described did not appear on the gravestone. Mr Sutcliffe: "I remember seeing them." He also said that he had looked at other graves in the vicinity of that particular one.

[Magda Hassan]

Underwhelmed. Easy pickings. I hope this is not the extend or goal of the arrests that talked about. Not that Gadd shouldn't be arrested of course.

Jimmy Savile: Former pop star Gary Glitter arrested by police

The BBC's Tim Reid said police have confirmed they "have today arrested a man in his 60s in connection with the investigation"

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

• Patten seeks Savile probe 'truth'
  

Former pop star Gary Glitter has been arrested on suspicion of sex offences by police investigating Jimmy Savile abuse claims.
He has been taken from his home into custody at a London police station.
Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was jailed in Vietnam in 2006 for child sex offences.
Police are investigating allegations that the late TV presenter Savile sexually abused some 300 young people over a 40-year period.
Met Police confirmed that officers from Operation Yewtree had "arrested a man in his 60s in connection with the investigation".
"The man, from London, was arrested at approximately 7:15 BST on suspicion of sexual offences. The individual falls under the strand of the investigation we have termed 'Savile and others'."
Scotland Yard has said it is following about 400 lines of inquiry as part of the operation - which is looking into claims Savile, who died last year aged 84, abused hundreds of young girls and some boys.
Police described former BBC DJ Savile as a "predatory sex offender".
Karin Ward - a former pupil at Duncroft approved school for girls in Surrey - told the BBC she had once seen singer Glitter having sex with a schoolgirl in Savile's dressing room at the BBC. Glitter has denied the allegations.
'Reputation on the line'Meanwhile the deputy leader of the Labour Party Harriet Harman has reiterated Labour's call for an overarching inquiry to look into the Savile allegations.
She told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show there should be a judge-led inquiry to look into what went on at the range of different organisations involved.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten, has expressed his determination to deal with the sexual abuse scandal surrounding Savile.
Writing in the Mail On Sunday, he says the corporation's reputation is on the line and it must face up to the truth, warning the BBC "risks squandering public trust" and its "reputation is on the line" because one of its stars was apparently a sexual criminal.
Ms Ward was interviewed for the BBC's Newsnight programme in November, but the interview was only shown on Panorama this week as the Newsnight investigation was shelved.
Mr Patten told the paper: "Like many who work for the BBC, I feel a sense of particular remorse that abused women spoke to Newsnight, presumably at great personal pain, yet did not have their stories told as they expected."
Elsewhere, ex-BBC director general Mark Thompson has also denied ever being told about the Savile abuse claims.
The Sunday Times reports that his office was alerted on at least two occasions while he was still director general.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20114378

[Jan Klimkowski]

Underwhelmed. Easy pickings. I hope this is not the extend or goal of the arrests that talked about. Not that Gadd shouldn't be arrested of course.

It's a complete parody.

Gary Glitter gets arrested after being given several weeks to burn all the evidence he can.

This isn't Justice, it's Theatre.

A photo op early morning arrest, with all of Fleet Street invited to snap away and put a convicted paeodophile on their front page.

Even the police station cat knew a month ago that Glitter should be arrested.

The Murdoch Empire's initial defence was one rogue reporter.

I suspect we're being set up for the blame to be put on two rogue pop stars.

With not a politician or judge or priest or royal or lord in sight.

[Magda Hassan]

Another conveniently dead MP offered up. The old bat Thatcher lives with the bats in her belfry so is next to useless. And Haigh....will deny all.

I wonder if we will ever hear about the 'cottaging' charges against Charles Lynton.

Former Minister says Thatcher aide was paedophile who preyed on boys' home - and Hague should have known

• An ex-Tory minister has claimed Sir Peter Morrison was implicated in the child abuse scandal that engulfed children's homes in North Wales
  
• An inquiry discovered up to 650 children in 40 homes were sexually, physically and emotionally in the 1970s and '80s
  
• Rod Richards, a former Tory MP, said he had seen evidence linking the former aide to Baroness Thatcher to the scandal
  

By GLEN OWEN
PUBLISHED: 22:32 GMT, 27 October 2012 | UPDATED: 22:34 GMT, 27 October 2012

Loyal: Morrison with Baroness Thatcher in 1990

A former Tory Minister last night made incendiary claims that one of Margaret Thatcher's closest aides was implicated in one of the most harrowing child abuse scandals of recent times.

Rod Richards, a former Conservative MP and ex-leader of the Welsh Tories, made the shocking allegation that he had seen evidence linking Sir Peter Morrison to the North Wales children's homes case, in which up to 650 children in 40 homes were sexually, physically and emotionally abused over 20 years.

Mr Richards also linked a second leading Tory grandee now dead to the scandals at homes including Bryn Estyn and Bryn Alyn Hall, both near Wrexham.

He said official documents had identified the pair as frequent, unexplained visitors to the care homes.

Mr Richards who helped establish the inquiry that unearthed the scale of the abuse said bluntly: What I do know is that Morrison was a paedophile. And the reason I know that is because of the North Wales child abuse scandal.'

He added that William Hague, who was Welsh Secretary at the time of the inquiry, should have seen the evidence about Morrison'.

Morrison was Lady Thatcher's parliamentary private secretary and deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.

The claims prompted Labour MPs to call for the files to be reopened to ensure that there had not been an establishment cover-up'.

Mr Hague called the inquiry into the scandal in 1996 after care homes boss John Allen was convicted of child abuse. It concluded that a paedophile ring around Cheshire and Wrexham had caused appalling suffering' to children in care in the Seventies and Eighties.

Scandal: Abuse was uncovered at the Bryn Estyn home, near Wrexham, North Wales

Mr Richards said he received detailed briefings about the case while junior Welsh Office Minister for health and social services.

He said: It fell to me to decide initially whether to hold a public inquiry. So I saw all the documentation and the files. Morrison was linked. His name stood out on the notes to me because he had been an MP. He and [the other man] were named as visitors to the homes.'

Mr Richards could not offer anything to substantiate his claims against Morrison, who died in 1995 at the age of 51. But he said that as the MP for Chester, he would have no obvious reason to visit care homes in other MPs' constituencies.

The claims have emerged amid growing public revulsion over the institutional failures revealed by the Jimmy Savile scandal. Savile was a regular guest of Lady Thatcher's at Chequers.

Mr Richards added that he was frustrated that the £13 million, three-year inquiry headed by Sir Ronald Waterhouse QC had not uncovered any evidence to link Morrison to the abuse. He said: It would seem that there are some parallels with Savile in that Morrison got in under the radar, and his activities did not appear in the final report'.

However, he said that as Welsh Secretary, Mr Hague should have seen the evidence about Morrison' in the preliminary files.

Network: Further abuse was uncovered in Bryn Alyn Hall, which was also run by John Allen

Last night, sources close to Mr Hague said that he had never come across any information implicating Morrison. His spokesman said: Mr Hague established the North Wales Child Abuse Inquiry precisely because of the serious and widespread reports of abuse. It was set up to be as thorough as possible and its terms of reference were widely supported in Parliament.'

Tory peer John Cope a Tory contemporary of Morrison's in the Commons told The Mail on Sunday: Without hard evidence I cannot find these allegations credible.'

Mr Richard's intervention follows claims last week by former Tory Minister Edwina Currie that Morrison had sex with 16-year-old boys when the age of consent was 21 and that he had been protected by a culture of sniggering'. In her diaries, she called him a noted pederast', with a liking for young boys.

Last week, Labour MP Tom Watson stunned the Commons when he asked David Cameron to examine historic allegations about a high-level paedophile ring linked to a former Downing Street aide who he later clarified was not Morrison.

Last night Labour MP Khalid Mahmood said of the allegations about Morrison: These are extremely serious claims. The evidence files should be reopened to ensure that there has not been an establishment cover-up at the heart of Westminster'.

North Wales police did not respond to calls for comment.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...z2AsKi81Lm

[Jan Klimkowski]

Kincora, Bryn Estyn, Haut de la Garenne. Deja vu all over again....

Tory peer John Cope a Tory contemporary of Morrison's in the Commons told The Mail on Sunday: Without hard evidence I cannot find these allegations credible.'

Mr Richard's intervention follows claims last week by former Tory Minister Edwina Currie that Morrison had sex with 16-year-old boys when the age of consent was 21 and that he had been protected by a culture of sniggering'. In her diaries, she called him a noted pederast', with a liking for young boys.

Our rulers have a shameful sense of humour.

Investigative reporter Nick Davies published the following in 1998:

Fleet Street routinely nurtures a crop of untold stories about powerful abusers who have evaded justice. One such is Peter Morrison, formerly the MP for Chester and the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. Ten years ago, Chris House, the veteran crime reporter for the Sunday Mirror, twice received tip-offs from police officers who said that Morrison had been caught cottaging in public toilets with underaged boys and had been released with a caution. A less powerful man, the officers complained, would have been charged with gross indecency or an offence against children.

At the time, Chris House confronted Morrison, who used libel laws to block publication of the story. Now, Morrison is dead and cannot sue. Police last week confirmed that he had been picked up twice and never brought to trial. They added that there appeared to be no trace of either incident in any of the official records.

Deep political question: Who has the power to make arrest and crime files disappear?

The full text of Davies' courageous article can be read here.