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

[Jan Klimkowski]

Second Lobster piece from 1984.

Kincoragate: More Bodies
Steve Dorril
Sir George Terry's report on Kincora has at last been made public. But if Terry had
hoped to quash further speculation he failed.(l) In a second debate in the Northern
Ireland Assembly on Kincora there was widespread criticism of the report, particularly
of Terry "stepping outside his brief" in suggesting that the matter need no more
investigation. The Assembly called on James Prior, N.I. Secretary of State, to
"announce the setting up of a judicial inquiry." (Irish News 10th November 1983) This
he did on January l8th.
Released quietly on a Saturday morning in a clear attempt to minimise publicity,
Terry's conclusions - for only the conclusions were published - centred on the
allegations of the homosexual vice-ring at the boys home involving British
Intelligence. Terry described the allegations as fictional and, even though the
journalists who had uncovered the scandal had received information from an RUC
'deep throat', laid most of the blame for their circulation on journalists.(2)
Terry probably aimed the report at the mainland where Kincora has received little
attention. By undermining the credibility of the journalists he hoped to keep the lid on
Kincora's darker side - the involvement of British Intelligence and the piling up of
bodies connected to the boys home. His bottom line was that the battle against
terrorism was the first priority, which left little time for the authorities to adequately
investigate the allegations - an excuse as feeble as that other establishment cop-out, ' in
the interests of National Security'.
George Terry actually had little to do with the investigation which was carried out by
two of his former subordinates: Chief Supt. Gordon Harrison and Chief Insp. Dick
Henley. An original report on the affair by these two was apparently scrapped, no
doubt because the material they uncovered strayed inevitably into the British
Intelligence connection. Henley, Special Branch, has since been promoted to
Superintendent.
The investigation could never claim to be 'independent'. Terry's links to British
Intelligence through his Chairmanship of Polygraph Security Services, which imports
the lie-detector, are worth investigation. Harrison was Special Branch liaison officer
between the Sussex Police and MI5, and the officer who interrogated Captain Colin
Wallace in Brighton after Wallace killed his lover's husband. Small world.(3)
* * *
Still unreleased is the 'Whiteside Inquiry'. In December 1981 R.U.C. Chief Sir John
Hermon set up an internal investigation to discover what happened to missing files and
why the Kincora buggers weren't prosecuted earlier. In charge was Assistant Chief
Constable John Whiteside. Another 'independent' choice, Whiteside was a former head
of Special Branch and the R.U.C. man most closely linked with British Intelligence
during the seventies. He was a former R.U.C. member of the Security Liaison
Committee set up by Sir Maurice Oldfield.
* * *
Gradually the pieces are coming together, though it will turn out to be a very large
jigsaw. Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) set up a Northern Irish section in
the Conway Hotel at Dunmurray. Headed by Frank Howard Smith with Philip
Woodhead as his desk man in London, MI6 handled their Kincora agents through a
number of 'cut-outs' - the normal way of distancing SIS officers from events which
might go wrong. The man who orchestrated the various activities of the Kincora Ring
has been identified as a Lt. Colonel in the British Army, (4) attached to the E
Department (Special Branch) of the R.U.C. whose staff code was F5. The links
between F5 and Kincora were known by E3 (the Superintendent in charge of the
intelligence section of the R.U.C. at Knock H.Q.) and his deputy in charge of
intelligence on Loyalists, a Chief Inspector whose code was E3(B). The Terry Report
uncovered, though did not report, links between the homosexual vice-ring and senior
MI5 member P.T.E. 'Peter' England, now dead. Kincora resident John Baird visited
England at a house on the Old Hollywood Road in Belfast. The house was a Britintelligence
base used as a pickup point for Provisional IRA leaders during the peace
talks in 1976 which led to the setting up of Republican 'Incident Centres' paid for by
the British. England was then C(Int)NI - the Chief of British Intelligence in Northern
Ireland, a key figure in the Security Service (MI5).
Another senior intelligence man involved in the vice-ring directed, but took no part in
the 'truce' talks at British Intelligence HQ in Craigavan, Co. Down. He moved to a
crucial position in Britain's defence structure. R.U. C. men have made statements
about his homosexual associations. The Provisionals dealt with him indirectly through
MI6 officer James Allan.(5) In a bizarre twist the Provos became convinced from
contacts abroad that he was a KGB agent.(6)
Who Is/Was Who
Brian McDermott - aged 11, was found in the River Lagan, Sept. 1973,
not far from the Kincora home. His body had been mutilated.
Stephen Waring, a teenager who had been sexually abused at Kincora,
ran away from another home to which he had been sent and made his
way to Liverpool. He was picked up by police and put on the Ulster
Monarch Ferry that night so that the R.U.C. could pick him up at the
other end. He never arrived. Passengers saw a boy fall into the water. An
R.U.C. inquiry into details given by Liverpool police reported that "it
was not established, and no evidence was produced or tendered, that
directly (emphasis added) connected his death with misconduct at
Kincora".
Pastor Billy Mullan, a close friend of Ian Paisley, William McGrath and
Joss Cardwell, was found dead with a legally held gun beside him during
the probe into Kincora.
Robert Bradford MP, a former member of Tara and close associate of
McGrath, was shot dead in the middle of the R.U.C. investigation.
R.U.C. men privately claim that he was set-up for the killing in the same
way that British Intelligence tried to set up the assassination of Ian
Paisley in 1974.
Roy Garland, young Unionist leader, friend of Paisley, protege of
McGrath and founder member of Tara is still alive.
John McKeague at the beginning of the seventies was the most
important paramilitary figure in N. I. He had overthrown Terence O'Neil
by a series of 'agent provocateur' bombings and street disturbances which
backed Paisley's political agitation with devastating effect. He became
leader of the Red Hand Commando Loyalist paramilitary group set up
with the help of British Intelligence as a pseudo-gang. It was directed
from 'Six' local HQ in the Culloden Hotel at Craigavad, beside MI6
administrative HQ in Laneside House on Station Road.
Michael Wright a young UDA man associated with McKeague, was
killed in a mystery booby-trap explosion. UDA issued statement saying
he was murdered by the Security Forces 'dirty tricks' department.
John Hiddlestone is still alive. He recently returned from South Africa
and is now apparently living in fear, having been branded a British agent
by the UDA. He is a former activist in a number of right-wing Protestant
paramilitary groups, including Ulster Vanguard and the United Ulster
Unionist Party. In the mid 1970s he edited the National Front's Northern
Ireland journal 'British Ulsterman', printed by John McKeague who he
knew well. It has been suggested that Hiddlestone was reporting to
British Intelligence on contacts between Loyalist groups, the NF and
South African right-wingers besides his 'pseudo-gang' activity. (see
Searchlight No 99, September 1983) Independent sources in South
Africa and London suggest that another man, a former member of
McGrath's Ireland's Heritage Orange Lodge, and a UVF supporter, is
among the most influential in building links between South Africa and
Ulster. (Sunday News 24/7/83).
Edgar Graham, Unionist politician although not directly connected to
Kincora, he seems to have suffered the fate of Bradford and McKeague
when he became an embarrassment to British Intelligence. Graham was
working in secret on the infamous 'romper room' killings in which 22
Catholics were assassinated over a short period in East Belfast in 1972.
Evidence emerged that linked the killings to senior British officials who
were directed from London by Sir Maurice Oldfield, then Head of MI6.
Graham also discovered that vital official papers connected to the case,
including the transcript of all court hearings, were missing.
A soldier in the Royal Irish Rangers (RIR) and ex-SAS man, Albert
Baker, confessed to the killings, admitting that he had helped to set up a
pseudo-gang to terrorise Catholics. He had also infiltrated the UDA in
1972 to 1973. None of the others in the gang were ever charged with
murder, but Baker was jailed after pleading guilty. He was secretly
visited in his cell by Lord Windlesham, then Minister of State at
Stormont. He was later taken by plane to Ireland. Today he is not to be
found in any British prison. His family, quickly relocated in England,
admitted he had been working for Military Intelligence.
It is suggested that information was supplied by British Intelligence to
Republican gunmen enabling them to kill Graham. At the time of his
death he was investigating the role Military Intelligence played in
framing three UDA men who were charged with the 'romper room'
killings but later discharged. (Sunday News 18/12/83)
Michael Bettaney the former intelligence officer now on remand at
Brixton prison may have connections to Kincora. A high flier, Bettaney
found himself in 'F' Department, the section which deals with Irish
affairs. He arrived in Northern Ireland at the height of the Kincora vicering.
Bettaney is homosexual and while at Oxford was involved in Nazi
politics, forming a right-wing student alliance at the University. He was
charged with passing on British Intelligence assessments of a KGB
network operating in Britain, and of disclosing details of the expulsion of
three Soviet diplomats from Britain in Apri1 1983. Soon after the court
appearance (Bettaney was on loan to the MOD) a government spokesman
stated that no one had been expelled from the country. True, but a few
days earlier Mr Guennadi Saline (codename 'Silver') First Secretary and
Press Attache to the Soviet Embassy in Dublin, was expelled from Eire,
as were Victor Lipassov and his wife Evotokia. Mrs Lipassov is believed
to be a KGB agent and to have used the lack of passport regulations
between Ireland and Britain to travel to areas restricted to diplomats. She
made at least three visits to Britain using scheduled flights. (Times 12th
September 1983). The man handling the case is old Irish hand Det. Supt.
John Wescott of Scotland Yard's Special Branch. He has made frequent
visits to the Phoenix Park in Northern Ireland where all the intelligence
stuff goes on. Bettaney's lawyer is Larry Grant, on the MI5 blacklist of
lawyers, a former chairman of NCCL whose previous clients include
Philip Agee and Kenneth Lemon.
Notes
1. See Lobster 1 for article on Kincoragate. This follow-up piece is based on
articles which have appeared in the excellent Irish magazine The Phoenix - 44
Baggot St, Dublin 2; subs £12 per 26 issues - specifically issues 7th January,
16th September, 11th November and 9th December 1983.
2. Referring to the Kincora article in Lobster 1, it has been pointed out that
Robert Fisk's landlady, whose husband was in the RUC, was probably a plant.
It would be an easy way to keep an eye on a journalist who received leaked
papers and information.
3. More on Wallace. His wife, Eileen, was personal secretary to the Duke of
Norfolk, the same Duke accused by Charles Haughey of being a British spy
chief. In September 1983 the RUC leaked to the Belfast Newsletter the
information that a file on British Army psy ops (black propaganda) was
missing when the Terry investigators went to look for it. They were told that it
had been sent to the MOD in London and that it could not be seen because of
the Official Secrets Act. No doubt it revealed the activities of Wallace.
4. Could this be Lt. Col. Sidney Hawker, a member of the 'Ulsterisation'
Committee?
5. Allan became head of the Overseas Information Department (the I.R.D. as was)
in 1979. He directed the propaganda campaign against Arthur MacGraig's film
on Ireland, 'The Patriot Game'. In January 1981 he was made High
Commissioner to Mauritius.
6. Nominations? The descriptions fit Sir Frank Cooper, ex Permanent UnderSecretary
at the Ministry of Defence. Sir Frank has recently retired and been
appointed a Director of Westland, one of the MOD's biggest suppliers. KGB?!
7. The Alliance Party's Mr John Cushnahan said in the Northern Ireland
Assembly (Irish News 10th Nov 1983) that he believed a number of Assembly
members had been actively involved in Tara. He gave a short history of Tara,
including alleged gun-running and the organisation's receiving various types of
weapons and plastic explosives.
The Sunday News (22nd May 1983) gave details of a paper given to trainee spies at the
Joint Services Intelligence Centre at Ashford Kent. It reads "Tara is a Loyalist
organisation which is shrouded in mystery, but is basically a small 'hate-taig' group of
homosexuals. They are all evangelists and one of its aims is the proscription of the
Catholic Church. It has aspirations to become a paramilitary organisation". The paper
is dated April 1977, but was still being used to train intelligence officers in 1980,
although homosexuality was illegal at that time in Northern Ireland.

[Jan Klimkowski]

More on the Elm House network.

The claim is made: "During the current investigation, Downing Street has been anxious to keep abreast of developments, but police have sought to maintain strict confidentiality."

You reckon?

Abuse victims 'trafficked abroad'

Seventies paedophile ring in Barnes extended to Amsterdam, say two men who claim they were abused in brothels

James Hanning , Paul Cahalan

Sunday 03 February 2013

The Independent on Sunday

Two alleged victims of a sophisticated paedophile ring at the centre of a police investigation claim they were taken on trips to Amsterdam where they were sexually abused in brothels in the 1980s.

One male victim had been taken from the Grafton Close care home in Richmond, south-west London, it is claimed, and, as well as being trafficked in Amsterdam, was rented out to customers at the Elm Guest House, a bed and breakfast nearby. Another man has claimed he was taken to Amsterdam on a different trip.

Police are understood to be looking into the men's claims as part of Operation Fernbridge, an investigation into historic child abuse set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal. Detectives are building a picture of the reach of the network which allegedly used the property and have seized a number of files from local authorities.

The Elm Guest House in Rocks Lane, Barnes, said to have been frequented in the Seventies and Eighties by prominent peoples including former Tory politicians, is at the centre of the investigation.

An Independent on Sunday investigation last week revealed the disgraced former MP Cyril Smith was a frequent visitor to the property, and it is understood detectives have also looked at the role of Carole Kasir, the guest house manager who died in suspicious circumstances.

To some, German-born Kasir's liberal-minded attitudes prompted her, in the mid-1970s, to offer a meeting place for gay men embarrassed by their sexual orientation just a decade after it was made legal. To others it was the starting place that ultimately led her to accumulate substantial sums of money by letting rooms where child porn videos were shot and exploitative men could abuse underage boys brought in from a local care homes.

Kasir who ran the guest house with her husband Haroon Kasir, died on 17 June 1990, aged 47, eight years after a specialist police team raided the guest house, which has since been turned into flats.

At the inquest into her death, the court heard Kasir, a diabetic, was found by a friend about 11am with "numerous injections and phials of insulin" next to her body, but that did little to stem a series of outlandish allegations. The inquest was shown suicide notes allegedly written by Kasir to her lover, but three witnesses two child protection workers and a private detective queried the provenance of the notes, telling the court Kasir feared for her life because of what she knew. She had been receiving threatening phone calls, was being harassed by police and told them she was being followed by an unmarked car, they said.

After adjourning the case several times, the coroner ruled she had "taken her own life" and that she died from hypoglycaemia caused by an insulin overdose. Friends claimed there were questions that were not adequatelyanswered, such as why Kasir was injected several times in the bottom, when she always took her injections in the arm. One witness at the inquest said he was shown photos of illustrious public figures in compromising poses, an allegation recently backed up by another witness.

Those friendly with Kasir said that, in the months before her death, she spoke about lifting the lid on the guest house, including listing those who visited, in a book.

In October last year, the Labour MP Tom Watson alleged in the Commons that there was evidence of child abuse in senior Tory circles. During the current investigation, Downing Street has been anxious to keep abreast of developments, but police have sought to maintain strict confidentiality. They are now pursuing a number of leads resulting from witness statements and documents seized after detectives raided the home of a former child protection worker last month. Anyone with information should contact Operation Fernbridge on 020 7161 0500.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Councils have legal duties to protect children in their care.

Investigative reporter Eilenn Fairweather found that councils frequentlyl sent children to Jersey and sometimes lost their files...

Birmingham council illegally sent children into care in Jersey, MP report reveals

By Eileen Fairweather

UPDATED: 11:39, 4 August 2008

Daily Mail

MP John Hemming

At least five children were illegally placed in care on Jersey by Birmingham social services, which then lost track of them.

Four of the youngsters - who are now adults - are still on the island and have been traced by local police. But the whereabouts of the fifth, a male born in the Fifties, remains unknown.

The revelation comes amid continuing police investigations into 100 charred bone fragments and 65 milk teeth found at Jersey's now notorious Haut de la Garenne former children's home.

Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming, who discovered that his local city council had sent children to Jersey, believes other children from the UK 'were also placed in care there'.

The MP for Birmingham Yardley added: 'The Government has refused to order councils to check properly because it does not want to open a can of worms, on the links between abusers in England and Jersey.'

The Mail on Sunday has also learned that children from UK local authorities, which have also been the subject of abuse allegations, were taken on holiday to Haut de la Garenne, where the bone fragments are said to belong to five children whom detectives believe were killed.

The inquiry suffered a setback last week when forensic experts revealed that the age of the remains cannot be dated, meaning a murder inquiry is unlikely. But nearly 100 former care residents have alleged gross physical and sexual abuse.

Birmingham council only discovered it had placed five children in foster care on Jersey because, at Mr Hemming's request, it checked old accounts. It found it made payments to Jersey for child care between 1960 and 1990. Yet a social work file survived on only one child.

Haut de la Garenne

Jersey children's care home Haut de la Garenne

Mr Hemming praised the council for 'doing what every council should do now'. He added: 'It is not responsible for what happened under earlier administrations, and I can't believe it was the only British authority which used Jersey. The system nationally is not properly accountable. Children are taken into care never to be seen again.'

Schools Minister Kevin Brennan has told the Commons that checks are unnecessary because children from the UK cannot be placed in care in Jersey without a court order. Yet the five Birmingham children were sent to Jersey without such orders.

Although he has no information suggesting any crime took place, Mr Hemming is concerned that the fifth man's history and whereabouts remain unknown. 'How many other councils dumped kids there and forgot about them?' he said.

Birmingham City Council said: 'We will co-operate fully if needed by the Jersey authorities to investigate the whereabouts of adults from any placements made historically by Birmingham City Council.'

Mr Hemming has asked English councils to check their records under the Freedom of Information Act. He said: 'Most seem only to have done cursory checks, just checking recent electronic files, or asking around the office.'

Responses obtained by The Mail on Sunday confirm this. A handful of councils refused to check at all.

They included Islington in North London, whose 12 children's homes were infamously infiltrated between the Seventies and Nineties by a child sex and pornography network, while Margaret Hodge was council leader.

Key staff, The Mail on Sunday recently revealed, were from Jersey or had strong Channel Islands connections. The council told Mr Hemming that checking its records would cost too much.

Liz Davies, the former Islington senior social worker who bravely blew the whistle on the scandal, said last night: 'It is becoming clear that children at Haut de la Garenne were sent on holiday to children's homes in England which were also notorious for abuse, while the children in the English homes they went to were sent to Haut de la Garenne. They literally swapped beds.'

She did not feel able yet to reveal which authorities were involved.

'But I am perturbed that police in Britain have not written to all local authorities on the mainland to demand they check which children they sent to Jersey,' she added.

'During the North Wales abuse scandal in the Nineties, when I was a child protection manager in London, police asked all councils to check had we sent any of our children to its care homes. Many had, then just forgotten about them.

'Children in care are often shipped about, and paedophiles love placing them far from home.'

Mr Hemming is furious the Government has refused to respond to the call for councils to check records until after the summer break.

He said: 'They are stalling because they are embarrassed by the size of the problem, and because it involves English authorities, too.'

[Jan Klimkowski]

In post #174 onwards in this thread, information - some of it from Hansard - can be seen about the attempts of Geoffrey Dickens MP to expose paedophile activity.

The account also details the efforts of the Thatcher government and security to protect members of the Paedophile Information Exchange.

Now we learn that Geoffrey Dickens handed a file containing details of of alleged paedophile activity to Thatcher's Home Secretary, Leon Brittan.

This file has apparently been lost by Her Majesty's Government.

Leon Brittan resigend as Secretary of State for Trade & Industry in January 1986, was knighted in 1989, and became a Eurocrat. He's now Baron Brittan of Spennithorne.

Anyway...

Once again we get some proper reporting from the Sunday People / Mirror.

Elm guest house: Home Office was warned by top Tory 30 years ago of VIP paedophile ring

10 Feb 2013 00:00

Geoffrey Dickens MP handed over a 50-page dossier detailing VIP child abuse in 1984
Geoffrey Dickens (left) was assured his allegations would be investigated Geoffrey Dickens (left) was assured his allegations would be investigated
Rex

A senior Tory MP handed an explosive dossier *alleging VIP child abuse to the Government almost 30 years ago, the Sunday People can reveal.

The 50 pages contained information about suspected paedophile rings, police misconduct and abuse of boys in a care home.

There are suggestions the dossier contained links to the notorious Elm guest house in south-west London which is currently the focus of the Met Police's investigation Operation Fernbridge.

But the file has disappeared.

It was presented to the Home Office by Geoffrey Dickens MP in 1984.

Later he had a half-hour meeting with the then-Home Secretary Leon Brittan which Mr Dickens described as encouraging.

The MP for Littleborough and Saddleworth said he had been assured his allegations of a UK-wide paedophile ring would be fully investigated.

But there is no evidence Mr Dickens' findings were ever followed up and the Home Office admits it has no idea where the file is now.

Our revelations support claims first made in the Commons last October by campaigning MP Tom Watson that evidence of a VIP paedophile ring with links to the heart of government was not *followed up in the early 1980s.

The Front of the Barnes Brothel at Rocks Lane South West London The Front of the Barnes Brothel at Rocks Lane South West London


Together they raise concerns that a cover-up perhaps orchestrated by MI5 or Scotland Yard's Special Branch may have protected senior figures mentioned in the dossier.

Mr Watson has now tabled a Parliamentary question asking Home Secretary Theresa May to track down the Dickens dossier and make it available to MPs.

Mr Dickens, who died in 1995 aged 63, spent years collecting his evidence. The colourful MP was convinced he had solid proof of a VIP paedophile network with links to Parliament, Buckingham Palace and other areas of public life.

It is believed he handed at least two dossiers to the Government.

In 1981 he used Parliamentary privilege to name diplomat Sir Peter Hayman as a paedophile.

Three years earlier an envelope containing obscene literature and written material had been found on a London bus.

A police investigation found vile correspondence between Sir Peter and several other people.

But no prosecution was brought against the diplomat, who worked for MI6 and was High Commissioner to Canada.

The police uncovered Hayman's links to the *infamous Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE).

The twisted pressure group lobbied for child-sex perverts to be given equal rights and for the age of consent to be lowered to four.

In 1983, Mr Dickens said there were "big, big names people in positions of power, influence and responsibility" and threatened to expose them in Parliament if no action was taken against PIE.

The MP handed a *one-million strong petition against the group to Home Secretary Mr Brittan.

In 1984 he revealed he had called for Mr Brittan to investigate the allegations in his dossier.

He added: "The dossier contained allegations of a child offence in a children's home."

Flats that used to be Elm guest house Flats that used to be Elm guest house


Reports at the time said the file described a youth worker abusing boys in his care, and a TV boss *allegedly abusing a child.

Now investigators are keen to see the dossier as the probe into the Elm guest house gathers pace.

Operation Fernbridge was set up to investigate claims the Elm a gay brothel was used by high-profile paedophiles to abuse boys in the late 1970s and early 80s.

Documents seen by police and first revealed in a joint investigation between the Sunday People and Exaro website show that guests at the Elm had connections with the royal household, politics and showbusiness.

Last week one victim told the Sunday People how as a 13-year-old he was taken from nearby Grafton Close care home to the Elm where he was plied with drink, dressed in a fairy costume and then abused by "posh men".

A Home Office spokesman said: "We are aware of media reports from the 1980s about papers *collected by Geoffrey Dickens.

"Files from that time are no *longer held centrally by the department, but work is underway to find out what relevant documents have been archived."

[Jan Klimkowski]

There's a 50-minute documentary about the Sidney Cooke and his paeophile gang linked earlier in this thread.

The evidence of the involvement of powerful figures has been known for decades.

Will justice now be done?

I'm not holding my breath.

VIP paedophile ring

The net closes: Ex-Tory chief faces child sex arrest over claims girl was raped and boys were abused

Sunday Mirror 16 Feb 2013 22:30

The probe into a former Cabinet minister, the notorious paedophile Sidney Cooke, Jimmy Savile and MP Cyril Smith
Ex-minister: He allegedly raped a girl Ex-minister: He allegedly raped a girl

Police are *preparing to arrest a former Tory Cabinet minister after a woman came forward to claim she had been raped by him as a girl.

Detectives are also investigating claims that he abused boys.

We can reveal that the former minister is suspected of being part of a VIP *paedophile ring that was regularly handed boys by child rapist and killer Sidney Cooke for vile sex orgies.

The former high-ranking MP, who we cannot name, is under investigation by Scotland Yard's paedophile unit.

Sources close to the probe gave details of the new allegations to the Sunday *Mirror and investigative news website *Exaro.

A former detective who worked on the original investigation into Cooke told the Sunday Mirror that the minister was among those alleged to have been *photographed in a 1986 police surveillance on premises where boys had been dropped off.

Others allegedly included Jimmy Savile, MP Cyril Smith and top judges though none of them were ever arrested.

Cooke, 85 dubbed Britain's most notorious paedophile after he tortured and killed 14-year-old Jason Swift in 1985 would pick the unsuspecting teenage boys up off the streets around Kings Cross.

He would drive them to locations across North London where paedophiles lay in wait to repeatedly rape them.

Last week the former officer, who worked on Operation Orchid which convicted Cooke and his gang, said they had taken pictures of the minister.

Jimmy Savile Sick Jimmy Savile was 'part of the gang'



The former officer said up to 16 high profile figures were due to be arrested. But the day before they were to be carried out detectives were told the operation had been disbanded.

The revelation means Scotland Yard knew about allegations concerning the Cabinet Minister and Savile in 1986 but did nothing about it, instead choosing to cover up the claims.

A source told Exaro last week that senior officers, including Commander Peter Spindler, the head of the Paedophile Unit, have had a secret briefing on preparations to arrest the ex-minister.

It is understood that the investigation is at an early stage but there is a plan to arrest him in the next few weeks.

After the 1986 operation into Cooke was disbanded the former officer went to check the file only to find the pictures had disappeared and any mention of the men involved had also vanished.

The former officer said: "It was clear a cover-up had taken place.

"The investigation showed that Cooke would pick up rent boys and take them back to flats or garages where large groups of men were waiting to abuse them.

"These paedophiles, which included a lot of high-profile figures that were said to include the former Cabinet Minister, Savile and MP Cyril Smith, all knew each other and all operated together. They would lie in wait and Cooke would turn up with the boy who wouldn't know what was going to happen.

"We had photographic evidence of these high-profile figures entering or leaving buildings where the abuse was taking place. Everyone knew Savile was a paedo but nothing was ever done.

"Cyril Smith was photographed going into one of the properties with a high-profile film director.

"All of the others were pictured and were going to be arrested before the plug was pulled. I was sickened and to this day I wonder how many children we could have saved if we had been allowed to arrest those men.

"I feel guilty they weren't arrested but there was nothing I could do at the time as the evidence had gone."

Cyril Smith MP MP Cyril Smith was spotted in surveillance


The Sunday Mirror knows the identity of the paedophiles in the gang but has chosen not to name them.

In 1993 Detective Superintendent Ed Williams tried to track down the Orchid file on Cooke to see if there were any similarities with the abduction and murder of nine-year-old Daniel Handley, but he struggled to find the folder.

He eventually found it in the basement of Arbour Square Police Station in Stepney, East London.

While there were references to a "wider paedophile ring" there were no photographs or names.

Mr Williams said: "I was very upset about the way the Met treated paedophile cases but I was a voice in the wilderness at that time and people thought I was being over-emotional.

"I found the Orchid files where they had been put for storage purposes and somebody had completely forget to send it back to the Yard. I was trying to look for paedophiles and connections with other cases as I was trying to build up a profile of the offender.

"The report spoke about boys being passed around from paedophile to paedophile.

"There were no pictures on the file. It did mention that there was a wider ring of individuals but did not mention Jimmy Savile or a cabinet minister."

Sidney Cooke Child killer: Rapist Sidney Cooke


Sidney Cooke, along with three accomplices Leslie Bailey, Robert Oliver and Steven Barrell was found guilty of the manslaughter of Jason Swift in May 1989. They have been linked to up to 20 murders.

Cooke was believed to have murdered seven-year-old Mark Tildesley but the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to bring charges as he was already serving 19 years for Jason's death.

He was released in 1998, to a public outcry, but was rearrested the following year for systematically abusing two boys in the 1970s and jailed for life.

Savile was exposed last year as one of the UK's most prolific paedophiles, with 450 victims. Police said he "groomed a *nation" by avoiding justice while *abusing hundreds of children over 54 years.

Officers on Operation Yewtree, which investigated the claims, have also *arrested celebrities including Gary Glitter, comedian Freddie Starr, DJ Dave Lee Travis, publicist Max Clifford and comedian Jim Davidson. All have denied any wrongdoing and not all the allegations involve under-16s.

Scotland Yard said they would not comment on an on-going investigation.

Visit the Exaro website for more on this story.

[Jan Klimkowski]

And on it goes....

Meanwhile, will any meaningful arrests take place?

Jimmy Savile: police inspector 'may have acted on star's behalf'

Police watchdog working to expose 'catalogue of institutional failings' that left TV personality free to attack hundreds

Vikram Dodd
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 February 2013 12.32 GMT

Jimmy Savile, who died in 2011, is thought to have commited 200 offences over several decades. Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA

The police watchdog has began examining the police's dealings with Jimmy Savile, as it promises to help expose "a catalogue of institutional failings" that left the TV star free to molest hundreds of people.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission said an investigation had begun into a police inspector from the West Yorkshire force who may have "acted on behalf" of Savile ahead of an interview by detectives from the Surrey force.

The IPCC is also asking a total of seven forces to examine their files to see if there are any concerns about the way their officers dealt with Savile and related matters.

The Guardian understands this is in part triggered by material passed to the IPCC by an inquiry already under way into police dealings with Savile. That inquiry is being conducted by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, and was ordered by the home secretary.

Savile attacked hundreds of people, including children, across several decades of sexual offending. Police say re-investigation has led them to record over 200 offences.

Failings by police and prosecutors meant the one chance to bring Jimmy Savile to justice while he was alive was lost, the director of public prosecution has admitted.

Official reports already released revealed that police across the country including the Metropolitan police, Surrey, Sussex and Savile's home force, West Yorkshire failed to share information, in some cases failed to record allegations against him and in other cases even warned victims off.

When Savile was finally interviewed by detectives in 2009, the encounter was "perfunctory" and he was allowed to control the proceedings, a review by Surrey police found.

Ahead of that 2009 interview, a former inspector from the West Yorkshire police contacted the Surrey force. According to a report from Surrey police, the inspector said he was known to Savile; said the entertainer had lost a number for the detectives who wanted to interview him; and passed on a number where Savile could be reached.

According to the Surrey report, when interviewed by their detectives, Savile said he knew senior police officers from Leeds, named one inspector, and said that officers had been to his home socially to have tea.

The IPCC said it will investigate the former West Yorkshire police inspector's relationship and dealings with Savile.

In a statement the IPCC said: "The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has received a referral from West Yorkshire police in relation to the alleged actions of a former police inspector. The allegations refer to the officer having 'acted on behalf' of the late Jimmy Savile by contacting Surrey police ahead of a police interview in 2009.

"The referral follows a direction from the IPCC to record and refer the conduct of the former inspector, identified in a Surrey police report as 'Inspector 5'."

The IPCC added that it had asked seven forces to start inquiries to examine if police misconduct had helped Savile escape justice. The IPCC said: "These forces are West Yorkshire, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley, Greater Manchester, the Metropolitan and Lancashire police forces. They have been asked to re-look at all information relating to the late Jimmy Savile. The IPCC has asked that each force provides the relevant documents and, if they decide not to record or refer any matters, the rationale for not doing so."

IPCC commissioner Rachel Cerfontyne said: "Having had the opportunity to assess all the information that is available to us, I directed West Yorkshire police to record and refer the conduct of a former inspector.

"Furthermore I believe all the forces that may have had intelligence concerning the late Jimmy Savile should now go back and consider all the relevant information and materials they possess that may highlight any recordable conduct issues for the IPCC to assess.

"A number of bodies are already working to address the deep-rooted public concern in this case and have published reports. It is now for the IPCC to assess thoroughly whether or not there are matters in relation to the conduct of individual officers that require an IPCC investigation. This may be of little comfort to victims of crime, but I hope that the IPCC can play some part in addressing what many see as a catalogue of institutional failings."

[Jan Klimkowski]

In a shameful day, Tim Davie, the stooge - sorry acting Director-General - running the BBC refused all interview requests from media organisations, instead granting a solitary interview to the BBC itself to be used on a pool basis. Needless to say, the interview was about as challenging as a relaxing sojourn on the sofa watching Neighbours....

This prompted the quote of the day from rival Channel 4 News:

Channel 4 News editor Ben De Pear has been venting his frustration at the BBC in no uncertain terms this afternoon.

"So as the BBC release a publicly funded report into a public body the acting DG of the BBC will only be interviewed by the BBC about the BBC. In my time as a TV journalist I have been offered interviews with the following people produced by their own organisations; President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad of Iran, President Charles Taylor of Liberia, & Tim Davie of the BBC. We got Mugabe and Ahmedinejad ourselves but not Taylor & turned down his offer of self interview; we are still trying for Tim Davie."

The testimony of Jeremy Paxman, the notoriously grumpy BBC2 Newsnight presenter, has been heavily redacted.

What remains of Paxman's testimony has the whiff of inconvenient truth.

Personally, I have very little doubt that the decision to kill the investigation into Savile's paedophilia was corporate.

Jeremy Paxman: Newsnight's failure to tackle Jimmy Savile was 'pathetic'

Presenter told internal inquiry he believed BBC's decision not to pursue abandoned investigation was a 'policy judgment'

John Plunkett
guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 February 2013 13.50 GMT

Jeremy Paxman: criticised the BBC's decision not to pursue the claims about Jimmy Savile that emerged from a Newsnight investigation. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman has described as "pathetic" his programme's failure to tackle the Savile scandal sooner and said he believed it was a BBC "policy judgment" not to pursue the original investigation abandoned by the current affairs show in late 2011.

Paxman told the BBC's internal inquiry into the Savile scandal that he believed it was a "corporate decision" to drop Newsnight's investigation into the late Jim'll Fix It presenter in December 2011. He was also critical of BBC News management, which he said had made a raft of politically-based appointments with a similar mindset.

He said it was "pathetic" that Newsnight did not cover the Savile issue sooner. "We wouldn't even tackle a bloody story that was about our own programme. This is pathetic."

Paxman told Nick Pollard, the former head of Sky News who ran the inquiry, that he disagreed with the decision to drop Newsnight's Savile investigation but said it was unfair that the programme's then editor, Peter Rippon, had been treated as the "fall guy".

The Newsnight presenter's comments were revealed in the transcripts of his evidence to the Pollard inquiry, published on Friday.

They revealed that Paxman had also pressed Rippon to run a Savile story on the days leading up to the 3 October 2012 broadcast of the ITV exposé which plunged the corporation into crisis. But he said Rippon's response was a "blanket refusal to entertain the idea".

"What struck me about his reply ... He said, 'I am sorry, I just can't do this'," said Paxman.

"And I thought that was a very, very unusual word to use, 'can't', because the normal judgment I mean, no, we are not going to do it, because we have got - we haven't got time or we are doing politics or we are doing too many social stories.

"'Can't' was a very, very unusual word to use, and I didn't say, 'What do you mean 'can't'? Someone has told you that you can't, or you physically can't face it?'"

Paxman added: "Now I think my suspicion is that there may well have been an element of both."

Paxman told his editor in an email that the decision to drop its Savile report in 2011 "must have been a corporate decision, whatever your blog says".

The Newsnight presenter told the Pollard inquiry: "It is my belief, but I have no evidence."

Paxman said: "The BBC's line had been that decisions are in the hands of individual editors. This is an attempt to demonstrate that it is not some great corporate monolith.

"In fact, it doesn't need to be, because the the cast of mind that has overtaken the senior echelons, the sort of people that they appoint ... there is a raft of appointments now that have been made of people who are clearly not the most creative, and decisions appear to be being made about appointments which are politically I mean 'politically' with a small 'P' politically based, and they are to do with perpetuating a particular type of journalism."

Paxman's evidence to the inquiry had been keenly anticipated after he issued a statement lambasting BBC management on the night of George Entwistle's resignation as director general in November last year.

There is no explicit criticism of the then BBC News director Helen Boaden, but Paxman was scathing about the way the division has been run in recent years, saying it had been taken over by "radio people".

He said the BBC News operation had become more centralised in the wake of the Hutton report in 2004, what he described as a "general drawing in of horns" and a "cultural change".

Boaden became the BBC's first female director of news in 2004, six months after the publication of Hutton report, which was heavily critical of the corporation's journalism in relation to the Iraq war dossier and led the resignation of the corporation's director general Greg Dyke and chairman Gavyn Davies.

"Post Hutton there has been a greater centralisation, or a desire for greater centralisation of editorial decision making ... at the expense of the sort of independence previously exercised at the time when George Entwistle was running Newsnight or Peter Barron or various distinguished figures," said Paxman.

Paxman added that the BBC's news division had been "taken over by radio ... Helen Boaden, a radio person. Steve Mitchell, a radio person. Peter Rippon was a radio person. These people belong to a different kind of culture."

On the appointment of Rippon much of Paxman's evidence appears to be redacted.

But he described radio people as having a greater "preoccupation with the institution ... In television it tends to be a younger person's game, There are - with fewer older people in it and fewer people - I would say, preoccupied with their pensions".

Paxman told the inquiry: "I don't think you are the sort of BBC lifer that he [Rippon] is without absorbing the mindset of the organisation. They all had it, whether it is Helen, or Steve or Peter Rippon or many others ... One man making an apparently independent decision while in fact reflecting a corporate culture."

When he read reports about ITV's planned Savile documentary, Paxman asked Rippon to run a Newsnight report about the disgraced presenter as soon as possible, the day before the Exposure documentary's broadcast or even the same night.

But Paxman said Rippon's response was a "blanket refusal to entertain the idea".

Paxman told Rippon in an email that the decision to drop the Savile report "must have been a corporate decision, whatever your blog says".

Rippon denied it was a corporation decision, telling Paxman: "It wasn't corporate, honestly. I guess I may have been guilty of self-censorship."

While he thought the decision not to run the investigation was wrong, Paxman said in an email that it was "very unfair, and frankly not at all untypical, that the BBC has dumped all this on one individual [Rippon]." He said the BBC's behaviour was "contemptible".

Paxman told the inquiry: "He was being used as the fall guy ... I profoundly disagree with the BBC's refusal to engage with it and to justify or attempt to justify its position."

He said he had "no evidence" about Jimmy Savile's behaviour but described it as "common gossip".

On several pages of Paxman's transcripts, more words are redacted than actually appear.

Asked by Pollard how he thought Newsnight had performed in 2011 under Rippon, Paxman was reluctant to discuss it, saying he would rather do so "over a cup of tea or something". But when it was pointed out that the programme won the Royal Television Society news programme of the year, he was disparaging.

"Oh come on! You of all people know how those things are worked out. I mean, we didn't I did not feel ... it was a really unhelpful thing to have happened to the programme, to be able to boast, even if it is a rather pointless sort of award. To have been given such a gong was not really terribly helpful, nor did it seem to be based upon any particularly informed judgment."

Paxman said BBC management should have "got on the front foot" once the crisis began to break. He said the BBC's press operation was "terrible" and should have been more proactive.

Paxman said the BBC had "never felt comfortable with popular culture" which was why it gave so much airtime to Savile.

"What was the BBC doing promoting this absurd figure, this absurd and malign figure? They have never felt comfortable with popular culture and they have therefore given those who claim to perpetrate it too much licence ... that is the bigger challenge the organisation faces."

Paxman said he did not watch the ITV documentary about Savile. "Why should I have done? It is sleazy, sleazy behaviour in a world I dislike," he added.

He did not watch the Panorama programme either, although he did ask for a script. "Clearly it was going to make life difficult for us, I thought ... one needed to know what was going to be in the Panorama in order to deal with it."

[Jan Klimkowski]

And then some..

BBC knew of Jimmy Savile's 'dark side' before tribute aired

Transcripts from the Pollard review reveal some senior executives were 'queasy' about tribute programme

Vanessa Thorpe
The Observer, Saturday 23 February 2013 21.28 GMT


The BBC was aware of allegations surrounding Jimmy Savile.

The BBC misled the public by broadcasting glowing tributes to Jimmy Savile although key managers knew he had "dark sides" to his personality, detailed interviews with BBC staff reveal.

Celebrations of the life and work of Savile that were aired on the BBC after his death helped to continue to mask his criminal behaviour and hide the damage he had left behind him, aside from the now notorious dropping of the planned Newsnight investigation into his crimes at a children's home.

The BBC inquiry transcripts that were made public on Friday show that those who commissioned programmes about the late radio DJ and television presenter were "queasy" about portraying his personality. Interviews given by top BBC executives to last year's inquiry panel, chaired by Sky's Nick Pollard, have now laid bare the extent of the corporation's communication failures and errors of judgment when it came to telling the truth about Savile.

Helen Goodman, the shadow culture minister with responsibility for media reform, called this weekend for a thorough review of BBC policy on communication about potentially difficult programmes. "The transcripts reveal the total chaos at the BBC's higher management when it came to communication. Some people seem to have known, while other people were busy working on tributes."

New evidence shows that Jan Younghusband, the BBC's head of music and obituaries, told George Entwistle, who was then in charge of television output, that she had been asked not to make an obituary "because of the darker side of the story". Nick Vaughan-Barratt, the BBC's head of events, who had worked closely with Savile, informed colleagues that he was "queasy" and told Younghusband the BBC should not make a straight obituary film because they could not cover his personal life. A tribute to his broadcasting career was thought preferable.

"We have to be clear at that point I didn't know what that dark side was," Younghusband told Pollard's panel. "I just thought he was a creepy guy." She went on to explain that "In the entertainment industry all kinds of things happen, but if they were going to celebrate his television career at that point I knew nothing that would prevent you celebrating his television career."

She told the inquiry she had a suspicion that "he was into boys".

Savile was being lauded elsewhere in the media, she told Pollard, explaining that she could not make a film based on rumour. Pollard replied: "But you could refrain from making an unalloyed celebratory film if there was a dark side, even if you hadn't defined it completely?"

Younghusband made no film, but was given a tribute to run, put together by the TV production company, True North. "The half hour, I imagine, was taken because it was available," she told Pollard. "And it was convenient to take it, and inexpensive."

Later Younghusband emphasised that, had she known of Savile's crimes, she would have demanded the tribute was cancelled.

Labour's Goodman said this weekend that new evidence shows the BBC dodging responsibility for Savile. "The difference between an obituary and a tribute would be lost on most people watching, to be frank," she told the Observer. "I don't think they should have been playing about with these words. They should have got control of the situation much earlier."

In his evidence to Pollard the Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman blamed the BBC's "aloofness". "They have never felt comfortable with popular culture and they have therefore given those who claim to perpetrate it too much licence," he said.

Alan Yentob, the BBC's creative director, denied the charge that the programme makers are aloof and told the Observer that Danny Cohen, the head of BBC1, and other commissioning editors, including Younghusband, have repeatedly reviewed what went wrong and are changing procedures following the death of controversial figures.

"In the world of blogs and tweets on the web there is just so much rumour out there about celebrities, much of it anonymous, and so it is even harder now to handle these issues. It is more difficult to authenticate things," Yentob said.

"But you do have to interrogate such rumours and, at the point you take them seriously, you then have to pursue an inquiry."

The psychologist Oliver James said that rumours abound about celebrities who behave badly, so it can be hard to draw a line. "But the BBC is riddled with micro-managers and when there is an issue like this it becomes a question of micro-blindness," he said.

When Pollard published the findings of his report last December he said Cohen and Entwistle were guilty of mishandling the tribute shows, but transcripts now show that grave doubts about Savile's personality were widespread. Younghusband was one of the few to raise the issue explicitly.

The evidence of Liz MacKean, the former Newsnight reporter who wanted to investigate Savile, reveals that BBC website moderators took down a succession of negative comments about Savile following his death, including a number that accused him of paedophilia. Website moderation, or monitoring, Entwistle explains to Pollard's panel, is done by an independent company.

One experienced BBC production insider told the Observer the divisions in the BBC have made it malfunction. "If everyone on Newsnight knew it was true that Savile was a paedophile, it should not have run a tribute to someone who was molesting girls in wheelchairs before they went on to Top of the Pops. A culture of secrecy has taken over at the BBC that would make the Greek Junta of the 1960s green with envy."

Entwistle, who left the BBC after 54 days as director-general, told Pollard that the question of how to handle the death of a celebrity with a dubious personal life was one of judgment. "You might feel that the key thing was that you wanted to get it out as fast as you possibly could, because the fact that there was one popular attitude to Savile needed to be corrected by the journalistic revelations that would indicate that another attitude should be taken," he said.

He later added he had no sense that Savile commemoration was "a massive part of our Christmas plan" in the TV schedules.

The BBC has formally advertised for directors of TV and news, as its incoming director-general, Lord Hall, assembles a new team.

[Jan Klimkowski]

The copies of Geoffrey Dickens MP's dossier of elite paedophiles have been destroyed: to protect the criminals, and in the case of the family's copy, out of fear.

My emphasis in bold.

Tory MP warned of powerful paedophile ring 30 years ago

New evidence supports claim former backbencher's life was threatened

Friday 22 February 2013 The Independent

A burly veteran of scores of amateur boxing bouts, the Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens was best known during his bustling 16-year career in Parliament as a pugnacious right-winger who supplied "hang em and flog em" quotes to the tabloids.

Eighteen years after his death, however, the backbencher's reputation as a political lightweight is being revised in the wake of a Scotland Yard investigation which is exhuming a scandal long buried in the Westminster of Margaret Thatcher's premiership.

New evidence suggests that Dickens stumbled upon an Establishment paedophile ring in the early 1980s and that his efforts to expose a cover-up left him in fear of his life. Dickens told fellow MPs that after warning of the existence of the network, he had received threatening phone calls and been burgled twice. He also claimed he had been placed on a "hit-list", he told the House of Commons in a little-noticed speech.

For four years between 1981 and 1985, Dickens railed in Parliament against a paedophile ring which he claimed was connected to a trade in child pornography, then controlled by gangsters.

In 1981 Dickens had used Parliamentary privilege to name a diplomat and MI6 operative, Sir Peter Hayman as a pederast and demanded the Attorney General explain why he had escaped prosecution over the discovery of violent pornography on a London bus two years previously.

Two years later, in 1983, he warned a paedophile network involved "big, big names people in positions of power, influence and responsibility" and threatened to expose them in Parliament.

In 1984, he campaigned for the outlawing of Sir Peter's Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) organisation. He also handed a dossier containing allegations of abuse of children in local authority care to the then Home Secretary, Leon Brittan.

After a 30-minute meeting with Sir Leon, Dickens said he had been "encouraged" but later expressed concern that the Cabinet Minister had not banned the PIE.

Last month Metropolitan Police began Operation Fernbridge into allegations that residents of a childrens home in Richmond, west London, were taken to the nearby Elm Guest House in Barnes, where they were abused. Pornography involving adults having sex with children was allegedly shot at the property and then circulated commercially.

Sir Peter was among the visitors to the property. Others, according to a list seized by Scotland Yard last month, were the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith, the former Russian spy Sir Anthony Blunt, a Sinn Fein politician, a Labour MP, and several Conservative politicians.

After neighbours complained about the arrival of children, the police raided the guesthouse in 1982 but the operation was mysteriously cut short. A 2003 investigation also failed.

During a debate on child abuse in the House of Commons on 29 November 1985, Dickens warned that paedophiles were "evil and dangerous," adding child pornography generated "vast sums."

He went on: "The noose around my neck grew tighter after I named a former high-flying British diplomat on the Floor of the House.

"Honourable Members will understand that where big money is involved and as important names came into my possession so the threats began.

"First, I received threatening telephone calls followed by two burglaries at my London home. Then, more seriously, my name appeared on a multi-killer's hit list."

The Independent can find no corroboration for Dickens' comments.

However twenty-eight years after he made them, Scotland Yard officers kept their new investigation secret for weeks, fearful that it would be closed down like earlier inquiries.

In a blog on his website, the Labour MP Tom Watson whose claims of a powerful paedophile network prompted the new inquiry said that he had been advised by childcare experts who have tried to expose the scandal to be careful about his personal security. He has asked the Home Office for the dossier presented by Dickens to Sir Leon, but it has not yet been found.

Dickens does not appear to have raised the issue in the Commons again prior to his death in 1995. He told friends he was surprised he had never been made a minister.

The MP: a man of verve

Geoffrey Dickens was one of the most colourful characters in the Commons during the 1980s and 1990s. Born in London in 1931, he was raised in foster care until he was eight.

He suffered polio at the age of 13 but recovered to become a heavyweight boxer. Mr Dickens was elected MP for Huddersfield West in 1979 and for Littleborough and Saddleworth in 1983, which he represented until his death in 1995.

His obituary in The Independent concluded that whatever might be said of him, Dickens was "a man of colour, verve and dedication who stood out often for the wrong reasons among the dull Parliamentarians of our time."

[Jan Klimkowski]

The official version is pretty damning.

And it is of course an official version.

Aka limited hangout.

BBC News

The allegations uncovered by HMIC include:

A missed opportunity to investigate Savile in 1963 when a male victim reported to Cheshire police that he had been raped by Savile. An officer told the victim to "forget about it". Cheshire Police says it can find no record of the allegation.

A man who reported to police in London that his girlfriend had been assaulted at a recording of Top of the Pops and was warned that he "could be arrested for making such allegations" and sent away

In 1964 intelligence about Savile was entered into a ledger used by the Met's paedophile unit. It said the DJ had visited an address used by girls who had absconded from Duncroft Approved School in Surrey. There is no record of any investigation

Anonymous allegations sent to the Met in 1998 in a letter that described Savile as a "deeply committed paedophile"

In 2003, the Met also compiled a crime report relating to a complaint about a 1970s incident

In 2007, Surrey Police compiled a report after complaints from three victims and the following year a Sussex report focused on a complaint from one victim.

Pursue Savile and you'll be arrested.

Is that clear?

Jimmy Savile police 'reluctant to investigate because of celebrity status'

Watchdog highlights failures in information sharing between forces and reveals DJ could have been stopped in 1964

Josh Halliday and Haroon Siddique
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 March 2013 08.59 GMT

Jimmy Savile's celebrity status contributed to the police's failure to prevent him sexually abusing hundreds of young people over five decades when they could have stopped him in the 1960s, the compiler of a highly critical report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has said.

The watchdog's inquiry into the police's handling of Savile revealed that the disgraced DJ, who died in October 2011, could have been stopped as early as 1964 but police mishandled evidence and dismissed victims.

Drusilla Sharpling, from HMIC, said police appeared to be reluctant to investigate Savile because of his high public profile.

"It is clear that because of several Savile's celebrity status and the power, maybe people do look for that extra piece of evidence, behaving with an extra sense of caution, because of the power he wielded," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday.

In a 61-page report to the home secretary, Theresa May, HMIC raised fresh concerns about information sharing in the police and warned that officers could fail to prevent a Savile-like scandal happening again.

The inspectorate described a "cultural mistrust" of evidence from children, warning that procedures adopted by various agencies over many years had left vulnerable young people unprotected by the criminal justice system.

"The findings in this report are of deep concern, and clearly there were mistakes in how the police handled the allegations made against Savile during his lifetime," said Sharpling.

"However, an equally profound problem is that victims felt unable to come forward and report crimes of sexual abuse."

She said there were two key recommendations identified by HMIC. The first was an obligation on those who, in the course of their professional duties, become aware of information or evidence that a child is or has been the victim of abuse, to notify others. The second was to make the management of information on the Police National Database (PND) "slicker and more comprehensive".

Five allegations of sexual assault were recorded against Savile in his lifetime, according to HMIC compared with the 600 made since October last year, when the Metropolitan police launched its Operation Yewtree investigation.

Meanwhile, eight victims have so far come forward with concerns about how their allegations against Savile were handled and the inspectorate revealed examples of how a series of complaints about him were dismissed by police officers.

In 1963, a Cheshire man was told by a police officer to "forget about it" and "move on" when he reported an allegation of rape by Savile, according to HMIC.

Another man who tried to report an assault his girlfriend had suffered at a recording of Top of the Pops was told by police he "could be arrested for making such allegations" and dismissed.

The inspectorate investigated seven incidents including five sexual assault complaints by victims and two pieces of intelligence and concluded that a failure to join the dots left police unable to derail Savile's five-decade reign of abuse.

In an alarming finding, HMIC warned that inconsistencies in intelligence-sharing by police forces meant there was a "distinct possibility" the failure to identify Savile's pattern of abuse could be repeated.

HMIC said it was sufficiently concerned that it will review information management in the police later this year just two years after the PND was set up.

Referring to Michael Bichard's recommendations to reform intelligence sharing in 2004, the HMIC report said: "It is a matter of some concern that, in 2007, in the post-Bichard era, the failures of the past may still have been repeated."

Evidence uncovered by HMIC suggests Savile was known to Met officers investigating child sex offences as early as 1964 the same year he presented the first edition of Top of the Pops.

The inquiry also turned up an anonymous letter received by the Metropolitan police in 1998, which it said was "never properly investigated", despite suggesting that Savile changed his telephone number as a result of a blackmail attempt.

HMIC's report also raises further questions for West Yorkshire police, which said in February that some officers regularly visited Savile's Leeds home while on duty.

Two former West Yorkshire police officers and a relative of an officer have come forward to state they were aware of concerns surrounding Savile's contact with young girls, the report said.

As the force for the area where Savile lived throughout his life, West Yorkshire should have received three key pieces of intelligence, according to HMIC, but has only been able to confirm receipt of a letter from the Met in 1998.

An inspector from the force who may have "acted on behalf" of Savile is under investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Chief Constable Mike Barton, who speaks on intelligence for the Association of Chief Police Officers, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he was confident improvements had been made. He said if allegations were reported anywhere in the country and similar allegations were made simultaneously elsewhere, they would now be able to "join the dots".