High-level UK pedophiles

For decades, there have been rumors that an informal network of pedophiles operates at fairly high levels within the British government. We've touched on this claim in previous posts -- see, for example, here.

Recent events indicate that the rumors have a foundation in fact.

These allegations were first aired around 1980, when a man named Colin Wallace helped to expose the abuses at the Kincora boys home in Belfast. Shortly thereafter, Wallace was framed for a murder he did not commit; although he was convicted, he was ultimately cleared of the crime. This horrifying story -- too complex to detail here -- is well-known in the U.K. and Ireland, yet remains untold in this country. Interested readers should seek out the excellent book Who Framed Colin Wallace? You should also read the online excerpts from a more recent book titled Livingstone's Labour.

The Kincora case was re-opened last year...

Police have reopened an investigation into child abuse at a notorious care home linked to claims of a cover-up by the secret service to protect top level perverts, the Sunday People reports.

The probe will cover attacks on boys over two decades at the Kincora home in Northern Ireland – suspected to have been regularly visited by establishment figures.

One of those figures is said to have been Lord Mountbatten. That accusation, though unproven, has been repeated so often that it must be dealt with.

Kincora was not the sole instance. A couple of days ago, Matt Prodger of the BBC asked: Were child abuse inquiries blocked?

It's not so much a single scandal as a series of claims relating to the alleged activities of child abusers from the 1960s through to the 1980s.

Furthermore, it's alleged that investigations into the abuse were thwarted or dropped to protect the perpetrators, some of whom were powerful people or had links to the powerful.

One year to start with is 1994. Back then a man called Peter McKelvie was a child protection manager in Hereford and Worcester who was assisting police investigating an influential paedophile, Peter Righton.

Righton had hoodwinked social workers and child abuse specialists during his career rise to become a consultant to the National Children's Bureau.

Now dead, he was ultimately convicted of importing child pornography. But Mr McKelvie believes that what was discovered went much further than that and Righton should have been convicted for far more serious crimes.

For 20 years he says he has been asking himself why leads suggesting links between paedophiles and government were not investigated further by police.

As more information came in, different investigations were launched, the best known being Operation Fernbridge which has been investigating allegations that in the 1980s famous people abused children at a place called Elm Guest House in Barnes, south-west London.

Meanwhile in Rochdale another Labour MP, Simon Danczuk, was looking into claims that Cyril Smith had abused children with impunity at a residential care home, Knowl View.

The article cites a few further examples, and then hints that the British security services knew about the child abuse and covered it up. In the following, PIE revers to the Paedophile Information Exchange, the UK equivalent to NAMBLA in the United States:

A man claiming to be a former Home Office civil servant last week told the Sunday Express that not only was PIE receiving funding from the Home Office in the 1980s, it was doing so at the request of Special Branch, the intelligence-gathering arm of the police. And he believed the police were not interested in catching child abusers.

He said his superior told him that Special Branch "found it politically useful to identify people who were paedophiles... I was aware a lot of people in the civil service or political arena had an interest in obtaining information like that which could be used as a sort of blackmail."

Home Secretary Theresa May has said a Home Office review found the claim that PIE was government funded to be untrue but it would be re-examined by the inquiry.

Allegations of Special Branch involvement in a cover-up were also made by Jack Tasker, a former Lancashire detective who tried to prosecute Cyril Smith for child sex abuse.

He says Special Branch detectives arrived in his office one day, told him to hand over all his notebooks and files, and told him to go no further with his investigations.

"Nothing like that had ever happened before," he told the BBC. "That came from London." Cyril Smith was never prosecuted.

As some readers may already know, there was a "spooky" side to the Colin Wallace story as well. Wallace, an information officer for the British Army in Northern Ireland during the height of "the Troubles," had been approached by MI5 conspirators seeking to smear various Labor politicians, Harold Wilson. (MI5 is, more or less, the British version of the FBI.) No-one has ever proven that MI5 knew about what was going on at Kincora, although many so believe.

Another recent story uncovers an American connection:

Scotland Yard has tracked down a child at the centre of an alleged 1980s Westminster paedophile ring who has implicated a senior political figure, The Telegraph can disclose.

The man - now in his 40s, whose identity is known to this newspaper - is a successful entrepreneur based in the United States and has given a detailed account of how he was assaulted by the politician.

However, the alleged victim - who was initially willing to co-operate - has so far refused to make a formal statement to British detectives.

Police have traced a copy of a statement he gave more than 30 years ago as a child when he was rescued from horrific sexual assault. His version of events is understood to be corroborated by a detective who conducted the official interview with the child at the time.

Fascinating. Who is this entrepreneur? And who is the "senior political figure" he described in the statement made years ago?

Between 20 and 30 new informants have come forward in less than a week since Mr Danczuk made major new allegations to a House of Commons committee about a dossier - said to have contained details of at least eight prominent paedophiles - which was handed to the Home Office in the 1980s.

Amid concerns that Scotland Yard has not assigned enough manpower to ongoing sex abuse inquiries, Mr Danczuk said: “I think what we need to do is create an amnesty for former police officers and other people in authority, including border guards, probation staff and social workers.

“If they are concerned about the implications of having signed any documents, including the Official Secrets Act, there should be an amnesty that will allow them to come forward and share their experience of investigating historic child sex abuse cases, so we can build up a more thorough picture of what went on at the time and potentially prosecute some of the alleged offenders.

Some readers will take offense at the very notion of offering amnesty to some policemen who may have participated in a cover-up. But this is how conspiracies are broken: Small fish are let go in order to catch larger fish.

Over 100 files pertinent to high-level child abuse have gone missing:

One of Britain's most senior civil servants said on Tuesday he did not know who, if anyone, had authorised the removal of over 100 missing government files that could shed light on allegations that well-known politicians abused children in the 1980s.

The disclosure, by Mark Sedwill, the top civil servant in Britain's Home Office (interior ministry), is likely to fuel a media furore in Britain over the allegations, which have not yet been substantiated.

Child protection campaigners have said that at least 10 and possibly more than 20 public figures, including current and former politicians, should be investigated over allegations that they abused young children.

Just a few hours ago (at this writing), the BBC announced that two separate inquiries have been launched by the Home Secretary. The timeline at the other end of that link is extremely useful. That said, it should be noted the BBC itself may have been party to covering up the crimes of Jimmy Saville.

(I may tell the story of Colin Wallace and the Kincora scandal at greater length in a subsequent post.)