Earlier this month on February 6th, Operation Fernbridge arrested two men, hopefully the first of many. They were John Stingemore who up until 1981 was the Officer in Charge of Grafton Close children’s home and Father Tony McSweeney, a Roman Catholic priest of St George’s parish in Norwich. Both men have been bailed pending further inquiries until April.
Operation Fernbridge is investigating allegations that children in the care of Richmond council and other local authorities were taken to Elm Guest House and sexually abused by men including VIPs. Grafton Close is believed to be one of the children’s homes involved. It is understandable therefore that the Fernbridge police would wish to ask John Stingemore some questions as he was the head of Grafton Close during part of the period they are investigating.
But what of Father Tony McSweeney ?
Tony McSweeney was, during the time in question, training to be a priest at Guildford. He was very good friends with John Stingemore and during school holidays he used to stay at Grafton Close children’s home and help out. I know that many readers will have been unaware of this connection to Grafton Close but I think you’ll agree that it’s reasonable, given that connection, that the Fernbridge police would want to ask him some questions about events around that time.
Also, I’m sure you’ll all be interested to know that Father Tony McSweeney is a published author. He co-authored the rather snappily named ‘The Scout Fire and Folk Song Book: A Collection of Songs for Use at Camp Fires and Folk Concerts’, published by the Scout Association in 1977. I think this is a picture of it.
Available on Amazon 99p+P&P,
There weren’t that many copies left when I looked. So, hurry while stocks last.
theneedleblog 
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Just to say, I came across this article and thoroughly enjoy the comments, especially the cut and thrust between Sabre/Incubus. It may be that Sabre and B & B are secretly representing the powers that be, but maybe they are offended by Incubus’ obviously moderate line on the whole exploitation of the young.
I particularly like the idea about the law on rape, etc., being there primarily as both a deterrent and for use after event. No law itself is usually a sufficient deterrent, but the prospect of capture is, hence its “after-the-event” usefulness.
A wise man once said, “You can’t legislate against human nature”. I believe that this was stated in relation to racism, in an attempt to justify same. However, the comment is far better suited to the law relating to sexual behaviour, which really is human nature, whatever the colour of one’s skin.
Incidentally, there are numerous articles around the internet casting doubts on B-P’s own sexuality, or are they just attacks against a worthy gentleman who was trying to instil a sense of good open air living into young boys, who would possibly otherwise gone their own way and discovered the delights of other activities, discovered by most teenagers sooner or later?
Finally, I still have felt the urge to call my old schoolmasters “Sir”, even at reunions some 35 years after leaving!
Interesting comments
I met Tony McSweeney when he was a camp warden at Gillwell Park, the most important scout campsite in the UK, and remember the scouting valedictories that appeared in Scouting Magazine when he left to train as a priest.
Please let the law run its course before passing judgement, some of the remarks on this blog are a little spiteful.
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@the jersey care home bod in chgarge was a freemason..
RE: rev tony mcsweeney…and his book..did he get that idea from lord baden powell ‘SCOUTING FOR BOYS’
We knew the police weren’t taking Operation Pallial properly when they failed to declare all investigating officers would not be freemasons. The N Wales scandal has the most links to suggest brethren covered for their own during successive inquiries including Waterhouse.
Of course they did. And always will. You cannot have transparency, fairness or functional democracy, nor impartial legislature while clubs and lobbies and fraternities are allowed to place their agents in positions of power, be they handshakers, pedophiles, the bum boys club, the church, a corporate lobby, or any other agenda which benefits the few at the expense or in flagrance of the many.
It was only a matter of time before Scout’s were brought into the spotlight!!
Brought into the spotlight?
Incy has them down as the Wiking Jugend.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1256241/The-Hitler-Youth-plot-tried-worm-way-Scout-movement.html
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/lord-baden-powell-offered-hitler-youth-hand-of-friendship/story-fn3dxity-1225838462256
‘Baden-Powell was equally enthusiastic about the fascism that began spreading through Europe after World War I. He visited Italy in 1933 and wrote admiringly about the “boy-man” Benito Mussolini who had absorbed his country’s Boy Scouts into a thriving new nationalist youth movement. The dictator explained that he’d accomplished this feat “simply by moral force” – an explanation Baden-Powell felt “augers well for the future of Italy.”
If Baden-Powell had had his way, the Boy Scouts might have formed close ties with the Hitler Youth. In 1937, he told the Scouts’ international commissioner that the Nazis were “most anxious that the Scouts should come into closer touch with the youth movement in Germany.” Baden-Powell met with the German ambassador in London and was invited to meet the Führer himself, though the war prevented him from visiting the Third Reich. But he continued to admire Hitler’s values, writing in a 1939 diary entry that Mein Kampf was “a wonderful book, with good ideas on education, health, propaganda, organisation etc.” ‘
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/01/christopher-hitchens-on-the-mildly-fascist-founder-of-the-boy-scouts/272683/
Incy,
The apostate anarchist quoting 5 and the Branch by way of the Daily Mail on the perils of the dastardly machinations of the League of German Maidens not to mention the “spyclists” memorising church steeples in the dark.
Would you rely on 5 and the Branch by way of The Mail re Arthur Scargill’s non-existent mortgage being paid by Gadaffi?
5 and the Branch didn’t seem to be on the ball re the real threat posed by Blunt, Burgess, Philby, McClean, Fuchs etc etc.
The bitter sweet irony of the Hackney Communard quoting the unholy trinity , I thought that they were meant to be the peddlers of disinformation in your Class War.
Hah!, Blunt Sabre, you only select the Daily Mail source, ignoring the others- like the quote from Christopher Hitchens, and a quick search on the net will provide ample evidence of Baden-Powell’s fascination with Fascism- even fawning biographies on the walrus-faced nutjob- Like this one;
‘The German government made great efforts to encourage exchange visits and general cooperation between the Hitler Youth and British Scouting. So Baden-Powell visited the German embassy in London for discussions.’
‘Robert Baden-Powell:The Man Who Created the International Scouting Movement That Gives Young People Opportunities to Excel’ by Julia Courtney- G. Stevens Children’s Books, 1990
By the way, try using a dictionary to explain the word ‘apostate’, and save yourself future embarrassment. Muppet.
@INCUBUSBLOG …hey how are you..? more battles to fight against idiocy..never ending is it?
Well aware of the meaning of apostate Incy, your plea of apostasy is unconvincing hence the questions on ‘anarchist lines’ which you answer ;-)
I did note that not only does the ‘Hackney Communard’ rely on the unholy trinity of MI5, Special Branch and The Mail, but also the Pro US/Zionist warmonger Hitchens.
You seem to be maintaining a watching brief trying to ensure that the Gay Lobby doesn’t get too much flak for the organised child abuse referred to here.
You’re worse than an Anarchist you’re a closet neo-liberal.
Sabre, while it is evident that the best part of you ended up on the bedroom carpet, you, in the proud tradition of state employed trolling, besides having a wealth of knowledge that only a Security Service operative could have, deliberately skew your answers. Plenty of evidence besides the random sources I chose…
…and you still don’t actually understand the meaning of the word apostate, or are feigning ignorance to drive home some rather weak point. I have knowledge of anarchist ideology Oooooh! Big Deal.
What Gay Lobby? Where? You mean David Cameron and his attempt to divert attention from elite paedophile rings ONTO the gay community? Oh, yes, you’re PUSHING THE ESTABLISHMENT LINE OF A ‘GAY WITCH HUNT’.
Wearing a bit thin now, that particular policy meme…
Full of excrement and transparently so, what happened? No work left for white supremacists in BOSS? Got a crumby little job working for Box, and look at you, reduced to peddling someone else’s opinions for a living- their standards really are slipping these days:-
To paraphrase the empty Scabbard-
‘You seem to be maintaining a watching brief trying to ensure that the Gay Lobby gets all the flak for the organised child abuse referred to here.’
I like the way you, B’stard and Boddiker appear to do your work in shifts- impressive but for the pattern.
@incubus yaeh ive been noticing this ‘homosexual’ ref when paedo stuff comes up…
Incy,
Your apostasy is of course eminently understandable given that the ‘Kingsmead drinking club’ achieved sod all.
Did you manage to catch sight of any of Sidney Cooke’s VIP friends?
If you had eaten those particular rich b******s some of Cooke’s victims may well have survived.
What is your line on age of consent?
Do you subscribe to the view that ’12 year old people’ should be able to ‘consent ‘ to sex?
Seriously, call that a smear!? What useless waste of taxpayers money and skin…Pathetic. State-Troll F*ckwit.
Indy,
Your own blog , the article “Power Corrupts’
I do not believe in an age of consent, but that children and young people should be free to explore their sexuality as they see fit, I have no problem with any sexual activity so long as it is based on informed consent, or an informed consent that is age-appropriate, I’m aware that paedophilia is a society-wide problem, and not just confined to the elite networks of rich perverts,and believe that no adult has the right to impose their mature sexuality on children or young teens. One day, society will develop a psychologically healthy attitude to social and family relations and to sexuality-Or at least I hope it will…
Incy,
Last paragraph.
Having a legal age of consent never stopped anyone from actually having consensual or non-consensual sex, just as a law against rape doesn’t really prevent it. Essentially it is functionally meaningless, and only of any purpose ‘after the act’ or (ideally) for stopping serial offenders. The point is to stop child rape and abuse, and rape in general, in the first place, at root. I don’t think legislating against it will make it disappear, whereas education and psychological intervention would probably have more impact. Pathological, serial predators however, should, in my view, be destroyed like rabid dogs.
I remember watching the tv programme about the Brynalyn Homes in Wales – the survivors were all about my age and size – when interviewed they always called there abusers `Mr this` or `Mr that` – always thought that was so sad that even now years after being abused as kids they were still scared of their abusers.
That, John, is the deference to authority which we all suffer from- the formal respect for the title- Mister, Minister, Officer, Your Holiness, Sir, Lord etc. The best antidote to power is to remember they all wipe their bums in the morning, fart and pick their noses. These titles inflate them into tin-pot gods, but they are as mortal as we are and just as fallible, and probably more prone to wrong-doing because of their power. We don’t even trust ourselves to govern ourselves properly, we hand our power over to complete stangers, just as we are all subjected to the whims of bullies and inept idiot managers at work (or DWP ‘Work advisors’)- none of whom are elected by any of us…
Should that not be ‘Feuer und Volk’? -and to think Baden-Powell merely wanted to socially engineer good, healthy stock who could rule the Empire in perpetuity- now it’s all gone a bit Pete Tong…
As for the Pallial cops- surely their ignorance and disinterest is to be expected? Feigned or not, it’s in their Masters interests, then again, given Southwark Sapphire Unit’s strenuous efforts to keep rapists ON our streets by persuading victims to retract their claims, perhaps it’s just a way to keep their statistics look shiny…?
British Imperialism = German National Socialism ?
What’s the Anarchist line on age of consent ?
State control of children or as some of your comrades insist 12 year old adults ?
The concept of ‘ teenager’ as a device by parents to keep control and possession of their offspring until such time as ‘the profit from the investment can be realised’ ?
We all share your anger at the ‘ruling class’ abusing kids, do you share the anger that some of us feel regarding gangs of Muslims abusing kids in Northern towns for decades ?
Well, my boorish Boer:-
British Imperialism was much admired by Hitler, Ribbentrop and a host of other Nazis, in the UK they had their fans in the shape of the Cliveden Set, Lord Rothermere, Oswald Moseley, Lloyd George, Mary Astor, Fred Perry and a host of other appeasers.(See Strobl; The Germanic Isle).
I’m not an anarchist. Ask an anarchist. I suspect that since they reject both the state and bourgeois law, they would not believe in any codified age of consent, although their ideological tenet of being opposed to all injustice and anything that trespassed on the free choice, the autonomy and the consent of any human being would mean that they are naturally opposed to any form of abuse committed against anyone, they also believe in the right to engage in any activity with informed consent, and for this reason anarchist educators like Francesco Ferrer, Alexandra Kollontai believed in giving a fully-rounded sex-education to children in order for them to form that consent.
The concept of the teenager was primarily an invention of advertisers and marketing men in the post-war boom in the US, and exported to europe as a role for cultural consumption, full emplloyment enabling large sections of young people to leave school early and gain employment, who thus had disposable income. Prior to this change, the concept of ‘childhood’, which was largely a creation of Victorian social reformers and christian social scientists, extended up until early adulthood.
I certainly do share people’s anger about the abuses carried out in Rotherham and Oxford, though probably for different reasons than yourself, related to issues of race and immigration- Though I recognise that these girls were targeted by muslim men from a community who’s view of non-muslim females was warped, prejudiced and arrogant for reasons of both religion and culture. Having said that, I also know that the majority of child abuse in the UK is carried out by ‘gangs of non-muslims’ and individuals in the ‘indigenous’ population, and is far more widespread, and far more ‘incestuous’, (which to my mind is probably more objectionable and vile)- which begs the question, what is wrong with the ‘indigenous’ culture in the UK that people would rape and molest their own children or that of close relatives?
You probably hate these mainly, originally, Pakistani men for their race, whereas I hate them for their abuse, but then I guess you object to so-called ‘miscegenation’ consensual or otherwise…
(Oh and I do indeed hate their garbage Mediaeval religion too, but I’d say the same of Christianity).
Allez.
Does anyone if there is any link between McSweeney and the West Lynn children;s home ?
Also Gojam have you seen Kaz Tiggr’s latest blog entry about the lack of knowledge amongst Pallial police, it’s depressing. How can they investigate when they have no background knowledge or interest. : (
Hi,
Yes, I’ve seen Kaz’s blog post, other can read it here – http://brynalynvictims.blogspot.co.uk/
A little disappointing to say the least. I just hope the B team visited.
Don’t tell me, the B team were about 20 yrs old and fresh out of Hendon ! Why oh why aren’t the police taking Op Pallial seriously, don’t they think that this will back fire on them – again ! Or was the original claim of corrupt cops associated with Waterhouse more true than even we realise. Can’t Exaro get on the case.
Gojam, I think you have gone too far this time.How dare you try and bring the Boy Scouts into this whole cesspit of depravity.It’s just not on mate.
Anyway,I have to go now and toss a few twigs on the old camp fire,and I’m singing “Gooley,gooley,gooley,gang bang bang,Gooley…………………….
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