Leon Brittan has died, he was aged 75.
You’ll find fulsome obituaries elsewhere and perhaps even praise but I want to focus on the truth, or not, of the allegations that Leon Brittan was a paedophile.
Over the last two years there have been many rumours and news stories alleging that Leon Brittan was a paedophile, though you may not have realised as he has invariably been euphemistically alluded to as “a former senior Tory cabinet minister” or something similar. There had been some concern among journalists, and even this blogger, that the continued and ubiquitous use of this term might itself have become so synonymous with Leon Brittan that its use might itself have precipitated legal action if Lord Brittan decided to take that route.
The allegations are not new they go back to the early 1980s at least, as Bernhard Ingham, former press secretary to Margaret Thatcher, has confirmed recently to Sky News, he was aware of the allegations at the time and even asked him about them at the time. I’ve also talked to journalists who investigated these rumours in the late 1980s.
Clearly now that Leon Brittan is dead, I’m free from legal constraints and I can say exactly as I wish but just because I can write what I wish, doesn’t mean that I should. Ultimately, I’m only interested in the truth and not rumours.
About 15 months ago I discussed the allegations with a source close to an investigation looking into these and other similar allegations. I asked the source directly whether he thought that Leon Brittan was a paedophile. After a pause he replied that in his view 80% of the allegations were false but that the remaining 20% of allegations left him with the view that Leon Brittan did indeed have an unhealthy sexual interest in children.
It is with this in mind that I will refrain from repeating every allegation that has been swirling around the internet over the last two years because I agree with that source, there are many allegations that are false, as an example, there has been a suggestion that the police have a video of Lord Brittan at a “sex party”. This story is untrue.
So, I’m going to lay to one side all of the stories that I believe make up the 80% of false allegations and look instead at the allegations that I believe make up the 20% of allegations that have substance, or at the least raise questions that need answering.
I’ll touch briefly on the allegation that he raped a 19 year old female student, who is referred to in the press as ‘Jane’, in 1967. My view is that this allegation is credible but it is also my belief that after such a long time, and with no evidence beyond the victim’s word against Lord Brittan’s, a successful prosecution would have been very unlikely and that if the CPS had decided to proceed it would have put a great deal of pressure on the victim ‘Jane’ with little result. But for clarity, I believe her.
The second allegation I wish to mention is the one related to Elm Guest House.
It is my belief that the Daily Mail story, extract quoted below, refers to Leon Brittan. I say this because I had heard very similar accounts from other sources before this story had been published, some close to events at the time. I just didn’t have the first hand source/sources that The Mail had and so I couldn’t publish.
I’d recommend that readers, read this story once again.
The man recalled that during the boy’s testimony at Richmond Police Station, he had spoken of an abuser whom he called ‘Uncle XXXXX’. This abuser worked ‘at the big houses’, the boy said.
As the boy talked, at least two of those officials present came to independent realisations of his testimony’s significance.
If ‘Uncle XXXXX’ had done what was alleged, this was not just a sordid suburban scandal, but one of national importance.
I should note here that the victim in that Elm Guest House story has not felt able to co-operate with the police, hence no action could realistically be taken.
Another credible allegation is that Leon Brittan was stopped by British Customs trying to enter Dover with indecent images of children in the late 1980s while he was with the European Commission. This story, below, refers to that allegation.
A senior Tory politician said to be part of a child sex ring was allegedly stopped by a customs officer with child pornography videos but got off scot-free, police have been told.
The former MP was driving back to the UK via Dover when a customs officer pulled him over because he was “acting suspiciously”. The border guard, who is now retired, has told detectives that when he searched the MP’s car he found videotapes of children “clearly under the age of 12” taking part in sex acts.
He passed the material on to his superiors, but the MP was never arrested or charged.
I am very aware that there will be many who will be disappointed that I’ve not related other allegations. As I’ve tried to make clear I want to stick only to those that I believe can be substantiated. If the victim at Elm Guest House speaks out then that allegation can be substantiated, if documentation exists, as it should, that Leon Brittan was stopped by a customs officer trying to enter the UK with indecent images, that too can be substantiated.
theneedleblog 
when a customs officer pulled him over because he was “acting suspiciously”.
I’d like to know what that consisted of? You don’t pull over senior Government officials without good reason surely? They aren’t kids in cars, was the copper tipped off? Was the evidence planted?
You people are sooooo gullible. A woman accuses Brittan of rape 45 years later, and you find her credible? Right after the Savile “revelations” of course. Give me a break.
There was rumours in Richmond during the by-election campaign of 1989, but that was from a few activists. In the constituency itself the locals had a lot of praise for him. That is not to say he is innocent or guilty maybe the best way to find out is to ask the Intelligence services.
you said maybe the social worker is lying, why would a social worker lie about this ? What would be the point in making it up?
What’s more likely is Brittan is guilty to his core – but so are many others that he would and could have fingered had he been prosecuted. The ensuing debacle would have brought the Tories to their knees. For instance much has been written about Edward Heath – if one of our own PM’s had been alluded to what kind of damage would that have done to the establishment? Considering Brittans association with the European Commission – considering Heath driving us headlong into the EEC what pressures could have been brought to bare with black mail to so easily sway his decision? Consider how the enquiry has been delayed – taken so long because they just accidentally kept choosing the ‘wrong’ person. O r knowing full well survivor groups amongst others would point out the bias.
My own belief is that this has been cynically calculated and engineered to delay the enquiry long enough that it doesn’t effect the potential outcome of the general election. brittans death is a plus and dead men tell no tales.
Just for information (regarding your ref to 80% false stories and 20% correct), interview on LBC radio between Mark Watts (Exaro) and James O’Brien this afternoon confirmed that police find ‘Nick’s’ allegations credible also.
http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5464/leon-brittan-was-under-met-probe-over-claims-of-child-sex-abuse
In the Daily Mail story, all the Leon Brittan allegations come from “a social worker” – I”n particular, we can reveal that a social worker was present when the boy described above identified a senior politician as being one of his abusers. Crucially, that social worker alleges that when he later saw the police transcript of that interview, the MP’s name was missing”.
If the unnamed social worker is lying, then it’s all a pile-o-crap. WHO is it? Not Chris Fay I hope…
Also, I’m seeing stories that allege “a local Sherrif” in America interviewed the child victim – now an adult of course – and the victim affirmed the Leon Brittan story, but when contacted by UK police he declined to verify or comment further. But if I recall correctly, the original article co-written by Tim Tate, stated that Met police recruited a visiting American detective to look up the victim upon his return to the US. He did so, allegedly, and reported back that the victim identified Leon Brittan as an abuser but then “stopped co-operating”. That was when I emailed the Met and strongly suggested they ought to contact the victim and verify all of this for themselves – I c.c. you on that, remember Gojam? I suspect that’s when Tim’s source dried up & blew away – when the Met found out about the BS he’d spewed about “visiting American detectives”…
“A social worker” may be the key witness though that term has been misused in the past my belief is that it is not being misused in this context.
Please remember that as much as the VIP abusers need uncovering, the real story here is What help is there in this country to help all the survivors of sexual abuse that society has let down.
That’s what this blog is saying.https://bloggingjbloggs1917.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/leon-brittan-avoids-questions-over-child-sex-abuse/
I hope the momentum that seems to exist at present is not wasted and that these sort of apparent cover ups are exposed and abusers who are still alive are brought to account….
What a coincidence that the elite are now focused on the recent death of the Saudi King. They are all off to Saudi for his funeral, we have flags flying at half mast in his honour…….? What’s that about? I don’t beleive in coincidences at all, I believe this is just too convenient and takes the focus off the false flag that is the sudden and most conveniant demise of LB. Who’s next ………?
I was saying to my partner how scandalous that an arbitory decision can be made about flying flags at half mast and some weasel excuse is offered about it being some National tradition… Utter bollox and IT just goes to show how deeply and inextricably this country is entwined with these oil rich countries….😳
I hope he spent his last weeks and months shaking in fear, terrified he’d be exposed. I hope he’d would wake in the middle of the night, and like his victims, unable to say what was wrong.
This is not about Leon Brittain it is about assets and protecting the security services assets at any cost .
Reblogged this on Ned Hamson Second Line View of the News and commented:
upper class elitist and Tory – what else could he be but someone who thought he could do whatever he wanted to people with less power and position than him. one of his former friends wants to lower the age of consent to 13 years of age – so Tories are for sex by older elitist men with children, if that is their wiish.
A wet job? Assassination? Nah, that kind of thing doesn’t happen here.
Or does it?
From 4:12
I have a very simple solution when all of these cases of paedophilia are exposed and the Public are patted on the head and told that we don’t need to know the truth because it would damage our trust in the establishment.
Sack the police commanders and keep on sacking them until such times that the police grow a pair and do what they are supposed to do, protect the public from crimes perpetrated by the establishment creeps.
Simon Templar.
Aha. But who do the police report to?
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
a slight aside, i met mellor years ago and he didn’t strike me as the type of chap who did too much thinking before saying what he thought he should say .
in the big game what people like him say isn’t often very important ,who suggests they say it and why is often far more interesting
A helpful clarification. Interesting that Hague was chosen to give the House of Commons the news and laud Lord Brittan. Clearly Cameron didn’t want to do it and Hague is retiring from Parliament in May this year, so Hague’s parliamentary career will not be blighted ny his eulogy for Leon Brittan. Despite Cameron’s intentions of not turning over any stones in the Westminster paedophile ring he clearly doesn’t want the press to have a record of him, Cameron, lauding Lord Brittan being used if ever it is proven that Lord Brittan was guilty of underage perversions. From that observation I would conclude there is something quite serious to discover and Cameron would like to be as far as possible from the imminent nuclear fall out.
An interesting point indeed !
a very keen observation , the messenger can be blamed for the message especially if the message is found to be at odds with the whole truth .
i wonder if memories of happier times,other fallen comrades ,walks on the beach and such things were on his mind when he delivered the news to the house.
Little Billy Vague gushed re Brittan, he along with Mellor,Howard etc etc are either offering hostages to fortune ( have they failed to notice the embarrassment of Saville’s eulogists ?) or perhaps they are confident that all will be tidied away.
“I am very aware that there will be many who will be disappointed that I’ve not related other allegations.”
Who would be disappointed about children *not* being abused?
Don’t be obtuse Abby ! We would all be happy discussing politics and economics without institutional child abuse featuring, unfortunately we don’t have that luxury.
You, on the other hand, with your head in the sand and the ability to breath through your fundament, do have that luxury.
If even half of what was alleged of him turns out to be true then Death’s too good for him.
In light of recent revelations in the press regarding the exhumation of Saviles corpse (over sensitivities towards his victims), it will be interesting to see where Brittans remains end up. Personally my money is on a one way trip to Tel-Aviv. But more importantly, I hope the government is sensible enough not to spend any public money on a funereal / memorial.
Next door to Maxwell on the Mount of Olives. It’s just a coincidence that Maxwell’s daughter and Epstein are in the headlines at the same time.
Mellor has just given a passionate defence of Brittan’s reputation, he either sincerely believes it or he is running interference.
He was also incredulous that Flying Squad had covered up for Cyril Smith. Nuff said…
Difficult to believe that the clown is a barrister (QC) ?
One of the privileges of becoming a MP was the award of “courtesy silk” to barristers who were elected MPs. The practice ended in the 1990’s but that was how some of them got QC status back then.
I don’t think the clown was ever a practising barrister either
I believe Mellor was a junior minster under Brittan at the Home Office at the time Dickesn handed in his dossier. If there was a cover-up, Mellor would have been at the scene of the crime.
I think you are factually incorrect almost from the start. It was Morrison that was questioned and denied it, not Brittan.
If the rumours are to be believed then, Morrison wasn’t questioned rather,, told unequivocally they knew. Brittan had spent most of the 70s desperately asking people not to believe the rumours about him
Is it just me, or is anyone else wondering about the fact that now Stingemore and Brittan have both died, within a week of each other and just two weeks before the criminal trial involving Elm Guest House? Noone? Not even a bit suspicious at the remarkable coincidence? Chilling, I’d say.
Given that another person is still standing trial I don’t want to go into too much detail. However, Stingemore wasn’t charged with anything connected to EGH.
I hope I can say more in a month or so.
All bets are off, anything can happen, in 5 years time we’ll gradually realise that we’ve been duped again.
Does make one wonder who the Reverend Goatboy’s minister was, if as it seems, it was not Leon ? Maybe they singed the Spanish King’s beard? …cough
The Reverend Goatboy story still refers to Brittan imho, his post on Popbitch was related to still photographs and not video footage. The “maids outfit” photo with young naked boy on lap is, as far as I know, a separate (but obviously somewhat related) case to the in-dispute “London tape” or “LB video”.
Ahhh that isn’t the story from the dear departed Reverend I was referring to. It was one he never published.
Ah yep, I see, found the one you mean.
Interesting that Harvey Proctor is currently working in a “local aristocrat’s gaff” doing guided tours for groups of kids.
I’m assuming he hasn’t gone through the relevant CRB checks needed to hold such a role but stand to be corrected if they indeed now let convicted sex offenders work with children.
Reblogged this on Desiring Progress.
the dossier passed by mr dickens to brittan did exist,it might have included allegations about brittan himself ,it almost certainly contained allegations about some of his chums as well as allegations about various pie members (and possibly other groups) as well as “persons of importance”who may or may not have been personally known to brittan.
i have the impression that mr dickens was pretty hard and might have played a very hard ball when he delivered that dossier but he cracked when he felt there was a credible threat to his family which scared him more than the credible threat to himself,hence he abandoned his active campaign . both his allegations and their suppression were concealed until a couple of years ago when a few details that were remembered and seemed significant to current affairs were mentioned to and by the right people .
having read the “customs officer “transcript along with a variety of material on and around this subject i believe that an “ex cabinet minister”was stopped at dover with tapes of csa and that there is a high probability that “ex cabinet minister”was brittan.
the amount of smoke and mirrors that has been generated reinforces my belief that a simple stop and search of a suspicious person revealed ugly contraband and that event and the identity of the person was concealed at the time and more recently when it started to become public considerable effort was used to confuse the truth with a variety of other truths and half truths .
i dont know enough about egh to be able to give a sensible assessment of brittan’s involvement .
another one that would have been interesting to interrogate in depth if he wasnt dead
ps the bbc has a bit of a mixed eulogy on the news at the mo
Hi Gojam
Wouldn’t Leon Brittan have been driven everywhere when he was at the European Commission?I find it almost impossible to believe that he would have driven with such material in his own car, even if he was a paedophile.
Also, hasn’t the customs officlal been interviewed and said the man with the indecent material was Russell Tricker? Leon Brittan’s name has become woven into this story because the material was labelled ‘LB’, plus with the dossier story and EGH.
Hope that doesn’t sound negative with regard to the great work you are doing.
‘Leon Brittan’s name has become woven into this story because the material was labelled ‘LB’’
I think it was more than the label; it has been ‘woven in’ primarily because of Chris Fay’s very clear allegation that he heard an audio recording of testimony from a senior customs officer who claims to have seen the video and that Leon Brittan appeared in it. That might be evidence from an unreliable source, but nobody here seems to be clear about whether that is so. Is Fay’s youtube rumour mongering ?
Stuart.
No. The confusion between the Tricker films incident and the alleged Brittan seizure was the creation of the Express and Exaro. The detective who interviewed the Customs officer was adamant that:-
a) The customs officer could not remember the Tricker story
b) That the Customs officer could clearly remember stopping Brittan on another occasion.
For absolute clarity: the Tricker material did indeed contain either an 8mm film or a video with the initials LB on it. However, this could be a reference to a commercially-produced child pornography series called “Lover Boys”.
I say “could” because according to the detective, the Customs Officer was unable to remember anything about the Tricker material and certainly was not able to say (as other outlets have alleged) that it depicted Leon Brittan.
Go Jam has previously – and kindly – allowed me to post a thread calling for responsible and (above all) forensic investigative journalism, as opposed to the shoddy and lazy rubbish which has all too frequently littered the press.
That quiet, solid investigative journalism is needed now, more than ever
Hi Tim
Thanks for replying to me and for the clarification. I knew that there had been some confusion spread by totally shoddy reporting as you mention.
Good luck with your continued investigations.
NB I assume him to be the same man CPS promised a decision on ‘by the autumn’
I don’t know. Can you refer me to that statement please ?
I suspect it refers to a different ‘noble’ Lord (Labour)
Some weeks back I cynically remarked that Brittan die before being allowed to be openly accused of paedophilia. He has died, just as, and when, I said he would. Despite this surely being a coincidence I must admit to feeling somewhat chilled to the bone.
Almost a year ago I interviewed a very senior detective who was handling the Brittan investigation. He was very clear that the Customs Officer (referred to above) had made a clear and credible statement about stopping Brittan at Dover, and seizing child pornography video tapes from him. The Customs Officer stated that he viewed the tapes and was able to describe what was on them.
That statement is – or should be – still held at the Metropolitan Police station from which the investigation was conducted.
I believe that it is essential that the historic child abuse enquiry – assuming it survives – is given a copy of the statement.
Tim thanks,
When I read the story I guessed at the provenance and understood it to be credible.
I’m going to post your comment as a post as it is too important to leave here.
Always worth keeping in mind though that Tim must have had a reason for last year’s appalling, and more importantly untrue, campaign of claims that attempted to make us all believe that the Customs Officer tape from last year only had the reporter mention Brittan’s name and not the Customs Officer.
Then when that was found to be false, Tim’s goalposts moved… Oh yes, the customs Officer HAD named Brittan but only after being prompted by the reporter.
This again was proven false when the audio became public and was accurately transcribed, leading to the apology/clarification post here on Needleblog.
I’m by no means saying that Tim’s inaccuracies regarding this tape were intentional but if he had previously heard a version of that tape, except with the Customs Officer naming Brittan removed, one has to ask who fed Tim this doctored/edited tape. If it was this same police source who told Tim that the video was only carried by Brittan, and there were no videos FEATURING Brittan (whether found in this seizure or another), one must seriously consider that it is possibly disinformation being fed to Tim, in order to muddy the waters even further.
If they will play Mr Tate an edited version of the tape to fit their narrative, they’d surely be prepared to be dishonest with other details too and hence their integrity with regards the rest of the story must, at the very least be taken with a large pinch of salt and extreme caution.
I doubt that evidence exists Tim Tate. If it did once exist I could make a sizeable bet it has been disappeared.
Gojam, I thiink what is missing in this piece and is a QUESTION that needs to asked. Were the police investigating LB and why was it taking them so long to file charges?
Yes, the police were investigating Leon Brittan but they didn’t have enough evidence to charge.
Who says they didn’t have enough evidence. what evidence did they have etc? Would they have felt they did not have enough evidence to charge if it been you or Joe public? I think high time the police were asked these questions. Was leon questioned over EGH if so when and where?
or they knew he had cancer.
It seems like they thought there was enough evidence back in February 2013, when his arrest was apparently being “prepared”. The Met really do need to explain right away why and on whose orders this arrest was never made.
If Brittan had been arrested back two years ago, we wouldn’t have gone through the Butler-Sloss and Woolf debacles too. Keeping him from being collared certainly gave theoretical advantages if, say, a government or agency of the state wanted to stall an inquiry.
Oops, forgot the link!
http://www.exaronews.com/articles/4838/met-paedophile-unit-prepares-to-arrest-ex-tory-cabinet-minister
@tastycake, Bloody Sunday inquiry, Hillsborough, Chilcott. Delays stalling obfuscation we Brits take enormous pride in the expertise we have in appearing incompetent. We appear incompetent because in the eye of the beholder we fail to clarify the subject at hand, the ingenuity is only apparent when one realises that opacity is the order of the day old chap.
At the briefing eh??
Tricia you’re right. Could also ask the same question about why police raided Greville Janner’s home and House of Lords’ office in December 2013 yet failed to question him until May 2014. By which time Lord Janner produced two doctors’ certificates alleging he had Alzheimers and so could not be questioned. Funny that at the time of the Police raid Greville Janner was still actively taking part in House of Lords business. Guess like Savile we’ll only hear when the perpetrators ate dead. But if there is anything to discover my guess is the Police themselves have a lot to hide.
80%, 20% Lies? Truth? Video? TheDaily Telegraph but not the Sunday Express Story? Seems to me that you and others do not know what is going on, still it all adds to the Defence of the Realm or the Destruction of the Establisment…again nobody knows and will probably never know if it is truth or lies.
”Glorifying Millionaire’s Britain..” : 0
Would Dickens have handed his file to Leon Brittan, had he believed Brittan to be a paedophile? It’s difficult to argue ‘yes’. Of course this does not mean that Brittan was innocent. Merely that Dickens had presumably not heard stories about Brittan, even though he (Dickens) had investigated other allegations of child abuse.
Of course it’s frustrating that Brittan will not now answer the charges against him. However, we are probably now closer to knowing more of the truth. Brittan’s death will probably allow people to come forward and say what they know about him. There are probably many of his contemporaries rightly worried about what the Sunday papers will print this weekend.
The alternative is the Dickens was tipping Brittan off by handing him the evidence to dispose off.
If Dickens was attempting to cover up child abuse, he would not have gone out of the way to generate stories in the press. He would simply have told the people coming to him with evidence that he had turned it over to the police and that they should wait (in vain) for the police to take action. I think that we can clearly say that Dickens was acting in good faith.
If Dickens had suspicions but no proof with regards Brittan, he may have handed the dossier to him to see if it really could be true that even the Home Secretary was complicit in the cover-up. Maybe find out if, when handed a document dropping his paedophile friends right in it Brittan was corrupt enough to put covering up crimes above the safety of children and the trust of the nation.
Would be a sound way of figuring out how high it went imho.
If Dickens thought that Brittan was a paedophile, he would have assumed that Brittan would cover up the evidence. There would have been no reason for Dickens to test Brittan by giving him the dossier.
I may be a victim of media disinformation myself, but I wonder if I am to take from your article that you regard, say, the story about Russell Tricker’s video is (by virtue of it being omitted in your piece) part of ‘the 80% of false allegations’ ?
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His death is good. He was never going to be charged and convicted, too much at stake for the political class. I have no doubt Fernbridge knew he had cancer, hence not bothering with him.
His death is good because just like Savile the truth can come out. Evidence will appear, witnesses will speak out.
It’s good because the public can now learn what he was and how it was covered up and push for a full CSA inquiry.
Bring it on. It’s depressing that we need to wait till someone’s copped it before we know the truth but the public need to know what they elected. If even a fraction of the allegations are true, it’s the biggest scandal this country seen made public.
Watergate does indeed pale.
‘They’ gave him cancer. Wakey, wakey.
That and various other things are part of the Iceberg that Theresa May was referring to.
This is the problem survivors know a lot about the truth of CSA but they do not generally know enough about what the ‘conspiracy crew’ know and understand. Hopefully that is now about to change.
Anyway now is time to put the Horn blast out.
I have tonight done a solo protest outside the MI5 building at Thames House in London and would invite others to join me if they have the guts.
AWAKE AWAKE – IT IS NOW TIME TO STORM FORWARD.
For THIS is the tide in the people’s affairs which will lead to fortune. On such a full sea are we now afloat, and we MUST take the current when it serves or lose our ventures…
( Don’t ” blast horn” though cuz that is what the fox-killing bloodthirsty rulers do ! )
Ingham should be hauled in and interrogated over what he alluded to in yesterday’s Sky report.
Leon clearly had some very pressing questions to answer. He will never be held to account for the ‘missing’ dossier or be questioned properly over the remaining allegations. I doubt he did all he was rumoured to have done. I doubt Saville was guilty of all that’s been linked to him either.
Leon’s name will be associated with all manner of accusation within hours & I suspect our timid MSM may get bolder. His legacy is at best to have failed to act over Dicken’s information. Whatever else is or isn’t provable, it’s a damningly shameful legacy to leave.
I wonder if Bernard’s tounge will loosen?
Much of the MSM just need to dust of stories they’ve already published and ‘insert name’.
Indeed. Hardly commendable as they are likely to have more information secreted away than the masses have seen. I wonder if they will hold off until he goes under the dust. I’d give it at most till the Sunday after. Your comments above are very fair and balanced & the articles you mention do make an interesting read.