In December Charles Napier was sentenced to 13 years for grooming and assaulting 21 victims. He’d pleaded guilty to 28 charges of indecent assault on children as young as eight years old.
That is only seven and a half months per boy he sexually assaulted or five and a half months for each sexual assault he pleaded guilty to.
Of course he’ll probably be out of prison in half the time, so divide those times by two.
Nevertheless, the Attorney General will not refer the sentence to the Court of Appeal.
Dear ….
Thank you for your email to the Attorney General’s Office regarding the sentencing of Charles Napier.
The Law Officers have the power to refer sentences passed in certain Crown Court cases to the Court of Appeal for review, if they consider, having regard to relevant sentencing guidelines and previous decisions of the Court of Appeal in similar cases, that the sentence is ‘unduly lenient’.
The Court of Appeal will not increase a sentence unless they are satisfied that it is significantly below that which any judge could reasonably have set having regard to the sentencing guidelines and tariffs set by the courts in similar cases.
Decisions on whether or not to refer cases are taken only after very careful consideration of the facts and the circumstances of the case and the relevant sentencing law and guidelines.
Having carefully reviewed the papers, the Attorney General has concluded that if the sentence imposed on Charles Napier was referred to the Court of Appeal, the Court would not increase the sentences. He has therefore decided not to refer the case to the Court of Appeal.
According to Napier’s defence barrister on Tuesday.
So, it is rather odd that the BBC (HERE) decided to run a very confusing story about the one charge Charles Napier was acquitted of.
The half brother of a senior Tory politician will plead guilty to a ‘substantial’ amount of historic sexual abuse charges, a court heard today (tues). Charles Napier, 67, half brother of MP John Whittingdale, faces 21 charges of indecent assault on boys aged eight to 13 between 1968 and 1973 and is yet to enter his pleas. As a single gross indecency charge was dropped by the Crown today (tues) his defence barrister said he will be admitting the bulk of the offences at his plea hearing next month. Napier, who appeared at Southwark Crown Court dressed in a dark green jacket, pale blue shirt and blue tie, faces sex abuse charges relating to 21 schoolboys over a five year period. –
This is in relation to Operation Cayacos. He has been acquitted of one charge only.
According to the CPS blog, he was charged on 21 counts – HERE
The news report isn’t clear and I’m assuming that he still faces other charges in court.
These Op Cayacos charges are stopping the media reporting that Charles Napier, half brother of John Whittingdale MP, had been arrested under a new Operation Fairbank strand, Operation Brancaster.
A man has been cleared of a charge of historical sex abuse after a judge said there was no evidence to support it.
Ex-teacher Charles Napier, from Sherborne, Dorset, denied inciting a boy under the age of 14 to commit an act of gross indecency with another.
The allegation dates back to between February 1978 and February 1979.
Mr Napier, half-brother of Conservative MP John Whittingdale, remains on conditional bail with regard to further charges of historical sex abuse.
The 67-year-old is due back at Southwark Crown Court on 10 November.
Judge Anthony Leonard QC said that he should be found not guilty of this one specific charge after he was told there was no evidence to support the claim.
Mr Napier’s co-defendant Richard Alston, 69, of Vinery Road in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of sex abuse against a child dating from January 1977 to February 1980, at the same hearing on Tuesday.
The charges include six counts of indecent assault on a male and four counts of indecency with a child.
Baljit Ubhey, Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS London, said:
“We have carefully considered the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police Service in relation to allegations concerning Charles Napier, a teacher at the time of the alleged offending between 1968 and 1973.
“Having completed our review, we have concluded there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest for Mr Napier to be charged with 21 offences of indecent assault. These date from 1968 to 1973, and relate to 21 male complainants aged between eight and 13 at the time of the alleged offending and who were pupils at the school where he taught.”
The charges are:
1. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 11 – 13 between 1968 and 1970
2. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 11 between 1969 and 1970
3. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 11 – 12 between 1969 and 1970
4. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 11 – 13 between 1969 and 1972
5. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 11 – 12 between 1969 and 1970
6. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 9 – 11 between 1970 to 1972
7. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 8 or 9 in 1970
8. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 9 – 11 between 1969 and 1972
9. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 9 or 10 between 1969 and 1970
10. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 10 to 13 between 1969 and 1972
11. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 13 in 1970
12. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 9 – 12 between 1969 and 1972
13. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 8 in 1971
14. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 11 – 13 between 1969 and 1972
15. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 8 or 9 – 12 between 1969 and 1972
16. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 8 – 9 between 1969 and 1970
17. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 11 – 13 between 1969 and 1971
18. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 10 – 13 between 1969 and 1972
19. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 12 in 1971
20. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 8 – 12 between 1969 and 1973
21. One charge of indecent assault on a boy aged 8 between 1969 and 1970
Ms Ubhey said:
“The decision to prosecute has been taken in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors and Crown Prosecution Service legal guidance on rape and child sexual abuse. We have determined that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that a prosecution is in the public interest.
“Mr Napier will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 2September 2014.
“May I remind all concerned that Mr Napier has a right to a fair trial. It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.”
It’s very odd (in a coincidental way) that both Charles Napier and Richard Alston have famous brothers. As has been widely reported in the press, Charles Napier is the half brother of John Whittingdale MP, Chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.
So, it seems a little unfair not to mention that Richard Alston is the ‘full’ brother of retired diplomat and former High Commissioner to New Zealand (amoung other places) Robert Alston CMG, QSO, DL.
It’s nice to get this down as former Detective Constable Terry Shutt is confirming what Peter McKelvie has already said.
Mr Shutt [former detective constable with West Mercia Police] was working as a detective constable when officers raided the home of paedophile Righton – who was once considered to be one of the country’s most respected authorities on child care.
As well as images of child abuse, they found five suitcases full of letters, which Mr Shutt says pointed to be him belonging to a much wider paedophile network.
‘In amongst all the other documentation, there was a definite link to establishment figures, including senior members of the clergy,’ he told BBC’s Today programme this morning.
‘So for me there was a definite feel that this was something bigger than we were looking at locally and that it should have been investigated further,’ he added.
Yesterday campaigner Peter McKelvie said he told police in 2012 that West Mercia Police were storing seven boxes of potential evidence about Righton
The Metropolitan Police did investigate the letters, but the now retired Mr Shutt says many of the most important leads were not followed up.
He claims it was seen to be more important to protect the establishment.
Asked how he, Charles Oxley, was sure that members of PIE actually abused children, he replies,
“Because I’ve heard them boast about their activities [at PIE committee meetings]. One of them boasted about an afternoon he spent with two boys on the river Thames.”
I wonder who he could be talking about ?
Extract of Charles Oxley interview begins 10 minutes in.
Detectives expect to press charges within weeks in an investigation that was sparked by a question in Parliament about a paedophile ring linked to politicians.
The charges would be the first to result directly from a dramatic intervention in the House of Commons by Tom Watson, the campaigning MP, in October 2012.
Officers on the case were astounded when a bishop in the Church of England came foward to allege that he was sexually abused as a boy.
An eminent businessman also told police that he was sexually abused as a boy. In addition, detectives have interviewed a well-known journalist who reported an attempt to sexually abuse him when he was a boy.
Watson alleged in Parliament that a network run by Peter Righton, the notorious paedophile, reached into the top levels of British politics. The MP riased the issue in prime minister’s questions soon after the exposure of Jimmy Saville, the late BBC star, as a paedophile.
Richard Alston, 69, a former head teacher from Bury St Edmunds arrested as part of a national investigation into an alleged high-profile paedophile ring has been re-bailed.
The suspect was arrested in September and questioned by Metropolitan Police detectives on suspicion of historical allegations of sexual abuse.
He was detained as part of Operation Fairbank, a large-scale inquiry set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal.
The man was taken to a police investigation centre. After being interviewed by detectives he was released until this week.
However, he has now been bailed again.
A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police said: “A 69-year-old man from Suffolk has been re-bailed to return on a date in February 2014 pending further inquiries.”
It is understood he was arrested under a strand of Operation Fairbank, codenamed Cayacos.
In June this year police said the enquiries made under Cayacos had reached the criminal threshold.
Yesterday, I noticed that Alun Roberts and Paul Rogers were discussing Tom Watson’s PMQ on Twitter and it’s prompted me to write this overview which I hope will clear up some misunderstandings. I’m sorry if much of this is already known but I hope that by putting all the publicly known information in one place you’ll be better able to understand.
On the 24th October 2012 Tom Watson arose from his seat in the House of Commons and asked this question.
“Thank you Mr Speaker,
The evidence file used to convict paedophile Peter Righton, if it still exists, contains clear intelligence of a widespread paedophile ring. One of it’s members boasts of his links to a senior aide of a former Prime Minister who says he could smuggle indecent images of children from abroad. The leads were not followed up but if the file still exists, I want to ensure that the Metropolitan Police secure the evidence, re-examine it, and investigate clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and Number 10.”
Fairly soon after this question was asked it was announced that Operation Fairbank had been instigated. What many people do not understand, and it is something I didn’t understand at that time, is that the police give one name to an investigation while it is ‘scoping’ and then give it a different name when it becomes a criminal investigation.
Operation Fairbank is the name of the original ‘scoping’ investigation.
On the 27th June 2013 at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, Tom Watson had this to say:
“The story behind that [The PMQ Question] is that there is a very noble retired child protection officer who sent me an email and it was one of those emails that I stared at for a long time before replying because I looked at it and I thought, if I answer this this is the next two years of my life subsumed… But I did answer it.. and.. he emailed me… and… it wasn’t the Elm Guest House it actually…it was to do with a case involving an academic called Peter Righton who was at the time the leading academic in the country in child protection. He then came to see me and he’d been helping the police with the criminal inquiry in the 90s, and the inquiry was closed down in unusual circumstances…
…it turned out the evidence file did exist, 7 boxes of evidence in a repository in Leicestershire.”
You can listen to all Tom Watson said on this issue here:
Now, David Hencke as he reblogged the above video adds more detail.
“Tom Watson’s source had three days to study the documents and the first investigation was inexplicably closed down after four months. It is not the case now.”
The ‘source’ himself commented on Spotlightand gives more information.
“I can confirm that the closed down Hereford and Worcester investigation of 1994 was re-ignited by Tom Watson’ PMQ last October. That 1994 investigation began with the Customs/Police raid on Peter Righton’s home. Sadly 20 years on key figures like Righton have died and won’t face the justice their victims deserve. However it is some consolation that with determined policing and social media sites that we didn’t have then a lot of wrongs can now be put right. The public remain poorly informed by the mainstream media about the true extent of powerful people in child sexual abuse but I for one believe things are about to change. Although he didn’t get charged with the offences he committed at least the BBC documentary Secret Life of a Paedophile destroyed Righton’s reputation and left everyone in no doubt about what an evil individual he was – a small but important reward for what should have gone on to be a massive nationwide investigate in to the links and webs we uncovered
We still don’t know who gave the order to shut down the original police investigation. In my opinion that person is just as guilty as Peter Righton and his network of child abusers. The decision to shut it down is likely to have been taken by Michael Howard and/or Virginia Bottomley. Howard was Home Secretary at the time, with overall responsibility for policing, and Bottomley was Health Secretary, with overall responsibility for children’s homes and social work.
Since Tom Watson’s PMQ there has been almost nothing in the mainstream media on the Peter Righton investigation. Thanks to the Sunday People/Mirror, we’ve learnt that ex-PIE treasurer Charles Napier is being investigated, but that’s the only real story in the mainstream media in over 5 months. This is despite the Guardian being in possession of all the information on the Peter Righton network that was given to Operation Fairbank.
If any mainstream media outlets decide to write a story about the national scandal of an organised paedophile network preying on children in care and the subsequent cover-up, here are some links including the original BBC documentary ‘Secret Life of a Paedophile’:”
Charles Napier and Peter Righton. Image taken from Secret Life of a Paedophile
So, what can we gather from all of this public information about that original Tom Watson PMQ ?
In 1994 there was a Customs/Police raid on Peter Righton’s home. The source had access to 7 boxes of correspondence for 3 days, within these letters from many people, some fellow PIE members, at least one correspondent “boasts of his links to a senior aide of a former Prime Minister who says he could smuggle indecent images of children from abroad.” The investigation ended inexplicably after 4 months despite compelling evidence. The source approached Tom Watson some time before the 24th October 2012.
Now, what Of Elm Guest House ?
An Exaro piece written by David Hencke helps explain that.
This is a story that I always wanted the public to know. For more than five years, I have been aware, thanks to a very good source, that unspeakable events involving a paedophile ring in leafy Barnes in south-west London some three decades ago.
I was told that very powerful people abused young boys there. But could I or my source find anyone to take any interest? No. My source’s complaints were ignored by Richmond council, the police, social services, councillors, MPs and ministers.
I was left with the impression that very powerful people wanted to make sure that nothing would ever be done. Evidence of sexual abuse of children by powerful people has been hidden for too long.
Thanks to the revelations about Jimmy Savile and the guts shown by Tom Watson MP, in raising in the House of Commons evidence of an even wider paedophile ring, the tide is turning.
This time, when I took my source to see one of London’s most senior policemen in the presence of Tom Watson, he listened.
It is an entirely different source that David Hencke is writing about from the source that Tom Watson referred to in the film above. Tom Watson’s source is a noble retired child protection officer, David Hencke’s source is a tenacious retired housing officer for Richmond council.
It’s clear that following Tom Watson’s PMQ, David Hencke and his source approached Tom Watson and together they went to the officer in charge of Operation Fairbank.
I would hazard a guess that following this meeting that these new Elm Guest House revelations fell under the umbrella of the scoping operation, Operation Fairbank. However, fairly quickly the Elm Guest House investigation became a criminal investigation and as I’ve tried to explain when this happens the police designate a new operational name, thus Operation Fernbridge was born. Unlike Operation Fairbank which is a scoping investigation, Operation Fernbridge is and has always been a criminal operation.
Now, on the 26th June 2013, Charles Napier was arrested under Operation Cayacos.
Back to Exaro;
It [the Met] said: “This arrest is part of a new strand of Operation Fairbank entitled ‘Operation Cayacos’, which has now reached the criminal threshold.”
I hope this clears up any lingering confusion. Tom Watson’s PMQ was nothing to do with Elm Guest House it concerned evidence seized by police during a raid on Peter Righton’s home in 1994.
Do not rule out other criminal operations arising from Operation Fairbank the umbrella ‘scoping’ investigation.
Operation Cayacos is an offshoot of Operation Fairbank which began soon after Tom Watson MP asked this question below on the 24th October last year.
Richard Alston, 69, in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk is the second person to be arrested, the first being Charles Napier who is John Whittingdale MP’s half brother.
Richard Alston was the Headteacher of New Barns School in Toddington, Gloucestershire, a school for emotionally disturbed children aged between 6 and 13 years old.
Peter Righton lived with Mr Alston.
Peter Righton was also a school govenor at New Barns School.
The police found seven boxes of evidence following Tom Watson’s PMQ question.
theneedleblog 