John Stingemore and Tony McSweeney enter pleas

John Stingemore, who was responsible for the day-to-day running of Grafton Close Children’s Home, and his friend, Father Tony McSweeney, appeared at Southwark Crown Court today before Judge Testar.

They entered pleas of not guilty to the 14 charges put to them.

The pair remain on conditional bail and no trial date has been set.

We will update later.

Op Fernbridge: Stingemore – McSweeney Committal Hearing

By Op Greenlight, The Needle’s court artist

This Thursday, 19th December, is the date of John Stingemore and Tony McSweeney’s Committal Hearing. The time of the hearing has not yet been published.

As we have done before with previous hearings we would like to urge all complainants and witnesses in this case not to attend. As those people already know Stingemore and McSweeney are the only two people that have been charged in connection with Operation Fernbridge (so far) and as such there is considerable media interest, even if that interest has not yet manifested itself as stories in the press.

At the two previous hearings television cameras filmed everybody entering and leaving the court and journalists were more interested in who was in the public gallery than they were in John Stingemore, Tony McSweeney, and the proceedings.

So, if you do not wish to have the unwanted attention of the press, please do not go.

Committal Hearings are usually very short, normally around five minutes long. The defendants confirm their names and addresses and the charges are read out and they may, if they wish, enter a plea before the judge dismisses them to a trial date.

That’s it.

It is true that the media, including this blog, are restricted in what they can report at these hearings but if you are connected with this case then I’m sure that the police contact you have will inform you of any important developments that can’t be reported.

Both Op Greenlight and myself will be attending ourselves and Op Greenlight has promised me that she will use her considerable artistic skills to try and capture the mood and the atmosphere in the courtroom for you. We’ll publish the pictures on Friday and I promise you, you will not feel as though you’ve missed out, it will seem as though you were actually there !

Police Child Abuse Investigations And The MSM.

There are two reasons why I want to make a post on this subject. The first is that The Needle team are working on a series of articles looking at child abuse investigations centred around London during the 1980s and that these articles will be heavily reliant on mainstream media (MSM) sources for information.

Like the majority of people in the country, I had always assumed that information published, or broadcast, by the MSM had always been thoroughly investigated and was reliable. Certainly, mistakes happen but these must be rare anomalies to my mind. However, having looked closely at a few live police investigations  over the last year and read virtually every news story connected to them, I’ve had to conclude that there are quite a few misleading inaccuracies which inform the general public’s overview of these current historic child abuse investigations.

I’m just going to highlight two examples.

The first concerns a broadcast by Channel 4 News back on the 6th November last year. As Darren Laverty clearly demonstrates on his blog HERE, and HERE, the alleged witness, whose identity has rightly been protected by Channel 4 News, makes some ‘newsworthy’ allegations but as Darren Laverty goes on to point out, the ‘witness’ has since publicly retracted or contradicted the version of events he gave to Channel 4. We can only hope that the subject of this interview has not been similarly economic with the truth if he has been in contact with the police. As was demonstrated earlier in the year when someone else was arrested for making unsubstantiated allegations against a current member of the government, making false allegations to the police or misleading them in the course of their investigations, if deemed to be malicious, can lead to being arrested for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

The Channel 4 News story can be viewed HERE

The second example I want to highlight concerns a story published in The Sunday Mirror on 16th February this year, it can be read HERE. The Needle team have very good reasons to believe, and are satisfied, that the reference to Operation Orchid in this story is incorrect and that it should read ‘Operation Hedgerow’. Therefore, the further reference to a connection to Sidney Cooke, which was almost certainly inferred by The Sunday Mirror due to the incorrect assumption that the police investigation was Operation Orchid, is ‘questionable’.

Furthermore, although it is my belief that Cyril Smith was connected to Operation Hedgerow, and that the unnamed politician may have been connected to that police investigation, I’m extremely skeptical that Jimmy Savile was.

These are just two examples but I could flag up many more from other MSM outlets.

I do not want to suggest that either Channel 4 News or The Sunday Mirror acted in bad faith when they put these stories in the public domain, nor that they are the worst offenders (that prize goes to another newspaper), nor either that these mistakes make up the majority of news stories on this topic,  I just want to highlight that, from my experience, the MSM are not infallible.

Some readers might ask; why if I know that some MSM stories are inaccurate or misleading do I not correct them all instead of picking just two out ? Unfortunately, that is a difficult question to answer. The best answer I can give at this time, and I know this will sound disappointingly vague, is that I do not believe it would be helpful to the police if I were to do so.

I said at the beginning of this article that there were two reasons why I wanted to write about this issue. The first was that The Needle will be publishing some articles which rely on MSM sources, though I’m confident that the material we will use is accurate.

The second is that at some point in the future, the current historic child abuse investigations will conclude and reports will be made and I can anticipate a situation arising whereby members of the public will infer that the police have covered up simply because their reports contradict or do not consider some information contained in MSM stories.

It seems best to me to highlight this issue now rather than when these reports come out as it will give people plenty of time to consider the issue and it will not look like an excuse. If it is possible, I will try and explain other ‘mistakes’ in MSM stories at the appropriate time.

PS, Just so nobody thinks this article is a case of ‘the pot calling the kettle black’, I’ve made a few of my own mistakes and so have inadvertently added to the misleading canon of information in the public domain which will have to be corrected.

Comments On Exaro Story

On Saturday night Exaro published a story- here.

Firstly, I’d like to make clear that Exaro have not, and have never, revealed any sources of information to The Needle Team but it is the case that some sources of information (witnesses) may have contacted Exaro and The Needle Team separately and so it may be that either directly or indirectly we may both have the same information.

I would like to correct just two mis-interpretations of the story that Exaro published.

1) The witness mentioned in the story was not, and has never claimed to be, at Elm Guest House.

2)  The second source quoted is not Mark Williams-Thomas.

Op Fernbridge: Exaro With ‘Major Breakthrough’

Op Fernbridge: Harry Kasir Released From Police Bail.

I don’t know that I can add too much to this story other than to mention that I’ve been told that the images that Kasir was alleged to have had were Category 1, the lowest level on the SAP scale. If you have a picture of your child in the bath then in theory that is a Category 1 image but quantity and context are very important to establishing whether possession of such images is criminal.

Also, that this release from police bail without charge happened a while back.

Police have released without charge the former co-manager of a guest house at the centre of an investigation into a VIP paedophile ring…

…Detectives arrested Haroon Kasir, known as Harry, in July at an address in west London on suspicion of possession of indecent images of children.

Kasir ran Elm Guest House with his late wife Carole, for about 4 years from 1979 in Barnes. Carole died suddenly in 1990, with a coroner recording a verdict of suicide.

Exaro News

Op Fernbridge: CPS Drop Key Charges Against Stingemore And McSweeney

I just want the survivors to know that my thoughts are with them and to remain strong.

Prosecutors are to drop key charges brought under Scotland Yard’s ‘Operation Fernbridge’ against two men accused of child abuse.

Exaro has learnt from sources close to the investigation that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is set to announce the decision at a hearing at Southwark Crown Court in three weeks.

The decision is a blow to the Metropolitan Police Service’s paedophile unit, which is investigating historical allegations of sexual abuse of boys at Grafton Close children’s home in the London borough of Richmond, south-west London, at nearby Elm Guest House and other sites.

Detectives are understood to be furious with the CPS because it only decided in July to level the charges.

Exaro News.

Cat Amongst The Pigeons.

Well, that last article about Carole Kasir certainly stirred things up.

I can understand why.

For most, the ‘Mary Moss Documents’ are the primary source of information on Elm Guest House and by challenging the credibility of Carole Kasir, whose testimony appears at first glance to be central to those documents, it might appear that I’m discrediting the documents in toto and by doing that suggesting that child abuse did not take place at Elm Guest House. Certainly, some have chosen to interpret my post that way. In fact the majority of documents are not connected to Carole Kasir’s testimony.

This is all very disappointing for me for a number of reasons. Firstly, no one appears to have paid attention to the three points that I made at the end. So, for the record; I have no doubt whatsoever that child abuse took place at Elm Guest House. Let me repeat that: ‘no doubt whatsoever’. I can not say at this stage the extent of it or exactly how organised it was but that adults sexually abused children at Elm Guest House is not in question in my own mind.

Secondly, I’m extremely disappointed by the reaction to that post by some people. They appear unable to realise that by clinging to every aspect of the popular version of events, regardless of whether they can be clearly shown to be untrue,  they risk distracting attention from credible evidence of child abuse. How does that help victims ?

The Needle has always sought to be informative and we’re going to continue to publish as much information as is possible within the constraints of the law and while respecting undertakings of confidentiality.

For me this is not about hits on a blog or popularity on Twitter, for me this is about establishing the truth and putting it in the public domain and that is what we’re going to do.

Operation Fernbridge: Carole Kasir, A Liar ?

Vindictive Liar ?

Over the last year I’ve had contact  with a number of confidential sources who have helped me to form a better understanding of the kind of person Carole Kasir was.

My view, at this time, is that she was a selfish, vindictive, manipulative liar, and an alcoholic.

If Chris Fay and I disagree it is not that she lied to him, which he accepts, but how much she lied to him.

Following the raid on the Elm Guest House in June 1982, Carole’s son was taken into care and placed in Grafton Close children’s home and the evidence appears to show that eight years later Carole Kasir approached NAYPIC with a view to maligning those people responsible for taking her son into care.

I know of two clear examples where she did this. Examples where two men Carole Kasir accused of child abuse at Elm Guest House couldn’t have plausibly done so, two men who were involved in the care of her son. Both of these men have been described to me by those that have met them as decent, honourable, child welfare professionals, both now retired, who had spent their working life protecting children from abuse and who were certainly not responsible for it.

Given these clear examples where Carole Kasir has been shown to have lied, is it reasonable, in the absence of any corroborating evidence, to assume that in every other case she told the truth ?

I’m not suggesting that everyone she named is innocent, only that Carole Kasir is not a credible source and that without corroborative evidence it would be extremely foolish to suggest that all men that she named were child abusers.

That does not mean that the ‘Mary Moss Documents’ do not contain interesting evidence and information which raises important questions.

1) Why do Elm Guest House room-bookings refer to ‘children’ ?

2) What was the exact nature of the involvement of Spartacus at Elm Guest House ?

3) What was the exact reason for the raid on Elm Guest House ?

These questions stand outside of Carole Kasir’s testimony and are still valid in my view.

Note 1: This post does not allude to any person who is currently awaiting trial.

Note 2: The view that is expressed here has been formed as a direct result of six different, independent confidential sources all with very different perspectives on this subject.

Note 3:  Some posts were removed from this blog because I felt that they either may prejudice a future trial or because I felt that they might mislead readers.

Note 4: I have never been pressured by anyone to remove any post.

Note 5: This is the limit of what I wish to publish on this subject at this stage.

If you have information connected to Operations Fairbank or Fernbridge you can call them direct on 0207 161 0500.

Or you can contact NAPAC on 0800 085 3330 free from landlines, 3, EE, Vodafone and Virgin mobile phones or 0808 801 0331 free from O2, EE and Vodafone mobile phones.

For The Attention Of Alison Saunders

Alison Saunders, Director of Public Prosecutions.

Dear Ms. Saunders

I am forwarding you an email I sent to the Right Reverend Bishop Paul Butler following his appearance on this week’s BBC Panorama programme alongside your predecessor, Keir Starmer.

The changes which have taken place in policy, procedure and attitude to child sexual abuse allegations under Mr.Starmer’s leadership are most welcome indeed and if carried out throughout our judicial system over the next few years will justify Mr.Starmer’s claim that ” the Final Guidance document on the prosecution of cases invoving child sexual abuse in England and Wales represented the biggest shift in attitude across the criminal justice system  for a generation “.

The statement by the Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS Wales, Ed Beltrami  – ” We are now very clear that the focus must be on the overrall credibility of an allegation, rather than the perceived  weakness  of the person making it ”  –  truly does represent a watershed moment and will provide long overdue encouragement for more victims to come forward.

I would be extremely grateful if you would personally agree to oversee that the alleged ” evidence ” of the Right Reverend Dominic Walker, recently retired Bishop of Monmouth, does now get in to the hands of the relevant Police team particularly as it is suggested that an MP was involved.

Mr.Starmer stated in the Panorama programme that professionals such as teachers and health workers who stay silent in child abuse claims ” should be prosecuted ” and ” go to jail “.

Unfortunately he failed to include politicians who stayed silent in the cases of Peter Morrison, Cyril Smith and many more and one wonders whether such guidance will be applied to all people in our society or just a scapegoated few in certain professions. What guarantee will you give under your leadership that the Establishment will no longer protect the Establishment in cases of child sexual abuse hiding under the phrase ” not in the public interest ” which the public well know means ” not in the Establishment’s interest “.

Past decisions by the Attorney General and DPP particularly in the cases of the late High Commisioner to Canada, Sir Peter Hayman, and Sir Cyril Smith that prosecutions were ” not in the public interest ” were absolutely disgraceful when it was known that both men were career paedophiles. Sir Peter Morrison went on to be promoted by his political party despite it being well known amongst the leadership that in Edwina Currie’s words he was a pederast. Should Edwina Currie be prosecuted alongside all other politicians who covered up these heinous crimes ( are you aware of Michael Cockerell’s 1995 BBC Documentary ” Westminster’s Secret Service ” in which he revealed the truth about the Whip’s Dirt Books which contained details of the MP’s who had been involved in paedophile activity and how they were protected ) and also should all the members of the security services who played their part in these high level cover ups now be brought to justice in line with Keir Starmer’s thinking ?

The suspicion by the public, and particularly the  victims of abuse by powerful individuals, will remain that there will always be a law for one and a law for the other regardless of bold policy statements unless these are translated in to visible,transparent action right across the board regardless of that person’s status in society.

Yours respectfully

[Gojam Edit:From a man Tom Watson MP described as a “noble retired child protection officer”]

Bill Cash MP And Damian Green MP Correspondence.

Many thanks to Peridot for passing on this correspondence between Bill Cash MP and Rt Hon Damian Green MP the Minister of State for Police and Criminal Justice.

If you have information connected to Operation Fairbank/Fernbridge you can call them direct on 0207 161 0500

Or you can contact NAPAC on 0800 085 3330 free from landlines, 3, EE, Vodafone and Virgin mobile phones or 0808 801 0331 free from O2, EE and Vodafone mobile phones.

~

~

The Needle Talks To Peter Saunders Of NAPAC.

Peter Saunders of NAPAC

Yesterday, Op Greenlight and myself went to meet Peter Saunders at the NAPAC (The National Association of People Abused in Childhood) offices. I’d talked to Peter on the telephone before but this was the first time that I’d met him in person and he was as impressive face to face as he is on the television.

He was extremely generous with his time and I’d like to thank him for taking the time to talk to us at length on a number of topics.

One subject we talked about was NAPAC’s relationship with the police.

“It is essential that survivors of child abuse know that they can contact NAPAC in confidence.” he told us, “but if a survivor requests it we can help. We can arrange for the survivor to meet with specialist police officers who understand what a big step the survivor is taking by talking to them and in the past we’ve offered to attend these meetings and support the survivor.”

But Peter Saunders was very keen to emphasise the confidentiality of NAPAC. “We do not record telephone contact with survivors and it is essential that survivors know that they are in control. We are here first and foremost to support them.”

More on the Peter Saunders interview later on The Needle.

If you would like to make a donation to NAPAC  then you can either click on the donate button on the top right on The Needle or you can visit their website http://www.napac.org.uk/ where you will also find out how you can volunteer your time to support survivors of child abuse.

If you have information connected to Operation Fairbank/Fernbridge you can call them direct on 0207 161 0500

Or you can contact NAPAC on 0800 085 3330 free from landlines, 3, EE, Vodafone and Virgin mobile phones or 0808 801 0331 free from O2, EE and Vodafone mobile phones.

Why a Whitewash Won’t Wash

It is not hard to see why many believe that the outrageous behaviours and cover-ups that were common in the past continue today.
Just consider these three examples:

The late (Sir) Jimmy Savile
The late (Sir) Peter Morrison
The late (Sir) Cyril Smith

Will Police Operations Fairbank, Fernbridge, and its sibling investigations into abuse dating back over 40 years
be ‘different this time?’

One could be forgiven for thinking that it will be more of the same and ‘business as usual’. It seems that little, if any, real investment has been made to resolve these crimes and eradicate child sexual abuse:

The fact that only 25 police in total are working in the Met Police’s paedophile unit, despite an increase in victims coming forward over the past year.
The fact that only 8 officers (from the 25 above) are working on Operation Fairbank.
The fact that many witnesses are being screened by charity-based organisations which are now at breaking point.

Where are the signs of real care and concern from our government and authorities?
Where is the determination and most importantly, where is the investment?

Will it really be ‘different this time?’

The definition of a fool is said to be someone who expects that doing the same thing over and over again will produce a different result.

For it to be ‘different this time’, something major needs to have changed.

That major change could lie in this paradigm shift: Historically, the Main Stream Media (MSM) has been quite compliant to government requests. For example, although ‘D’ (and now ‘DA’) notices are only advisory, it is usual for MSM to comply with them. But this compliance also seems to extend beyond the formal notices, and into the realms of the Gentleman’s Club. Such cosiness is a tradition that spans many decades. The reward for loyalty might even be some gong or other awarded to the higher echelons in the press organisations.

Today, Alternative Media don’t necessarily share those aspirations. Many thousands of bloggers are very alert to what is really happening and their sites are already serious competition for MSM. It’s not just the blogs, of course, there are the social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and the Internet Chatrooms and Forums.

Out there is a whole new world of social media and alternative news that the establishment is only now trying to gets to grips with. Wikileaks illustrates the changing of this paradigm.

So how successful would a ‘cover-up’ be today?

Survivors and witnesses would have ready mouthpieces for their stories on the alternative news sites, as would the police or other officials and would-be whistleblowers who knew the truth. Blogs would be scrambling to tell the full story and places like Twitter and Internet Forums would be on fire.

Assuming that MSM played their traditional role there’d be no leakage there. But, would they continue to play by the old rules?
MSM’s life blood is being threatened by these internet upstarts (in fact some journalists have already jumped ship into these alternative news channels).
How long would it be before the first MSM caved and broke ranks with the old guard? Maybe it’s happening already?

So, is a cover-up possible?
Yes, of course it is, but is it as likely to stick? I doubt it.

Remember that there are thousands upon thousands of ordinary people who are utterly revolted by the crimes of abuse against children committed both in the past and the present. Included in these many thousands of people are serving police officers, judges, barristers, care workers and journalists, to name a few, and they also want to see these evil creatures brought to justice.

There is a ground swell of feeling that has been thoroughly misjudged by people who should know better. Throwing out another dead paedophile for the public to feast on isn’t going to wash anymore.

‘It may be that you are a vital witness or that you possess crucial evidence, or that you have information that Operation Fairbank need to complete the picture. To these people I want to say, please do not assume that someone else is going to provide that information. Please step forward and help.’
The Operation Fairbank telephone number- 0207 1610500

Stepping forward to add your voice as a witness is the way to avoid a whitewash.

NAPAC
Call 0800 085 3330 free from landlines, 3, EE, Vodafone and Virgin mobile phones.
Call 0808 801 0331 free from O2, EE and Vodafone mobile phones.

NSPCC
Call 0800 800 5000

Operation Fairbank
Call 0207 161 0500

Operation Fairbank/Fernbridge Telephone Number

How many witnesses does it take to get a conviction?

Obviously, it varies, but I’m guessing if I were asking a policeman that question he’d probably tell me that you simply can’t have too many witnesses.

There is a reason for me pointing this out. At some time in the future, it could be a year from now or even two years, but at some time Operation Fairbank and the historic abuse operations that have arisen from it will become inactive (investigations technically never close). Now, that certainly isn’t going to happen before the trials of the three people already charged and, if there are more arrests, the date will get pushed back, but it will happen at some point.

The Metropolitan Police’s Paedophile Unit has around 25 police officers and eight of those are working on Operation Fairbank-related historic investigations. They’ve not had any increase in resources over this last year despite the widely reported increase in victims coming forward nationally and their primary focus must always be to intervene in cases where a child is in danger right now. I don’t believe anyone, regardless of how passionate they are about seeing justice for those making historic allegations, would question that the protection of children today, right now, must always be their priority.

It is simply naive to think that The Met are going to keep a dedicated team, one third of the Paedophile Unit, looking at historic allegations indefinitely.

So, this really is it. Operation Fairbank exists to try to bring to justice those who may have escaped it for the past 40 years. I cannot foresee that there will ever be a dedicated Met police operation looking at these matters quite like this one ever again.

What I’m trying to get around to saying is this; if you are a witness with information that can help, or a victim of abuse related to Elm Guest House or have any allegation of a similar nature which relates to a VIP, whether that is an MP, member of the House of Lords, or anyone in a position of authority then if you do not contact Operation Fairbank/Fernbridge/Cayacos with that information while these investigations are still active, it will be far harder to get justice afterwards.

I’m acutely aware that there may be victims of child sexual abuse who have moved on with their lives, they may be married and perhaps their spouses are unaware of what happened to them as a child. They may read The Needle and they may be hoping that the person that abused them will receive the justice that they know that person deserves but they are unwilling to come forward themselves. To these people I would say that I’m confident any communication you have with this dedicated team would be treated with delicacy and respect for your current situation.  It may well be that you could provide the final piece of the jigsaw that sees the person who abused you put behind bars.

It may be that a victim of child sexual abuse feels that previous trouble with the law means that the police will not take them seriously. To these people I want to say that I can assure you that that is not the case. You will be listened to and accorded the same courtesy as anyone else.

It may be that you are a vital witness or that you possess crucial evidence, or that you have information that Operation Fairbank need to complete the picture. To these people I want to say, please do not assume that someone else is going to provide that information. Please step forward and help.

To help you in this I’m going to supply the Operation Fairbank telephone number- 0207 1610500

I’ve had this number since the beginning of the year. I’ve only passed it on to two others in that time and I’ve only called it myself twice. If you ring that number you will be asked to leave a message and someone will call you back. On the couple of occasions I’ve called a very nice female detective, whose name I will not make public, has called me back. Please be aware that this team are very busy but they will call you back.

Here is the telephone number for Operation Fairbank again – 0207 1610500

If you are a victim, a witness, or someone with vital information please give that number a call.

One note of caution, the police don’t need your theories or your speculation, please do not call them unless you really do have valuable information.

Now, I know that not everyone feels comfortable talking to the police and so I want to give two other telephone numbers. Both NAPAC and the NSPCC are recommended contacts if you feel you can not contact the police directly, or if you wish to talk to someone in confidence before talking to the police.

NAPAC

NAPAC provides the only national freephone support line for adults who have suffered any type of abuse in childhood. Because of the large volume of calls we are sorry that many people are unable to get through. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to call you back which also means that any answerphone messages cannot be answered.

Call 0800 085 3330 for free from landlines, 3, EE, Vodafone and Virgin mobile phones.
Call 0808 801 0331 for free from O2, EE and Vodafone mobile phones.

Telephone support line opening hours:
Monday
10:00am-9:00pm
Tuesday
10:00am–9:00pm
Wednesday
10.00am-9.00pm
Thursday
10:00am-9.00pm
Friday
10.00am-6.00pm

Email support – Please send your emails to support@napac.org.uk

~

NSPCC

Operation Fairbank: An Overview.

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 Spotlight and 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.

More at Exaro News

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.”

Exaro

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.

Confirmation Of Independent Story.

It’s taken me two months to get confirmation of this story from The Independent on Sunday [21st July] but I’m now in a position to confirm that it is true. Confirmation that a file had been passed to the CPS regarding a “former senior cabinet minister” did not come from anyone connected to The Independent on Sunday.

I’d like to specifically draw your attention to the first paragraph which I’ve quoted below.

I hope that it should give some indication of the tenacity of the Op Fernbridge team in pursuing certain individuals.

A former senior cabinet minister is now the subject of a rape allegation currently being considered by the Crown Prosecution Service. Police investigating possible child abuse at the Elm Guest House in West London have submitted a file on the former minister, and the CPS is expected to come to a decision over the matter during the summer. The claims are not believed to relate to the abuse of minors at the guesthouse, and the alleged victim was over the age of consent.

The Independent

The ‘Fake’ Elm Guest House List.

This is absolutely, certainly, definitely, the last time that we’re going to do a post on this… I hope!

Alun Roberts  very *kindly* included me in this twitter exchange with someone claiming to be Margaret Jervis.

Margaret is a former journalist with Social Work Today but now she is a fact checker. I did try to explain privately to Margaret but without much luck.

So this post is to clear up any possible confusion about the ‘list’ or should I say the ‘lists’ because the Mary Moss docs have a number of lists.

On Aug 24th Chris Fay wrote ‘Elm Guest House. Mary Moss Files – Clarification’ in which he wrote:

There are only 3 of the documents that I wanted to put some context and clarification to…

…Document 6. It was drawn to my attention that some people though it was a list of abusers. I only want to clarify absolutely that this is a list of VICTIMS that should never have been made public. They are victims!!

Document 103. This is a list of police officers who carried out the raid. It again was drawn to my attention that some people thought these names were involved in abuse at Grafton or EGH. They were NOT. See my previous post.

Documents 104/6. This is a list of names I scribbled down from the registers, whilst the person I was with was talking to Carol. This was the very first time we had acess to them. They were just names and include by the way, victims!  As you can see from later docs we did go on to identify many of the abusers and also the aliases that were used, not just for the Guest House but also the use of the “facilities”.

Margaret Jervis has chosen to describe this as a “confession” forced on Chris Fay by the Metropolitan Police. Let’s be clear, the Met did not ‘force’ Chris to write anything, nor did they even request that Chris clarify anything. It is difficult to understand how Margaret, “30 years in the field”, would make such a mistake and the twisting of facts and the emotive language she uses might lead some to question her agenda.

Anyway, I think Chris has already clearly explained those documents but when most people think of ‘the list’ they have a different document in mind and although Chris has clearly indicated which documents he was talking about, I’m worried that Margaret Jervis’s comments on twitter might lead to further confusion.

So, I would like to clarify about Document 63, you all know the one, the one with the ‘big’ names…

That list was written by Chris Fay while interviewing Carole Kasir in the NAYPIC office a few months before she died.

I’m assuming that when Margaret Jervis refers to a ‘fake’ list she is referring to this one. Regardless, it is likely that anyone who read the twitter exchange would assume it was that one.

‘Fake’ is rather a pejorative word. It suggests that it is not genuine, that it purports to be something that it is not, that it is deliberately designed to mislead.

To begin with, this list was written over 20 years ago and was never meant to be in the public domain . It is a contemporaneous record of an interview that Chris Fay had with Carole Kasir. So, plainly it was never written to deceive people 23 years later.

Is it accurate ?

No. One of the first discussions I had with Chris Fay back in January concerned that list and he immediately told me that it was inaccurate. He explained to me that even as he was interviewing Carole Kasir he felt that he was being misled and that he felt that Carole was telling him what she thought he wanted to hear.

The list is what it is. It does not purport to be anything it is not, it is a contemporaneous record of an interview and it was not written to be put in the public domain, it is a private note. By no definition of the word could it possibly be described as a ‘fake’.

So, why does this wordsmith of 30 years use that pejorative term ?

There is more, the documents that Mary Moss put online is only a small fraction of those seized by the police. There is another list. This list followed a NAYPIC investigation and some people on the first list, the public one, were eliminated. One name eliminated after talking to the children involved and others was that of a person who has been famous for decades, for fear of associating that person further in this I can not say his name.

BBC Newsnight have a copy of that list. Is it accurate? I don’t know because I’ve never seen it but it is certainly more accurate than the public list.

Margaret, I think it is only fair to give you the right to reply if you wish.

Spot The Cabinet Minister.

Which one is the Cabinet Minister ?

OK, I know that readers of The Needle are well informed and I’m sure you all spotted it was Danny Alexander [first person second row], the current Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

However, if you took that image to a primary school and asked a group of eleven year olds the same question, does anyone believe that any one of them would have singled him out ?

This is not a frivilous question, I’ve seen much written by many commentators bemoaning the fact that it appears that only television celebrities are being identified in historic child abuse investigations and not powerful politicians.

The conclusion that many then leap to is that this is indicative of an establishment cover-up but not one person has pointed out that there could not have been one young girl or boy in the country who could have failed to recognise Jimmy Savile during the 1970s and 1980s or forgotten that they had met him, so ubiquitous was he on children’s television, and how unrecognisable and instantly forgettable politicians are to children.

Here in lies a big problem for the police now engaged in investigations into historic child abuse which implicate politicians. It may have been difficult for anyone to forget having met Cyril Smith, given his physical appearance, but for most children the majority of politicians are grey men indistinguishable from anyone else. Throw in extremely difficult and stressful circumstances, perhaps even drugs and/or alcohol, and the passage of time, and one can start to see how problematic it can be.

That does not mean that there has not been a cover-up. I’m as confident as I can be that there has been one but in the case of the Elm Guest House, for example, I believe that the cover-up to have taken place in the 1980s. It is my earnest belief that Operation Fernbridge has no intention of covering anything up. I expect that they are as frustrated as anyone, more so even, at the apparent paucity of substantiating evidence, the lost files, and destroyed documents.

Given the high profile of those alleged to have been involved and the inevitable public backlash if there were to be even a whiff of a cover-up, I believe that those who are part of the Operation Fernbridge investigation will be at pains to demonstrate that they have run down every lead and turned over every stone.

But they must also be aware by now that regardless of however meticulous they are and however conscientious they are they will never be able to satisfy everyone.

As Exaro News clearly stated in a trilogy of tweets yesterday, which I reproduced, contrary to any rumour that has been circulating there is no indication that Operation Fernbridge is to be closed down but eventually at some point in the future perhaps in a year or so’s time that investigation will come to a close. When that happens Fernbridge will publish  a report. It is unthinkable that that report would not be made public with the understandable redaction of witnesses’ personal details. At that time, we will all be able to judge if there has been a cover-up and when and who is responsible for it. I’m confident it will be clear to most that Operation Fernbridge will not be responsible.

But if that does not prove to be the case then be assured I’ll point it out.

Victims To Sue Cyril Smith Cover-Up Architects.

I think this is an extremely interesting and welcome development.

It is good to know that if the CPS refuse to pursue a criminal case against historic abuse and those that knew and by remaining silent were part of a child abuse cover-up, that there are solicitors out there willing to represent victims and pursue this through the civil courts.

The recent public acceptance by Operation Fernbridge that Cyril Smith did abuse children at Elm Guest House can only help any victims of Cyril Smith.

Good luck !

Protected by the Establishment ?

Those who stood by while Cyril Smith MP carried out years of physical and sexual abuse face legal action, solicitors have confirmed.

Legal firm Pannone has been contacted by seven alleged victims of the politician and are now investigating how and why the abuse was allowed to take place.

The civil case is being run separately from an ongoing police investigation into allegations of abuse.

Alan Collins, one of the country’s best known solicitors in the field of child abuse law, who also acted in the Jimmy Savile case, said: “We are acting on behalf of the Cyril Smith victims and we are now looking at those who might be responsible for knowing what Cyril Smith was up to and those who would have allowed him to have abused these children.

“It is a civil case brought on behalf of the victims and is still at quite an early stage.”

Earlier this month, a report was released revealing details from the original police file, which raised concerns that senior figures within the establishment leaned on prosecutors to ensure Smith was not brought to justice.

Manchester Evening News

Exaro On False Fernbridge Rumours.

I just wanted to draw people’s attention to these tweets from Exaro News.

Exaro Tweets

I just wanted to say that I think I might know the origin of this rumour and I also know the original source, which misinterpreted, led to this rumour and I can say categorically that the source material bears little resemblance to this rumour and even more so as it gets passed from person to person like Chinese whispers.

It is a great shame if, as Exaro state, some victims are coming across this.

It’s not as though this isn’t an emotional roller coaster already for those that find themselves caught up in this without false pessimism.

I am not suggesting the rumour is malicious but it is false and I hope that people will set it aside.

I’m confident that news will soon come from Operation Fernbridge which will lift spirits.