Whistleblower claims 20 MPs and Peers knew of, or involved in child abuse

General

Friday, 04 July 2014 23:38

  By a Newsnet reporter
 
Up to forty Westminster politicians were either involved in or knew about child sex abuse, according to a national newspaper.
 
The Daily Telegraph has reported that ten current or past politicians are on a list of alleged child abusers being investigated by the police.

The inquiry into allegations of a Westminster paedophile ring was prompted by whistleblower Peter McKelvie who has said he believes there is enough evidence to justify investigations.

“I believe there are sufficient grounds to carry out a formal investigation into allegations of up to 20 MPs and Lords over the last three to four decades, some still alive and some dead.  The list is there,” he was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph.

Mr McKelvie, a former child protection worker, prompted police to launch Operation Fernbridge to investigate allegations of sex abuse Elm Guest House in Barnes, south London.

In 2012, following claims by Mr McKelvie, Labour MP Tom Watson spoke in the Commons of a “powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and Number 10”.

Mr Watson told shocked MPs that there was evidence that “a senior aide of a former Prime Minister” was involved in smuggling in indecent images of children from abroad and that this individual was part of “a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and Number 10”.  The MP for West Bromwich East demanded a police investigation.

Last February Newsnet Scotland reported that Scotland Yard had launched an investigation after allegations that VIPs, including six senior Tories, businessmen and members of the royal household, took part in child abuse at a guest house in upmarket Barnes, south-west London, in the 1980s.

The list included six Conservative MPs including four cabinet ministers, it also included a Labour MP.  Also named were members of the royal household, a prominent UK businessman and two famous pop stars.

In February last year it was reported that the arrest of a former Conservative Cabinet Minister was imminent.

In 1982, twelve boys told police that they had been abused at the Elm Guest House, but the claims were never fully investigated.  Also said to have links to the guest house was former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile who was exposed as one of the worst sex offenders ever after his death.

It has now emerged that a dossier compiled by the late MP Geoffrey Dickens went missing after it was handed to the former Conservative home secretary Leon Brittan in 1983.

Commenting on the missing dossier, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “I’ve asked the permanent secretary at the Home Office to do everything he can to find answers to all of these questions and to make sure we can reassure people about these events.

“So it’s right that these investigations are made. We mustn’t do anything, of course, that could prejudice or prevent proper action by the police.

“If anyone has information about criminal wrong-doing they should, of course, give it to the police.”