Accusations, arrests & investigations High profile historic abuse cases in the news in 2014

Gudrun Limbrick, July 2014 

The media is seemingly full of news relating to high profile historic abuse cases at the moment, creating and evermore confusing picture. 2014 is turning out to be a remarkable year in terms of brining the fact of historic child abuse to the fore and charging some individuals and, in particular, things are moving very quickly in July.

The investigations and allegations take in several of our major institutions – hospitals, the Catholic Church, the Church of England, the BBC, Westminster as well as some children’s homes. Here, I shall try to sum up the main issues.

The Catholic Church 

In July 2014 Pope Francis as quoted in the Italian newspaper La Republica as saying that 1 in 50 priests is a paedophile and he described child abuse as a ‘leprosy’ infecting the Church. This year he has also met with some survivors of child abuse included people from the UK and Ireland, and made in a statement in which he said he had to "personally ask for forgiveness for the damage [some priests] have done for having sexually abused children.” This follows an apology by Pope Benedict in 2010 – “I think of the immense suffering caused b the abuse of children, especially within the Church and by her ministers. Above all, I express my deep sorrow to the innocent victims of these unspeakable crimes”. A Vatican spokesman has since said that some elements of the interview were misquoted by the newspaper.

Some people remain critical that the Vatican is not doing enough to eradicate sexual abuse within the Church. No doubt we will see over the coming months whether actions follow the words.

The first cases of abuse of children by priests came to light in the US and Canada in the 1980s.

In the 1990s, revelations began to emerge of widespread abuse in Ireland. In 2009, two reports into historical child abuse in Ireland found decades of abuse involving thousands of victims. Many of these victims were in children’s homes.

A 2014 UN report said that the Vatican had policies which effectively allowed priest to abuse children by not reporting offenders and transferring them to other dioceses where they could abuse again. The report found that the Church put the "preservation of the reputation of the Church and the alleged offender over the protection of child victims" - a damning accusation.

Also in July 2014, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show that he expected further cases of child abuse would be discovered within the Church of England. He also said he felt that the Church needed to apologise for this.

Cyril Smith

A book (Smile For The Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith by Simon Danczuk and Matthew Baker) has been written about abuse allegations levied at Cyril Smith, the former Liberal MP. The book talks of allegations about abuse at two children’s homes in Rochdale – Knowl View and Cambridge House.

Knowl View opened in 1969 and was closed in 1994 when it was demolished.

In a story echoing that of Jimmy Savile, it was only after Cyril Smith died in 2010, that abuse allegations (relating back to events in the 1960s) were investigated. Greater Manchester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service both found that Cyril Smith should have been charged with these crimes.

Allegations have also reportedly been made about Cyril Smith at the Elm Guest House – the focus of the Operation Fairbank investigation.

Operation Fairbank

This an investigation started in 2012 by the Metropolitan Police which focused on allegations of abuse by high profile men, including politicians, at the Elm Guest House in Rocks Lane, South West London in the late 1970s and 1980s. The impetus for this initial scoping investigation came from allegations made by Tom Watson MP. As a result of some of the findings of Operation Fairbank, Operation Fernbridge – a full criminal investigation - was launched in 2013. It has been reported (including in an Independent on Sunday article of January 2013) that the MP Cyril Smith was involved.

A children’s home, Grafton Close Children’s Home, Richmond, is involved in the Operation as it has been reported that some of the victims were living at the home at the time.

In July 2014 it was reported that a dossier of evidence relating to the allegations (made by Geoffrey Dickens, a former MP, and reportedly given to Leon Brittan, when he was home secretary) had disappeared.

Some think that the allegations relating to Elm Guest House indicate a network of paedophiles within the House of Commons itself, and a widescale operation to protect all those who were committing these crimes.

Allegations of links between a 1970s/80s group called the Paedophile Information Exchange and high profile political figures have come to light.

This month, two men have been charged with historical child abuse as part of the Operation Fairbank investigations (a strand of the investigation called Operation Cayacos) – Charles Napier (brother of John Whittingdale MP) and Richard Alston. The charges apparently relate to offences in the 1970s. It has not been said if the charges against them relate to the Elm Guest House.

Westminster investigation

A Home Office Review in 2013 entitled ‘Independent review of Home Office files to identify information about organised child sex abuse’ (which can be found here  – external website) reported on documents provided to the Home Office about child abuse between 1979 and 1999 and looked at what action had been taken in relation to allegations.

The review included any contact made by Geffrey Dickens MP (as mentioned above) about historic child abuse.

The report concluded that “the Independent Investigator is satisfied that the Home Office did pass on to the appropriate authorities any information received about child abuse in the period 1979 to 1999 which was credible and which had any realistic potential for further investigation. The Investigator believes that the risk of any undisclosed material remaining in files from that period is extremely low.”

However, the review found that 527 potentially relevant files which the Home Office had kept, but a further 114 were missing, destroyed or "not found".

As a result of the discovery of these missing dossiers – which potentially contained useful evidence about child abuse cases –  and other allegations of an establishment-level cover-up of abuse, an inquiry has been announced in July 2014 into the handling of allegations of child abuse in public institutions. However, it has already hit controversy.  Lady Butler-Sloss was appointed to chair the inquiry but it was thought by some campaigners that she could not be fully independent as her brother was Attorney General from 1979 to 1987 – a period within the remit of the investigation and a role which could arguably have had some responsibility to act on allegations of abuse. Days after her appointment, she has resigned.

Whether this inquiry can now recover its reputation sufficiently to do an effective job remains to be seen. There have been calls for a full independent national enquiry but so far the Government have not taken up this idea.

Operation Yewtree

Operation Yewtree, led by the Metropolitan Police, is a widescale criminal investigation which started in 2012 as a result of the allegations made against Jimmy Savile. (More on the Jimmy Savile element of this can be found in an earlier article here).

The investigation is continuing and now includes the investigation individuals not necessarily connected with Jimmy Saville.

As a result of this investigation, several celebrities have been arrested. While some have been released without charge, others are awaiting trial (Gary Glitter) and others have been found guilty of offences (Max Clifford, Rolf Harris, Chris Denning).

The cases of Stuart Hall (found guilty of sexual assault), Fred Talbot (charged and awaiting trial) are not related to Operation Yewtree.

This is a very complex topic and things are changing very quickly. If there are any inaccuracies in this article, please contact me immediately to make a correction. Thank you.

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