Judge says UK has been stunned by scale of child sex abuse
Jul 9, 11:12 AM (ET)
By JILL LAWLESS
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LONDON (AP) — Britain has been stunned by revelations about child sexual abuse, a judge said Thursday, warning that the true scale of the crime has been underestimated and one in 20 children may have been a victim.
Justice Lowell Goddard opened a wide-ranging public inquiry into decades of abuse in Britain's schools, hospitals and other institutions, vowing that "no one, no matter how apparently powerful, will be allowed to obstruct our inquiries."
A dam of official silence around child abuse in Britain began to break after the 2011 death of entertainer Jimmy Savile, when dozens came forward to say he had abused them. Subsequent revelations have implicated taxi drivers, entertainers, clergy, senior politicians and others. There have also been claims that police failed to investigate allegations of abuse for decades.
Earlier this year Goddard, a judge from New Zealand, was appointed to investigate how public agencies — including government bodies, police, hospitals, the army, churches and the BBC — handled allegations.
Goddard said abuse has been systematically under-reported by police and "the true picture may be even worse than the current figures indicate." She said estimates from a childcare charity suggest one U.K. child in every 20 has been sexually abused; some academics believe the level is higher.
The inquiry plans to release its final report in 2020 but Goddard promised annual updates starting next year. Victims will be able to testify anonymously and former civil servants will not be charged if they disclose official wrongdoing.
Goddard has told police and other institutions not to destroy any records relating to child care.
The abuse claims reach so deeply into British society that finding someone to lead the inquiry was problematic. Two previous chairwomen were appointed and then rejected because of their connections to the establishment.
While the inquiry doesn't have the power to find people guilty of crimes, Goddard said it will not hesitate to name abusers, regardless of their positions in society.
BBC July 9th 2015
The sexual abuse of children has left "scars" on victims and society, the chair of an inquiry into historical abuse in England and Wales has said.
Justice Lowell Goddard was speaking as she opened the independent inquiry, which she said could last until 2020.
BBC
The key events that led to the launch of two reviews into the way allegations of child abuse were handled in Westminster and wider society.
Claims of an establishment cover-up of historical child sex abuse involving public figures, including politicians, prompted Home Secretary Theresa May to announce two inquiries in July 2014.
One is an overarching inquiry into the way public bodies and other important institutions have handled child sex abuse claims. A separate review into how the Home Office dealt with allegations about powerful figures and paedophilia in the 1980s reported in November.
What are the key incidents that led to these inquiries?
1982-84: Conservative MP Geoffrey Dickens tells a newspaper he plans to expose eight prominent figures he says are paedophiles. The long-standing campaigner against child abuse gives written information detailing alleged child sex abuse within the establishment to Home Secretary Leon Brittan. Mr Brittan passes them to his officials. The papers are handed to police and prosecutors.
It will examine how public bodies handled their duty of care to protect children from abuse.
Justice Goddard said there were suggestions that one child out of every 20 in the UK had been sexually abused.
She said many who are sexually abused as a child do not tell adults - and that if they do "their reports may go unheeded".
1994: Peter McKelvie, a former child protection manager, is among the first to raise concerns that prominent politicians are allegedly involved in child sex abuse. He discovers suggested links between paedophiles and the government while assisting police investigating an influential paedophile, Peter Righton.
2012: Mr McKelvie takes his concerns to Labour MP Tom Watson after news of the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal breaks. Mr Watson claims during Prime Minister's Questions that there is "clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and Number 10".
Late 2012: A "scoping exercise" known as Operation Fairbank is launched to examine Mr Watson's claims and establish if there is sufficient evidence for a formal inquiry.
Elsewhere, abuse allegations against the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith are aired in Parliament by Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk. Greater Manchester Police say he should have been prosecuted.
January 2013: Police launch Operation Fernbridge to investigate allegations about a paedophile network linked to Parliament and Number 10, centred on the Elm Guest House in Barnes, south-west London.
February 2013: Mark Sedwill, the most senior Home Office civil servant, launches an independent review of more than 746,000 files from 1979 to 1999 that were passed to the Home Office to identify any information received about organised child sex abuse, and the outcome of any action taken.
BBC
•18 January 2013
•From the section London
Labour MP Tom Watson Tom Watson called for an investigation into the political links of Peter Righton in October
Police have begun an investigation into historical allegations of child abuse at a south-west London guesthouse.
Operation Fernbridge will examine claims that a 1980s paedophile ring, with links to the then government, abused boys at Elm Guest House, Barnes.
Last year MP Tom Watson called for an investigation into the political links of convicted paedophile Peter Righton.
Righton worked as a consultant to the National Children's Bureau until his arrest in 1992.
A week ago police working for a scoping exercise, Operation Fairbank, took boxes of documents from the London home of Mary Moss, who worked as an advocate for abused children at the now defunct National Association for Young People in Care.
Ms Moss said the documents contained evidence that senior figures from a number of political parties had abused children at Elm Guest House and elsewhere.
There is no suggestion that Ms Moss is herself under investigation.
Elm Guest House is now a private residence and the current occupants are not connected to the allegations.
Operation Fernbridge will be led by the Metropolitan Police Service's Child Abuse Investigation Command.
BBC July 12, 2015
The Archbishop of Canterbury has promised to investigate sex abuse in the Church of England if the judge-led abuse inquiry does not look into it within six months.
Justin Welby made the promise during a private meeting with survivors of clerical abuse earlier this week.
The independent inquiry into child sex abuse led by Justice Lowell Goddard is expected to last five years.
Marilyn Hawes, who was one of five people representing survivors' groups at the Lambeth Palace meeting, said the archbishop had been compassionate and focused.
The founder of Enough Abuse UK, which she set up after three of her four children were abused by a Church of England headteacher, said she had "every hope and belief" he would follow through on his words.
"If we don't care for our children, then actually we care for nothing and nobody, and the people who should lead that are the Church," she said.
Victims of alleged abuse in the Church of England compared this with a recent review of historical abuse cases by the much smaller Methodist church, which showed more than 900 such allegations going back to 1950, our correspondent added.
The Methodist Church's investigation uncovered reports of nearly 2,000 cases of abuse - including 914 allegations involving sexual abuse.
July 21, 2015 BBC news
A man who repeatedly abused a six-year-old girl has been jailed for five years - 24 years after he was released without charge.
Neil Beeken, 52, of Busk Meadows, Sheffield, was jailed at Sheffield Crown Court after being found guilty of four counts of indecent assault.
He was originally arrested in 1991, but charges were never brought by the Crown Prosecution Service.
However, the case was reopened in 2013 when his victim contacted police.
Beeken abused the girl between September 1990 and April 1991.
July 21, 2015 BBC news
A British soldier has been sentenced to nine years in prison for raping a six-year-old girl in Austria.
Craig Stormey, 30, was arrested on 29 November last year in the town of Neustift, in the Tyrol province, where he had been attending an army camp.
Stormey, from Colchester Garrison, admitted entering the girl's unlocked family home while drunk and raping her, a court spokesman in Innsbruck said.
An MoD spokesman said an application would be made to discharge the soldier.
Stormey's lawyers said he planned to appeal against the sentence.
Potential victims of child sex abuse at the hands of former prime minister Sir Edward Heath are being urged to come forward after a senior police officer claimed an allegation had been made in the 1990s.
Ted Heath Child Sex Victims Appeal By NSPCC
A retired senior police officer says a claim was made against the former PM in
the1990s that was not properly investigated.
Wiltshire Police said the former Conservative prime minister had been named in "relation to offences concerning children" and they wanted to "identify if there are any witnesses or victims" to "support allegations".
The inquiry was sparked after a retired senior police officer claimed that an allegation against Sir Edward was made to the force in the 1990s but officers failed to investigate properly.
Wiltshire police has set up a helpline with the NSPCC urging people to come forward if they have any information about the claims.
'Sting' paedophile Kenneth Walker sentenced
55 minutes ago Aug. 6, 2015 BBC
A man from Nottingham has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison following a sting operation set up by a vigilante group calling itself Dark Justice.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that 37-year-old Kenneth Walker, who admitted attempting to meet a child after sexual grooming, chatted with the fictitious 13-year-old girl online.
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Firefighter raped little girl after she was rescued from blaze and threatened to kill her mum
John McGinn, 56, attacked the nine year-old then told her to keep quiet or he would kill her mum
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Six men arrested after teenager raped twice in Rochdale
•6 August 2015
•From the section Manchester
Six men have been arrested after a 14-year-old girl in care was raped on two separate occasions in Rochdale.
On Friday, police received a report that a girl, missing from an independent care home, had been abused.
The girl, who had been moved to the home from another part of the UK, was reported missing again on Saturday.
Police found she had been taken to an address in the town and raped by a group of men. Officers believe the two incidents may be linked.
All six arrested men have been released on bail until 29 October.
The girl is being supported by police and specialist agencies.
In 2012, nine men from Rochdale and Oldham were jailed for crimes including rape, trafficking and child sex abuse, with sentences ranging from four to 10 years.
Five others were jailed in 2013 after an investigation in Rochdale into the sexual abuse of a girl was reopened.
Earlier this year, Greater Manchester Police apologised after a report highlighted failures "at individual and force level" into its dealings with victims from 2008-2010.
BBC Aug. 24, 2015
A former MP has accused police of a "homosexual witch hunt" over claims he was involved in child abuse and murder.
Harvey Proctor said "false" claims had "wrecked" his life.
Speaking a day after being interviewed by police for a second time, he said he was "completely innocent" and called for senior police officers to resign.
He was interviewed under caution as part of Operation Midland, an inquiry into claims powerful men abused children in the 1970s and 1980s.
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School sex crime reports in UK top 5,500 in three years
By Claire Savage 5 Live Investigates
•9 hours ago
•From the section Education & Family
Freedom of Information requests sent to all UK forces showed there were nearly 4,000 alleged physical sexual assaults and more than 600 rapes.
At least a fifth of offences were carried out by children, so-called "peer-on-peer" abuse, but details about the rest of the assaults are not known.
The government said schools had a duty to report child welfare concerns.
All UK forces responded to a BBC FOI request asking how many sexual offences were recorded by the police at schools during the last three academic years, from 2012 to 2015. Police Scotland provided figures for 2011-2013.
8/9/15 BBCnews.
A former bishop has admitted sexually assaulting two young men in the 1980s and 1990s.
Peter Ball, 83, former Bishop of Lewes and Bishop of Gloucester, pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault at the Old Bailey.
He also admitted misconduct in public office between 1977 and 1992.
Ball faced allegations of abusing boys and young men in Litlington, East Sussex, after a review by the Church of England in 2012 prompted police action.
He had failed in a bid to get his case thrown out after he claimed he accepted a caution in 1993 and was told it included other offences of the same nature.
Operation Midland police appeal for victims to come forward
18 December 2014 Last updated at 15:46 GMT
The officer in charge of overseeing Operation Midland, an inquiry into allegations of historical abuse, has appealed for more victims to come forward.
The operation stems from claims made by a man known as "Nick", who says he was abused by a paedophile ring including high-profile people from the age of seven to 16 at a flat in Dolphin Square in central London.
Det Supt Kenny McDonald said officers who had spoken to him thought his account was "credible and true".
He added: "I need others to come forward and speak to us... you will be believed."
BBC news Sept. 29, 2015
A woman has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for killing a man charged with sexually assaulting young boys on the east London estate where they lived.
Sarah Sands, 32, was found guilty of the manslaughter of Michael Pleasted, 77, by reason of loss of control.
Pleasted, who had previous convictions, was on bail awaiting trial when he was killed at his flat in east London.
BBC news Oct.5, 2015
6 October 2015
•Sensational claims of child abuse and murder were described by police as "credible and true" - but have the accused and genuine victims alike been let down by a rush to judgement?
This is the story: That some of the most powerful men in the land - a former prime minister, a future home secretary, the heads of the army, MI5 and MI6 - got together with other prominent, depraved men in rooms around London and in army bases, to torture, abuse and murder boys. They did it without fear of getting caught, and they covered the tracks so that their secrets stayed hidden for 30 years.
BBC News. Oct. 6, 2015
A retired Church of England bishop has been jailed for a string of offences against teenagers and young men.
Peter Ball, 83, was sentenced to 32 months for misconduct in public office and 15 months for indecent assaults, to run concurrently.
The former Bishop of Lewes and Bishop of Gloucester used "religion as a cloak" to carry out the abuse between the 1970s and 1990s, the court heard.
The Church of England said there were "no excuses".
Ball was described by the judge at the Old Bailey, Mr Justice Wilkie, as a man who did "so much good and so much harm".
BBC News Oct. 11, 2015
A retired Catholic priest accused of child sex abuse gave one of his alleged victims a cheque for £10,000, a BBC Scotland investigation has revealed.
Fr Paul Moore has denied that the cheque to the former altar boy was intended as "hush money".
The former Ayrshire priest says it was "a loan" and a "private matter".
Fr Moore admitted to child sex offences to the then Bishop of Galloway, Maurice Taylor, in the late 90s and was removed from the ministry.
He has never been prosecuted and lives in a home bought for him by the church.
Two years ago, the BBC revealed claims by former altar boy Paul Smyth that he'd been abused by Fr Moore. Although he gave testimony anonymously at the time, he's since decided to waive his anonymity.
"I just want people to know the truth, I'm not running away any more," he said.
Oct. 21, 2015
BBC news
A paedophile doctor was able to abuse young cancer patients undetected after clues to his offending were missed, an investigation has found.
Myles Bradbury was jailed for 16 years after admitting abusing 18 victims at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.
Oct. 21, 2015
BBC news
'How I got an apology after years of abuse as a child'
8 hours ago
Laura Coel was groomed and sexually assaulted by her former stepfather between the ages of four and 14.
Now a mum of two, she chose to meet and forgive her abuser in a restorative justice programme.
In an exclusive interview with the Victoria Derbyshire programme, she explained why she wanted to meet her stepfather face-to-face to explain the impact the abuse had on her life.
She has waived her right to anonymity.
BBC UK news Oct. 23, 2013
Ronnie Kray and Tory peer Lord Boothby 'attended homosexual parties'
•23 October 2015
•From the section UK
mage copyright PA Image caption An association between Ronnie Kray and Lord Boothby threatened to cause a scandal
An association between Conservative peer Robert Boothby and London gangster Ronnie Kray was the subject of an MI5 investigation, documents have revealed.
The men went to "homosexual parties" together and were "hunters" of young men, declassified MI5 files claim.
Allegations in 1964 about the pair's relationship caused such concern within Downing Street that the then head of MI5 was summoned to the Home Office.
The government feared a scandal greater than the so-called Profumo Affair.
Rumours that notorious gangster Kray and Lord Boothby - a popular TV presenter and former MP for East Aberdeenshire - were having an affair were published in 1964
Dungannon man at 'centre of serious child sexual exploitation case', court hears
A County Tyrone man is at the centre of "one of the most serious cases of sexual exploitation of children" the National Crime Agency has ever had to tackle, one of its officers has said.
Michael Dynes, 38, from Rossin View in Dungannon, allegedly targeted young people through advertisements seeking life models on the Gumtree website.
He would then "audition" them by webcam and try to incite them into committing sexual acts, a court was told.
He is facing a series of sex charges.
They include making and possessing indecent images of children, having what are described as extreme images and committing an act outraging public decency.
Former head may be one of Wales' 'most prolific paedophiles'
10 November 2015 Last updated at 20:42 GMT
A former head teacher accused of historical sexual abuse may be one of the most prolific paedophiles in recent Welsh history, solicitors representing his alleged victims have claimed
BBC news Dec. 10, 2015
Child abuse image investigation leads to 682 arrests
More than 680 people have been arrested in the past nine months for downloading indecent images of children, the National Crime Agency has said.
More than 90% of the suspects were not known to police for similar offences, while 104 were in "positions of trust", including 32 with links to education.
Some 399 children were identified as being at risk following the arrests.
Forty of the UK's 45 police forces were involved in arrests across the country. To date 147 people have been charged.
A total of 600 premises were searched and 682 suspects have been questioned in the NCA-led operation.
BBC news Jan. 15, 2016
Twelve former residents of children's homes say they were abused by Lord Janner, a BBC investigation has found, as criminal proceedings end.
The peer, who died before a court could examine claims of child abuse against him, regularly visited homes in Leicester in the 1970s and 1980s.
An ex-police officer says he reported suspicions about Lord Janner, a decade before police began a full inquiry.
Lord Janner, who had dementia and died aged 87 in December, had denied abuse.
A "trial of the facts", due to take place in April, has now been shelved by prosecutors.
A jury would have been asked to decide - without reaching a decision about whether he was guilty - if 22 alleged incidents of abuse from the 1960s to the 1980s had taken place.
Lord Janner's family have said he is "entirely innocent" and a man of "great integrity and high repute".
However, the BBC has traced and interviewed dozens of men and women who lived at children's homes in Leicestershire in the 70s and 80s.
It has also spoken to council officials, social workers, police officers and journalists involved in investigating the case of Frank Beck, a notorious care home manager who was eventually convicted of child abuse
Jan. 15, BBC news
Saddleworth councillor Mike Buckley refuses to quit over child indecent images
Mike Buckley, a parish councillor in Saddleworth, Oldham, was found guilty of making indecent images of children at Manchester Crown Court.
Saddleworth Parish Council's chairman said it was "inappropriate" for the 68-year-old to carry on.
Mr Buckley, of Dobcross, said it was his "responsibility" to continue serving his constituents.
BBC news. Jan. 26, 2016
A paedophile who filmed himself abusing young girls in the Philippines has been jailed for 19-and-a-half years.
Trevor Monk, 47, of south east London, also paid nearly £15,000 to watch child sex abuse in Manila on his webcam.
Police found more than 80,000 images and 1,750 indecent videos of children in a raid on his home in March 2015.
He admitted possessing and making indecent images of children, assault of a child under 13 and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
'Depraved and revolting'
In total Monk pleaded guilty to 18 charges at the Old Bailey.
One of the girls he abused was eight years old and an image of a three-year-old child was discovered among the pictures.
Judge Anuja Dhir described the pictures as "harrowing images of very young children being abused and degraded in the most vile manner".
She said: "Your actions were depraved and revolting. It is astonishing that anyone would want to film such abuse, but you did.
"I have no doubt you did so so that you could watch it again for your own sexual gratification."
Feb.2, 2016 BBC News
A lifeguard from Gwynedd faces up to 50 years in prison in the United States after admitting raping a 10-year-old girl.
Gareth Vincent Hall, 22, from Talysarn near Caernarfon, was arrested in Chicago in May 2015.
On Tuesday in Oregon, he admitted four counts of rape, two of serious sexual offences and one of online sexual corruption of a child.
He is due to be sentenced on 1 March. A kidnapping charge was dropped.
Local television station KMTR in Oregon said Hall could face between a minimum of 25 years in prison and up to 50 years behind bars.
The council that employed an abuser to look after children
By Nick Hopkins and Jake Morris BBC Newsnight
Why have successive investigations failed to establish the full truth behind sexual abuse at care homes in a south London borough?
Justice Lowell Goddard will this month begin preliminary hearings into historical allegations that hundreds of children were abused in a wide range of institutions across the UK.
Establishing the truth about the number of paedophiles who looked after, or had inappropriate access to, children in the care of Lambeth Council in south London is one of her priorities.
In the 1970s, 80s and 90s, Lambeth had it all. Local politics in south London was dominated by big characters with radical ideas. Lambeth was a melting pot - and it became a byword for corruption, fraud and abuse. Abuse, that is, of children who had been placed in the care of the local authority, where they should have been safe.
Documents obtained by Newsnight show investigators believed there were at least seven men who were abusing children at Angell Road alone. This was regarded as an "inner circle". The suspicion was that many more were involved.
A long-running police inquiry - Operation Middleton - which looked at all the borough's children's homes over a 20-year period, concluded there were at least 35 men and women who had abused children. In its final report, investigators said 16 suspected abusers died before the inquiry began - and another 19 could not be identified.
This figure does not include the men who have been arrested and charged. One killed himself on the eve of his trial. Add those to the total and there were up to 50 paedophiles abusing children in Lambeth's homes.
BBC news March 13, 2016
Late peer Lord Janner allegedly began sexually abusing children as far back as 1955, a public inquiry has heard.
The peer died in December aged 87, soon after he was found unfit to stand trial over abuse claims, owing to dementia.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse was told Lord Janner abused children over a 33-year period, arranging for those "in whom he had a sexual interest" to be brought to the Houses of Parliament.
His family denies the allegations
BBCnews March21, 2016
The naming of a bishop as an alleged paedophile has been criticised by a group of lawyers, academics, politicians and senior Church figures.
The Church of England settled a civil claim in October made by a woman who says she was abused by the late Rt Rev George Bell in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
The Church said its "overriding goal" had been to search out the truth.
The claims were horrifying. Politicians, generals and spies had tortured and sexually abused children in apartments, hotels, and army bases. Three boys had been murdered.
The allegations at the heart of Operation Midland came from one man, legally entitled to anonymity, known by the pseudonym "Nick".
His story spanned nine years: from 1975, when he was seven, to 1984.
The Met began investigating in autumn 2014.
Months earlier, "Nick" had given the news website Exaro an account of the alleged abuse. Police asked to meet him and he was eventually interviewed by detectives over several days.
He told them he was first sexually abused by his stepfather, an officer in the army, who he claimed introduced him to more senior military figures, including the then-commander in chief of UK land forces, General Edwin Bramall.
This group, "Nick" alleged, went on to sadistically abuse him over a four-year period, mostly at military bases in south east England.
Dr Morris Fraser: Paedophile psychiatrist worked with children after abuse conviction, study finds
31 March 2016 Last updated at 14:00 BST
A new study has found that a doctor in Belfast was able to continue working with children after he had been convicted for child abuse in the 1970s.
Dr Morris Fraser was the senior psychiatric registrar at the Royal Victoria Hospital's child guidance clinic in Belfast.
BBC News NI's David Maxwell reports.
