Jim'll fuck it

[Richard Hakluyt]

I watched that piece on Newsnight, the problem is that they have just one witness. If the allegations are true then clearly one would like to see the politician named and punished. OTOH, if the standard of guilt is simply to be accused by a single witness then no prominent person is safe from what is effectively a modern version of a Salem-style accusation.

[mongers]

I watched that piece on Newsnight, the problem is that they have just one witness. If the allegations are true then clearly one would like to see the politician named and punished. OTOH, if the standard of guilt is simply to be accused by a single witness then no prominent person is safe from what is effectively a modern version of a Salem-style accusation.

Indeed, and very worrying.

I've saw people going on about this a few weeks ago on facebook and some former politician/s were 'named', can't remember whom. 
But given the sort of people linking to the story, ie wackos, I took not notice, if could well have been a different 'story' all together. 

[jimmy olsen]

Blog post by a member of parliament. Is this guy credible Brits?

'Cause if so...damn, there are no words.

http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/

10 days that shook my world

November 3rd, 2012 —

It's ten days since I raised a question about intelligence suggesting a paedophile ring that touched the very heart of a previous government. I'd done so because a very credible retired child protection professional had lived with a gnawing suspicion of a cover up for many years.

These people are the rarest of human beings. They're the people who labour in anonymity, day in day out, trying to make the world a better place. They have always been the foundations of our public services. Yet this retired public servant had, through a quirk of fate, stumbled on something that appeared so huge, that almost everyone he'd ever raised his concerns with had baulked at the challenge.

Since then though, many more ordinary people have contacted me about suspicions they have had of a wider wrongdoing – in some cases so heinous it made me cry.

They have talked of psychopaths marking children with Stanley knifes to show "ownership". They tell of parties where children were "passed around" the men. They speak of golf course car parks being the scenes for child abuse after an 18 hole round.

And they have named powerful people – some of them household names – who abused children with impunity.

Two former police officers have raised their concerns of cover-ups. Child protection specialists have raised their fears that the network of convicted paedophile Peter Righton, the nexus of the group, was wider than at first thought. Others have identified a former cabinet minister who regularly abused young boys.

Some have raised mysterious early deaths, disappeared children, suspicious fires, intimidation and threats.

It's bewildering.

These allegations go way beyond the claims made on BBC Newsnight yesterday. Newsnight failed to name the paedophile mentioned by a North Wales survivor. I can understand why. A career can be destroyed by an allegation of such magnitude. There needs to be a high bar of proof.

Yet the thing I learnt most from the hacking scandal, and for that matter, the Savile case, is that the intelligence was staring the police in the face. These people were hiding in daylight. So powerful, so brazen in their actions, those who had an inkling of what was happening turned a blind eye.

Or maybe none of this happened. Maybe the 50 plus emails and numerous phone calls and letters I have received were all from fantasists. Maybe the allegations of the victims – made for many years, consistently to anyone that would listen, maybe they're bogus.

One thing is for certain: someone has to join the dots. And that should be the police. There are a few hardy child protection specialists who for many years, have been burrowing away, trying to uncover the truth. Their work and insight should be taken more seriously. The police should work with them.

The hacking scandal was about the police failing to follow clear leads of wrongdoing by powerful people. They could do this because politicians turned a blind eye.

This is potentially worse. Some of those powerful people involved in a cover up may well have been – and could still be – powerful politicians.

I'm not going to let this drop despite warnings from people who should know that my personal safety is imperilled if I dig any deeper. It's spooked me so much that I've kept a detailed log of all the allegations should anything happen.

As I type this blog post, I'm half-smiling about how insane all this appears. It sounds like I've taken leave of my senses – just like they said I had during the early days of the hacking scandal. Maybe I have. Yet with a properly resourced investigation, with the voice of victims being heard in public and with the political will we can get to the facts.

I wish I could fight the case of everybody who has been abused by a paedophile who has so far got away with it, but I can't. That is a job for the police. Up and down the country private grief is being stirred by these stories. I cannot help in each individual case, but the police and support services can, must and will. If you were abused a long time ago and want justice now, go to the police. It is not too late.

What I am going to do personally is to speak out on this extreme case of organised abuse in the highest places. At the core of all child abuse is the abuse of power. The fundamental power of the adult over the child. Wherever this occurs it is an abomination. But these extreme cases are abuse of power by some of the most powerful people. Abuse of trust by some of the most trusted. It is a sickening story, but one which – like the truth about Jimmy Savile – is now going to be told.

[Sheilbh]

Watson's an odd one, I'd say he's definitely credible.  He's taken an interesting path though, now he's a bit of a crusader on this and on phone hacking.  Once he was just a ferocious Brownite attack dog. 

There seem to be two sets of allegations though.  One he raised at PM was about a paedophile who was a senior advisor to a former PM - there are rumours about who that might be and this could have been investigated in the Waterhouse Report on abuse in the care system in North Wales.  It lacked sufficient evidence to name the man or for the police to proceed but discusses X who was a prominent figure (now deceased) who allegedly abused boys at the home.

That blog post discusses a cabinet minister which is rather more than a senior advisor.  Again there are rumours about who that is. 

The key bit of the Newsnight bit could be the allegations by victims that they were told to leave out certain allegations during the inquiry.  A solicitor involved said the terms of reference were too narrowly drawn for full investigation.

[dps]

I heard that Jimmy Saville's family have had the gravestone removed along with the flowers as a mark of respect. It just leaves a small hole and no bush around it.

Just what he would have wanted.

(Not mine--stolen from Consimworld)

[Syt]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/nov/22/jimmy-savile-fancy-dress-rugby-club?fb=optOut

A student rugby club has been banned from playing after its members dressed up as disgraced TV star Jimmy Savile, his victims and police for a night out.

The bad taste fancy-dress night by members of St Cuthbert's Society men's rugby club, of Durham University, reportedly featured one person stripping off, the attempted theft of a dartboard from a rival college bar, and a fire alarm being set off at another venue.

St Cuthbert's – one of the university's most successful college sides – has been banned from playing for the rest of the term after first-year players dressed up as young girls, second years wore Savile outfits, and third and fourth years came as police officers or Panorama journalists. Members have also been banned from at least two college bars.

A Durham University spokesman said: "The university has been made aware of an incident. We take such matters very seriously. The students' college has investigated the incident and disciplinary action is being taken."

It is understood organisers of the event, on 25 October, have been ordered to carry out unpaid work and £50 fines have been imposed on players.

St Cuthbert's celebrates its 125th anniversary next year and counts BBC news presenter Kate Silverton among its alumni.

[Richard Hakluyt]

 

[Martinus]

I heard that Jimmy Saville's family have had the gravestone removed along with the flowers as a mark of respect. It just leaves a small hole and no bush around it.

Just what he would have wanted.

(Not mine--stolen from Consimworld)

[Martinus]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/nov/22/jimmy-savile-fancy-dress-rugby-club?fb=optOut

A student rugby club has been banned from playing after its members dressed up as disgraced TV star Jimmy Savile, his victims and police for a night out.

The bad taste fancy-dress night by members of St Cuthbert's Society men's rugby club, of Durham University, reportedly featured one person stripping off, the attempted theft of a dartboard from a rival college bar, and a fire alarm being set off at another venue.

St Cuthbert's – one of the university's most successful college sides – has been banned from playing for the rest of the term after first-year players dressed up as young girls, second years wore Savile outfits, and third and fourth years came as police officers or Panorama journalists. Members have also been banned from at least two college bars.

A Durham University spokesman said: "The university has been made aware of an incident. We take such matters very seriously. The students' college has investigated the incident and disciplinary action is being taken."

It is understood organisers of the event, on 25 October, have been ordered to carry out unpaid work and £50 fines have been imposed on players.

St Cuthbert's celebrates its 125th anniversary next year and counts BBC news presenter Kate Silverton among its alumni.

Well, I'm glad *someone* has finally answered for Saville's crimes.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I'm cool with their punishment. They have only been disciplined by their college, not by the law.........and it sounds like they made a bloody nuisance of themselves for most of that night.

[jimmy olsen]

On the credibility scale, how low is the Mirror? Above or below the Daily Mail?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/former-tory-faces-child-sex-1714162

The net closes: Ex-Tory chief faces child sex arrest over claims girl was raped and boys were abused
16 Feb 2013 22:30

The probe into a former Cabinet minister, the notorious paedophile Sidney Cooke, Jimmy Savile and MP Cyril Smith

-----------------------------------------------
Police are ­preparing to arrest a former Tory Cabinet minister after a woman came forward to claim she had been raped by him as a girl.

Detectives are also investigating claims that he abused boys.

We can reveal that the former minister is suspected of being part of a VIP ­paedophile ring that was regularly handed boys by child rapist and killer Sidney Cooke for vile sex orgies.

The former high-ranking MP, who we cannot name, is under investigation by Scotland Yard's paedophile unit.

Sources close to the probe gave details of the new allegations to the Sunday ­Mirror and investigative news website ­Exaro.

A former detective who worked on the original investigation into Cooke told the Sunday Mirror that the minister was among those alleged to have been ­photographed in a 1986 police surveillance on premises where boys had been dropped off.

Others allegedly included Jimmy Savile, MP Cyril Smith and top judges – though none of them were ever arrested.

Cooke, 85 – dubbed Britain's most notorious paedophile after he tortured and killed 14-year-old Jason Swift in 1985 – would pick the unsuspecting teenage boys up off the streets around Kings Cross.

He would drive them to locations across North London where paedophiles lay in wait to repeatedly rape them.

Last week the former officer, who worked on Operation Orchid which convicted Cooke and his gang, said they had taken pictures of the minister.

The former officer said up to 16 high profile figures were due to be arrested. But the day before they were to be carried out detectives were told the operation had been disbanded.

The revelation means Scotland Yard knew about allegations concerning the Cabinet Minister and Savile in 1986 but did nothing about it, instead choosing to cover up the claims.

A source told Exaro last week that senior officers, including Commander Peter Spindler, the head of the Paedophile Unit, have had a secret briefing on preparations to arrest the ex-minister.

It is understood that the investigation is at an early stage but there is a plan to arrest him in the next few weeks.

After the 1986 operation into Cooke was disbanded the former officer went to check the file – only to find the pictures had disappeared and any mention of the men involved had also vanished.

The former officer said: "It was clear a cover-up had taken place.

"The investigation showed that Cooke would pick up rent boys and take them back to flats or garages where large groups of men were waiting to abuse them.

"These paedophiles, which included a lot of high-profile figures that were said to include the former Cabinet Minister, Savile and MP Cyril Smith, all knew each other and all operated together.

"They would lie in wait and Cooke would turn up with the boy who wouldn't know what was going to happen.

"We had photographic evidence of these high-profile figures entering or leaving buildings where the abuse was taking place. Everyone knew Savile was a paedo but nothing was ever done.

"Cyril Smith was photographed going into one of the properties with a high-profile film director.

"All of the others were pictured and were going to be arrested before the plug was pulled. I was sickened and to this day I wonder how many children we could have saved if we had been allowed to arrest those men.

"I feel guilty they weren't arrested but there was nothing I could do at the time as the evidence had gone."

The Sunday Mirror knows the identity of the paedophiles in the gang but has chosen not to name them.

In 1993 Detective Superintendent Ed Williams tried to track down the Orchid file on Cooke to see if there were any similarities with the abduction and murder of nine-year-old Daniel Handley, but he struggled to find the folder.

He eventually found it in the basement of Arbour Square Police Station in Stepney, East London.

While there were references to a "wider paedophile ring" there were no photographs or names.

Mr Williams said: "I was very upset about the way the Met treated paedophile cases but I was a voice in the wilderness at that time and people thought I was being over-emotional.

"I found the Orchid files where they had been put for storage purposes and somebody had completely forget to send it back to the Yard. I was trying to look for paedophiles and connections with other cases as I was trying to build up a profile of the offender.

"The report spoke about boys being passed around from paedophile to paedophile.

"There were no pictures on the file. It did mention that there was a wider ring of individuals but did not mention Jimmy Savile or a cabinet minister."

Sidney Cooke, along with three accomplices – Leslie Bailey, Robert Oliver and Steven Barrell – was found guilty of the manslaughter of Jason Swift in May 1989. They have been linked to up to 20 murders.

Cooke was believed to have murdered seven-year-old Mark Tildesley but the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to bring charges as he was already serving 19 years for Jason's death.

He was released in 1998, to a public outcry, but was rearrested the following year for systematically abusing two boys in the 1970s and jailed for life.

Savile was exposed last year as one of the UK's most prolific paedophiles, with 450 victims. Police said he "groomed a ­nation" by avoiding justice while ­abusing hundreds of children over 54 years.

Officers on Operation Yewtree, which investigated the claims, have also ­arrested celebrities including Gary Glitter, comedian Freddie Starr, DJ Dave Lee Travis, publicist Max Clifford and comedian Jim Davidson. All have denied any wrongdoing and not all the allegations involve under-16s.

Scotland Yard said they would not comment on an on-going investigation.

[Josquius]

Way above.
Its a shallow tabloid but probally the most reliable one.
Of course that's hardly the battle of the giants.

[Gups]

You only say that because it's left leaning. It's just as bad as the Mail and the Sun, all three of which are way ahead of the Star and the Express.

The fact that this story hasn't been picked up anywhere else tells you all you need to know.

[Josquius]

You only say that because it's left leaning. It's just as bad as the Mail and the Sun, all three of which are way ahead of the Star and the Express.

The fact that this story hasn't been picked up anywhere else tells you all you need to know.

Nah. The mail is the lowest of the low, thats a given. Then there's stuff like the sport which don't even try. In the regular tabloids its between the sun and the mirror.
The sun tends to rely on boobs and more simplistic and populist takes on the mail's "Bloody foreigners" schtick.
Which leaves the Mirror as a pretty generic tabloid which doesn't fall back on nudity ( as somebody whose parents got the Mirror when I was a kid: ) and is a lot less sensationalist and lie-prone than the Sun. Its still a tabloid though, so....

[jimmy olsen]

Holy shit! 

www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/may/07/manchester-music-schools-teachers-investigation

39 Manchester music school teachers face inquiry

Teachers from Chetham's and Royal Northern College of Music under investigation in relation to sexual abuse allegations

    Helen Pidd, northern editor
    The Guardian, Tuesday 7 May 2013 20.03 BST   

Thirty-nine teachers from two leading Manchester music schools are under investigation in relation to allegations of sexual abuse of pupils, police have told the Guardian.

Ten of the tutors have been classed as "key suspects" and are the most likely to face trial for a range of sexual offences including rape and serious, habitual indecent assaults. All of these 10 are alive and have taught at Chetham's school of music, a £31,000-a-year boarding school in the city centre, and/or the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). Some are still teaching music today.

The bulk of the offences are alleged to have taken place in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, though one is said to have occurred as late as 2010. So far the only suspect named by police is violin teacher Wen Zhou Li, who was arrested on suspicion of rape in February. Li denies the allegations but has been suspended from Chetham's and the RNCM pending the police investigation.

"There are 10 individuals who we are proactively conducting criminal investigations into, and many others who are also part of the inquiry," said Jamie Daniels, detective chief inspector of the major incident team in the Specialist Protective Services Division of Greater Manchester Police (GMP).

Daniels confirmed that, in total, 39 teachers past and present are being investigated by his full-time team of 22 staff. Officers have already interviewed more than 30 alleged victims and have received information relating to dozens more. They are currently preparing reports to hand to the Crown Prosecution Service, which will decide if there is enough evidence to prosecute.

The investigation is expected to last at least a year. It began in February following the conviction of Michael Brewer, former head of music at Chetham's, who was found guilty of indecently assaulting a pupil, Frances Andrade. She killed herself after giving evidence against him, emboldening other alleged victims to speak out in the hope that her death would not be in vain.

Brewer is not one of 10 key suspects, the Guardian understands. "Of those 10, three or four have been accused of rape or indecent assault by multiple victims," Daniels confirmed. He said a further five teachers would have likely stood trial had they not already died. One of the dead abusers has already been named by the Guardian as Polish-born pianist Ryszard Bakst, who died in 1999. A number of his former pupils spoke out about how he would fondle their breasts as they played or put their hands on his erection.

"We are also investigating 12 other music teachers as a result of third-party referrals – decent members of the public phoning in, saying 'so-and-so had a relationship with so-and-so when I was at school'," said Daniels, stressing that police need first-hand victim accounts if they are to press charges.

A further 12 teachers have been accused of inappropriate behaviour that will probably not lead to criminal charges, said Daniels – for example, in cases that are too old to prosecute or where the sexual activity was not illegal at the time it took place. This includes instances where teachers are said to have had sex with sixth-formers who were under 18 but over the age of consent. This only became a criminal offence in 2003.

Daniels urged any victims of sexual abuse at Manchester music schools to get in touch by calling 0161 8566777.

The GMP inquiry, named Operation Kiso, has also broadened to investigate incidents at other specialist music schools in the UK, including the Purcell school in Hertfordshire, the Yehudi Menuhin school in Surrey, Wells Cathedral school in Somerset and St Mary's Music School in Edinburgh. Police believe some of the alleged abusers moved from one school to another, sometimes after their inappropriate behaviour had been discovered.On Tuesday night, Channel 4 News aired reports of inappropriate behaviour at five of the UK's specialist music schools. The allegations span four decades, and include claims that the pianist Marcel Gazelle, the founding music director of the Menuhin School, sexually abused pupils as young as 10 in the 1960s. The school was founded in 1963 by Yehudi Menuhin with Gazelle's help.

Three of Gazelle's former pupils told Channel 4 News that he abused them in the school's bedrooms. One of them says she reported his behaviour to the school at the time and was told to avoid being on her own with him.

Irita Kutchmy, who studied with Gazelle from the age of nine to 12, said his behaviour had a "very detrimental" effect on her childhood. "I felt he was a very powerful person ... I just remember feeling like I was sort of like his property, his pupil and therefore what he said went," she said. "It didn't appear to me to be weird that he came up to wake us up in the morning. It was just the way it was at the school ... He would tickle me under the sheets ... His hands were on my bare skin where they shouldn't be. He was quite scary, that's what I remember, being frightened."

Gazelle died in 1969. His family said he was a good man and they were surprised by the allegations, which they contest. The Yehudi Menuhin School said it was "shocked and saddened to learn of the allegations."

"We have checked the records which survive from 50 years ago and can find nothing about any concerns expressed at the time," it said. "In accordance with our policies we have reported these serious allegations to Surrey Police."

"The school attaches the utmost importance to the safety and welfare of our students... as recent inspection reports show."

The violinist Nigel Kennedy, who was a pupil at the Yehudi Menuhin School in the 60s, said he was "shook up and appalled" to hear of the allegations.

On Tuesday Daniels urged any victims of sexual abuse at Manchester music schools to get in touch by calling 0161 8566777.

Also on Tuesday, Chetham's submitted an "action plan" to the department of education detailing a shake-up in its child protection policies after being criticised in two inspection reports last month.

Initiatives in the plan include the introduction of a "parent governor" on the governing body.