Church leaders unite to demand full inquiry into child sex abuse, by Joe Murphy, LondEvening Standard (July 8, 2014)

Church leaders today piled unprecedented pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to order a full public inquiry into institutional child sex abuse in Britain.

The Bishop of Durham, the Right Rev Paul Butler, warned that without such an extensive investigation — with people giving evidence on oath — he feared the full truth would not emerge.

He said that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, had urged Home Secretary Theresa May a month ago to launch a public inquiry following a string of shocking claims of abuse. The Right Rev Butler, chairman of the CoE’s churches national safeguarding committee, said religious leaders believed there was a “real problem around institutional abuse”.

“A full public inquiry is required because under those terms people have to take oaths and therefore swear to tell the truth,” he said. “My fear is the whole story won’t come out without that.

He welcomed the major inquiry into alleged paedophile crimes announced by Mrs May yesterday but it is not currently a full statutory investigation.

A second inquiry will investigate how the Home Office handled past claims of child abuse.

It is understood police have been presented with claims of sexual abuse of children — allegedly covered up for decades— concerning at least 10 former or serving politicians.

Dr Jon Bird, of the National Association for People Abused In Childhood, said a number of names of people, some of who are still alive, had been highlighted by callers to the charity’s helpline “again and again”.

Former Labour health minister Lord Warner today confirmed that “powerful people” targeted children’s homes to prey on vulnerable youngsters for sexual abuse.

The Labour peer said of the allegations: “I think they are possibly true. Some of these children’s homes were targeted by people in power — powerful people. And, indeed, sexual abuse of children is a power drive, that’s what a lot of it’s about.”

It has been claimed that several London children’s homes were used by paedophiles, with children taken to a guest house in Barnes to be abused.

Former child protection manager Peter McKelvie said MPs and government ministers were involved in the ring and had abused children for “decades” while other establishment figures helped cover up their activities.

He told the BBC: “I would say we are looking at upwards of 20 [people] and a much larger number of people who have known about it and done nothing about it, who were in a position to do something about it.”