Nick Clegg Backs Devon Peer in Child Sex Abuse Inquiry Row

Western Morning News
July 11, 2014

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Nick-Clegg-backs-Devon-peer-child-sex-abuse/story-21451299-detail/story.html

Dame Butler-Sloss

Baroness Butler-Sloss is the right person to lead the inquiry into “revolting” allegations of child abuse and a subsequent cover-up by establishment figures, Nick Clegg has insisted.

The Deputy Prime Minister said he did not know whether there had been a cover-up but the claims were so “heinous” they deserved proper investigation.

Former High Court judge Lady Butler-Sloss, who lives near Exeter, faced calls to step down after reports that her brother Sir Michael Havers tried to prevent ex-MP Geoffrey Dickens airing claims about a diplomat in Parliament in the 1980s.

But on his LBC phone-in show Mr Clegg said complaints about the appointment were “really unfair on her” and added: “I think that the idea that because she had a brother in politics at that stage disqualifies her from doing this work, I don’t accept that and I think it’s right that she has said she is going to carry on doing the job.”

Asked by a caller whether he believed there had been a cover-up of abuse, Mr Clegg said: “I genuinely don’t know.”

He said there were allegations that powerful men were “not only organising amongst themselves to abuse children but even more revoltingly then seeking to cover up for each other”.

Mr Clegg said the alleged victims were “some of the most vulnerable children you could possibly imagine – children who don’t have their own families, children who are in the care of the state, precisely the children we should be going that extra mile to look after”.

He said: “I genuinely can’t think of an allegation of crimes which are more revolting, more heinous and more in need, even these many years later, of proper investigation.

“I cannot tell you, of course, what happened until these things are properly looked at.”

The Liberal Democrat leader paid tribute to one of his MPs, Tessa Munt, who gave a “really moving” account of her own experience of abuse.

“Given that we are dealing with people who were, that’s the allegation, powerful in politics and were abusing children, I think that you’ve now got politicians like Tessa who are brave enough to bare their own soul, which must make her feel very vulnerable, I think is such a powerful antidote to the fear and silence which has so long allowed this terrible level of abuse to lurk in the shadows or so long.”

Alongside the broad Hillsborough-style investigation led by Lady Butler-Sloss into the handling of abuse allegations by institutions, another investigation has been launched into the Home Office’s handling of historical allegations.

Former home secretary Lord Brittan has flatly denied failing to deal with a dossier provided by Mr Dickens in 1983 properly, while a review carried out by a HMRC official last year found no evidence that relevant material was not passed to other authorities.

However, it also disclosed that the Dickens file appeared to have been destroyed – and the Home Office has since revealed that 114 files deemed potentially relevant are missing.

The Home Office has been challenged to reveal details of the titles of the missing files to a Commons committee by the end of the day.

Home Affairs select committee chairman Keith Vaz made the request to the department’s senior civil servant Mark Sedwill at a hearing earlier this week.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "We are considering Mr Vaz's request and will respond in due course."