Public Fear Establishment Child Abuse Will Remain Hidden, Poll Reveals

By Joe Murphy
London Evening Standard
July 17, 2014

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/public-fear-establishment-abuse-will-remain-hidden-poll-reveals-9611804.html

A majority of Britons lack confidence that the new inquiries into child abuse will ever get to the truth, an exclusive poll reveals today.

Research by Ipsos MORI found that 56 per cent doubt they will learn what happened from a new overarching inquiry and a separate probe into missing files.

A huge majority — 87 per cent — think child abuse was covered up in the Seventies and Eighties. Some 62 per cent “strongly” believe this.

Half the public think establishment figures would attempt a cover-up if such scandals were to happen again today.

Two probes were announced last week, including an overarching inquiry into the failure to properly investigate alleged paedophile rings in politics, the BBC and health services. The Prime Minister vowed to leave “no stone unturned” in the hunt for facts.

Today’s poll reveals many people distrust the “establishment”, past and present, to let the truth come out.

Only 41 per cent think the overarching inquiry will unearth the facts, and just six per cent feel “very confident” that it will succeed.

Of those who lack confidence in it, 46 per cent said it was because they thought there would be another cover-up. Among other reasons given, 23 per cent had no confidence in the inquiry chiefs and 13 per cent thought evidence would have been destroyed.

Gideon Skinner, head of political research at Ipsos MORI said: “Two things stand out clearly from this poll: the high distrust in the establishment of the time — distrust that is still not fully recovered — and a strong conviction among the public that child abuse is so serious that these allegations have to be investigated.”

Richmond Park MP Zac Goldsmith has implicated Michael Havers, the brother of Baroness Butler-Sloss, in a decision to narrow an Eighties inquiry into sex abuse allegations at a Northern Ireland children’s home.

The Tory MP said the inquiry head was “bitter” that his terms of reference barred him from probing allegations involving visitors to the Kincora boys’ home. “Clearly this was designed to prevent embarrassment and to protect powerful people who were visitors,” he told ConservativeHome. “As it happens, it was Michael Havers who wrote the terms of reference.”

Baroness Butler-Sloss stood down on Monday after victims said she could not investigate her own brother. Downing Street said it would be several days before a new chairperson would be appointed.

A TOTAL of 61 people were arrested in London as part of a major crackdown on suspected paedophiles across Britain, police revealed today.

The National Crime Agency announced yesterday that officers had arrested 660 people across the UK, including teachers and ex-police officers, in an operation targeting internet users who access child abuse images.

Scotland Yard said it had executed 96 warrants at addresses in London and arrested 61 people. There were no details for how many were charged.