63 police inquiries, 2,100 victims... the child abuse dossier...

By Martin Beckford
Mail Sunday
April 5, 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3025991/63-police-inquiries-2-100-victims-child-abuse-dossier-shames-Britain.html

Visitor: Leon Brittan (circled) at Medomsley youth detention centre in 1985. Alleged abuse there is being probed as part of Operation Seabrook. Brittan is being investigated as part of Operation Midland

Baroness Butler-Sloss warned the task of investigating the allegations could be overwhelming

63 police inquiries, 2,100 victims... the child abuse dossier that shames Britain after horrific explosion of historic sex cases since Savile

The unprecedented scale of current police investigations into historic child abuse can be revealed for the first time today, as senior officers warn of the challenge of investigating alleged crimes that go back decades.

An investigation by The Mail on Sunday has revealed that:

    Forces around Britain are carrying out more than 60 major investigations into sex attacks and beatings in schools, children’s homes and churches dating back to the 1950s.

    More than 2,000 people have come forward in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal to say they were abused at institutions or by public figures, including prominent politicians.

    A staggering 1,200 of the alleged victims were inmates of just one institution, a northern borstal once visited by the late Home Secretary Leon Brittan and praised for its ‘short, sharp shock’ regime. He himself is now at the centre of a number of abuse claims.

    The first chairman of the troubled Government inquiry into historic abuse has warned of the ‘vast task’ of investigating the spiralling allegations.

The cases are putting police forces – already struggling to deal with 20 per cent budget cuts at the same time as an explosion in online crimes and a heightened terrorism threat – under huge strain as the operations are complex and evidence is difficult to find.

The investigations could expand further when victims give their testimony to the long-delayed public inquiry into historic abuse, which will finally begin in earnest next week as judge Lowell Goddard arrives from New Zealand.

Chief Constable Simon Bailey, who is co-ordinating the police’s work, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We have done a huge amount in recent years to tackle sexual abuse of children. We have responded to criticism, risen to the challenge and changed the way we engage with victims and how we investigate abuse. As a result, many, many more victims have found the confidence to report abuse.

‘This means we are dealing with an unprecedented number of investigations. Not only is this a financial challenge, it is a challenge for the police service in terms of expertise and numbers of trained and experienced personnel we need.’

He added that the vast majority of abuse is carried out by family members, rather than ‘well-known personalities’, and many forces are also looking into hundreds of individual allegations of historic assaults.

At least 23 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales, plus Britain’s FBI, the National Crime Agency, are working on historic abuse cases that relate to institutions.

There are at least 63 ongoing inquiries involving at least 2,100 alleged victims, with some 133 arrests made in recent years.

Such is the scale of the task of investigating ‘persons of public prominence’ and institutions, police last year set up the over-arching Operation Hydrant to co-ordinate work and share advice.

It will publish details of its activities in May, but The Mail on Sunday has obtained details of most forces’ inquiries.

In London alone, there are 11 investigations that have seen the downfall of once-loved household names, but also led to accusations of a celebrity witch-hunt.

Scotland Yard established Operation Yewtree in 2012 after Jimmy Savile was exposed after his death, and Rolf Harris, Max Clifford and Gary Glitter have since been jailed.

The sprawling Operation Fairbank was set up after campaigning MP Tom Watson told a stunned Commons that there was intelligence suggesting a ‘powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10’. Suspicions were raised when it emerged that the Home Office had lost a dossier on VIP child abusers handed to then Home Secretary Leon Brittan 30 years ago.

He found himself at the centre of the scandal last year. A woman claimed he raped her as a teenager in the 1960s, while his links to abuse inquiry chairman Fiona Woolf forced her to quit. After he died in January, police raided his homes. Watson said Brittan stood accused of ‘multiple child rape’.

Several forces are now investigating cases involving Cyril Smith, the late Liberal MP who escaped prosecution in his lifetime despite numerous claims he had spanked or sexually assaulted boys.

Greater Manchester Police is carrying out four investigations into historic abuse, one of which covers the Knowl View boys’ home Smith helped run in the 1960s.

Cheshire Police’s investigations involve a school where Smith was said to be a regular overnight visitor, while Northampton Police is looking into claims he was let off despite being caught in possession of child abuse images on the M1.

The biggest single inquiry is Durham Constabulary’s Operation Seabrook. So far 1,123 former inmates of the Medomsley detention centre near Consett have said they were abused by staff.

Judge who quit: It's too vast a task

The first head of the child abuse inquiry has warned that the ‘vast task’ of investigating the ever-growing allegations risks becoming overwhelming.

Former High Court judge Baroness Butler-Sloss was announced as chairman last July but quit within days over alleged conflicts of interest.

Her replacement, Lord Mayor of London Fiona Woolf, also quit after The Mail on Sunday revealed she was friends with Leon Brittan, the ex-Home Secretary at the centre of cover-up allegations.

Next week, the third chairman, New Zealand judge Lowell Goddard, will arrive in London to begin work on the inquiry, which could last as long as five years and cost more than £200 million.

Lady Butler-Sloss said she felt ‘very sorry’ for her successor.

‘She is going to have a really difficult job. The Government appears to be asking her to tackle too many issues at once.

‘She has got a vast task and I fear unless she is selective, which is of course entirely a matter for her, she may just find it too much.’

However she added that Justice Goddard was an ‘excellent choice’ as an experienced judge who was ‘outside the establishment’.

Lady Butler-Sloss admitted that the child abuse allegations were not taken seriously enough in years gone by. ‘I sat on various inquiries, including the Cleveland inquiry in 1987, where it was perfectly obvious that a lot of people were what the social workers call in denial.

‘They would not believe that nice people who were their next-door neighbours could behave like that. They absolutely could not believe it. In the 21st Century, we have come to realise it is true.

‘People did not recognise this was a serious matter and it had to be investigated.’