‘It is the sin of Salem’: West Hollywood’s gay mayor refuses to resign over sex assault allegations
This is an astonishing story that reminds one less of Salem than of Sodom
FILE PHOTO: Mayor John Duran (left) pictured with porn star Stormy Daniels © Reuters / Mike Blake
West Hollywood’s city council is searching for ways to oust Mayor John Duran, after the scandal-prone gay mayor refused to step down in light of some serious sexual assault allegations that were compared to a ‘Salem witch hunt.’
Even by the flamboyant standards of West Hollywood, Mayor John Duran stands out. The openly gay mayor has joked about wearing gold underwear, launched a public forum on anal cancer called ‘Booty Call to Action,’ and was accused by a fellow councilman of swiping for casual sex on Grindr during council meetings.
While Duran has built a political career on cheekily expressing his sexuality, the lawsuits have piled up.
First the city paid $500,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit against Duran from his former deputy Ian Owens. Duran hired Owens as his deputy after meeting him through Grindr and having sex with him.
I wonder what his other qualifications were?
Now, more allegations of harassment have surfaced, from the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, a choir that Duran once chaired. Its members accused the mayor of unwanted groping and inappropriate comments. Several members alleged that Duran cornered and fondled them, before slipping away when they expressed shock.
Duran dismissed the allegations. “Am I the only gay man in town who uses bawdy sexual humor? Or says inappropriate things?,” he wrote in a Facebook post last week. “So, will I resign?,” he concluded. “Those of you who know me - well know the answer. HELL NO.”
Some of Duran’s alleged victims spoke at a council meeting on Tuesday, at which the council’s five members vowed to limit the mayor’s term to one year, and to search for ways to legally oust Duran from the position.
The city’s Public Safety Commission vice chairman Robert Oliver already resigned last week, in protest at the city’s reticence to more strongly condemn Duran.
“It is time that the #MeToo movement comes to West Hollywood,” he said at the time. Duran, for his part, did not directly criticize the #MeToo movement, but compared the movement to oust him from the West Hollywood city council to the Salem witch trials and said he will “never admit conduct that never occurred.”
If Duran were to be removed from his position, he would become a regular city councilman again. A petition signed by 20 percent of registered voters in the city would be the only way to push him out of the council for good, local news outlet KTLA reported.
Duran isn’t the only gay political figure in California to face public outcry. Protesters who converged on Tuesday’s City Council meeting also demanded the council take action against Ed Buck, a prominent Democratic donor and LGBT activist (See story immediately below).
Two gay black men were found dead at Buck’s Los Angeles apartment in the last two years, with one of them alleging before his death that Buck supplied him drugs and coerced him into sex acts.
Duran worked as an attorney for Buck for several years, and Buck donated $10,000 to Duran in 2014.
'Serial predator': L.A. writer has been sounding alarm on Ed Buck for over a year
Long before a second man died in the political donor's home, writer Jasmyne Cannick has been publishing accounts from his alleged victims
Ed Buck, center, interrupts California Republican Party gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's campaign event on Sept. 22, 2010 in Los Angeles.Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images file
By Tim Fitzsimons, NBC News
Jan. 11, 2019, 3:08 PM PST
When authorities in Los Angeles found Timothy Dean dead in the apartment of Ed Buck, a Democratic activist and campaign donor, early Monday morning, Jasmyne Cannick was not surprised. Just six months ago, Cannick had posted a warning on Twitter that something like this might happen.
“If another young, Black gay man overdoses or worse dies at Democratic donor Ed Buck’s apartment it’s going to be the fault of the sheriff’s dept and L.A. District Atty for not stopping him when they had the opportunity to,” Cannick wrote on Twitter in late July.
Jasmyne Cannick✔
@Jasmyne
If another young, Black gay man overdoses or worse dies at Democratic donor Ed Buck’s apartment it’s going to be the fault of the sheriff’s dept and L.A. District Atty for not stopping him when they had the opportunity to. #GemmelMoore #Justice4Gemmel pic.twitter.com/jlbS2KTvNe
9:07 AM - Jul 28, 2018
In July 2017, Gemmel Moore, a 26-year-old black man, died from a methamphetamine overdose in Buck’s apartment. Shortly afterward, Cannick followed a tip from a colleague and reached out to Moore’s friends and family, who had discovered a journal among the possessions returned with Moore’s body. They were disturbed by what they said they found: Moore’s journal said that Buck got him hooked on meth and had drugged him against his will.
Since Moore’s death, Cannick has collected a trove of information in an attempt to make the case that Ed Buck is a “predator” who preys on down-on-their-luck black men by inviting them to his apartment and suggesting they try methamphetamine injections, or “slamming.”
Cannick conducted interviews with first-hand sources: men who said they went to Buck’s apartment for paid sex and drugs, several of whom told her that Buck offered them more money for the chance to administer an injection of crystal methamphetamine, the most dangerous way to take a dangerous drug. All of her reports are published on her personal website.
Image: Jasmyne Cannick
Jasmyne Cannick, an activist and blogger, has investigated the death of Gemmel Moore in Ed Buck's apartment.KNBC
Cannick also published journal entries from Gemmel Moore in which he writes that Buck gave him his first meth injections and got him addicted. Cannick published photographs and videos taken by the men who said they were taken inside Buck’s apartment that corroborate key details from the initial death report and contemporaneous journals: a rolling red toolbox filled with sex toys and drug paraphernalia, a sportswear fetish, and an aversion to sexual intercourse.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department confirmed Thursday that homicide detectives are currently investigating Timothy Dean's death. On Friday, the L.A. District Attorney's office declined to comment "due to the pending investigation."
Earlier this week, Seymour Amster, Buck's attorney, told NBC News in what appeared to be a prepared statement that his client was not in custody and hadn't been charged in connection with the death of Timothy Dean, whom he said was a "longtime friend" of Buck's who had asked to come over."
"Ed was reluctant, but the friend was insistent,” Amster claimed. A short time later, Dean "began exhibiting bizarre behavior," which prompted Buck to call 911, Amster said.
NBC News’ follow-up calls and texts to Amster over a span of four days were not returned.
Now, over a year after Cannick first started to investigate Moore’s death and warn authorities that Buck is a “predator,” friends and family members of the deceased, along with LGBTQ and black activists in L.A. and beyond, are speaking out and asking why authorities did not more aggressively investigate Moore’s fatal drug overdose in Buck’s home.
While neither an autopsy nor a toxicology report has been released in Dean’s case, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office ruled Moore’s death an accidental overdose of crystal methamphetamine. The coroner's report noted a puncture wound on each of Moore’s elbows when his body was found naked on a mattress in the center of Buck’s living room.
“Our stories aren’t told and our lives are seen as expendable. It’s very easy to write off someone who dies of a drug overdose who was working as a sex worker, but Gemmel was as much a part of our community as the many other young men like him,” said Cannick, who like both Moore and Dean is black and gay. “It may not be pretty, but white gay men taking advantage of young Black men in our community is not unusual—it’s just not talked about in mainstream America.”
FOLLOWING A PATTERN
Cannick, 41, an award-winning social commentator and former Congressional press secretary, started to investigate Buck just a few weeks after Moore’s death. Cannick said a tip from a colleague led her to look into the prominent political activist.
LaTisha Nixon, Moore’s mother, told Cannick “she had a lot of concerns and was not getting a lot of answers from the authorities,” Cannick recalled. Cannick then spoke to friends of Moore, several of whom told similar tales: that Buck uses gay dating websites to invite black men to his apartment to use or try methamphetamines.
“We started to figure out there was this pattern and practice where he solicited and went after young, gay, black men — usually men who were homeless, HIV-positive, who were in need of food or money,” Cannick said, citing in-person interviews she conducted and published with people who say they met Buck for sex and drugs.
“Not all of these men were on drugs when they met Ed Buck,” Cannick added, “but Ed Buck got them on drugs.”
Second man found dead in Democratic donor Ed Buck's home
JAN. 8, 2019
Fox 11 published a news report soon after Moore’s death that showed security camera footage of a second black man attempting to buzz into Buck’s apartment while police were still in the process of removing Moore’s body from the scene. Buck’s attorney, Seymour Amster, told Fox 11 at the time that Buck and Moore were “good friends” and claimed Buck is a kind man who reaches out to troubled youth who are often homeless.
Shortly after authorities ruled Moore’s death an accidental overdose, Cannick published several pages of a journal that was recovered by the coroner along with Moore’s belongings, in which Moore wrote: “I ended up back at Buck house again and got manipulated into slamming again — I even went to the point where I was forced to doing 4 within a 2 day period.”
Less than a month after Cannick and Moore’s family released pages of his journal in early August 2017, authorities opened a homicide investigation into Buck that was then closed without charges in July 2018.
In addition to Moore’s journal, Cannick published a detailed interview with “Blake,” another man who said he knew Ed Buck over four years, the same period Buck knew Moore. Blake and Buck, according to Cannick — who published Blake's chat logs, photos, and interviews on her website — smoked meth together often and eventually, during a period of homelessness, Blake let Buck pay him $500 to inject him with meth. Neither Buck nor his lawyer has ever publicly addressed Blake's claims.
Cannick said Lindsey Horvath was the only West Hollywood council member that lent unqualified support to her efforts to further probe Moore's death. Horvath, who stressed she has never accepted campaign contributions from Buck, told NBC News she found the Buck case “deeply disturbing” and suggested that power and race may have played a role in the investigation.
“I think the question is worth asking: If roles were reversed, would different choices have been made throughout the investigative process and would have an arrest have been made?” Horvath said.
‘MURDER REBRANDED’
Ashlee Marie Preston, a transgender activist and former board member of the Stonewall Democratic Club of Los Angeles, said she and Ed Buck “were friends temporarily” during her time on the board. Preston later worked to eject Buck from the club, where he had been a lifetime member.
During a mountain retreat for the Stonewall Democratic Club prior to Moore’s death, Preston said Buck joined her for fresh air on the porch of a cabin. “Then he pulled out his cell phone, and he was like, ‘He’s so hot,’ and I was like, ‘Who?,’ and he showed me his phone, and there was a black man sitting in a dark room, and the only light in the room was the light from the lighter, and he was smoking methamphetamine.”
This disturbing experience, coupled with Moore’s subsequent death, led Preston to push for Buck to be removed from the Stonewall Democratic Club. The club of LGBTQ Democrats issued a statement Wednesday saying it “asked Mr. Buck to resign his membership and donated $500 toward Gemmel’s funeral expenses.”
Stonewall Democratic Club President Lester Aponte confirmed Preston’s role in helping the club formulate its response and Buck’s removal.
“There's a larger story there that people aren't looking at, Preston said. “It’s really about money, power, chemsex culture, and raceplay, and it’s this underground thing that many people aren’t talking about, and essentially it’s murder rebranded.” “He’s forcibly giving people lethal injections of drugs in exchange for money,” she claimed.
‘PREDATORY AND RACIST BEHAVIOR’
At a community meeting about Gemmel Moore’s death in 2017, Moore’s former roommate Samuel Lloyd said Buck “went out there searching for other men that were struggling and were on the streets and had no money.”
“Gemmel was scared,” Lloyd added. “He came and he laid in my arms, and he cried. He was scared, he was scared that this man was going to hurt him.”
Jerome Kitchen, a close family friend of Moore’s, said another death of a black man in Buck’s apartment has jolted the community.
“Our community didn’t give Gemmel as much attention as they’re giving now, because they didn’t know how to judge the situation,” Kitchen told NBC News. “But surely they do now.”
Nana Gyamfi, the attorney for LaTisha Nixon, was unequivocal about what Moore’s family wants: “We want Ed Buck to be stopped, and to prevent anyone else from being killed or harmed by Ed Buck and his dangerous, predatory and racist behavior.”
Some LGBTQ activist expressed hope that the new Los Angeles County Sheriff, Alex Villanueva, might pursue the case with more vigor than the previous sheriff.
“The fact is two black men have died at Mr. Buck’s home in less than two years,” the Los Angeles LGBT Center said in a statement. “We urge Sheriff Villanueva to keep the public fully informed as LGBT people have a considerable and urgent interest in a case that is so clearly linked to the health and safety of our community.”
The Stonewall Democratic Club also called for authorities to “step up” when it comes to violence against LGBTQ people of color. “Foul play is apparent — two dead bodies, both black, both gay,” the club added. “The evidence against Ed Buck is sickening and grotesque.”
Several Democrats have returned donations from Buck, including U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, and former state Senator Kevin de Leon.
Jasmyne Cannick and LaTisha Nixon will take part in a candlelight vigil for Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean on Friday, January 11 at 7 p.m. in front of Ed Buck’s West Hollywood apartment.
Feds broke law in Jeffrey Epstein, sex trafficking, sweetheart, plea deal, Florida judge rules
© Reuters / Handout / Joshua Roberts
A Florida judge has ruled financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking case was grossly mishandled by federal prosecutors, who hid a sweetheart plea deal from over 30 of his underage victims, violating federal law in the process.
“Epstein worked in concert with others to obtain minors not only for his own sexual gratification, but also for the sexual gratification of others,” US District Judge Kenneth Marra wrote in a ruling that found federal prosecutors had violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act by concealing Epstein’s plea deal from his victims, who could have contested the non-prosecution agreement that saw the hedge-funder spend just 13 months in an open-door ‘prison’ for abusing hundreds of underage girls.
Federal prosecutors, led by then-Southern District Attorney for Florida Alexander Acosta, now the Trump administration’s Secretary of Labor, colluded with Epstein’s lawyers to conceal both the sentencing agreement and the scope of his crimes from victims and the public, Marra said, while victims were misled into thinking they still had a chance to be heard in court.
The Story Behind a Powerful American Child Sex Trafficker's Remarkable Deal
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Evidence –enough “to fill a 53-page indictment with federal sex-crime charges”– confirmed Epstein and his employees had been recruiting girls from as close as Florida and as far as Eastern Europe to sexually service the financier and his rich and powerful friends, Marra said. Those friends reportedly included Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, and other movers and shakers in business, law, finance, and government.
The judge did not issue a punishment, instead setting a 15-day deadline for victims and the government to decide on a resolution moving forward. As much as many of Epstein’s victims still want him jailed, even prosecuting attorney Brad Edwards admits the non-prosecution agreement is unlikely to be overturned.
Should other victims step forward in other jurisdictions, however, Epstein can still be prosecuted – there is no statute of limitations for sex trafficking.
“Instead of admitting what they did, and doing the right thing, [the government] spent 11 years fighting these girls,” Edwards said.
Revictimizing the victims to shelter the pedophile. Someone else should go to jail for that. The rich and famous have their own justice system.
“This was probably the most unjust outcome of any case I’ve been involved in in 40 years,” Michael Reiter, former Palm Beach police chief, told the Miami Herald.
The US Justice Department is conducting its own probe of whether federal prosecutors were guilty of wrongdoing. A representative for Acosta’s Department of Labor told CNBC that “the office’s decisions were approved by departmental leadership and followed departmental procedures.”
Patriots owner Robert Kraft charged with
solicitation of prostitution
New England won 6th Super Bowl title earlier this month
The Associated Press 
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, shown in this October 2018 file photo, has been charged by Florida police. (File/Getty Images)
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is being charged with misdemeanor solicitation of prostitution after he was allegedly twice videotaped paying for and receiving sex at an illicit massage parlour, according to police in Jupiter, Fla.
The 77-year-old Kraft hasn't been arrested. A warrant will be issued and his attorneys will be notified, police said Friday.
The charge comes amid a widespread crackdown on sex trafficking in the area surrounding Palm Beach County. About 200 arrest warrants have been issued in recent days and more are expected. Police said they secretly planted undercover cameras in targeted massage parlors and videotaped the interactions between men and the female employees.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Kraft said they "categorically deny that Mr. Kraft engaged in any illegal activity. Because it is a judicial matter, we will not be commenting further."
The Patriots won the Super Bowl earlier this month in Atlanta.
Jupiter Police Chief Daniel Kerr said he was shocked to learn Kraft was paying for sex inside a strip mall massage parlour.
Kraft's wife, Myra Hiatt, died in 2011. He has been dating 39-year-old actress Ricki Noel Lander since 2012.
The NFL did not immediately respond to a message Friday seeking comment.
R. Kelly indicted for aggravated sexual abuse
Singer was acquitted of child pornography charges in 2008
but several accusers have emerged recently
The Associated Press 
R. Kelly, shown in a file photo, has been the subject of allegations of sexual abuse for years, with a groundswell of attention recently stemming in part from a television documentary. (M. Spencer Green/Associated Press)
R. Kelly was charged Friday with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse, after decades of lurid rumours and allegations that the R&B star was sexually abusing women and underage girls.
Tandra Simonton, spokesperson for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, confirmed to The Associated Press the charges had been filed against the 52-year-old Grammy winner but declined to say the specific number. Media reports said there were 10 counts, all involving underage victims.
Over the years, Kelly has consistently denied any sexual misconduct.
Kelly, whose legal name is Robert Kelly, is one of the top-selling recording artists of all time, with hits such as I Believe I Can Fly, and his arrest sets the stage for another #MeToo-era celebrity trial. Bill Cosby went to prison last year, and former Hollywood studio boss Harvey Weinstein is awaiting trial.
Kelly was charged a day after Michael Avenatti, the attorney whose clients have included porn star Stormy Daniels, said he recently gave Chicago prosecutors new video evidence of the singer having sex with an underage girl. It was not immediately clear if the charges were connected to that video.
In 2008, a jury acquitted Kelly of child pornography charges over a graphic video that prosecutors said showed him having sex with a girl as young as 13. He and the young woman allegedly depicted with him denied they were in the 27-minute video, even though the picture quality was good and witnesses testified it was them, and she did not take the stand. Kelly could have received 15 years in prison.
Rochelle Washington, left, and attorney Gloria Allred, right, look on as Latresa Scaff speaks during a news conference in New York on Thursday. Scaff and Washington accused Kelly of sexual misconduct on the night they attended his concert when they were teenagers. It is unclear if the indictment concerns their allegations. (Seth Wenig/Associated Press)
Singer denies abusing women
After Surviving R. Kelly's release, Chicago's top prosecutor, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, said she was "sickened" by the allegations and asked potential victims to come forward.
MeToo activists and a social media movement using the hashtag #MuteRKelly called on streaming services to drop Kelly's music and promoters not to book any more concerts. And protesters demonstrated outside Kelly's Chicago studio.
Kelly's attorney, Steve Greenberg, said earlier this year that his client was the victim of a TV hit piece and that Kelly "never knowingly had sex with an underage woman, he never forced anyone to do anything, he never held anyone captive, he never abused anyone."
Avenatti said his office was retained last April by people regarding allegations of sexual assault of minors by Kelly. He said the video surfaced during a 10-month investigation. He told The Associated Press that the person who provided the VHS tape knew both Kelly and the female in the video.
Despite accusations that span decades, the singer and songwriter who rose from poverty on Chicago's South Side has retained a sizable following. He has written numerous hits for himself and other artists, including Celine Dion, Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga. His collaborators have included Jay-Z and Usher.
Kelly broke into the R&B scene in 1993 with his first solo album, 12 Play, which produced such popular sex-themed songs as Bump N' Grind and Your Body's Callin'.
Months after those successes, the then-27-year-old Kelly faced allegations he married 15-year-old Aaliyah, the R&B star who later died in a plane crash in the Bahamas. Kelly was the lead songwriter and producer of Aaliyah's 1994 debut album.
Kelly and Aaliyah never confirmed the marriage, though Vibe magazine published a copy of the purported marriage licence. Court documents later obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times showed Aaliyah admitted lying about her age on the licence.
Jim DeRogatis, a longtime music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, played a key role in drawing the attention of law enforcement to Kelly. In 2002, he received the sex tape in the mail that was central to Kelly's 2008 trial. He turned it over to prosecutors. In 2017, DeRogatis wrote a story for BuzzFeed about the allegations Kelly was holding women against their will in Georgia.
Child sex abuse inquiry threatens to drag up false allegations against Leon Brittan
Conservative Party Conference 1993 Leon Brittan with Edward Heath CREDIT: CLARE ARRON
Robert Mendick, chief reporter Martin Evans, crime correspondent, The Telegraph
The Government’s beleaguered child sex abuse inquiry is threatening to drag up false allegations against Lord Brittan in a move that has caused deep distress to his widow.
The £100 million inquiry has written to Lady Brittan warning her that she is likely to be ‘upset’ by the re-examination of previously discounted allegations against her husband, the former home secretary.
Yes, but, as you say, in a botched inquiry.
But now the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) is threatening to dredge up a series of historic claims made against Lord Brittan.
The inquiry, which has lurched from one scandal to another since its launch, is expected to rake up a series of claims as part of its investigation beginning in March into allegations that senior politicians in Westminster were paedophiles whose abuse was covered up by authorities.
IICSA will also examine a series of claims against Sir Edward Heath, the former prime minister who died almost 15 years ago and cannot defend himself.
A £2 million inquiry into Heath found no corroborating evidence to suggest he had sexually abused children.
The letter sent to Lady Brittan last month - at about the time of the anniversary of his death - has caused her huge anxiety and concern, according to her friends, who have branded it a renewed ‘witch hunt’.
As Leon Brittan, he was one of the towering figures in Margaret Thatcher’s government. He died of cancer in 2015 and is unable to defend himself, friends pointed out.
And so have you, twice now!
Lady Brittan leaves her home in central London
CREDIT: WARREN ALLOTT FOR THE TELEGRAPH
One friend of Lady Brittan said: “She is really upset over this. Why are they wasting their time and money on these false claims? She has had this very patronising letter saying: ‘we are sorry for your distress’.
“Lady Brittan just doesn’t understand what they are doing and why they are doing it? All it is is yet another witch hunt. But why? People like Leon have no voice.”
In reality, it is child victims of sexual abuse who have no voice. Brittan has his wife and friends, very powerful friends, and the Telegraph, to speak out for him. Who is speaking out for child sex abuse victims? IICSA! Don't shut them up.
The Met police investigations into Brittan and Heath were so badly botched as to have no real credibility. Aside from poor police work, there was certainly pressure from above. Both of these men need to be reexamined without political interference and without bias, and if they are innocent, their legacy will be better off for the inquiry.
The IICSA letter is understood to have warned Lady Brittan: “We are giving you advance notice that we are investigating the Westminster strand and in the course of all this your husband’s name will come up. We are sorry if this might cause you distress’.”
The source said: “But she is really upset. Leon is dead and they don’t care. They are going to impugn a dead person who doesn’t have a right of reply - and that is a shocking thing to do. It feels politically motivated. Lady Brittan is just incredibly distressed. She had to go through all this before Leon’s death and now IICSA is dredging it up again.”
So, should we ignore all the priests and bishops who have sexually abused children in the last century because they are now dead. Don't those survivors deserve their day in court. Don't they deserve to finally be heard?
Lady Brittan declined to comment last night.
The allegations against Lord Brittan stem from a malicious briefing campaign against the Conservative home secretary, dating back to the 1980s.
It was suggested at the time he had been the victim of anti-Semitic smears by disgruntled members of the security services.
MI5 has submitted documents to IICSA that includes a list of politicians whose names appear in its files over child sex abuse allegations. Lord Brittan may be on the list.
Allegations against Lord Brittan began to resurface in 2012 after Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, stood up in parliament and claimed there was a “powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and Number 10”.
Sir Leon Brittan with his wife Lady Brittan and their daughters at Buckingham Palace CREDIT: IAN JONES
The claims were thoroughly investigated by police and no evidence found of any such network. Unfounded allegations linking Lord Brittan - among others including celebrities - to Elm Guest House, in Barnes in south west London, where it was alleged boys had been sexually abused also began to circulate.
But a list of VIP abusers was traced back to Chris Fay, a one-time Labour councillor subsequently convicted of fraud. His claims were investigated by the Metropolitan Police over the course of almost two years and found no corroborating evidence.
When Lord Brittan died in January 2015, Mr Watson described Brittan as “as close to evil as any human being could get”. Mr Watson later apologised for the distress he had caused.
IICSA is also likely to hear claims made against the former Tory MP, Harvey Proctor, who has been given core participant status for the Westminster strand of the inquiry. But last night he said he had still not been informed what claims had been made against him.
Mr Proctor said: "I am frustrated that with just over a week to go before the Westminster strand starts, I have not been furnished yet with the full allegations that have been made against me."
Daniel Janner QC, son of the late Labour peer, Lord Janner, criticised the Westminster strand of the inquiry CREDIT: PA
He said: "IICSA was launched on the bandwagon of hysteria following Tom Watson's claims that there was a child abuse network reaching into Downing Street. That hysteria saw the wrongful naming of former politicians such as Sir Edward Heath, Lord Brittan, my late father, Lord Janner and others linked to Operation Midland.
"The inquiry has already racked up costs of £60 million and there is no end in sight. It now looks like IICSA will allow a stream of allegations against the dead who are unable to answer back and defend themselves. It is wrong to allow the presumption of guilt to be aired in the court of public opinion."
Sir Edward Heath's godson Lincoln Seligman said: "It is quite appalling that the still grieving relatives of wholly innocent people, like Lady Brittan, should be put through further pain because of a pointless wild goose chase."
IICSA has continued with its Westminster strand despite the fact that there is no evidence that any VIP paedophile ring existed among senior politicians.
Police inquiries including investigations in to Heath, Lord Brittan, Harvey Proctor and others have all concluded that unfounded claims have been just that.
IICSA has struggled since it was set up by Theresa May, the then home secretary, in 2014 in the wake of Mr Watson’s claims and the furore over the failure to prosecute the disc jockey and presenter Jimmy Savile in his lifetime.
Three chairwomen have resigned along with Ben Emmerson, the then counsel to the inquiry, who was suspended from duty and later forced to resign after he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a lift within IICSA’s premises.
Mr Emmerson denied the claim and was later cleared after an inquiry by a judge at his chambers.
The current chairwoman Professor Alexis Jay, a social worker, took over in August 2016 after her predecessor Dame Lowell Goddard, a New Zealand judge quit suddenly, complaining that IICSA’s “legacy of failure... has been very hard to shake off”.
A spokesperson for IICSA said: "The Inquiry does not comment on private correspondence in ongoing investigations."
If you have been reading this blog for a few years you may remember that I criticized Theresa May relentlessly over her failure to set up the inquiry in a functional manner with functional people. Dame Goddard was a disaster, her predecessors were both linked to some of those who would be investigated. Naming Alexis Jay to head the inquiry was just about the only thing May did right, even though The Telegraph may think less of her because she is merely a social worker, not an aristocrat.
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