The Perverted Lives of the Rich and Famous > Greek Olympic Sailing Coach; Patriots Owner; Westminster Paedo Ring; Arsenal Ace

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Greek Olympic Gold Medalist Testifies against sailing coach arrested for allegedly raping 11yo girl

25 Jan 2021 16:25

Straits Times

Olympic sailing champion Sofia Bekatorou leaves the prosecutor's office © REUTERS / Alkis Konstantinidis

A Greek sailing coach, whose name hasn’t been revealed, was arrested on Sunday on accusations of raping an 11-year-old girl more than nine years ago, the latest development in a sex abuse scandal that has rocked the country.

The 38-year-old was detained on the island of Samos as police opened an investigation into allegations of rape brought by Olympic champion Sofia Bekatorou, who gave evidence to prosecutors after speaking to the alleged victim, who is now 20 years old.

She and her parents also gave statements to the police regarding the Greek official’s alleged crime. 

The coach reportedly denied the allegations, claiming that he had been in a relationship with her and that wanted to marry her.

So, she was 11 and he was 29, and he was in a 'relationship' with her!!!???

Bekatorou, a famed Greek sailor who scooped an Olympic gold in 2004 and a bronze four years later, came forward last week to make the shocking revelation that she had been sexually assaulted when she was a national team member.

Appearing on an online event dedicated to the protection of children, Bekatorou said she was the victim of sexual assault and that the incident took place ahead of the 2000 Sydney Olympics when she was 21.

“I said no, I repeated that I didn't want to go on and he used fake sweet talk and said it is nothing,” Bekatorou said.

“He said he would stop if I didn't want it but he didn't, no matter what I said to him,” she added.

The retired athlete, 43, has inspired others to speak up about their own experience of sexual abuse, uncovering scandals that were hidden for decades.

Aristeidis Adamopoulos stepped down as vice president of the Hellenic Sailing Federation (HSF) last week in the wake of the scandal that undermined the body’s credibility.

The Hellenic Olympic Committee and the Greek government have urged other sex abuse victims to speak out.

Really, every organization in the world where children are involved needs to do an in-depth study on the degree of child sexual abuse. It's not a question of 'if' there was child sex abuse, only a question of how much and how bad it was, and who were the perverts.

Few politicians have the courage to open that can of worms, so children will continue to be sexually assaulted in all venues.

Patriots owner gets happy ending in massage parlor sting case

as judge orders video evidence be destroyed

26 Jan 2021 18:51

Thumbs up: New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. © USA Today Sport

Robert Kraft, owner of the NFL's New England Patriots, won't be the star of the internet's latest sex tape after a judge ordered that video evidence against him allegedly engaging in illicit acts in a massage parlor be destroyed.

A Federal judge in Florida ruled that video footage featuring Kraft and several others must be wiped from existence after police surveillance of a massage parlor which was allegedly participating in prostitution and human trafficking was deemed unlawful. 

A misdemeanor charge of solicitation against Kraft, who is the chairman and chief executive officer of the Kraft Group, was dropped last year after it was ruled in an appeals court that video evidence featuring Kraft was inadmissible. Legal representatives for Kraft had argued that they were fearful that footage would be leaked to the internet in what would be a highly embarrassing issue for their client. 

When reality is embarrassing, someone deserves the embarrassment.

"Considering that the videos never should have been created according to judicial rulings that are binding and conclusive, the videos should be destroyed so that they can never be subject to any misuse, intentional or otherwise," his attorneys stated.

Kraft, 79, was among several people charged in February 2019 in a wide-ranging investigation of massage parlors which were suspected of being engaged in illegal acts with their customers. 

Police conducted surveillance of several sites which included installing hidden camera in lobbies and massage rooms, with authorities naming Kraft as being suspected of paying for sex acts with massage parlor workers.

The incidents are alleged to have occurred on consecutive days in January 2019 at the Orchids of Asia spa in Jupiter, Florida. 

Kraft pleaded not guilty to the charges but subsequently issued a public apology in relation to them. 

The hypocrisy is astounding!

"I am truly sorry. I know I have hurt and disappointed my family, my close friends, my co-workers, our fans and many others who rightfully hold me to a higher standard," he said.

The Florida court also ruled that a "neutral third party" will oversee the destruction of the offending evidence.

Westminster paedophile ring: Jailed Charles Napier

will be told to name VIP abusers

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The former treasurer of the Paedophile Information Exchange and half-brother

of a Tory MP will be questioned again by detectives after being jailed last week

By Keir Mudie

08:42, 28 DEC 2014

Caged child abuser Charles Napier faces a grilling by detectives who believe he could help expose a network of VIP paedophiles with links to Westminster.

Officers probing claims that span decades think the former teacher – jailed last week for abusing 23 boys – can name Establishment figures including peers, Government ministers, ­civil servants and police.

Napier, 67, was treasurer of the twisted Paedophile Information Exchange, which ­campaigned on behalf of ­paedophiles in the 1970s and 1980s and ­argued that the age of consent should be lowered to FOUR.

Dossiers compiled by ­campaigning MP Geoffrey Dickens and handed to former Home Secretary Leon Brittan in the 1980s were said to contain damning ­evidence about the group.

The allegations now form a key part of the large-scale Scotland Yard probe, which includes claims three young boys were murdered by a powerful VIP network.

A source close to the ­investigation said: “Now that he has been jailed police are going to want to talk to him again. He was treasurer of the PIE. That means he would know the names of a lot of the people ­involved. He must have more to tell the police.”

Napier was sentenced to 13 years for sex attacks on 23 boys between 1967 and 1983. The pervert ­admitted 30 indecent assault ­charges and one offence of ­indecency against a child.

Abuser: Charles Napier was treasurer of the Paedophile Information Exchange

Several high-profile abusers are thought have been members of PIE, including Peter Righton and former spy Geoffrey Prime.

The late Labour politician Barbara Castle is said to have named members of the group in a dossier seized by Special Branch in the 1980s amid allegations of a cover-up.

The Met Police are now trying to find the missing files and those compiled by Mr Dickens.

Officers recently revealed there are now 18 separate operations probing ­historic ­allegations in the 70s and 80s – and campaigners believe Napier would have had a full list of those ­involved with PIE.

Whistleblower Peter McKelvie, a former local authority child protection chief who has been fighting to bring abusers to ­justice, said: “Napier is an evil, calculating, ­manipulative paedophile.

"The charges he was found guilty on were the tip of the iceberg.

“In 1993 I spoke to three victims who refused to give evidence.

“One told me very convincingly that Napier took him to parties where he was introduced to the rich and famous and that Righton was involved in all these activities.”

On the trail: The People has led the way in investigating the Westminster VIP paedophile network

Mr McKelvie believes Napier – who has said he regrets his actions – should now come clean about everything he knows.

He added: “I don’t believe he has shown one iota of remorse in an adulthood dedicated to the ruthless pursuit of vulnerable children purely to abuse sexually.

“As a test of his newfound ­‘remorse’, he can share all the names of the rich and ­famous who ­attended the parties that his victims ­referred to.

“As PIE treasurer in its peak period of membership in the mid-1970s, Napier holds the key to the identity of hundreds of dangerous abusers who continued to abuse thousands of children over many decades.

“He can now pass all this ­to ­police as testament to his newfound regret and remorse.”

The Sunday People was the first newspaper to track down Napier, who is the half-brother of Conservative MP John Whittingdale. He was found in picturesque Sherborne, Dorset.

After we passed our ­information to police, Napier was arrested as part of Operation Cayacos – an offshoot of Fairbank, which was set up to investigate allegations of ­historical child abuse.

Fellow pervert: Former child care expert and secret PIE member Peter Righton

At the time of our probe we spoke to respected author and journalist Francis Wheen, a former pupil at the boarding school Napier taught at.

The 57-year-old said: “He ­recruited a few of us, saying ‘Spend more time in the gym’ and appointed himself gym ­master.

"There was a room off the gym and that ­became his haunt. Four or five of us started going down there, vaulting over horses and things like that, in our gym shorts in all our innocence.

“At the end of it he would take us into his room off the gym and give us beer and cigarettes – ­bottles of Mackeson’s and Senior Service untipped.

“We thought this was ­all ­terrifically exciting. Here we were, 11 years old, being given beer and fags. We were thinking that he was on our side, not like any of the other masters.

“Of course, this was for an ulterior purpose, which very soon became clear when he stuck his hand down my gym shorts and I had to sort of fight him off.”

Exposed: The People found Napier in 2012

Sick Napier then revealed his ­technique for grooming the youngsters by trying to humiliate him.

Mr Wheen said: “He said ‘Don’t be such a baby’ and said I wasn’t grown-up enough for that sort of thing.

“He would point to a couple of other boys, saying ‘They let me do it, you just won’t let me because you’re so babyish’.

“I think he was hoping I’d say ‘No, I’m as grown up as them’ and let him get on with it but I didn’t.

“It meant I was excluded from his ‘charmed circle’ but by then I knew where he kept his beer and cigarettes. I used to break into his room, steal them and then go and sit in the woods.”

Mr Wheen visited Southwark Crown Court last week to see Napier sentenced.

He described the jail term as “a signal the judge was giving – these things will be pursued now, even if it’s 46 years later don’t think you’ve got away with it”.

Victim: Journalist and former pupil Francis Wheen (Image: Nick Cunard/Writer Pictures)

Mr Wheen admitted there had been times before the sentence when he almost felt pity for the pervert – but those feelings quickly evaporated.

He said: “I am glad that it’s been done. I’m glad that it’s happened after all these years.

“I thought in the last year or two, ‘Well, he’s getting quite old, maybe it wasn’t that serious,’ feeling a tiny bit of pity occasionally.

“But I don’t feel that now, hearing as we’ve heard about the sheer extent of what he was doing right under our noses while I was at school with all these other boys.

“We just had no idea of the scale of what he was doing and how damaged some of them were by what he did. Any element of pity ­disappeared fairly quickly.”

Former Arsenal ace jailed for sexual activity with 14-yo girl

27 Jan 2021 16:30

Tyrell Robinson © Global Look Press / Thomas Gadd

Ex-Bradford City winger Tyrell Robinson, who was also a member Arsenal's academy, has been jailed for three-and-a-half years after admitting to sexual activity with an underage girl.

His friend Korie Berman received six years in jail after being found guilty of five charges of engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged 14.

Robinson invited three underage girls to his flat in Bradford in August 2018 with Berman also joining the party.

The ex-player, who was subsequently sacked by Bradford, knew about the girls’ age, as he discussed with Berman that they were underage, joking on Snapchat about feeling like pedophiles.

"Bro, I feel like a paedo," Berman messaged Robinson.

The three girls, who had been drinking, came to the players' flat where Berman and Robinson gave them more alcohol.

Robinson took his victim to his bedroom and had sex with her, while Berman had sex with the other two girls who said they had little or no recollection of what he had done to them.

Robinson also took a photograph of his flatmate, Berman, lying in bed with the two naked victims before sending the photo to him on Snapchat.

Judge Richard Mansell, who delivered the verdict at Bradford Crown Court, said that the harm the two men caused was "considerable."

"The harm you have caused to the three young girls and their families is considerable. It is perfectly clear that you were sexually attracted to one or more of these girls,” he said.

Making him a paedophile, or, at least, a pederast.

UK (IICSA) -2; Ireland; Canada; India CSA Stories on Today's Global PnP List

IICSA fallout

Former Liberal leader Lord David Steel suspended over child sexual abuse inquiry evidence

Lord Steel arriving for the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey

Lord David Steel had denied "hiding his head in the sand" over child abuse allegations against former MP Sir Cyril Smith.

By Alan McGuinness, Sky News

Former Liberal leader Lord David Steel has been suspended from the Lib Dems following his evidence to the child sexual abuse inquiry about Cyril Smith.

In a hearing on Wednesday, he denied "hiding his head in the sand" over child abuse allegations against Sir Cyril.

The former MP for Rochdale, who died in 2010, has been accused of sexually abusing a number of young boys.

Cyril Smith in the House of Commons in 1982

Lord Steel said he asked the late politician in 1979 about claims he abused boys at a hostel in the town and found it dated back to Smith's time as Labour councillor in the 1960s.

He told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) that he came away from the conversation "assuming" Smith had committed the offences because he did not deny them.

Lord Steel said Smith had told him police had investigated the claims and taken no action.

The party did not carry out a formal inquiry into the claims, the IICSA heard.

On the suggestion no action was taken then because Lord Steel wanted to avoid a confrontation with Smith, he told the hearing: "I wouldn't have been hiding my head in the sand.

"These allegations all related to a period some years before he was even an MP and before he was even a member of the party, therefore it did not seem to me that I had any position in the matter at all."

Following this evidence, the Lib Dems have decided to suspend Lord Steel.

The party said in a statement: "Following the evidence concerning Cyril Smith given by Lord Steel to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse on 13th March 2019 the office bearers of the Scottish Liberal Democrats have met and agreed that an investigation is needed.

The party membership of Lord Steel has been suspended pending the outcome of that investigation. That work will now commence.

"It is important that everyone in the party, and in wider society, understands the importance of vigilance and safeguarding to protect people from abuse, and that everyone has confidence in the seriousness with which we take it.

"We appreciate the difficult work that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse is doing on behalf of the victims and survivors of abuse, and the country as a whole."

The Scottish Liberal Democrats hold 5 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 4 of 59 Scottish seats in the UK Parliament. Lord Steel was leader of the party from 1976-1988.

The trauma of childhood sexual abuse:

‘I refuse to be part of that secret anymore’

Excellent insights into the devastating effects of child sex abuse

by AMANDA CASSIDY

Ireland - The SAVI report found that one in four Irish children will experience sexual abuse before the age of 18. Despite well-publicised scandals and reports, Amanda Cassidy asks why Ireland is still so slow to respond to the problem, and why so little is understood about the devastating effects on children?

*Daria was eight when the abuse started. “It was a friend of the family who we saw every couple of weekends. I adored horses at the time and he kept some on his land so he’d take me out on my own and that’s how it started. I thought that because my family trusted him, I should too. But it was very confusing because he didn’t seem like the villain I’d imagined in my head, I normalised it and told myself it wasn’t that bad. Then I’d hate myself for trying to shrink this giant trauma I was living through.”

The profound devastation caused by child sexual abuse isn’t fully understood or acknowledged. The salacious details outlined in the HBO documentary on Michael Jackson recently has given many their first insight into what it might be like to be preyed on sexually as a small child. But the conversation that followed has veered from whether or not we should play Jackson’s music, to how parents could allow their children to sleep alone with a grown man.

The fascination with Jackson and his strange life has overshadowed the complex damage that may have been inflicted on the survivors – the two men interviewed in the documentary who chart their lives growing up alongside the King of Pop.

"I cried and cried"

Daria says the long-term damage her abuse has had on her life is immeasurable. She says after trying and failing to rationalise what was happening to her, she buried it deep within so she could convince herself it was like a bad dream. “I definitely blocked the memories – I just couldn’t process how to deal with the things that happened to me  - or to put them into context.” 

It was the birth of her daughter almost 20 years after the abuse first started that kickstarted the understanding that what happened to her was far from normal. “It hit me sideways, I wasn’t ready to confront all the feelings that flooded through me. I didn’t want to revisit any of this, ever".

"But I just looked at my baby and I cried and cried wondering how nobody had protected me from this – how anyone could inflict those horrific acts on any child.”

Maeve Lewis is the executive director of One in Four Ireland. She said while rape and sexual abuse is traumatic and life-changing, experiencing it as a child is very different. “If you are raped in adulthood, we have a sense of self and support structures. While rape is terrifying and traumatic, it doesn’t necessarily destroy the sense of who we are. It is something that happened to us. Child sexual abuse becomes an intrinsic part of who you are rather than what happened to you.”

Although the name One in Four is taken from research that is due to be updated, (The 2002 SAVI report shows one in four Irish children experienced sexual abuse) it is still an outstanding statistic. In a primary school class with 25 children, that’s around 6 of them that are potentially going through something similar to what Daria experienced.

Well, not quite! Perhaps 6 out of the graduating class will have suffered sexual abuse, except many abuse victims may not make it to graduation because they often suffer from significant learning issues. But it's likely only one or two in a primary class will have suffered sexual abuse. That is, of course, one or two too many.

Use our pain to make the necessary changes

Joyce, June and Paula Kavanagh are from a family of ten children born and raised in Dublin, Ireland in the 1960s. They suffered sexual abuse at the hands of their father and went on to write a book about it. The sisters also campaign for better support services for those who survived child sexual abuse. Last year they wrote an open letter in The Irish Times to politicians, saying they had to hear about the ‘hard cases’ to help them understand the sheer magnitude of the problem.

“They need to hear from the victim who finally gets the courage to report their abuse but is met by an untrained garda who is ill-equipped to provide the support and encouragement needed. From the victim who just received notification from the DPP that their case will not be taken forward. And from the victim who has been through the legal system and received no justice because the judge, jury and legal teams do not understand the crime of abuse adequately enough to either defend or prosecute a case.”

"Ireland has proven that we can do the right thing by our citizens. We have the capacity to feel compassion and the desire to make people’s lives better. There is strength in numbers, and we have the numbers, so let’s use our pain to make the necessary changes and prevent further victims."

Self-loathing

Maeve Lewis agrees that there are simply not enough resources. “There are years long lists for counselling for children or adult survivors. In fact, we have to close our waiting list for our services. We work with those over the age of 18. Many of whom are much older. We have some people in their 70s who attend here with us. We understand that the impact of child sexual abuse lasts a lifetime.

Many still feel a huge sense of shame, most will never have told anyone and will typically describe years of incredibly deep distress. This gives way to PTSD, flashbacks, years of depression and anxiety. Self-loathing is also common. Survivors feel disgusting because of what happened. They are terrified to tell in case they are judged by others. They often struggle with parenting – especially the men – they are scared their own child will be abused and often aren’t sure if it is ok to bath their child or hug their child. It is really sad how so many lives are affected.”

However, with the right help, Maeve says it is important to remember that there is life after abuse. "Naturally, we only know about those who come forward to seek professional help. We have met many survivors who were lucky – they were able to tell a parent or loved one. In these cases, the situation can be dealt with properly with minimal effects. Others say they struggled for years – and then when they met their partner it was the first time they felt loved and accepted so they were able to open up and find a way to heal and to live fulfilling lives.

"You can’t pretend it didn’t happen, but you can understand the impact."

Online era of abuse

Daria said that she had very mixed emotions watching the recent documentary Leaving Neverland. “The boy's stories triggered the isolation – the feeling that no one understands what it is like to suffer this type of abuse. I was lucky in that my family stood by me but many child abuse survivors face further victimisation when they are not believed. That lack of validation and suspicion over their already vulnerable character is completely devastating.”

Although there is recent evidence that child sexual abuse is falling in the US, a new and updated Irish report is overdue to give a better understanding of incidences here. The final results are expected to emerge in 2024 and hope to be replicated every 10 years. The apparent drop in numbers is attributed to increased awareness and better child protection services. But although we have left one era behind, we are now entering unchartered territory with the proliferation of online images of child sex abuse and ease of information sharing.

Nothing will take away what happened to Daria but she hopes her story will be a source of support to others. “Speaking out takes the power away from abusers," she explains. "I refuse to be part of that secret anymore.”

One in Four 01 6624070

Rape Crisis Centre 24 hour helpline 1800 77 8888

Ken Clarke denies Tory whips buried allegations of child abuse by colleagues in exchange for political loyalty in the 1970s

By LARA KEAY FOR MAILONLINE

The Conservative MP, 78, was grilled on the issue during a hearing of the Westminster strand of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. 

He was quizzed about a claim made by another Tory whip Tim Fortescue in a BBC documentary in 1995.

Fortescue told the programme whips were constantly on the lookout for anything that could be used to threaten MPs and ensure they towed the party line.

But Clarke, who is the longest serving MP having been elected in 1970, denied it, saying he 'would have remembered' if he had come across someone in politics who was a paedophile.

Mr Fortescue told BBC documentary Westminster Secret Service: 'It could be debt, it might be scandal involving small boys or any kind of scandal in which a member seemed likely to be mixed up in.

'They would come and ask if we could help, and if we could, we did. We would do everything we could because we would store up brownie points.'

He added: 'If we could get a chap out of trouble they would do as you liked for ever more.' 

When asked if he had heard scandals about 'small boys', Clarke told the panel: 'I would have remembered. It would have been quite a problem - I would have remembered that.

'If I had come across someone sexually molesting children I would have remembered it.'

He questioned whether Mr Fortescue had 'really thought through' the examples he used when he gave the BBC interview.

'A paedophile is really rather strongly disapproved of and would have found the House of Commons a really rather difficult place to work if we had had one,' he said.

But he added that in a House of 600 members 'it would be astonishing if amongst those there weren't one or two paedophiles'.

'There were rumours about two or three members [but] - with the exception of Cyril Smith - none of which I would have believed.' He continued: 'Once people start gossiping, all the people who like to pretend they are in the know just repeat it.'

Mr Clarke described the atmosphere in the whips' office as 'like an old boys club' in which potentially damaging information on colleagues was written 'in a big black book'.

He said homosexuality was intensely frowned upon when he first arrived in Westminster, saying: 'Gay people were a risk - they had to keep it a deadly secret.'

He said the vast majority of the information contained in the book related to Tory members' political leanings, their attitude to legislation and comments made about their parliamentary colleagues. He said that people were never threatened with having embarrassing information about them released if they refused to obey the party whip.

'The words 'whips' office' conjure up sinister men twisting arms and so on, which is a parody of what's a perfectly straightforward political activity,' he said. But he continued: 'If you go back 50 years ago it was a different culture - paedophilia was disapproved of but prosecution of it was rare compared to today.'

He cited the example of his old school where it was an open secret that one of the teachers was abusing pupils, but nobody did anything to try and prevent it. 'I don't think people appreciated the lasting damage it did to the victims,' he said.

Referring to the Conservative party, he said: 'I wouldn't have covered up for a paedophile if I had discovered someone was a paedophile. If I found the whips knew about it and did nothing about it, I don't know what I would have done - it would have been a serious moral dilemma,' he said.

He added: 'Fortunately that dilemma never arose. I never had any factual knowledge of a paedophile in the House of Commons or anywhere else, so I'm sorry I can't help you.'

The Westminster strand of the far-reaching inquiry into historical sexual abuse in British institutions is expected to last three weeks and is due to conclude on March 22.

Newspapers covered-up alleged abuse by MP,

UK child sex inquiry told

by David Sharman 

Local newspapers were complicit in covering up alleged historic child sex abuse by an MP, it has been claimed.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has heard allegations that three papers in the Chester area knew that Sir Peter Morrison, left, had been arrested after being found in a toilet at Crewe railway station with a 15-year-old boy – but subsequently published nothing about the incident.

The titles named at the inquiry were North Wales and Chester daily The Leader, local weekly the Chester Chronicle and the now-defunct Cheshire Observer.

Sir Peter, who served as the city’s MP between 1974 and 1992 and was knighted in 1991, had been Conservative Party deputy chairman between 1986 and 1987, and Parliamentary Private Secretary to Margaret Thatcher in 1990.  He died in 1995.

Grahame Nicholls, a delegate to the Chester Constituency Labour Party from the National Union of Public Employees, told the inquiry there were rumours going around Chester that the MP “liked little boys”.

Mr Nicholls said: “The press certainly knew. The chief reporter on one of the newspapers that I was very friendly with, she would talk about it all the time, you know. So the press knew, certainly, and I knew, as I said, lots of them, and I couldn’t understand how anybody at a political level didn’t know, I just find that incredible.”

Asked how he had heard about the alleged incident in Crewe, which Mr Nicholls recalled as taking place some time between 1988 and 1990, he added: “There was a rumour going around – I say these are rumours, because that’s all they were, that something had happened in the toilets at Crewe railway station involving Peter Morrison and a 15-year-old boy.

“I read other areas where it says it was on the train, but, whatever, I mean, what I heard,  it was in the toilets – and that came from the Cheshire Observer newspaper’s reporter, that it was the toilets at Crewe.”

Mr Nicholls was quizzed on whether he thought there had been an “agreement” between the local Labour and Conservative parties at the time regarding how they would treat the alleged incident.

He replied: “My understanding was that we would – sorry, that Peter Morrison would not be standing in the 1992 election. The agreement was that if he wasn’t standing then we wouldn’t break cover on this particular story.”

Asked what he meant by “break cover”, Mr Nicholls added: “Release all the information that we had of what happened at Crewe hopefully into the local media. The local media wasn’t at that time – it wasn’t going to go along – didn’t want that published, because there was a very strong relationship between the – particularly the main newspaper and the Conservative Party.”

Asked whether the press were involved in the agreement, he replied: “Yes, they weren’t going to publish. [The Observer reporter] told me they weren’t going to publish.”

The Inquiry also heard this week from Jane Lee, secretary of the Labour Party’s Gresford and Rossett branch in 1989 and 1990, who said a Labour-supporting journalist at North Wales and Chester daily The Leader had attended a meeting of the branch and had told members about the alleged Crewe Station incident, adding it would “all be in the paper” the next morning.

However, no such story appeared in The Leader and, speaking at the inquiry, Ms Lee recalled the reporter’s response when she was subsequently asked why.

“She said the Chief Constable of Cheshire got a phone call from the Prime Minister’s office – Margaret Thatcher’s name wasn’t mentioned, but it was ‘from the Prime Minister’s office’ and had been persuaded to not press charges but to give a warning, an official warning, and, well, we said ‘Well, why didn’t that go in the paper?’, and she said – and I don’t know if it’s true or not, but she said ‘You can’t report warnings. You can’t put warnings in the paper.'”

Ms Lee added: “He was going to be given an official warning and it couldn’t be reported in the press. And that, in return, Morrison wouldn’t stand at the next General Election. That was the deal. ”

Christine Russell, who was an agent for the Labour Party between 1986 and 1992 and later served as Chester’s MP between 1997 and 2010, told the inquiry that “every reporter on the local press knew of these allegations”.

Specifically referring to the Observer, The Leader and the Chronicle, she added: “It’s certainly true that all the journalists on the three local papers were fully aware of various allegations, the Crewe allegations.”

So far, no journalists working for any of the three papers at the time have themselves been invited to give evidence at the inquiry.

Although neither The Leader nor the Chronicle were run by their current owners, Newsquest and Reach plc respectively, at the time of the alleged incident, HTFP approached both companies for comment on the claims.

Both declined to comment, but Reach-owned website Cheshire Live – the online arm of the Chronicle – itself reported the cover-up allegations in a piece published on Tuesday while Newsquest’s Chester Standard has also covered the story.

B.C. city Hindu Temple President charged for

sexually assaulting a passenger in his cab

Deepak Sharma of Abbotsford resigns after board holds emergency meeting

VIKKI HOPES, NEWS

The president of the organization that runs Abbotsford’s only Hindu temple has resigned after being charged with sexual assault while working in his job as a taxi driver.

Court records indicate that taxi driver Deepak Sharma, 60, of Abbotsford was charged in relation to an alleged incident on Jan. 2 in West Vancouver involving a passenger.

Const. Jeff Palmer, spokesperson for the West Vancouver Police Department (WVPD), confirmed the charge and said the alleged victim came forward in the early morning of Jan. 2.

She stated that she had been in Sharma’s taxi shortly before 1 a.m. and was waiting for a friend in the 100 block of Whonoak Road in West Vancouver, Palmer said.

He said the woman alleged that she was grabbed in the crotch and her hand was then forcibly placed in the driver’s genital area, which had been exposed through an open zipper.

Palmer said the woman and her friend reported the alleged incident to police after safely returning home.

The incident was then investigated, and Sharma was arrested on Jan. 17 and subsequently charged with sexual assault.

He made his first appearance in North Vancouver provincial court on Wednesday. Palmer said Sharma surrendered his West Vancouver taxi permit after receiving a revocation letter.

Sharma was the president of the Fraser Valley Hindu Cultural Society, which runs the Hindu temple on Walmsley Avenue in west Abbotsford.

When Black Press Media contacted the society for comment on Thursday, board members were unaware that Sharma had been charged.

Vice-president Ashok Sharma (no relation), said that an emergency meeting was called that evening, with Deepak in attendance. “He told us he would resign,” Ashok said.

He said Deepak confirmed the charge, but denied that he had committed any offence. Ashok said the board was shocked to hear about the accusation.

“We couldn’t believe it because he’s a good guy … We have never noticed anything like that.”

He said Deepak served a previous two-year term as president about six years ago.

This is not the first time that an individual involved with the Hindu temple has been linked to sexual improprieties.

Karam Vir, a former priest at the temple, was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison in 2013 for sexual offences involving two teenage girls.

Vir had been in Canada on a work visa and was deported back to India after completing his sentence in 2015.

Poverty, Sexual Abuse and Nowhere to Call Home:

The Life of a Homeless Cycle-Rickshaw Puller in Delhi

Karwan-e-Mohabbat
News Central 

Mohammad Abdul Kasim Ali Shaikh is a cycle-rickshaw puller in New Delhi. Abdul belongs to the faceless mass of an estimated 2.5 lakh homeless people in the capital city. He sleeps at one of the 250-odd homeless shelters in Delhi — this one is at Geeta Ghat on the banks of the Yamuna river.

Abdul’s story of impoverishment is not uncommon, yet it is one that rarely reaches enthused discussions of social classes and poverty. He moved to Delhi from his village when he was eight and has since remained homeless in the capital. Abdul was sexually abused when he was a child multiple times by multiple men. As a naive child in a big city with no one to look after him, he was lured by abusers with the promise of nothing more than a meal. “The worse I appear, the better for me. No one will approach me,” he says in a short film made by the civil society group Karwan-e-Mohabbat.

Abdul’s story reflects the nightmarish reality that many people living on the streets of Delhi have to face on a regular basis. According to a report by the NGO Save the Children, more than half the homeless children who were interviewed said that they have been sexually abused. As per a Childline India Foundation survey of the 9,589 child care institutions across the country that was undertaken over two years, from December 2015 till March 2017, 1,575 children suffered sexual abuse before they were rescued and placed in shelter homes — 1,286 were girls and 286 were boys.

Abdul is now HIV positive. The fact that his disease has made sure he never goes back home to his family, however, has not crushed his resilience. “If you chase me from here, I’ll go to Jaipur. If I’m chased from Jaipur, I’ll go to Ajmer. If I’m chased for Ajmer, I’ll move to Kanpur. If I’m chased away from Kanpur, I’ll be off to Kolkata. And if they chase me from there too, I’ll come back to Delhi,” says Abdul, not willing to be stopped by a world that has never shown him kindness.

“Patri ka aadmi patri mein hi rehta hai” — a man of the streets will forever remain on the streets.

Child Sex Abuse Westminster Inquiry Opens Many Cans of Worms

Westminster child sex abuse probe hears how parties and police

covered up abuse

Ben Gelblum, TLE

Today an investigation opened into “whether Westminster institutions have failed and whether indeed they are still failing to protect children from child sex abuse.”

It is set to hear “whether political parties turned a blind eye to allegations of child sex abuse against their members of parliament and leaders.”

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) was set up by Theresa May as Home Secretary in 2014 to respond to mounting concerns over public bodies failing to protect children from sexual abuse.

5 Years Later

The next three weeks of the hearings in central London will focus on how allegations of child sexual abuse by Westminster figures including politicians were dealt with.

Former government ministers are among those who will be called to testify before an inquiry into Westminster child sexual abuse, as well as former and current members of the security services and police.

Today explosive claims to be examined by the inquiry were heard. 

These include:

A dossier of establishment figures implicated in child sex abuse that since appears to have gone missing.

Whether the Home Office funded the Paedophile Information Exchange – paedophiles who lobbied to lower the age of consent to allow Special Branch to keep tabs on members.

Whether political parties ignored or covered up allegations of paedophilia by politicians, allowing Cyril Smith to become an MP despite police warnings of the Liberal MP using his position to abuse children and also ignoring allegations against Conservative MP Sir Peter Morrison as he became PM Margaret Thatcher’s Private Parliamentary Secretary.

Party Whips’ “dirt books” and whether they contained such allegations to blackmail MPs with.

Police and prosecution services prioritizing establishment figures’ positions in Westminster over their victims’ allegations.

Four former senior police officers are set to testify about how their investigations into child sex crimes by establishment figures were frustrated by higher powers.

Two of the former high-ranking detectives will tell the investigation set to run over the next three weeks how they were stopped from investigating allegations into Sir Cyril Smith.

Rochdale MP Sir Cyril Smith

Other officers will give evidence about a surveillance operation on a flat in Cricklewood, West London used by Roddam Twiss – whose father Sir Frank was parliament’s Black Rod in the 1970s – as Roddam acted as a pimp of male prostitutes to Westminster figures.

One former detective is set to name Liberal politicians Sir Cyril Smith and Jeremy Thorpe, as well as Thatcher’s Home Secretary Leon Brittan and Tory leader Sir Edward Heath spotted as visitors before an investigation was blocked by a more senior police officer.

Sir David Steel, the then leader of the Liberal Party – which later became the Liberal Democrats – will be called to the investigation to be quizzed about what he knew about allegations against Cyril Smith when he became the party’s candidate for Rochdale.

Cyril Smith was a Liberal MP for Rochdale in the 1970’s after Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe – who later resigned amid sexual scandal – insisted the local party have Smith as a candidate even though police had investigated serious allegations of sexual abuse of young boys in care homes in Rochdale where he had been Mayor.

The police investigation was dropped in 1970. Smith died in 2010 and two years later the Crown Prosecution Service admitted that he would have faced prosecution for allegations of child abuse where he still alive with allegations that had surfaced since.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has heard how Smith was a governor at several schools in Rochdale, including Knowl View, where one abuse survivor attended as a boy when Smith was governor. He gave horrific testimony of a rape by Smith in the Rochdale unit of the inquiry.

The inquiry was provided evidence by MI5 that the security service had been aware at the time that the Director of Public Prosecutions had lied to journalists about not charging the MP, saying a case hadn’t been referred to them.  MI5 appear to have not pursued this serious allegation as their role was “to defend the realm”, the inquiry heard.

A police report into Smith when he stood for election in 1970 read: “he has used his unique position to indulge in a sordid series of indecent episodes with young boys towards whom he had a special responsibility.”

Yet the Liberal Party headed by David Steel allowed Smith to be their candidate in Rochdale that year.

Des Wilson, another prominent figure in the Liberal party at the time will also give evidence. He has said that Cyril Smith “was protected as much by the culture within the parliamentary party as Saville was by the culture within the BBC.”

The inquiry also heard that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would have been likely to be aware of the allegations against Cyril Smith when she awarded him a knighthood in 1988.

Sir Peter Morrison

The investigation will look into the awarding of honours to politicians such as Sir Cyril Smith and Thatcher’s Private Parliamentary Secretary Sir Peter Morrison despite police investigations of serious child sex abuse.

Peter Morrison, Tory MP for Chester became Private Parliamentary Secretary to Margaret Thatcher in 1990 and was knighted in 1991. The inquiry will examine how the Conservative Party dealt with allegations of child sex abuse made against him before he died in 1995. 

Brian Altman QC today read an extract from former Tory MP Edwina Currie’s diary for July 24 1990 (published in 2002). 

Junior Health Minister Currie, who in 1988 appointed Jimmy Savile to head up a task force at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, where he was given keys to mingle with vulnerable girls, wrote in her diary about Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet reshuffle:

“One appointment in the recent reshuffle has attracted a lot of gossip and could be very dangerous: Peter Morrison has become the PM’s PPS. Now he’s what they call ‘a noted pederast’, with a liking for young boys; he admitted as much to Norman Tebbit when he became deputy chairman of the party, but added, ‘However, I’m very discreet’ – and he must be! She either knows and is taking a chance, or doesn’t; either way it is a really dumb move. Teresa Gorman told me this evening (in a taxi coming back from a drinks party at the BBC) that she inherited Morrison’s (woman) agent, who claimed to have been offered money to keep quiet about his activities. It scares me, as all the press know, and as we get closer to the election someone is going to make trouble, very close to her indeed.” 

Asked to explain the entry by the inquiry, the former MP said that what scared was the reputational damage consorting with underage boys by her Parliamentary Private Secretary would cause to Thatcher. 

She added that she could not explain whether and how Morrison was protected from prosecution, and hat it would have been wrong. 

Chairman of the Conservative Party and another member of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet Lord Tebbit has also been asked by the inquiry what he knew about Sir Peter Morrison, after reports emerged that an investigating police officer visited Norman Tebbit to warn him about allegations involving boys.

Lord Tebbit’s statement to the investigations said that he thought the police officer was referring to boys of “Sixth Form age.”

He has also been asked what he meant when he told the BBC’s Marr show when asked if there was a “big political cover up” at the time, that “you didn’t talk about those things.”

A statement read out by Lord Tebbit said that he was aware of “several decades of allegations of Westminster child abuse and cover ups.”

Victor Montagu - Viscount Hinchingbrooke, Earl of Sandwich

Brian Altman QC, Lead Counsel to the Inquiry, also told today in his opening statements how the Westminster investigation will examine decisions not to prosecute Victor Montagu, a land owner and Conservative MP also known as Viscount Hinchingbrooke and the Earl of Sandwich.

The IICSA has found CPS letters showing how when reported to police for indecently assaulting a young boy in the 1970s the then Director of Public Prosectution recommended no more than a caution for the Tory politician.

Victor Montagu’s son Robert is set to give evidence to the inquiry. He says he was abused by his father and aware of at least ten other boys who were abused.

Lord Greville Janner

Investigations into child sex abuse claims against the late Lord Janner, the former Labour peer who died in 2015 shortly after being found unfit to stand trial over historical sex offences, will be heard later in the inquiry in a separate investigation. 

As will inquiries related to the Westminster investigation into the failure to protect children in the care of Lambeth council, which will be heard later this year too.

On the eve of the Westminster investigation, Lord Janner’s son Daniel Janner QC hit out in a Telegraph article with the headline This unjust inquiry into historical child abuse allegations is gutless and weak, calling this unit of the IICSA “a totally unnecessary month-long trashing of the reputations of public figures, the vast majority  of whom are dead.”

Former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, investigated by Operation Midland, an operation into allegations of historical child sexual abuse and related homicides that produced no prosecutions has asked at a late stage asked to be a core participant status for the Westminster strand.

He also hit out in another recent Telegraph article, according to the newspaper, accusing the independent investigation of being a “platform for further lies to be spread about those who cannot protect their reputation.”

Gov't Whip's dirty books

The inquiry will also hear from former and current party whips from all parties to examine explosive claims that parliamentary whips’ offices withheld information about criminal offences and kept “dirty books” on MPs to blackmail them with when it came to towing the party line.

Conservative Tim Fortescue was a whip in Sir Edward Heath’s government and in a TV documentary clip played to the inquiry admitted:

“For anyone with any sense, who was in trouble, would come to the whips and tell them the truth, and say now, I’m in a jam, can you help? It might be debt, it might be… a scandal involving small boys, or any kind of scandal in which, erm er, a member seemed likely to be mixed up in, they’d come and ask if we could help and if we could, we did. And we would do everything we can because we would store up brownie points… and if I mean, that sounds a pretty, pretty nasty reason, but it’s one of the reasons because if we could get a chap out of trouble then, he will do as we ask forever more.”

Former Conservative MP and TV personality Giles Brandreth worked in the whips office and referred to the practice of keeping dirty books on colleagues in his memoirs, as did fellow Tory MP Ken Clarke. Both have been called to testify.

Paedophile Information Exchange - PIE

Today the inquiry chaired by Professor Alexis jay also heard shocking testimony from a former civil servant that the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) – which lobbied for the age of consent to be lowered – was funded by the Home Office.

The inquiry heard that Tim Holbert, a consultant at the Home Office Voluntary Service Unit from October 1977 before he became Deputy Director of Hereford and Worcester social services in 1981 says that he discovered a disguised payment by the Home Office unit to PIE and was told by his superior that PIE “was funded at the request of Special Branch which found it useful to identify people with paedophile inclinations.”

– Though no supporting evidence has been found for this claim among Home Office files.

The inquiry is also set to examine how PIE was permitted to be an affiliate organization to National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) from the late 1970s to early 1980s, at a time when  Patricia Hewitt, Harriet Harman and Jack Dromey worked at the NCCL – all later senior Labour MPs.

They have all since  expressed regret for its affiliation and claimed no support for PIE’s members. 

Yet in march 1976 the NCCL proposed the reduction of age of consent to 14 and in some cases ten and the NCCL also advertised in PIE’s publications. 

Dicken's Dossiers

The inquiry will also look into explosive claims around the “Dickens dossiers” of Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens. 

The campaigning MP used parliamentary priviledge to out Peter Hayman as a member of PIE in the House of Commons and alleged a cover up by attorney general not to prosecute Hayman.

Today’s hearing heard how Dickens had a series of meetings with Margaret Thatcher’s Home Secretary Leon Brittan in 1983 and 1984 in which he gave Brittan information purporting to identify other high profile paedophiles in government as well as the royal household.

Brian Altman QC explained: “evidence suggests there may have been several files or documents which became known as the ‘Dickens Dossier’”.

And he said the inquiry will be looking at claims by journalist Don Hale, editor of the Bury Messenger that he was given substantial parts of the dossier by Barbara Castle then an MP, before the Special Branch burst into his office, “seized the documents and handed him a D notice preventing publication of any material in seized documents.”

Altman added: “The first Home Office review into missing abuse files concluded that it did receive information from Dickens in 1983 and 1984 about alleged child abuse and that copies of those materials had not been retained. 

“However a letter dated the 20th march 1984 from Home Secretary Leon Brittan to Mr Dickens confirmed that the information was considered at the time and any matters requiring investigation were passed to the police.”

The review did not find evidence of a deliberate destruction of documents to cover up child abuse, but the subsequent Wanless inquiry looking at missing Home Office files “found that those conclusions were reasonably open to the reviewer on the available information.”

Green Party's David Challoner

The inquiry will also be calling members of the Green Party over the recent case of David Challoner. In November 2016, Challoner was charged several counts of serious sexual assaults of a ten year old girl, the sentenced to ten years in prison in August last year. 

Yet he was allowed to be an active member of the Green Party and election agent for both his daughter and wife in local elections as he awaited trial.

Though Altman said, “to their credit the Green Party commissioned an independent consultation as to what went wrong” – which will be examined by the inquiry too.