Police 'protection' of celebrities 'allowed serial abusers Cyril Smith and Jimmy Savile to escape prosecution for decades', 280,000 girls accept sex abuse as being normal

Police 'protection' of celebrities 'allowed serial abusers Cyril Smith and Jimmy Savile to escape prosecution for decades'

Information on high profile suspects was reportedly marked as 'secret' or 'restricted' and only available to a small number of officers

Charlie Cooper  Wednesday 20 March 2013

Celebrities and politicians were protected from child sex investigations because hundreds of police intelligence files were kept so secret that investigating officers could not access them, it has been reported.

Information on famous suspects was marked “secret” or “restricted”, allowing only a small number of officers to access it, to offset the risk of police officers or staff leaking the information to the media, according to The Times.

However, the burying of information is understood to have helped serial offenders such as Jimmy Savile and Sir Cyril Smith MP escape prosecution for decades. Campaigners for the victims of child sex abuse said that police had “put protecting celebrities above child protection”.

The problem has emerged in a review of police information handling by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal. Since the exposure of the former TV presenter as Britain’s most prolific child sex offender, police have been inundated with reports from members of the public of “historical abuse”, often by prominent politicians, celebrities and VIPs.

Valuable intelligence on Savile was recorded in 1964, 1998 and 2003 by Scotland Yard, the inspectorate found, but other forces were unable to access it. The inspectorate said the restriction of access to intelligence files was “an area we are concerned about”.....
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-protection-of-celebrities-allowed-serial-abusers-cyril-smith-and-jimmy-savile-to-escape-prosecution-for-decades-8541473.html
 
280,000 girls accept sex abuse as being normal
Rob Hastings  Wednesday 29 February 2012

As many as 280,000 teenage girls are suffering from sexual abuse
because they believe it is an accepted part of relationships or do
not believe they can stop it, the NSPCC has warned.

In a disturbing report, the charity said fewer than 20 per cent of cases are reported by young people, as opposed to the majority of cases in which adults are abused. "Many girls are being forced to carry out sexual acts and in some cases are even being raped," said Jon Brown of the NSPCC....
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/280000-girls-accept-sex-abuse-as-being-normal-7463699.html