Fear of child abuse cover up secret dossier at the heart of establishment

Fear of child abuse cover up secret dossier at the heart of establishment

THE grim catalogue of sexual depravity by celebrities continues. This week's conviction of Rolf Harris follows the jailing of presenter Stuart Hall and publicist Max Cliffford for serial abuse of under-age girls.

By: Leo McKinstry Thu, July 3, 2014

In addition there has been a stream of appalling revelations about the perverted activities of those two paedophile knights: sinister entertainer Sir Jimmy Savile and gargantuan Liberal politician Sir Cyril Smith, both of whom went to their graves without being brought to justice.

In all these cases what is so shocking is not just the scale of abuse but also the fact that these dangerous predators were allowed to get away with their crimes for so long.

Inevitably the failure by the state to take any action against these high-profile abusers has prompted concerns about a major cover-up within the establishment, reflecting the desire of officials and politicians to protect their own....

In one fascinating illustration of this apparent complacency he said that in 1984 Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens had presented the home secretary of the time, Leon Brittan, with a comprehensive dossier about a paedophile network operating within Westminster.

It's not clear what happened to the dossier or if any serious investigations were pursued. Dickens complained that his stance against child abuse meant that he was subjected to a brutal campaign of harassment including two break-ins and the appearance of his name on the hit list of a notorious contract killer.

In the early 1980s Dickens was regarded as something of a crank. Today, given what we know about abuse, he could be seen as a moral visionary. Yesterday, in response to Danczuk's intervention, Lord Brittan issued a statement in which he said he had asked his office "to look carefully" at the dossier he had been handed.

But Brittan did not explain what ultimately happened to it. As a result his declaration will do little to lessen suspicions about complacency. This is not just about a few individual cases it is about a culture that appeared to allow entire institutions to be exploited by paedophiles, with the political class providing a shield to hide abuse....
http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/leo-mckinstry/486431/Fear-of-child-abuse-cover-up-at-the-heart-of-establishment