YOUNG GIRLS TARGETED
http://www.lancashireeveningtelegraph.co.uk/news/newsheadlines/display.var.819890.0.girls_groomed_for_sex.php
05.07.06
DOZENS of underage girls are being groomed into prostitution and drug
taking by predatory males operating in East Lancashire.
The Evening Telegraph can exclusively reveal girls as young as 12 have been targeted by gangs of men who pay the youngsters in cash, drugs, cigarettes and drink for sexual favours.
Police revealed in the past year, around 50 East Lancashire victims aged under 16 had been identified by special police and social services teams set up to combat the menace but they believe as many as 100 could be involved.
Many of the youngsters go missing from home each week to spend time with men who have groomed them for sex.
continued... Officers said the predators, who initially approach the girls on the street, are predominantly Asian and community leaders have joined the fight to tackle the issue.
Police stressed, however, that the issue of grooming also involved men, predominantly white, who target girls through the internet.
Blackburn MP Jack Straw today expressed his deep concern and said he would be raising the matter immediately with the Home Office.
He said: "I was frankly unaware of the scale of this problem until the Lancashire Evening Telegraph highlighted it but it is one that we all must now address including the Asian community."
Supt Neil Smith of Lancashire Police said: "This is not a racist issue. It is about the exploitation of vulnerable young girls for sex.
"The majority of cases involve Asian males but there are also a significant proportion of cases involving white men using the internet.
"We are taking this matter extremely seriously and will take positive action to deal with the problem."
In an attempt to stamp out the abuse and help girls who are lured away from home, police in Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley launched a crackdown called Operation Engage last June but have now made it a permanent policing priority after discovering the extent of the problem.
At the same time police in Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale (Pennine division) ran Operation Fruition to identify the scale of the problem of girls being groomed into sexual exploitation by isolated groups of men.
Muslim leaders have also been holding special seminars at mosques across East Lancashire to raise awareness of the problem.
PC Helen Dean from the Engage team revealed that in the past 12 months, along with Alison Hartley, from Blackburn with Darwen Council's children's services, she has worked with 31 children who have been groomed into this abuse.
PC Emma Shaw, who is dedicated to dealing with all missing from home cases in the Pennine division, has worked with between 15 and 20 girls who had been groomed into sexual exploitation by gangs of men.
But they are only the girls that they had been able to connect with and they believe many more are being victimised.
Since June 2005 police have issued 65 warning letters to men in the Blackburn, Darwen, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley area who have been identified through intelligence for harbouring children away from the care of their home or social services.
And through PC Shaw's work with missing from home cases, Burnley police said they have achieved a 40 per cent reduction in the number of girls who are being groomed into sexual exploitation in the last 12 months.
Police said the Asian men often target girls by pulling up in cars and encouraging them to go out with them.
The girls who are targeted usually have very low self-esteem and are showered with gifts and attention before being pressured into providing sexual favours in return.
They become hooked on the attention they receive and then the drugs that they are given, often without their knowledge.
They will then drive the girls, who are from a wide variety of backgrounds, out to remote locations and leave them there if they refuse to have sex with them or go "chillin", the word used to describe the time when sex acts take place.
Burnley MP Kitty Ussher said: "I hope that as result of the work that the Lancashire Evening Telegraph has done we will be able to prevent more children from being targeted and going missing from home."
Salim Mulla, the secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said: "We are aware of what is going on and what has been going on and are monitoring this worrying situation very closely.
"We have had many many reports of this nature and are trying to get the message across, through our mosque network, about how important women and young women are in society.
"This is about respect for these women and through seminars we are teaching men about the important role of women in society and their responsibility to them."
Today the mother of one 15-year-old who has been recruited into prostitution spoke out after her daughter took an overdose to try and escape the circle.
The mum, who lives in the Grimshaw Park area of Blackburn, said despite fears over her own and her daughter, she felt compelled to try and safeguard other children in the area from "sexual predators."
She said: "I fear my daughter is going to end up either a drug addict, gang raped, infected with HIV or even worse killed. Her life means nothing to these people.
"This problem is massive in the Blackburn area and the parent of every teenage girl must be told what is going on.
"I feel hopeless. She is inundated with calls throughout the night from people not only across Blackburn but as far away as Bradford and Manchester and when I've answered and pretended to be her the things they have said to me have been disgusting."
Two men are on bail pending further inquiries in relation to charges of rape and abduction of girls from Blackburn.
And Pennine police have charged three local men with child abduction.
Police are also aware young males have also been targeted and they are now trying to identify victims.
PC Shaw said: "A lot of our work is based around building relationships with these girls so they feel able to discuss what has happened to them with us so we can gather intelligence and get the best evidence to secure convictions.
"These girls are victims and they have been manipulated and exploited. Most of the girls we work with are also missing from home but no two cases are alike.
"We have mobile phones the girls can call us on 24 hours a day if they need help, support or advice and we are now achieving success.
"Through our work girls are getting free of these
circles and offenders are being convicted."
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A 14-YEAR-OLD Blackburn girl who was groomed for sex by gangs of men today spoke of how her life spiralled horrifically out of control.
The girl, from the Higher Croft area of Blackburn, revealed she would be expected to have sex with up to 15 men a night and had been raped when she refused to co-operate.
She told her story the day after an Evening Telegraph investigation revealed that up to 100 underage girls in East Lancashire have been lured into providing sex for men, predominantly Asian, who prey on their low self-esteem.
Today police confirmed two Blackburn men in their 40s are currently on bail pending further inquiries for alleged rape, abduction and supplying drugs to the girl, who is now rebuilding her life after being moved out of the area.
Police have stressed that grooming is not a racist problem and white men are also heavily involved in grooming children for sex, particularly on the internet.
But Muslim leaders have pledged to try and deal with the small minority of Asian men who are behind the practice and Home Secretary Dr John Reid has been urged to help tackle the problem.
Marie (not her real name) said she first began to be groomed last August when she was just 13 and that the Asian men who lured her into having sex with them, gave her cannabis, cocaine, crack, ecstasy and amphetamines.
Up until that point she was considered to be a bright child and was doing well at school.
She had never been missing from the four-bedroomed family home, which she shared with her mum, brother and sister.
Marie said once involved, she was also forced to shoplift and steal by men who would give her money and drugs in exchange for the stolen goods.
She said: "A normal day for me would start when I woke up after sleeping on some grass or something in Whalley Range.
"I would have no money so I would go and rob some clothes from Asda.
"Often the men would put you up to it as they didn't care if you got caught.
"Then we would go in town and arrange to meet some of them at somewhere like the park or at the back of the Vue cinema.
"They would bring drink and drugs and get you drunk and then they would make you carry out a sex act.
"They'd say that they would drop you off somewhere at the time you had to be in but they wouldn't end up taking you home.
"On a normal night you would probably hook up with about five cars full of men and have sex with them all.
"It was normal to have sex with up to 15 men in one night and they could be aged from 17 to 40."
Marie's mum Jayne (not her real name) said she never thought it could happen to her family.
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She said: "I search myself every day to try and think why this has happened to my beautiful and clever little girl.
"These men have taken away her innocence and even though she is now free of their clutches she will never be the same girl.
"My heart has been broken and I still cannot take in the things that have happened to her."
Explaining how she became embroiled in the sexual exploitation, the girl said: "One of my friends was already hanging out with these Asian lads and men and had been asked whether she had any friends who wanted to come out with her.
"I went and at first they were really really nice to me.
"You see I am ugly and it doesn't matter if you are ugly.
"They tell you that you are beautiful and make you feel really special but now they are bastards to me.
"Once they have given you drink and drugs and presents, it is then that they turn round and say right now are you going to sort me out?' "Some of them actually make you do it.
"They give you drink and drugs and once you get into that circle you can't get out."
Marie said as she became more dependant on drugs and the attention she ended up staying away from home for days and her attendance at school dropped. She said sometimes she would stay at men's houses which the gang call their pads' or sleep rough and often woke up in parks, public toilets or in fields, not knowing where she was.
She said: "I know now my parents were totally worried about me but when you are in this cycle of getting drugs and going missing from home you don't realise that or think about it.
"You don't want to do it with these men and you don't fancy them but when you are on a comedown you know that if you go and see them they will give you more drugs.
"Sometimes it gets really bad and you get raped."
After a Police Protection Order was taken out on Marie she was put in foster care in Blackburn but her behaviour continued.
It was at this point that the decision was made that she should be placed in foster care outside the county to give her a chance to break free.
She is now allowed back to Blackburn on home visits to her family and is making good progress.
Now Marie is getting back on track she tried to explain why girls are continually being groomed into exploiting themselves in this way.
Marie added: "At the time, these men make you look up to them they make you think that they are gods or something and you end up wanting to do stuff for them.
"You don't think it at the time or can't see it but these men are taking advantage of you." |
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20.06.06 PAEDOPHILES were moved out of a Blackburn bail hostel just hours after an order by the Home Secretary.
Haworth House is just metres away from a children's day nursery.
The move, believed to involve around half a dozen offenders, was ordered by Home Secretary John Reid as part of a national ban on child sex offenders being housed close to schools.
<>And it came just two weeks after the Evening Telegraph revealed that the Smiles on Faces child care centre was allowed to open next to Haworth house bail hostel in St Peter's Street without any consultation with the Probation Service.
Owner Ann Wainwright set up the business after being told of four possible sites by Blackburn with Darwen Council but the probation service said it would have raised serious concerns if it had been consulted.
Two weeks ago Blackburn with Darwen council bosses said the responsibility of choosing an appropriate site for a children's centre was that of the nursery owner rather than the council.
Home Office officials today confirmed that all the child sex attackers that were living at Haworth house, which is within a mile of three schools, were moved yesterday.
A Home office spokesperson said that following the Home Secretary orders at the weekend that convicted child sex attackers must be moved from 11 bail hostels across the UK that were close to schools, action had been taken as a matter of urgency.
A total of 70 offenders from the 11 hostels across the UK were transferred to hostels that were located at more suitable sites away from children's centres and schools.
The spokesperson said: "While we cannot go into the exact details of where these offenders have been moved to we can confirm that they were moved immediately following John Reid's orders."
Only this month a man who has sexual fantasies about murder, rape and street attacks was ordered to live at Haworth House bail hostel under a two year community supervision order and is one of the offenders who is believed to have been moved yesterday.
Paul Swift, 24, of Accrington, who was banned from having unsupervised contact with children under 16 was described by Judge Christopher Cornwall as posing a "significant risk of serious harm to others" as he had "dreadful sexual fantasies involving violent sexual conduct, seemingly with boys, girls and young men."
Last October a paedophile described as of "ultra-high risk to children" went on the run from Haworth House after being released there on licence.
Michael Andrew Wilson was re-arrested in Kirkham.
Greg Pope said: "The government has taken the lead here and I expect all responsible local authorities to follow suit and ensure wherever possible children's centres or schools are not sited close to bail hostels.
"They must also endeavour to make sure that only suitable sites are suggested when children's centres are looking for somewhere to operate from."
Coun Kay said: "It is not up to the council to decide these things. The onus is on the business to take advice from the risk assessments by their own advisors. Smiles on Faces is a very closed facility and so we felt it is a very safe operation."
Earlier this month the Probation Service in Lancashire said that the child sex offenders at Haworth House posed no risk to the children at Smiles on Faces. Their spokesperson Anne Mathews today said she would not reveal how many paedophile and sex offenders had been housed in the hostel. She also refused to say where these offenders had now been placed.
Councillor gives reference for paedophile
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A COUNCILLOR who specialises in child care is facing calls for his resignation after he gave a character reference to a paedophile.
Coun Salim Mulla spoke up for a sex offender of the same name before he was jailed for three years for sexual assault and inciting a child under the age of 13 to engage in sexual activities.
The 42-year-old defendant, of Ripon Street, Audley, Blackburn, led a secret life as a sexual predator, tricking girls as young as 12 into answering sordid questions over the telephone.
But before he was sentenced, Coun Mulla, who sits on the board of Audley and Queen's Park Children's Centre, gave a character reference to Preston Crown Court.
Blackburn with Darwen Council leader Kate Hollern was so concerned about the reference that she called an emergency meeting with her fellow Labour councillor.
Leader of the opposition, Coun Colin Rigby, said he couldn't believe how "naive and stupid" Coun Mulla had been.
And he called on him to "seriously consider his position on various authorities and boards connected with children's services" within the borough.
But the Queen's Park councillor defended his actions and said that as he had known the car salesman for 35 years and had just told the court that from his dealings with him, that he had always come across as "not a bad lad."
The court heard that there had been several previous allegations of sex-pest phone calls against the defendant, a father-of-four, also called Salim Mulla.
But today Coun Mulla said: "I knew Salim Mulla who I must stress is no relation to me for 35 years and he has lived in my street for a long time.
"I saw him almost every day and as far as I could understand he was an upstanding and respected member of the community.
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"When he approached me for a reference I agreed and could only write about my own personal knowledge of the man.
"I can only say what I personally saw and cannot get into the allegations that were against him.
"That is a matter for the police and the court.
"As a councillor I get asked for references all the time.
"I am an elected member of the council and the management board of the children's centre but I have a duty of care to the whole community as well as to children."
Coun for North Turton with Tockholes, Colin Rigby, said: "I cannot believe what he has done I think he has lost the plot.
"To give someone who has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting children a reference is madness.
"Someone who sits on the management board of a children's centre should not be giving references for a child sex offender."
Coun Maureen Bateson who oversees council children's services said: "The safety of children is paramount and as councillors, we all have a corporate parenting responsibility to every child in the borough.
"It is the children in this case who should be prioritised above all else."
Coun Hollern added: "He has explained his actions and given me a guarantee that he will be more careful about who he gives a reference to in the future."
A spokesman for the NSPCC said it would look into the matter and added: "We would hope that anyone in a power of responsibility would put the welfare of children first."
Audley and Queen's Park Children's Centre offers affordable
childcare on a full or part-time basis. The child can develop and learn
while being cared for in a safe environment.
Internet sex show to girl, 12
From the Chorley Citizen, first published Wednesday 5th Jul 2006.
Police have been alerted after a 12-year-old girl from Chorley was repeatedly offered sex on the internet.
The child's shocked mother contacted Chorley Police after discovering a man had been contacting her daughter through a messaging service.
The stunned mum-of-two intervened when the man contacted her daughter and she then witnessed him performing live sex acts on screen.
The girl, who is said to be extremely upset, had her home computer taken away by the police this week to undergo forensic examination.
The girl, a pupil at Parklands High School, Chorley, has revealed that the pervert, thought to be a French man called Memoly, aged 25, has also been speaking to her classmates.
They have been using the MSN messaging service. She has a hotmail email address and her service provider is Telewest.
Her 39-year-old mother said: "It was brought to my attention by my son who told me my daughter said she thought there was a paedophile on the computer.
"We've no idea how he's been able to contact her. Somewhere along the line he has got her email address."
The mother said she waited for the man to make contact again and intervened.
"He said, do you want sex?' I typed in I'm 12 and he said, no problem'," she said.
"Then he said again, do you want sex?' in French."
"I said again I'm 12-years-old and that's when three extremely sexually explicit video clips came up before he used the webcam and filmed himself in another explicit scene.
"I was horrified. You are aware it goes on but when it smacks you in the face.
"I feel like he has invaded my house."
She said she had followed all the parental guidelines, and kept the computer downstairs where she could keep an eye on it.
Jean McGrath, head of Parklands, said: "Obviously we share the parents' concern regarding this matter and have worked closely with them since they first informed us of this situation.
"Our school policy on the use of the internet includes advice to pupils and parents about the possible dangers of using MSN and chat rooms. We will now reinforce this message to all our pupils."
A spokesperson for Lancashire Police said: "We are investigating a complaint of obscene communication and have no other information at this stage."
A spokesperson for Telewest said: "We provide a bundle of free software which can restrict what children can receive and they include chat rooms like this.
"It could be SPAM (unsolicited emails). They often have programmes which will often target known email addresses such as hotmail.com.
"They try a million and one different combinations, that's the way they get through to people. Unfortunately it is one of those things you can't avoid."
Interpol could eventually be involved.
Paedophile broke sex register rules
Thursday 22nd Jun 2006.
A PAEDOPHILE has been ordered to stay away from boys under 16 after he breached the conditions of the Sex Offenders Register.
Clint Denmark, 32, of Leyburn Road, Blackburn, has been made the subject of an interim sexual offences prevention order, aimed at stopping his offending.
At Hyndburn Magistrates Court yesterday district judge Roger Lowe imposed the order on Denmark, who is currently serving a prison sentence after he was found to be living at an address in Oswaldtwistle with two young boys.
He was originally placed on the Sex Offenders Register in 1999 after being convicted of indecently assaulting a child under 16.
Under the terms of the order Denmark must not associate with any child under 16, allow a child to enter his home, enter any school premises, playgrounds or parks or loiter outside those places.
He is due to leave prison in August and an application for a full sexual offences prevention order will be made at Hyndburn Magistrates Court on September 1.
Jail terms branded ‘too lenient’
13th Jun 2006.
THE sentencing handed out in three Bolton cases are among 339 in the last three years which have been labelled by the Attorney General as being too lenient.
Lord Goldsmith is calling on top judges to be tougher on child killers, paedophiles, rapists and violent criminals following a rise in the number of cases sent back to the Court of Appeal.
They include the cases of child killers Rebecca Wilson, from Bolton, and Andrew Ashurst, from Atherton.
A third case involved paedophile William Bowden, from Little Lever.
Wilson and Ashurst's sentences were challenged by the Attorney General after they received just three years each in prison for killing young children.
Lord Goldsmith sent the cases to the London's Appeal Court, but the sentences were upheld by a panel of judges.
The Attorney General also challenged the 13-year jail term given to Bowden for a string of sex offences against a young girl whom he groomed for several years. The sentence was upheld on appeal.
Lord Goldsmith said: "It's really important for everyone to understand that because a child is quite young doesn't mean the child forgets what happens."
Childminder Wilson, a 34-year-old mother of two, of Willow Close, Deane, was found guilty in February 2005 of the manslaughter of Anil Joshi. She shook him to death at his parents' home while they were at work.
Ashurst, aged 23, of Blake Avenue, Atherton was jailed for three years for manslaughter in May 2004 at Liverpool Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to shaking his six-week-old baby daughter to death after she stopped him from sleeping.
The Appeal Court also upheld the 13-year sentence given to Bowden, aged 49, of Lancaster Drive, Little Lever, despite a plea by Lord Goldsmith.
Bowden filmed himself raping a girl over a two-year period, and also
indecently assaulted two other young girls.
Paedophile ‘should be locked up for life’
Friday 26th May 2006.
A paedophile who went on the run should be locked up for life, his family said today.
William Tony Knowles, aged 44, gave himself up in Manchester on Wednesday after failing to report to a bail hostel in Bury on Tuesday.
As he was sent back to prison, his niece Geraldine Knowles, aged 26, said she lived in constant fear of his return. The mother of two said: "This man needs to be locked up for good. Both my sisters have children too. We need to protect them and all the other kids in the UK from him. He's a very sick and dangerous man."
Knowles, originally from Larne, Northern Ireland, has a string of child sex convictions.
He has abducted boys aged nine and seven, abused an eighteen-month-old baby and been found guilty of indecency against a series of children.
The predator had been out of prison on licence.
Ms Knowles' fears resulted in the leader of Northern Ireland's Progressive Unionist Party, David Ervine, being urged to lobby the Government.
Ken Wilkinson, a PUP representative in Antrim, said: "I have asked my party leader to raise this either with the Secretary of State Peter Hain or Home Secretary John Reid.
<>"This man is a serious predator and needs to stay behind bars for ever."
Good riddance!
5th May 2006.
A notorious Blackpool paedophile who used his training as a circus clown to lure his young victims has been found dead in his prison cell.
The body of 64-year-old Ronald Blackmore, also known as Bozo the Clown' , was found in his cell by wardens at Wymott Prison, near Preston, at around 4.46pm last Thursday.
Blackmore, of Ashworth Court, Layton, was jailed for three years last June after breaking an interim Sexual Offences Prevention Order' imposed on him for re-offending just one week after being released from an 18-month jail term for four offences of grooming and indecently assaulting an 11-year-old girl in 2002.
The courts imposed a full order on the clown, one of the first graduates of the British College for Clowns, in December after it was discovered Blackmore could be released from the three year sentence as early as June this year.
A cause of death has yet to be confirmed and a Home Office
investigation, involving police and prison officials, has been launched.
Paedophile ruined my boy’s life
From the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, first published Tuesday 11th Apr 2006.
A mother today slammed a serial paedophile for ruining her seven-year-old son's life.
Peter Kennedy, 50, of Stonehill Drive, Blackburn, led the boy by the hand to his home before throwing him on a bed and subjecting him to a vile assault.
Jailing Kennedy for three years, Judge Christopher Cornwall told Preston Crown Court that the defendant, who had a string of previous convictions, posed a very real and continuing danger to young boys.' And he warned him: "If you commit a further sexual offence, what will follow will be a life sentence, or its nearest equivalent."
He sentenced him after he admitted two offences of indecent assault, two of gross indecency and breaching a sex offenders' order which should have prevented him from associating with anyone under 18.
The prison term will only start once Kennedy has completed a four-year sentence he is already serving for a previous breach of a sex offenders order, imposed in 1999.
Today the mother of the young victim, who was attacked in 2003, said she was happy with the verdict, but said her son would never forget what had happened to him.
She said: "You cannot help but feel happy about the sentence and you think, I am not supposed to feel happy.
"It has brought some closure but this is going to go on forever. The children are going to grow up remembering it all.
"I am not going to say my son is fine about it. Now to him everybody is a paedophile and a danger. I was protective of him before but now I am extra protective."
Judge Cornwall warned Kennedy: "If you commit a further sexual offence, what will follow will be a life sentence, or its nearest equivalent."
The victim was attacked in 2003, but complained in February last year of a man trying to have sex with him.
Fiorella Brereton, prosecuting, said the boy had been playing by a tree when Kennedy approached.
Once at his home Kennedy removed his own clothes and started to touch the boy, leaving him paralysed with fear.' The boy tried to leave, but Kennedy blocked the door. Miss Brereton said: "He grabbed him and put him on the bed. He tried to get on top of the boy and the boy kicked him."
She said Kennedy tried to remove the boy's lower clothing. Later the victim was able to give a detailed description of the defendant's home.
Kennedy was already subjected to an order, made in 1999, which banned him from associating with anyone under 18 and play areas, parks, school playing fields or any place where children congregate.
The court heard Kennedy had previous convictions for misconduct with young boys, dating back to when he was 28.
In 2004 he was given four years in prison for several breaches of a sex offenders order. Mr Mark Stuart, defending, said the pleas had saved the boy having to give evidence at court.
He said: "The defendant knows that he needs some real help. It will have to take place while he is in custody."
The three-year jail term carries three years extended licence when the defendant is released.
Orders have been made banning him from working with children for the rest of his life.
He will also be on the sex offenders register for life.
Paedophile jailed
23rd Mar 2006.
A paedophile who sparked a nationwide manhunt after going on the run with a Fylde schoolgirl three times has been jailed for four years.
Alan Keegan, 37, of no fixed address, was jailed at Preston Crown Court last Wednesday after pleading guilty to nine sex offence charges including six counts of sexual activity with a child.
Keegan, a former family friend, ran away with the 13-year-old from Fleetwood on three separate occasions between June and December last year, twice staying in hotels in Manchester and Folkestone.
The pair even sparked a high profile missing persons campaign after going on-the-run together and living in a derelict bungalow in North Wales for more than three weeks last October.
The youngster, who cannot be named, eventually gave herself up at a police station over the Welsh border after watching her mother make an emotional plea for her safe return on BBC's Crimewatch.
Keegan, described as a 'drifter' by police, was finally arrested at a flat in Folkestone in January and told police he had had a consensual sexual relationship with the girl saying "She wanted to be with me and I with her."
In addition to the four year sentence, the court banned Keegan from working with children and forced to sign the Sex Offenders' Register for an indefinite period.
<><> Amazon sells book promoting paedophilia! - by XX
A
child-sex scandal
that threatened to destroy Tony Blair's government last week has been
mysteriously
squashed and wiped off the front pages of British newspapers. Operation
Ore, the United Kingdom's most thorough and comprehensive police
investigation
of crimes against children, seems to have uncovered more than is
politically
acceptable at the highest reaches of the British elite.