October 15th, 1997
PUBLIC FIGURES NAMED IN PAEDOPHILE RING
By Nick Davies, The
Guardian (UK)
Policemen, social workers and prominent public figures have been accused
of belonging to a paedophile ring which indulged in a relentless campaign of
physical and sexual abuse in children's homes in North Wales.
The names of the alleged members of the ring have been given by witnesses in
public sessions of the North Wales Child Abuse Tribunal, but they have been
suppressed by the tribunal's chairman, Sir Ronald Waterhouse QC, who has
threatened the media with High Court proceedings if they print them.
The Guardian today publishes for the first time detailed evidence about the
alleged ring, which is said to have been based in Wrexham, and to have
infiltrated local children's homes over a 20 year period.
Witnesses claim that members of the ring used their connections with police
and social services to conceal their activities. All of the accused have
denied the allegations.
Those named to the tribunal include:
A man who bears the same surname as a prominent Conservative supporter. Two
witnesses have told the tribunal of a rich and powerful man who belonged to the
alleged ring.
The son of an influential peer who admitted to police that he had been having
sex with an under-age boy from one of the homes. Despite his admission, he was
never prosecuted.
A powerful public official who has previously been cleared of abuse. Six
witnesses have given separate accounts to the tribunal of his alleged rape of
young boys. Another has reported him attending parties in Wrexham which were
supplied with boys from a children's home.
Two social workers and two police officers, one of whom was accused of abuse on
four separate occasions and exonerated each time, another of whom has since been
jailed in another part of the country for gross indecency with a child.
More than a dozen other local men, including an executive with a local
authority, a senior probation officer and a director of a major company.
All those named as members of the alleged ring have denied the charges, either
in evidence to the tribunal or through their lawyers.
When the tribunal was established last year, it had been assumed that the press
could report its proceedings, using the laws of privilege which allow them to
name names from court cases and public hearings without fear of libel actions.
However, Sir Ronald then ruled that the media could not report the name of any
living person who was accused or likely to be accused of abusing children in the
North Wales homes unless they had previously been convicted of such an offence.
Since then he has extended his ruling twice: he has granted anonymity to one man
who died 16 years ago and to another who has twice been convicted of sexually
assaulting boys from a North Wales home.
Sir Ronald has argued that his ruling will encourage alleged paedophiles to come
froward and give honest evidence without fear of retribution. Critics say this
is unnecessary, since he has the power to compel witnesses to attend, and that
those who have come forward have done so to deny the allegations and not to make
a clean breast of their alleged offences.
One lawyer who has been involved with the tribunal said he feared that the
anonymity ruling was actively discouraging witnesses. "Newspaper readers may
well have information of potential value to this tribunal. They may themselves
have been the victims of abuse, or they may have worked with the alleged
abusers. But if the press is not allowed to inform them of the names of those
against whom allegations are made, they will not learn that their information is
important. So they will not come forward."
The tribunal was ordered by the last Conservative Secretary of State for Wales,
William Hague, after Clwyd county council decided not to publish the report of
an independent inquiry into allegations of abuse in its children's homes. The
tribunal, which has been hearing witnesses for eight months, is expected to
continue to take evidence until January.
see also...
Now defunct magazine Scallywag covered events at Bryn Alyn in detail
State cover-up of high level paedophile ring (November 8, 1997)
and a report of the whitewashed findings
bbc
February 2000
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