Legal News

The Home Secretary has ordered a review into how MI5 handled child abuse allegations against public figures.

The review follows revelations that a dossier handed to the Home Secretary Leon Britain in 1983 has gone missing from government files – it is reported the dossier contains high-profile names potentially linked to child abuse compiled by Conservative MP Geoffrey Dickens.

Leon Brittan has denied that he simply failed to deal with the dossier or allegations of child abuse by Establishment figures.

There is no evidence to suggest whether the dossier was deliberately removed from government records – or was simply lost after ministers failed to act on the information.

The Daily Mail reports that, although NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless found no evidence of a cover up, Home Secretary Theresa May has asked for information about any details that were passed to MI5. It is reported that the filing system at the Home Office makes it difficult to assess exactly what was known about child abuse allegations at the time the missing file was compiled and submitted to the government.

However, Theresa May has gone so far as to admit there might have been a Home Office “cover up” over an Establishment paedophile ring in the 1980s.

Out of 114 Home Office files which NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless and Richard Whittam QC have tried to trace, just one has been found.

The Ministry of Justice took possession of the dossier three years ago, it has emerged – and another file was shredded at that time.

Mr Wanless and Richard Whittam said in a report:

“It is ... not possible to say whether files were ever removed or destroyed to cover up or hide allegations of organised or systematic child abuse by particular individuals, because of the systems then in place.

“We cannot say that no file was removed or destroyed for that reason.”

The report by Peter Wanless and Richard Whittam examines how the Home Office handled allegations of a paedophile ring and child abuse among Establishment figures at the time.

The missing files are thought to include names of government figures linked to the Paedophile Information Exchange – a campaign group which was pushing to have paedophilia legalised.

In a statement to MPs about the findings of the Wanless-Whittam report, Theresa May said:

“It doesn’t prove or disprove the Home Office acted appropriately in the 1980s.”

But Mrs May also conceded, “There might have been a cover-up.”

Duncan Lewis Personal Injury Solicitors – Sexual and Physical Abuse Claims

Duncan Lewis is a leading firm of personal injury solicitors and can advise victims of sexual abuse or physical abuse on how to make no win no fee claims for compensation.

No win no fee Sexual and Physical Abuse Claims can usually be made once a conviction against the perpetrator has been obtained.

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