A UK report into allegations of the sexual abuse of children by
people in, or close to, government in the 1970s and 1980s has sparked renewed
criticism of the behavior of senior British government officials from that era.
The
"supplementary report" to
an inquiry led by children's charity chief Peter Wanless and senior lawyer
Richard Whittam was triggered after new documents relating to the allegations
came to light after their original 2014 review had ended.
It comes at a
time when Britain has been rocked by revelations involving the sexual abuse of
children by public figures -- including UK
entertainer Jimmy Savile -- and
allegations that the British establishment may have sought to cover up historic
abuse claims involving some former senior politicians.
In the latest report,
Wanless and Whittam write that issues of crimes against children "were
given considerably less serious consideration than would be expected
today."
They highlight
what they call one striking example, taken from a 1986 letter from Sir Antony
Duff, then head of Britain's domestic security service MI5, to the permanent
secretary to the Cabinet, Sir Robert Armstrong, following an inquiry into
claims a parliamentarian had a "penchant for small boys."
That
investigation concluded, write Wanless and Whittam, by accepting the lawmaker's
denials, and they quote an observation in the MI5 letter to the government:
"At the present stage ... the risks of political embarrassment to the
Government is rather greater than the security danger."
Wanless and
Whittam continue: "The risk to children is not considered at all."
The letter dates
from November 1986 when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was in power.
Charity: 'Misplaced priorities'
A spokesman for the charity Wanless
heads, the National Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Children, said the latest report showed "there is
a clear sense of the misplaced priorities of those operating at highest levels
of government, where people simply weren't thinking about crimes against
children and the consequences of those crimes in the way that we would expect
them to."
Simon Danczuk, a
lawmaker who has been among those leading the campaign for justice for victims
of historic cases of child abuse, said the new report showed that "the
full weight of the British establishment, including MI5, colluded in a cover-up
to protect politicians who sexually abused young boys."
The names that
crop up in the newly found papers are those of former Cabinet minister Leon
Brittan; Conservative lawmaker Peter Morrison, who was an aide to Thatcher;
former minster William van Straubenzee; and Peter Hayman, an ex-diplomat.
All are now
dead, and their names have previously been linked to child sex abuse
allegations.
The papers also
include references to the Kincora Boys' Home in Belfast, Northern Ireland,
which has been the subject of numerous sexual abuse claims concerning boys in
its care in the 1970s.
The Cabinet
Office said the new documents -- which the government published Wednesday -- had
been discovered among "assorted and unstructured papers" largely
uncataloged. It apologized for the delayed release.
The 2014 review
by Wanless and Whittam sought to find out what the Home Office knew, and what
it did, about abuse allegations between 1979 and 1999.
Wanless and
Whittam said the additional material -- which they saw for the first time this
year -- didn't change their conclusions.
The 2014 review
said that while it was "very difficult to prove anything definitive"
when looking at imperfect paper records from 30 years ago, it had "not
uncovered any evidence of organised attempts by the Home Office to conceal
child abuse."
'Only the tip of the iceberg'
Besides the historical claims, recent
abuse scandals in Rotherham, Oxford and the Greater
Manchester area have revealed serious failures by police and local authorities
to safeguard vulnerable children from sexual exploitation.
Amid continuing
public concern, an independent
inquiry opened this
month with the aim of reviewing "the extent to which institutions in
England and Wales have discharged their duty of care to protect children
against sexual abuse."
"Public
concern about institutional failure to protect children from sexual abuse has
mounted with the growing realisation of the sheer scale of this problem,"
said Lowell Goddard, the senior New Zealand judge appointed to head the
inquiry.
UK Home
Secretary Theresa May told Parliament in February that what had been uncovered
so far on the issue of child sex abuse "is only the tip of the
iceberg" and that more must be done to expose "hard truths" and
bring perpetrators to justice.
"With every
passing day and every new revelation, it is clear that the sexual abuse of
children has taken place and is still taking place on a scale that we still
cannot fully comprehend," she said.
"What we do
know is that the authorities have in many different ways let down too many
children and adult survivors."
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