Zephro posted:

Zombywuf posted:

And Theresa May says there's more to come.

Can't help but think she's playing with fire here.

quote:

Accidentally brutally stabbed herself in the stomach while shaving.

quote:

Retired officer claims GMP covered up Cyril Smith being at a house with boys and known sex offender

A young beat bobby was threatened with the Official Secrets Act after he found Cyril Smith in the home of a known sex offender with two teenage boys, he has told the M.E.N.

He alleges he was summoned to a meeting with a senior officer and mentoring officer and told ‘in no uncertain terms’ to say nothing about it.

And the retired officer also revealed just four weeks ago he received an anonymous call from a man who said: “There may be an investigation – keep your mouth shut.”

GMP has told the M.E.N. it is treating the claims as “concerning “ and vow they “will be treated seriously”. They will be part of Operation Clifton - an on-going investigation into how historic reports of child sex abuse were allegedly covered up.

The former officer told how he called at a house in Stockport in 1988 after a complaint that the occupier had been committing a lewd act in his window in front of a newspaper boy.

When he arrived he said the then Rochdale MP Smith was there, together with a police officer in civilian clothes and two teenage boys – one a runaway from a children’s home.

The officer said: “I had been in the force about six months. The occupier was about 70 and seemed an old grandad type. In the house was Cyril Smith and a police sergeant in civilian clothes. The officer identified himself and showed his warrant card, saying he was there ‘on other business’.

“There seemed to be a party going on, with two young lads there. Smith and the officer left. The boys, aged about 14 to 15, were drunk.

“One was missing from a children’s home. I called for a van and took him back. The other lad walked off. The old man was arrested and I took him to the main police station in Stockport.”

He said at the station he discovered that the pensioner had a record dating back to the 60s for sex offences and had spent half his life behind bars.

He was just given a caution for the latest offence – a decision the officer ‘found very strange’.

The next day he was called to a meeting by a senior officer and his mentoring officer, Don Mackintosh, who would later be jailed for being a paedophile and abusing young boys over more than a decade.

He recalled: “I was told I would break the Official Secrets Act if I told anyone. In no uncertain terms I was told to say nothing at all.

“Mackintosh was my mentoring officer – in charge of all young bobbies. I was told don’t say anything - it’s all in hand. CID will deal with it. They knew Smith was there and knew who he was.”

Two months later for saying nothing and ‘doing a good job’ he was rewarded with a police driving course.

He said: “Normally you never got on a driving course when you were on probation.”

As reported in the M.E.N. an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission will include allegations that Smith’s abuse of children in London was covered up by Scotland Yard.

The officer said: “When I entered the house in Stockport, Smith showed no real signs of concern. Normally if a bobby knocks on your door you go into panic.

“What was said to me at the meeting is word for word what was said to the officers in London. It fits in with everything else that has been said.” (cont)

Darth Walrus posted:

I'm curious - have any countries, like, say, America or France, had similarly large and high-profile abuse scandals that we've learned about in a similar amount of detail?

Darth Walrus posted:

I'm curious - have any countries, like, say, America or France, had similarly large and high-profile abuse scandals that we've learned about in a similar amount of detail?

Darth Walrus posted:

I'm curious - have any countries, like, say, America or France, had similarly large and high-profile abuse scandals that we've learned about in a similar amount of detail?

Darth Walrus posted:

I'm curious - have any countries, like, say, America or France, had similarly large and high-profile abuse scandals that we've learned about in a similar amount of detail?

ufarn posted:

Nope. But the UK system is also sui generis; it takes all the worst elements of parliamentarism, aristocracy, and bicameral systems, and adds old, white Etonites to the mix for the worst possible result.

France has its share of extra-marital affairs and such, but the public don't seem to care much about it.

marktheando posted:

Supposedly there was a 90s US tv documentary made about a paedophile ring with connections to the first Bush White House. But it was never broadcast for some reason.

quote:

Cyril Smith M1 arrest to be probed by Northamptonshire Police

A cold case unit is to investigate claims police released MP Cyril Smith after child pornography was found in the boot of his car.

It is understood the Liberal MP, who died in 2010, was stopped on the M1 in Northamptonshire during the 1980s.

But he was released from police custody after making a telephone call to an unidentified third party in London, it has been claimed.

Northamptonshire Police is probing the circumstances around the arrest.

Labour MP Simon Danczuk first made the claim in his book about Smith, published last year.
'Pressure from London'

He alleged Smith was stopped on suspicion of a driving offence, but quickly released after he made the phone call.

Despite being taken into the police station, the material said to have been found in his boot disappeared, Mr Danczuk said.

Northamptonshire Police has launched an investigation into the claims, the BBC has learned.

Lead officer Supt Steve Lingley said: "We're investigating it as an historic report and we want to make sure that we get the facts using the right resources.

"If Cyril Smith was stopped on the M1, and was arrested by Northamptonshire Police, I want to know who those officers are.

"We want to understand why they released him.

"We want to know if they came under any pressure, who that person was that gave the instruction to be released."

The force's Police and Crime Commissioner Adam Simmonds said the suspicion was officers were "brought under pressure from somebody in London to release Smith".

"What worries me the most about that is, if we had reason to hold onto him, this man was released back into the community and continued to perpetrate heinous crimes," he said.

Earlier this week, it was claimed an undercover investigation gathering evidence of child abuse claims in the 1980s against Smith was 'scrapped' shortly after he was arrested on a separate occasion.

notaspy posted:

I would be happy to find out Ted Heath was holding bunger bunger parties with all the spies from Russia rather than find out that my country is run by peadoes

quote:

IN A desperate attempt to suppress a scandal of its own making, the Post Office has sacked and gagged independent forensic investigators who were less than 24 hours away from circulating a highly damaging report into its pisspoor IT system Horizon.

More than 100 sub-postmasters claim they’ve been hounded from their jobs and livelihoods because of problems with the ancient IT system. Some were handed criminal convictions which may be unsafe. There is one documented suicide.

ufarn posted:

The bunga-bunga parties had minors, but it was okay, because they were prostitutes. :/

Munin posted:

I thought the problem was that they were prostitutes. Namely they were above the age of consent but were being paid for their services (in theory just company and stripping...) which is illegal for minors.

Arsenic Lupin posted:

I have been wondering -- unsupported theory here -- if the British system of sending Establishment men away to boarding school at a very young age might contribute to adult pedophiia in Establishment men. Compare le vice Anglais.

Total Meatlove posted:

The closest analogue I can think of is the Pitcairn Island trial, where it was endemic, systemic and had become normalised, and even that was an island of less than 60 people.

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"Never before in Belgium has an investigating judge at the service of the king been subjected to such pressure. We were told by police that [murder] contracts had been taken out against the magistrates." Connerotte testified that the investigation was seriously hampered by protection of suspects by people in the government. "Rarely has so much energy been spent opposing an inquiry,"

quote:

In the late 1990s, two employees, Ben Johnston, a former DynCorp aircraft mechanic, and Kathryn Bolkovac, a U.N. International Police Force monitor, independently alleged that DynCorp employees in Bosnia engaged in sex with minors, and sold them to each other as slaves.Both Johnston and Bolkovac were fired, and Johnston was later placed into protective custody before leaving several days later.

On June 2, 2000, an investigation was launched in the DynCorp hangar at Comanche Base Camp, one of two U.S. bases in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and all DynCorp personnel were detained for questioning.[94] CID spent several weeks investigating and the results appear to support Johnston's allegations. DynCorp had fired five employees for similar illegal activities prior to the charges. Many of the employees accused of sex trafficking were forced to resign under suspicion of illegal activity. However, as of 2014 no one had been prosecuted.

quote:

Instead of following police recommendation, the prosecutors considered the evidence weak and presented it to a grand jury, an uncommon procedure in non-capital cases. Former chief of Palm Beach police Michael Reiter later wrote to State Attorney Barry Krischer to complain of the state's "highly unusual" conduct and asked him to remove himself from the case.

On June 18, 2010, Epstein's former butler, Alfredo Rodriguez, was sentenced to 18 months in jail for trying to sell a journal that he said recorded Epstein's activities. Special Agent Christina Pryor reviewed the material and agreed it was information "that would have been extremely useful in investigating and prosecuting the case, including names and contact information of material witnesses and additional victims." Epstein allegedly lent girls to powerful people to ingratiate himself with them and also to get possible blackmail information.

EnderWiggin posted:

The only evidence has been the victim testimony which creates a story seemingly identical to the the stories in the UK and Belgium.

The Franklin scandal could be a hoax, but it also has the indicators of a successful cover up (at least in terms of judicial outcome).

ufarn posted:

Ruby was a minor - presumably unbeknownst to Berlusconi.

Chocolate Teapot posted:

The tax haven island of Jersey was (maybe still is?) a hotbed of rampant paedophilia, and one such attempt at an investigation from an American journalist lead to her having her rights withdrawn.

goddamnedtwisto posted:

Of course the indicators of a successful coverup are exactly the same as the indicators of nothing having actually happened - it's really important not to go down the rabbit hole of believing an absence of evidence is actually proof of anything.

IIRC the Franklin case was only a small number of accusers with quite a lot of inconsistencies and impossibilities in their stories, some of which were bought out with recovered memory therapy and other techniques which are dodgy in the extreme. It's not impossible that the Franklin story is broadly true but the evidence for it isn't as strong as the evidence against, say, Cyril Smith and the wider conspiracy to keep his name clean.

stickyfngrdboy posted:

I read about this is private eye not ten minutes ago. Incredible.

goddamnedtwisto posted:

IIRC the Franklin case was only a small number of accusers with quite a lot of inconsistencies and impossibilities in their stories, some of which were bought out with recovered memory therapy and other techniques which are dodgy in the extreme. It's not impossible that the Franklin story is broadly true but the evidence for it isn't as strong as the evidence against, say, Cyril Smith and the wider conspiracy to keep his name clean.

Chocolate Teapot posted:

It's all kicking off

But the way things are, they'll probably get nothing and remain totally anonymous.

Gum posted:

If it's who I think it is, then his identity is already well known

Chipp Zanuff posted:

Any vague hints for those not in know?

SedanChair posted:

I don't think Silvio was seriously investigating the ages of the young women mysteriously willing to let him cover them with his ancient flab, instead deferring to his viagra-engorged penis.

Darth Walrus posted:

I'm curious - have any countries, like, say, America or France, had similarly large and high-profile abuse scandals that we've learned about in a similar amount of detail?