- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Top British official quizzed over missing child abuse files
- Date: 8th July 2014
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JULY 8, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT IN WESTMINSTER BIG BEN CLOCK FACE
- Embargoed: 23rd July 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: United Kingdom
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Crime,General,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAEI8BKJZ431THBXSSYSZYDG0FW
- Story Text: One of Britain's most senior civil servants faced questions from a parliamentary committee on Tuesday (July 8) about over 100 missing government files that could shed light on allegations, which have not yet been substantiated, that well-known politicians abused children in the 1980s.
The disclosure, by Mark Sedwill, the top civil servant in Britain's Home Office (interior ministry), is likely to fuel a media furore in Britain over the allegations.
Child protection campaigners have said that at least 10 and possibly more than 20 public figures, including current and former politicians, should be investigated over allegations that they abused young children.
The claims have unsettled the political elite, still recovering from scandals over parliamentarians' expenses, at a time when Britain is grappling with revelations that several nationally beloved television personalities sexually abused children for decades.
The government on Monday (July 7) pledged to launch a full-scale inquiry, with Prime Minister David Cameron promising it would leave "no stone unturned" to find out the truth.
Speaking to the parliamentary committee, which meets regularly to examine the work of the Home Office, Sedwill said he acknowledged the glaring failures that had been made.
"As a citizen, as a parent, I still shudder when I think of this, I just do, but as a public servant I think all of us, and you've made this point yourself, must be appalled at how the system as a whole, the state as a whole, failed its most vulnerable citizens and we have to put that right," he said.
Sedwill said last week that 114 files "potentially relevant" to the case had been destroyed or were missing, including allegations brought to the attention of a former Conservative home secretary, Leon Brittan, in the 1980s.
Brittan has said he dealt with the material correctly, but politicians and media have nevertheless raised broader concerns of a possible cover-up by an establishment protecting its own.
Asked by the committe if there was any doubt as to whether Brittan had acted inappropriately, Sedwill said "Well I would never go as far as to say there is no possible doubt, because that isn't of course even the legal test Mr Winnick, and the evidence, as we have just been exploring, is still quite patchy from that era. We don't have all the correspondence," he said, addressing David Winnick, a member of the committee.
"But what the investigator found was that the Home Office at that time, the secretary of state and the Home Office at that time appeared to handle the material appropriately, pass it on to the appropriate, pass it on to the appropriate authorities," he added.
Home Secretary (interior minister) Theresa May told parliament on Monday that an independent review would be held of a 2013 investigation carried out by her ministry into the handling of allegations that politicians had abused children.
The government will also establish an independent inquiry panel of experts to look more broadly at whether public bodies have taken seriously their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse, May said.
May, a member of Cameron's Conservative party, told parliament on Monday she had deliberately not read the full report from the 2013 investigation because of possible allegations that senior lawmakers, including senior Conservatives, were guilty of child abuse.
Asked by committee chairman Keith Vaz if the report's findings had been shared with May, but added it wouldn't be appropriate.
"I told her what we were doing with the material, but as she said yesterday it wasn't, wouldn't be appropriate for her, or indeed for anything other than a very small number of people, to have seen at least the sensitive personal information within the report," he said.
"Indeed I didn't even see all of the accompanying material myself, it wasn't appropriate," Sedwill added.
Pressed by Vaz as to the detail of the files and his knowledge of them, Sedwill said there was no indication of how important they might have been, referring to the 2013 investigation.
"I relied on the judgement of the investigator and the investigator concluded that there was no reason to believe those files were inappropriately handled," he said.
"The material that he did uncover in the 573 files that he was able to examine physically, he came across 13 instances of specific allegations, nine of which had already gone to the police, four of which were quite ephemeral, and which we handed to the police when he discovered them," he added.
On Monday May also announced that Peter Wanless, the Chief Executive of anti-child cruelty charity the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), had been appointed to hold a review of the 2013 investigation.
Further to May's statement, Sedwill told the committee that Richard Whittam QC would jointly oversee the review with Wanless.
"They'll both bring us double independence to it, the independence of an experienced QC, the independence of course the CEO of the NSPCC, and I think they have both got unimpeachable reputations," Sedwill told the commitee.
A new independent inquiry into the handling of abuse allegations by public institutions is to be chaired by high court judge Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, who also chaired a previous inquiry into child sex abuse in the late 1980s.
Sedwill told the parliamentary committee that other public bodies, including the offices of government whips - members who maintain party voting discipline - should search and share documents relevant to further investigations.
"I think all bodies who may have information, either, as I was seeking, that may be relevant to criminal investigations, or that may be relevant to the Butler-Sloss inquiry, should carry out the kind of exercise that I carried out last year with proper independent scrutiny and provide that information as determined," he said.
On the streets of London on Tuesday, members of the public expressed concern over the abuse allegations.
"There had to have been a cover up and you know it just sickens me. And I'm sure members of the public out there, that you know really wouldn't have expected it from such an establishment as the Commons and the Houses of Parliament and MPs," said Shan Nelson.
Another passer-by said he thought that the availability of information meant legal accountability has changed over recent decades.
"I think everybody is accountable now, whereas maybe even 20 years ago, 30 years ago, people in power were expected to get away with things, simple things from parking fines to much greater crimes," said Magnus Macdonald.
"There has obviously been some major cover up going along with some people, but I think, I think it needs to be looked into, very seriously," Kevin Patrick said, speaking outside the Houses of Parliament. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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