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Child abuse inquiry: Police investigate three alleged murders | Child abuse inquiry: Police investigate three alleged murders |
(35 minutes later) | |
Detectives are investigating three alleged murders as part of an inquiry into historical child abuse, the Met Police has said. | Detectives are investigating three alleged murders as part of an inquiry into historical child abuse, the Met Police has said. |
Officers made a public appeal for information relating to Dolphin Square estate in Pimlico, south-west London. | Officers made a public appeal for information relating to Dolphin Square estate in Pimlico, south-west London. |
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse said no confirmed identities or bodies of victims had been found. | Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse said no confirmed identities or bodies of victims had been found. |
Allegations of a paedophile ring involving prominent figures in the 1970s and 1980s are being investigated. | Allegations of a paedophile ring involving prominent figures in the 1970s and 1980s are being investigated. |
Operation Midland, which is under the umbrella of Operation Fairbank, is one of a number of ongoing inquiries into historical abuse. | |
'Credible and true' | |
Detectives said they were also examining whether children were abused at locations across London and including at "military establishments". | |
The inquiry is also working through historical missing persons reports and unsolved child murders to look for possible links to the case. | |
However, officers said the search was being hampered by out-of-date records from the past. | |
The appeal has been made as part of Operation Midland, which stems from allegations made by a man known as "Nick", who says he was abused by a paedophile ring including high-profile people from the age of seven to 16. | |
He has told police he was taken by car to "parties" where he was abused by men, including at least one flat in the Dolphin Square estate. | |
Asked about the claims, Det Supt Kenny McDonald - who is overseeing Operation Midland - said officers who had spoken to him thought his account was "credible and true". | Asked about the claims, Det Supt Kenny McDonald - who is overseeing Operation Midland - said officers who had spoken to him thought his account was "credible and true". |
Det Supt MacDonald appealed for other boys who might have been abused to come forward. | Det Supt MacDonald appealed for other boys who might have been abused to come forward. |
"We are working hard to try to establish the number of boys involved. I would like appeal to those boys to trust me I will support you and do all in my power to bring the abusers to justice," he said. | "We are working hard to try to establish the number of boys involved. I would like appeal to those boys to trust me I will support you and do all in my power to bring the abusers to justice," he said. |
BBC home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds said it was the first time Operation Midland had confirmed the number of possible murders officers were investigating. | |
'Very powerful people' | |
He said the allegations were that three children had been murdered. | |
The claims also included allegations a child had been run over. | |
They involved an alleged paedophile ring including "very important people", our correspondent added. | |
It comes after Nick gave his first broadcast interview last month, telling the BBC his abusers had no hesitation in doing what they wanted. | |
"Some of them were quite open about who they were. They had no fear at all of being caught, it didn't cross their mind," he said. | |
The abusers "created fear that penetrated every part of me, day in day out", he added. | |
"You didn't question what they wanted, you did as they asked without question and the punishments were very severe. | |
"They were very powerful people and they controlled my life for the next nine years," he told the BBC. |