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Leon Brittan 'being pilloried over paedophile dossier' Home Office handling of MP's abuse claim to be reviewed
(about 3 hours later)
Ex-Home Secretary Leon Brittan is being unfairly "pilloried" over his handling of a missing dossier on alleged paedophile politicians in the 1980s on the basis of a "witch hunt", former minister David Mellor has said. A senior legal figure is to review how the Home Office handled an MP's claims of child sex abuse at Westminster in the 1980s and 1990s.
The document was passed by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens to Lord Brittan, who says he in turn handed it to officials. The new inquiry will assess whether a 2013 report on the claims was sound.
Mr Mellor said the file was spoken of at the time as "not very substantive". It follows fresh questions about what happened to material handed to the then home secretary, Leon Brittan, who says he gave it to officials.
David Cameron has tasked a top official to "find answers" about what happened. It has also emerged that four cases of historic sex abuse were referred to the police following last year's report.
Labour has called for a review into what happened to the dossier and the Home Office has faced calls to explain why it was not "retained" by officials. Home Office permanent secretary Mark Sedwill has written to the prime minister to inform him of the plans to appoint a senior independent legal figure.
Lord Brittan says he also alerted the director of public prosecutions. It comes after David Cameron asked him to "find answers" about what happened to the material supplied by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens.
Mr Mellor defended Lord Brittan, whom he served under as a home office minister in the 1980s. The abuse claims were passed in the 1980s by Mr Dickens to Lord Brittan, who says he in turn handed them to officials.
'Witch hunt' Lord Brittan has since been criticised for his handling of that material.
Speaking on his LBC radio show, he said he remembered "sort of chat around the department" that it "wasn't a very substantive thing at all". An investigation conducted by the Home Office last year concluded that the "credible" elements of the claims with "realistic potential" for further investigation were passed to prosecutors and the police.
"People are talking about this document as if it's a carefully worked through expose of people. There's no reason to think it was," he said. It found that other elements were either "not retained or destroyed".
He rejected criticisms over the way Lord Brittan dealt with the document. 'Reassurance'
"I think it is so unfair that on the basis of what is becoming a witch hunt, he's being pilloried for handling a document... that he did pass on," Mr Mellor said. A letter from Lord Brittan to Mr Dickens was also found during the review, in which he said that the allegations had been acted on.
No 10 has rejected calls for a public inquiry into child sex abuse claims, but the prime minister said it was "right" to make investigations. In a letter to the prime minister, Mr Sedwill wrote that he would appoint a senior independent legal figure within the next week to assess the conclusions of that investigation.
He tasked senior civil servant Mark Sedwill to find answers into what happened to the dossier. He said this was to provide "additional reassurance" about the investigation last year, given that information was now in the public domain.
Mr Cameron said: "It's right that these investigations are made. We mustn't do anything, of course, that could prejudice or prevent proper action by the police. The Home Office has faced calls to explain why the material was not "retained" by officials.
"If anyone has any information about criminal wrong-doing they should, of course, give it to the police." Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the prime minister should "demand a proper investigation into the allegations of child abuse not being acted upon by the Home Office".
Labour leader Ed Miliband said at the very least, the Home Office needed to have a "serious review" because it was obvious that the information was passed to it. Labour leader Ed Miliband said the department needed a "serious review" because "we need to understand what happened" to the information.
"We need to understand what happened to that information," Mr Miliband said. "All of these kind of allegations must be taken very seriously," he said.
"All of these kind of allegations must be taken very seriously." No 10 rejected calls for a public inquiry into child sex abuse claims, but the prime minister said it was "right" to make investigations.
The Home Office held an independent review last year into how it handled the dossier. In a letter to MP Keith Vaz, Mr Sedwill wrote that the Home Office investigation did not find a single dossier from Mr Dickens, but rather several sets of correspondence over a number of years containing claims of sexual offences as well as references to broader issues.
A letter from Lord Brittan to Mr Dickens was found during the review, saying that the allegations had been acted on. 'Occult activities'
The review concluded that the "credible" elements of the dossier which had "realistic potential" for further investigation were passed to prosecutors and the police while other elements were either "not retained or destroyed". This included "action taken regarding the import of pornographic material reported in some of the media this week," Mr Sedwill wrote.
'Blow lid off' "As well as these specific allegations, later correspondence from Mr Dickens focused on broader related policy issues, such as the risk of children and young people being drawn into occult activities.
Meanwhile, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has called for the entire report to be made public. "The review found no record of specific allegations by Mr Dickens of child sex abuse by prominent public figures."
She also wants Mr Cameron to set up an overarching review, led by child protection experts, to draw together the results from several different investigations and institutional inquiries. The Home Office investigation identified 13 items of information about alleged child abuse.
More than 140 MPs have written to the home secretary calling for "a full, properly resourced investigation into the failure of the police to follow the evidence in a number of historical cases of child sexual abuse". Nine of those 13 were known or reported to the police, including four cases involving Home Office staff, Mr Sedwill said.
Mr Dickens, who died in 1995, believed the dossier would "blow the lid off" the lives of powerful and famous child abusers, his son Barry has said. The remaining four items, which had not been previously disclosed, have since been passed to police.
He old the BBC his father would have been hugely angered that the allegations had not been properly investigated. Former minister David Mellor said there had been a "witch hunt" surrounding the handling of the so-called dossier.
Mr Mellor, who served under Lord Brittan as a home office minister in the 1980s, said the former home secretary was being unfairly "pilloried".
He said the material was spoken of within the department at the time, but it was "not a very substantive thing at all".
"People are talking about this document as if it's a carefully worked through expose of people. There's no reason to think it was," he said on his LBC radio show.
Mr Mellor rejected criticisms over the way Lord Brittan dealt with the document.
"I think it is so unfair that on the basis of what is becoming a witch hunt, he's being pilloried for handling a document... that he did pass on," he said.