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| Britain to Investigate Allegations of Sexual Abuse Cover-Up Decades Ago | Britain to Investigate Allegations of Sexual Abuse Cover-Up Decades Ago |
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| LONDON — After days of media reports potentially heralding a new sexual abuse scandal, the British home secretary planned on Monday to announce an inquiry into claims that the authorities covered up allegations of organized child abuse in government circles decades ago. | |
| The inquiry, likely to fall short of a full judicial investigation, opened a new chapter in a long-running narrative of sexual misconduct by high-profile figures like the entertainers Rolf Harris, sentenced last week, and Jimmy Savile, who died in 2011, that has darkened Britons’ view of their recent history and the behavior of some in positions of influence. | |
| “I am absolutely determined that we are going to get to the bottom of these allegations, and we’re going to leave no stone unturned to find out the truth about what happened,” Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters during a visit to the British Midlands. “And it’s also important that the police feel that they can go wherever the evidence leads and they can make all the appropriate arrangements to investigate these things properly.” | |
| Though the details of Home Secretary Theresa May’s planned announcement were not made known in advance, the Home Office said on Monday that the investigation would cover reports that, in the 1980s, documents relating to child abuse went astray — lost, destroyed or hidden — at the Home Office itself. | |
| A second strand of the inquiry would be “the wider issue of whether public bodies and other institutions have taken seriously their duty toward children,” a spokesman for the Home Office said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under departmental rules. | |
| The Home Office has said that more than 100 files went missing over a period of 20 years, including a sheaf of documents given to a senior politician, the former Home Secretary Leon Brittan, a Conservative former member of the European Commission who now sits as Lord Brittan in the House of Lords, the upper house of Parliament. | The Home Office has said that more than 100 files went missing over a period of 20 years, including a sheaf of documents given to a senior politician, the former Home Secretary Leon Brittan, a Conservative former member of the European Commission who now sits as Lord Brittan in the House of Lords, the upper house of Parliament. |
| According to its website, the Home Office “leads on immigration and passports, drugs policy, crime policy and counter-terrorism and works to ensure visible, responsive and accountable policing in the U.K.” | According to its website, the Home Office “leads on immigration and passports, drugs policy, crime policy and counter-terrorism and works to ensure visible, responsive and accountable policing in the U.K.” |
| As the uproar has grown, one newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, reported on Monday that one man now in his 40s has told the police that he was assaulted by a politician in that era. The newspaper did not identify the man who made the claim, or the politician whom he has accused of sexual abuse. | As the uproar has grown, one newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, reported on Monday that one man now in his 40s has told the police that he was assaulted by a politician in that era. The newspaper did not identify the man who made the claim, or the politician whom he has accused of sexual abuse. |
| Other reports have chronicled how a leading member of the so-called Pedophile Information Exchange, a group that sought to legalize pedophilia before disbanding in 1984, had been given security authorization to work as an electrical contractor at the Home Office in the late 1970s and early 1980s. | Other reports have chronicled how a leading member of the so-called Pedophile Information Exchange, a group that sought to legalize pedophilia before disbanding in 1984, had been given security authorization to work as an electrical contractor at the Home Office in the late 1970s and early 1980s. |
| According to the BBC, the contractor, Steven Adrian Smith, wrote in a book in 1986 that he had “a furnished office completely to myself seven days a week on a rotating shift basis.” Much of his organization’s “less sensitive file material” concerning pedophilia, “was stored in locked cabinets there, where no police raid would ever have found them.” | According to the BBC, the contractor, Steven Adrian Smith, wrote in a book in 1986 that he had “a furnished office completely to myself seven days a week on a rotating shift basis.” Much of his organization’s “less sensitive file material” concerning pedophilia, “was stored in locked cabinets there, where no police raid would ever have found them.” |
| A prominent politician in the governing Conservative Party, Lord Norman Tebbit, said on Sunday that “there may well have been” a cover-up. | A prominent politician in the governing Conservative Party, Lord Norman Tebbit, said on Sunday that “there may well have been” a cover-up. |
| “At that time I think most people would have thought that the establishment, the system, was to be protected and if a few things had gone wrong here and there that it was more important to protect the system than delve too far into it,” he said in a television interview. | “At that time I think most people would have thought that the establishment, the system, was to be protected and if a few things had gone wrong here and there that it was more important to protect the system than delve too far into it,” he said in a television interview. |
| A senior civil servant, Mark Sedwill, has acknowledged the Home Office, in a review carried out last year, found that 114 files potentially relating to the scandal and dating to the period from 1979 to 1999 were “presumed destroyed, missing or not found.” | A senior civil servant, Mark Sedwill, has acknowledged the Home Office, in a review carried out last year, found that 114 files potentially relating to the scandal and dating to the period from 1979 to 1999 were “presumed destroyed, missing or not found.” |
| Mr. Sedwill has pledged to instruct a senior legal figure to investigate the fate of a dossier passed to Lord Brittan when he was home secretary by a Conservative lawmaker, Geoffrey Dickens, in 1983 and relating to accusations of pedophile activity in government circles. | Mr. Sedwill has pledged to instruct a senior legal figure to investigate the fate of a dossier passed to Lord Brittan when he was home secretary by a Conservative lawmaker, Geoffrey Dickens, in 1983 and relating to accusations of pedophile activity in government circles. |
| Lord Brittan, 74, said in a statement on Monday that it was “completely without foundation” to suggest that he failed to deal adequately with the documents handed to him by Mr. Dickens. | |
| Lord Brittan also confirmed earlier reports that he had been interviewed by the police in connection with what was described only as a “serious allegation” not related to child abuse. He called the accusation “wholly without foundation.” | |
| British media reports said the earlier case involves an allegation of rape said to have taken place in 1967, before he became a lawmaker. Scotland Yard has said only that an unidentified man in his 70s was interviewed last month in connection with an accusation of rape. The man was not arrested but the investigation was continuing, the police said. The woman who made the allegation was not identified by name. |