Moral Panics & the Police Service by Les May

APART from the disastrous Operation Midland investigation into the lurid claims of a ’toffs’ paedophile and murder ring which resulted in substantial payment of damages to those accused and whose reputations were ruined, the police service has a pretty good record in dextrously handling the various ‘moral panics’ which beset us from time to time.

It kept out of the witchcraft stories of Geoffrey Dickens MP, he of the famous ‘dossier’ which he handed to then Home Secretary Leon Brittan. Whilst the NSPCC made a fool of itself over ‘Satanic Abuse’ and would now like us all to quietly forget its role, the police service avoided deep involvement. More recently it emerged with a great deal more credibility than Simon Danczuk with its investigation into his claims about the unsavoury goings on at Knowl View school.

A quick arrest after the murder of Sarah Everard has ensured that, whilst politicians from all parties pledge their desire to ‘do something about violence against women’, the police service has been seen to be doing its job.

But what do you do when a lot of schoolgirls anonymously share their claims of ‘sexual harassment’ on a website? Does anyone really want to have to interview all these girls and the lads they are accusing, with the ever present possibility that at the end of the investigation someone will have to declare that some of the claims are really ‘porky pies’ encouraged and made possible by the anonymity of the WWW? So what to do?

I know; lets wheel out a senior office who talks about ‘victims and survivors’, code for ‘we believe you girls, just as we said we believed Carl Beech’s claims that led to Operation Midland’, that should divert any criticism that we don’t take these claims seriously, then let’s get into Pontius Pilate mode and suggest a public inquiry to sort out the mess.

QED

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Support for 'Hard Working' Rochdale MP

IN January, at a full meeting of Rochdale Council, Richard Farnell, the leader of the Council, said:

'MR. Danczuk (the MP for Rochdale) has a lot on his plate at the moment!' and 'I support any member of Parliament who works hard for this Borough.  I remember working with Geoffery Dickens (a former local Tory MP for Littleborough & Saddleworth)...  Simon Danczuk trounced Councillor Kelly... (at the General Election'.

He  was answering a question from Councillor Andy Kelly, Liberal Democrat, about his own support for the member of Parliament and dismissing Councillor Kelly's question as 'irrelevant'.  At that time the notorious Mr. Danczuk MP had just been suspended by the Labour Party for sexting a 17-year-old girl.

Hard working indeed; yesterday the Zelo-Street Blog reported on Mr Danczuk's recent conduct: 

'Take the issue of MP surgeries, a vital part of any Parliamentarian’s work, and one where Danczuk’s priorities have suddenly slipped. Last week, constituents who expected their MP to hold his surgery on the usual day - Friday - were disappointed to see him Tweeting “Busy weekly surgery today with @elsiewraighte: immigration; tenancy issues; housing benefit; Crown Prosecution Service decision; & more”, but on Thursday.

'Why would he hold his weekly surgery a day early? We had to wait until Saturday for the answer, when he again took to Twitter to tell “Really enjoyed watching @englandcricket yesterday & well done to @jbairstow21 & @jimmy9”.  Yes, when his constituents might have expected Simon Danczuk to be in Rochdale, listening to their problems and addressing their concerns, he was at Headingley watching the cricket.'

That's what you call flexible working conditions, a bit different from Zero Hours contracts. 

Councillor Farnell Relaxed About Danczuk

Rochdale Council Leader Praises Geoffrey Dickens a Damaged ex-Tory MP

'MR. Danczuk has a lot on his plate at the moment!' blandly declared Richard Farnell, the Labour leader of the Council at last night's full meeting of Rochdale Council at Rochdale Town Hall.  He  was answering a question from Councillor Andy Kelly, Liberal Democrat, about his support for the member of Parliament.  Dismissing Councillor Kelly's question as 'irrelevant', Mr. Farnell continued: 

'I support any member of Parliament who works hard for this Borough.  I remember working with Geoffery Dickens (a former local Tory MP for Littleborough & Saddleworth)...  Simon Danczuk trounced Councillor Kelly...' at the General Election.

Councillor Andy Kelly had asked that as Simon Danczuk had been suspended from the Labour Party 'can you (Richard Farnell) support his actions?' 

Mr Farnell is now clearly relaxed about the furore surrounding Simon Danczuk MP, but that was not the case in  June 2014 when he told the journalist Jennifer Williams of the Manchester Evening News that:  'Rochdale is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons and I will not allow a tiny minority of people to drag us down'.
 
Alas, unfortunately for Richard Farnell, the Geoffrey Dickens comparison is not the best choice either, for when Dickens was a Tory MP for Littleborough and Saddleworth in 1990s, he had been a cheer-leader for one of the most expensive incidents in our recent local history: that is the discredited Satanic Abuse scandal in nearby Middleton.  Richard Farnell was himself leader of Rochdale Council from 1986 to May 1992 and was in office when social workers and police from Rochdale raided five homes of working people, and took 21 children into care on the now discredited ground that they had been subjected to ritual Satanic abuse.  The plight of the 'stolen children' was given extensive coverage by reporters of the Mail on Sunday, and after six months of investigation it was found that the false Satanic abuse scare had destroyed five families.

 The Satanic abuse scandal in the Rochdale area of Langley council estate, Middleton, involved social workers who falsely claimed that working class parent had indulged in Satanic rituals with their own children and placed the children in the care of the local authority.  In two cases this involved sending two lads to Knowl View, an institution which is now itself under investigation.  Ultimately, when the false claims of Satanic abuse on Langley and elsewhere came to light in the 2006 , the Rochdale Local authority had to pay heavy price.

 Geoffrey Dickens, when a local Tory MP, must take some responsibility for what happened on the Langley Estate with regard to the Satanic abuse scandal in the Rochdale area and the cost to the council when the injustice to the parents became apparent.  Richard Farnell may have a point in linking Simon Danczuk Labour MP to Geoffrey Dickens Tory MP, in that they both represent rather bizarre colourful creatures in politics:  both have proved expensive to the public purse in that there was a high local cost to the rate payers in the panicky politics Geoffrey Dickens' promoted locally in Rochdale and there is an ongoing cost to everyone in the way Simon Danczuk conducts himself both with his lavish expenses and with his demands for seemingly endless public enquires into historic sexual abuse.
 

 Both Danczuk and Dickens have been bizarre and rather larger than life politicians, who went in for extravagant claims. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/real_story/4595158.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/real_story/4602302.stm

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2006/jan/12/childrensservices.uknews

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/local-news/satanic-abuse-the-truth-at-last-1018638

'Inaccurate Journalism' from Baker & Danzuk?

by Les May

MEA culpa.  More inaccurate journalism I'm afraid.  In my article 'The martyrdom of Simon Danczuk', I suggested that Mr D's story of a man emerging from the shadows to warn him not to mention Leon Brittan at the Home Affairs Select Committee meeting of 1 July 2014, was produced whilst he was being questioned. 

I was wrong; it emerged a few days later.

I realised this as I was reading through the record of what Simon Danczuk said in response to the 31 questions put to him by the Committee.  As with the LBC interview with Ken Livingstone and David Mellor on 10 October none of the questions were particularly searching.  No one thought to ask him about how he had collected his evidence or about its reliability.  I gained the impression that no one had actually read his book 'Smile for the Camera' and it clearly did not occur to anyone on the Committee that one of their own might just be telling porkies.  Sorry, I meant of course 'being guilty of inaccurate journalism'. Or as one blogger put it 'wasting police time'.

Just as I conflated Danczuk's appearance before the Select Committee and his 'man in the shadows' story, Danczuk and Baker conflated two quite separate issues in their book.  The very real problems of just who knew about the high levels of sexual activity between the boys at Rochdale's Knowl View school in the years before it closed and the question of whether Cyril Smith was involved in abusing boys at the school.

Knowl View was a residential school which opened in 1969 and had a troubled history.  In the years following its closure in 1994 it was the subject of claims of a 'cover up' going back to an Independent on Sunday (IoS) article in 1995.  Strenuous attempts are made in 'Smile for the Camera' to associate Smith with sexual abuse of boys at the school.  But they largely rely upon the suppositions and opinions of a single individual, social worker Martin Digan, and it is difficult to find any independent evidence for them.  As is the norm for this book, there is no chronology. 

According to the authors Mr Digan started work at the school in the late 1970s.  In what must surely be one of the most remarkable statements in the book they tell us, 'For many years he was oblivious to what was happening in the school – until he was promoted to head of care and began to realise that things weren't quite right.' 

The authors don't think it necessary to tell us when this was.  But a Manchester Evening News (MEN) article from 2 December 2012 indicates Mr Digan became head of care in 1994.   

So what had  been happening in the school?  What no one disputes is that in 1991 an Aids worker, Philip Shepherd, spent a day in the school talking to staff and then wrote a report, (of which more later) which was sent to the Director of Education, Diana Cavanagh.  In response to what he wrote a clinical psychologist, Valerie Mellor, was commissioned in late 1991 to investigate the reported sexual activity involving the boys at the school.  Mellor's report presented in February 1992 confirmed and expanded upon the Shepherd report.  It included the comment, 'It is very difficult to believe that this behaviour had not come to the attention of at least some members of staff.'   Also in 1991, Rodney Hilton, who lived nearby was convicted of sexually abusing boys at the school.

Responding to a letter sent to her by the Knowl View staff in April 1992 Diana Cavanagh is reported to have been strongly critical of care staff.  With reference to boys aged 11 to 13 at one unit of the school being involved in homosexual activities at the Smith Street toilets in the centre of Rochdale, she is reported to have said, 'Those supervising the boys in the evenings appeared either not to notice that they were missing, or not to communicate their observations.'  and, 'There is insufficient evidence to prove culpable neglect, fraud or incompetence by any single member of staff.'

If, as the authors tell us, Mr Digan had been at the school since the late 1970s, this seems to be an awful lot for anyone to be oblivious of.  As for how Mr Digan had the scales lifted from his eyes you can choose between the prosaic versions from the MEN of 2 December 2012 and 30 November 2013, that he was given access to the reports when he became head of care or the melodramatic version from 'Smile for the Camera' in which he slipped into the headteacher's office at night, 'Then, just as he was leaving, he caught sight of a file of papers spread out on the desk under an adjustable lamp.'

I have a copy of the Shepherd report and the details can be checked in the IoS article from 1995. This is what Mr Shepherd had actually written in 1991:   

'One boy who is homosexual has contact with an adult outside the school. Several of the senior boys indulge in oral sex with one another.   

'Reputedly five of the junior boys have been or are involved in 'cottaging' in and around public toilets. Men as far away as Sheffield are believed to be aware of this activity and travel to Rochdale to take part. 

'One eight-year-old is thought to have been involved. The police are aware of the problem. What action has been taken is not known.

One rent boy has been removed from the school. The suggestion that he may return soon has angered the staff.

'Some boys have been 'forced' to have sex with others.'

and this is what Danczuk and Baker claim it says;

'In matter of fact language, the report described the extreme sexual abuse that young boys had been subjected to. Boys were beaten and raped continually by men as far away as Sheffield who had travelled to Rochdale to take part.'

No it didn't!

A few lines later they quote Mr Digan as saying, 'These boys were sold to paedophile gangs.' Of course neither they nor Mr Digan provide any evidence for this.

A page further on they imply that Cyril Smith's name appeared in the Shepherd report when it did not; 'This file was eventually made public by Digan but Cyril Smith and Harry Wild's names were not mentioned.'   This was the IoS article in 1995.

When the authors resort to misquoting documents in this way, presenting opinions as facts and implying that something is true when it isn't, then it casts doubt on much of their book. It goes well beyond being called 'inaccurate journalism'. 

In 1986 Jeremy Corbyn complained to the House of Commons about the activities of Geoffrey Dickens saying:

'The hon. Member for Littleborough and Saddleworth chose, last Thursday, to make a statement to the Press Association, which appeared later in The London Standard. The effect was to make any inquiries difficult to follow, and the estate was besieged by the media, seeking salacious gossip and stories'. 

Making inquiries difficult to follow is precisely what Danczuk and Baker do in their book. Once an accusation is made, the police have to make inquiries. Their story about Smith and Knowl View simply contaminates any evidence which might exist about what really happened at the school. Anyone laying a false trail makes life even more difficult for the police. 

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-martyrdom-of-simon-danczuk.html  

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/i-was-warned-off-asking-brittan-what-he-knew-about-paedophile-dossier-says-labour-mp-simon-danczuk-9588134.html    

http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/home-affairs-committee/inquiries/parliament-2010/localised-grooming-follow-up/?type=Oral#pnlPublicationFilter  

http://www.lbc.co.uk/danczuk-we-ruled-out-action-on-abuse-allegations--117706 

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-humbug-of-simon-danczuk.html  

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/simon-danczuk-wasting-police-time.html  

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/local-news/rochdales-knowl-view-whistleblower-told-6356729 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/boys-in-special-school-were-at-risk-of-aids-1600318.html  

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1986/feb/17/conventions-of-the-house

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/98147/former-danczuk-spin-doctor-matt-baker-accused-of-vile-attack-and-smear-campaign  

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2014/10/08/exclusive-lib-lab-paedo-pact-alleged-in-rochdale/ 

 

The Overactive Imagination of Simon Danczuk

by Les May

IF you want to know what 'The Establishment' really is and how it works, look no further than what has happened since allegations of sexual abuse of a twelve year old boy were made against the late Sir Edward Heath at the beginning of August.

On 3 August the Daily Mirror was running the story with the headline 'Sir Edward Heath child abuse claims: Alleged victim was raped by ex PM when he was just 12', complete with the obligatory photographs of Heath with Cyril Smith and Heath with Jimmy Savile.
Simon Danczuk was quoted as saying:
'These are very serious allegations and they need to be investigated as a matter of urgency.'

In another Mirror article, he is quoted as saying:
'There have been rumours and allegations out there for some time, and I don’t say that lightly.'
Now this is a bit of a porky because in his book he is happy to make statements about child abuse by Cyril Smith being part of a paedophile ring in the absence of evidence of any kind.  Two days after the book was published in April 2014, he told the Today program:
'Had he been prosecuted, then the house of cards would have fallen, in terms of that paedophile network, and it could have brought the government down.'
Again no evidence is produced.

In July of last year, he said with reference to Geoffrey Dickens:
'I have no doubt whatsoever that Dickens was on the right trail and he caused a lot of problems for the establishment. In the early 1980s he famously gave a dossier to the then Conservative Home Secretary, Leon Brittan, giving names of paedophiles operating at the top of the British establishment. Jimmy Savile and Cyril Smith were said to be named in the 40-page dossier.'
As Danczuk never saw the so called 'dossier' he cannot know what it contained or how many pages it had, and all this is just another figment of his over active imagination, with a bit of hearsay thrown in. (Incidentally on 5 July 2014 the Mirror said it was 50 pages!)

By 5th, August, The Telegraph was running a story which cast doubt on some aspects of the story and The Guardian's Simon Jenkins was writing:
'The case against Edward Heath looks flimsy, but already the gutter is being dredged for lurid, unsubstantiated claims'.  He also wrote that the past weeks assault on Heath's reputation 'has been driven by political antipathy to Heath, by latent homophobia and by a general suspicion of people who seem to lead abnormal lives.'

In late August, Harvey Proctor 'outed' himself as a suspect and made a detailed statement about the nature of the accusations which had been made against him. This may have had some influence in shifting perceptions as what had seemed 'lurid' allegations began to look like 'ludicrous' allegations.

Five weeks after the initial claims about Heath the Daily Mail, which had been eager to serialise Danczuk's book about Cyril Smith, was writing; 'Nick: Victim or fantasist?  Rape.  Torture.  Murders'.  These were the extraordinary claims made by one man against leading Establishment figures.  Police called his story 'credible and true' but there's not a shred of evidence to back his allegations'

Then last Tuesday, a BBC Panorama programme cast serious doubt on the claims of a paedophile ring using the facilities of the Elm Street guest house, which seems to have been operated as a homosexual brothel, and on the accusations against the late Sir Leon Brittan and others.

In recent days we have had demands for an apology from Tom Watson with regard to statements he made about Brittan.  As these demands have been prominently reported in the Daily Mail there is no doubt a bit of added spice in being able to attack the Deputy Leader of the Labour party.

So in just nine weeks our print and broadcast media have at last woken up to the fact that it might be a good idea to adopt a slightly more sceptical approach to reporting allegations of child abuse.  Or
at least they have when the accusations are levelled at Establishment figures.

When Danczuk was interviewed by LBC on 10 October the accusations against Establishment figures were described as 'ludicrous', but the claims in his book about Smith being a paedophile were taken for granted as being true by the interviewers, though I doubt that either of them have actually gone to the trouble of reading it. Remember also that on 3rd, August Danczuk was quoted as saying:
'These are very serious allegations and they need to be investigated as a matter of urgency'.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist so I don't think this reflects an attempt at an Establishment 'cover up' to protect people in high places because I too think they are 'ludicrous'.  But if we are going to be asked to re-evaluate the allegations against Heath, Brittan and sundry others of the 'great and the good', should we not also re-evaluate the allegations of paedophilia against Cyril Smith and especially the claims in the Danczuk book?

Whilst no one can possibly defend what Tom Watson repeated about Leon Brittan after his death nor his attempt to pressure the Director of Public Prosecution, at least he has had the good grace to apologise for what he did say and to make an effort to explain some of his actions saying, 'I had been told of multiple allegations about Leon Brittan and I had met some of the people making those allegations at their request. I did not and could not know if they were true but I did believe their claims should be fully investigated'.

In contrast to Danczuk, Watson recognises in that last sentence that just because he was told something, he should not just assume it was true. Yet Watson is being vilified by Richard Littlejohn who calls him the 'Nonce Finder General' in the Daily Mail, whilst Danczuk, who never misses the opportunity to repeat his claims about Cyril Smith as if they had been proven to be true, seems to be immune from criticism. Perhaps the reason is that the Daily Mail paid him to serialise the book. Or is it that they consider him their 'tame' Labour MP always ready to criticise his party?

As a BBC report from November 2012 makes clear Danczuk's original intervention was with regard to 'indecent assault' by Smith who had carried out fake medical examinations and spankings of young men (not 'young boys' as Danczuk claimed) at Cambridge House hostel in the 1960s.

Although Danczuk has been happy to be seen as the person who unearthed this sordid story, in fact it was revealed in the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) in May 1979 by the co-editors David Bartlett and John Walker.  Whilst these two could support their story with affidavits from six of the men indecently assaulted by Smith, Danczuk can offer nothing but assertions, and second and third hand gossip about Smith's activities after the closure of Cambridge House in the 1960s.  At least one of his claims involving a car boot load of child pornography, and Northamptonshire police looking the other way has been shown to be without foundation.

Is it not strange that the BBC can so quickly research and produce a Panorama programme casting doubt on the truth of some of the claims made against some very prominent figures, yet the organisation has been happy to offer Danczuk an option on his book about Cyril Smith being turned into a television programme?

Is it not doubly strange that even though we now know that Danczuk's former aide Matthew Baker has been accused of attempting to smear a former Labour Leader of Rochdale council with having knowledge in the 1990s of abuse in a Rochdale School, no-one has thought to question the veracity of some of the claims about abuse by Cyril Smith made in the book he co-authored with Danczuk?

What Simon Jenkins had to say about Heath can equally well be applied to Smith. Danczuk has repeatedly used Smith's actions at Cambridge House and his claims based on gossip and hearsay
against Rochdale LibDems and Nick Clegg, Smith was a homosexual, and his size and devotion to his mother no doubt made his life seem 'abnormal' to some people.


http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/88102/letter-from-parliament-simon-danczuk-mp
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sir-edward-heath-child-abuse-6188388
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sir-edward-heath-child-abuse-6188663

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11786520/Sir-Edward-Heath-Sex-trial-was-not-dropped-to-cover-up-ex-PM-allegations-says-lawyer.html
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/05/convict-dead-defenceless-case-edward-heath
https://theneedleblog.wordpress.com/2015/08/25/full-statement-of-harvey-proctor/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3240661/Nick-Victim-fantasist-Rape-Torture-Murders-extraordinary-claims-one-man-against-leading-Establishment-figures-Police-called-story-credible-true-s-not-shred-evidence-allegations.html
http://www.lbc.co.uk/danczuk-we-ruled-out-action-on-abuse-allegations--117706
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34484611
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/10/09/i-had-a-duty-to-pass-leon-brittain-allegations-to-authorities-says-tom-watson_n_8268722.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3265531/Lord-Brittan-treated-outrageously-police-gossiped-journalists-unfounded-rape-claims-against-brother-says.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3265772/DAILY-MAIL-COMMENT-not-say-sorry-Mr-Watson.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3265730/Why-Nonce-Finder-General-Tom-Watson-won-t-say-sorry-unfit-high-political-office-bearded-Trot-Corbyn-RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-20303606
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-33716982
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-34400387
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27047442