London: British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday night ordered a fresh investigation to discover what happened to a missing dossier detailing explosive claims of a Westminster paedophile ring. Ministers including Nick Clegg and Theresa May have been rejecting calls for a full-scale public inquiry into historical child abuse, insisting a police investigation will be sufficient to get to the bottom of the claims.
However, the Prime Minister ordered the Home Office’s most senior official to launch an investigation amid claims that the department’s response to the affair so far had been ‘outrageous’, Daily Mail reported. Mr Cameron said he understood mounting concerns about what happened to the dossier handed over to then home secretary Leon Brittan by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens in 1983.
The tiny squad has been given the huge task of investigating historical allegations of child abuse relating to MPs, a guest house where rent boys entertained Establishment figures, a children’s home and the notorious Paedophile Information Exchange. Sources close to the investigation, which has the umbrella name Operation Fairbank, say it has been poorly resourced since day one and claim that Metropolitan Police bosses have shown little interest in it.
By contrast, nearly 200 detectives have been deployed on the investigation into phone hacking and bribery allegations involving journalists, while about 30 officers have been attached to Operation Yewtree, the Jimmy Savile scandal inquiry into sex crimes committed by celebrities. The revelation that Scotland Yard boss Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe and his senior officers put just seven officers on Operation Fairbank prompted criticism and claims of a continuing cover-up.
