More about Alan Lewis CBE Tory rapist and multi-millionaire banker

Alan Lewis CBE accused of  raping a girl  spent his life making money anyway he could. At last year’s Tory conference he was involved in selling packages for up to £1,250 to bosses of oil and payday loan firms that allowed them to spend time with Mr Cameron and other Tories.

He is chairman of  Hartley Group which has  a subsidiary Hartly Investment Banking Division a net lander. 
 
 Hartley Investment Trust Limited was formed as an investment banking company in 1983. Alan J Lewis CBE is the Chairman and majority shareholder.

Hartley’s interests include investment banking operations in both the USA and Spain. 

He is chairman of the Hartley Group who  owns Hartley Investment Trust and Group. The group  emerged from Yorkshire textile giant Illingworth Morris.


Today, the group has commercial, industrial and residential properties in the UK, Spain and Russia and its natural resource portfolio ranges from natural gas in Louisiana to timber in Russia.  read rmore http://www.hartleyinvestmenttrust.com/index.htm#bandf

Lancashire-born Lewis CBE  From 1988 to 1990 was chairman of the CBI Initiative for Europe and he is currently Conservative Party vice-chairman for business relations and being questioned by the police about  the rape.

He is also chairman of governors at Kings Science Academy in Bradford which gives him access to lots of young students.

Top Tory arrested for historical rape no comment from Cameron

 Tory top dog Alan Lewis, on his way to the Tory Party Conferance, was  arrested for raping girl in the 60's.

 Lets hope this is the first of many Tory's arrested  for crimes against children and young people.  But more likely this is one Top Dog  who was not involved in the the systematic abuse of children in children's homes.

So the  establishment paedophile cover-up squad  have decided to throw Lewis  to the lions in the hope that they can continue their lucrative child porn and child sex slave trade.   Now  if it had been Leon Brittan  we would have been impressed.    But of course the High Court in the UK have issued a superinjuction to prevent anyone nameing Leon Brittan as the paedophile he is.

Keep exposing the truth people becase it is really worrying  the State paedophile Establisment.

Alan Lewis is a close ally  of David Cameron's he was  appointed by David Cameron in 2010 as Tory vice-chairman responsible for business relations

 

The 75 years old , was held by police  for the rape of a girl student.

The self-made tycoon, who owns the Crombie clothing chain and is thought to have a fortune of between £220 and £260 million, was reportedly arrested at a Manchester hotel while on a business trip.


His arrest sent shockwaves through Downing Street.

A Tory source said: “We are in a state of shock over this.

"It could not have come at a worse time. Alan’s arrest will become the talking point of next week’s conference.”
Another party insider added: “At the moment only a few senior Tories are aware of Alan Lewis’s arrest. But once word gets out it will be a bombshell.
“Alan is a hugely popular figure with the senior ranks of the party, and his close relationship with David Cameron is well known.
“He plays a crucial role in keeping the obvious links between the Conservatives and their friends in the business world.”


Police asked  Lewis to attend a station in Belgravia, Central London  where he  was arrested on ­suspicion of raping a student in a Manchester hotel while on a business trip. She lived in the city at the time of the alleged attack.  

The married woman, from Dorset and now in her 60s, came forward with her shock allegation a few weeks ago.
 
A party source said: “Questions are sure to be asked as to why the police have decided to arrest Alan Lewis only 48 hours before the start of conference. News of the arrest was bound to become the talk of the conference.”     Obviously he thought the police were under the COnservative party control  no Mr Tory they are under paedophile organised crime controle.

Greater Manchester Police confirmed: “A 75-year-old man has been arrested after a complaint of an historic rape in the Manchester area in the late 60s.

"The man remains in custody for questioning and inquiries are ongoing.”

Mr Lewis, who has donated nearly £500,000 to the Tories since 2006, was due attend meetings with business leaders and MPs at the conference.

The multi-millionaire, who grew up in Manchester and now has homes in London and Florida, was a successful ­entrepreneur at the time of the alleged rape.
He made his fortune turning around ailing textile firms.
He has been a central Tory figure since the 80s and went on to become chairman of the ­Confederation of British Industry from 1988 to 1990.
Mr Lewis, awarded a CBE in 1990, displayed his close ties to the party during the 1987 election as Margaret Thatcher regained power.
In 2010, the Mr Cameron made him vice chairman with responsibility for ­business. Mr Lewis claims to read the Bible every day.

He once said: “You have to conduct business in an honest and Christian-like way.”

At last year’s Tory conference he was involved in selling packages for up to £1,250 to bosses of oil and payday loan firms that allowed them to spend time with Mr Cameron and other Tories.

Lewis of course was honoured  when In 1990, he was made a CBE for his services as chairman of the Confederation of British Industry's initiative to prepare British businesses to the single market.

A Tory supporter since the early 1980s, he is a black belt in karate and a promoter of Christian healing who claims to read the Bible every day.

Plaid Cymru the national party of Wales supports an independent inquiry into Child Abuse

 We will be  publishing replies to the recent  call  from Spotlight on  abuse   for people to write to their MP  to call for a national investigation into the  decades of cover-up of child abuse. 

(Please send us your replies from your MP's !   we will publish them without your name)

I, along with Plaid Cymru's party leader, have been supporting those victims of child abuse in North Wales since the scandal re-emerged in the wake of the Jimmy Saville allegations.

I wholeheartedly agree that more needs to be done, both to ensure that this kind of abuse cannot happen again and also to uncover historic wrongdoing. The role of the police and other authorities in the Bryn Estyn case, for example, is not encouraging and an independent inquiry would benefit all victims and wider society.

Yours

Llyr

Llyr Gruffydd AC/AM

Plaid Cymru the Party of Wales

Rhanbarth Gogledd Cymru

North Wales Region

Gweinidog Cysgodol ar yr Amgylchedd a Chynaladwyedd

Shadow Minister for the Environment and Sustanability

Ebost/Email: Llyr.Gruffydd@wales.gov.uk

*    Plaid Cymru, Regent Street, Wrecsam, LL11 1RE

(   01978 365512

 Please send us your replies from your MP's  and we will publish them without your name

 

Jailed BBC sports presenter Stuart Hall to be questioned about new child rape allegations

 Daily Mail reports that  Stuart Hall to be questioned about new child rape allegations

Stuart Hall  whom a UK paedophile loving judge  gave a mere 15 month sentence to for the rape of little girls is to be questioned over further child abuse allegation.

Former BBC sports presenter Stuart Hall who expected to be out in 6 months had his sentence increased by the Appeal Court  to 30 months. Now he can expect to be out in one year.

The UK Courts still do not  treat child rape as a serious crime especially if  the criminal is rich and or famous. 

Stuart Hall is set to be questioned over fresh allegations of sexual assault after a woman complained that he had raped her, it was claimed today.
Lancashire Police confirmed that they had received 'further allegations' about the veteran broadcaster, who is currently in jail for indecent assault.
The new claims are said to have been made by a woman who told police that Hall, 83, repeatedly raped her when she was a teenager.

The former presenter of It's A Knockout was jailed for 15 months in June after he admitted 14 counts of indecent assault against girls as young as nine.
Following widespread outrage over the 'unduly lenient' prison term, Hall's sentence was doubled at the Court of Appeal.
A police spokesman said: 'We can confirm that we have received further allegations against Mr Hall and we are working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to determine the most appropriate course of action. It remains an ongoing investigation.'
The latest allegations were made by a relative of friends of Hall, according to Sky News.
Hall, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, admitted 14 counts of indecent assault against girls aged between nine and 17 over a period of almost 20 years after initially denying the allegations.
When Hall's sentence was increased to 30 months, judges criticised his public denials of his victims' claims when he knew he was guilty.

Claims: Hall is alleged to have attacked a family friend of his when she was a teenager, according to reports

Host: Hall with Tessa Sanderson and Toyah Willcox during his days as presenter of It's A Knockout

Lord Judge said the court regarded his original denials - describing the claims against him as 'cruel, pernicious and spurious' in a statement made from the steps of a court - as a 'seriously aggravating' feature in the case.
He said that when Hall attacked his victims' claims, he knew the truth and, as an expert in the use of the media, was fully alert to the possible advantages of manipulating it. 

Stuart Hall admits 14 counts of indecent assault

The case was referred to the Court of Appeal by Attorney General Dominic Grieve, who argued that Hall's sentence failed to adequately reflect the gravity of his offending and the public concern about such crimes.
In July, it emerged that police had received further allegations against Hall, including a claim that he raped a 12-year-old girl.
At least 17 women are said to be suing Hall, who has tried to pay off his victims in out-of-court settlements which have been derided as 'paltry'.

Also read this harrowing case  what a sick society the UK is  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2432957/Teenage-paedophile-killed-10-month-old-baby-boy-abusing-cutlery.html

Paedophiles, Coronation Street and the Yorskshire CPS

 Britain has a criminal justice system where the rich can get off anything because they can hire the best liars known as Queens Council. The poor get the worst liars and if the Govt want to bury them liars who are easily bought  known as barristers.   Juries  are rigged and Justice has place in the UK's criminal  courts save for a few rare instances.


It is quite surprising to be able to make a connection from West Yorkshire Police to alleged paedophiles in the television programme, Coronation Street.

There has recently been huge publicity surrounding the arrest, and Manchester Crown Court appearances, of actor Michael Le Vell (pictured top right) who plays a garage-owning character called Kevin Webster in the Street. Le Vell, who first appeared in the programme in 1983, is charged with 19 child sex allegations including rape, indecent assault and sexual activity with a child aged 6, after a Crown Prosecution Service review of charges against him that had ­previously been dropped through lack of evidence. He most recently stood in Court on Friday 17th May, 2013 and is on bail on condition he  surrenders  his passport, does not contact named witnesses and does not  have unsupervised  contact with any child under 14.
Even though Le Vell, charged under his real name of Turner, now faces a long wait to go to full trial (bailed to appear on 2nd September 2013) he has told friends he is “smiling through” and has vowed to clear his name. The alleged offences all took place between 2001 and 2010. He split from his wife Janette Beverley last year. Ms Beverley also appeared in the Street, which is where the couple first met. Le Vell has recently struck up a relationship with a 31 year old married woman, Blanca Fouche, who is a neighbour in the upmarket celebrity village of Hale. Mrs Fouche has two children aged 3 and 2.
In a sensational ending to the trial Michael Le Vell was found not guilty amid claims that the case should not have reached court. The main prosecution witness – the alleged victim – had given inconsistent evidence throughout her testimony and it was clear from an early stage that the jury could not bring in a guilty verdict without any corroborating evidence.
Another high profile Court appearance followed the charging last November of Andrew Lancel who played the Street character of scheming lingerie factory owner, Frank Foster. He is accused  of two counts of indecent assault on a child under 14 and two counts of indecent  assault on a child under 15. The offences allegedly took place in Southport between 1993 and 1994 when the victim was a trainee actor associated with Southport Operatic New Generation group. Lancel had also trained with the same drama group earlier in his career. The Royal Clifton Hotel in Southport was alleged to have been one of the locations where offences took place. Lancel’s trial began on 3rd June 2013 at Liverpool Crown Court before Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Clement Goldstone QC. Liverpool barrister Kim Whittlestone is prosecuting counsel and she told jurors:  “The prosecution case is that the defendant used his status as an actor at that time to flatter and gain the trust of the victim. He knew he was under the age of consent but despite that would progress their friendship and made it sexual, something that he knew was illegal and something that he knew could get him into big trouble if found out.” She then referred to a second boy who was also in a theatre group who claimed Lancel offered to massage him to help with insomnia. He said during the massage Lancel began to  perform a sexual act on him and the boy was so shocked he didn’t know what to do. He said Lancel told him “it just felt the natural thing to do” but when he saw how shocked the boy was, he told him to forget it had happened.
Miss Whittlestone added: “This evidence, the prosecution say, is important as it is evidence if you accept it as accurate and true that supports the assertion that the defendant did have a sexual interest in boys under the age of 16 years.” She said there was evidence from a third man who befriended Lancel when he was 15 and would play pool and go swimming with him. They were walking along the beach one time Lancel made a sexual reference to him but he laughed it off. “He remembers the defendant’s attentions towards him waning off  but can’t remember why.”
The actor — who for 15 years starred as DI Neil Manson in cop show The Bill and also appeared in Jimmy McGovern’s Hillsborough film — was  charged in his real name, Andrew Charles Watkinson, under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. His solicitor, Stuart Nolan of DPP Law in Liverpool, insisted the star “strenuously denies the allegations” and a formal plea of not guilty has been entered. Birmingham ‘heavyweight silk’, Andrew Menary QC, is defending Lancel.
The trial concluded on Monday 10th June and the soap star was found not guilty of all indecent assault charges by the jury after just 29 minutes of deliberation. After the verdicts were declared Judge Goldstone told defence counsel that the verdicts did not mean sexual encounters never took place. He said: ‘The defendant was acquitted on the evidence, and rightly so, but it is important that the complainant, who is clearly scarred by an experience, should understand that the jury verdict does not necessarily involve rejection of his account of a sexual encounter or encounters with the defendant. It is a statement that the prosecution have failed to make the jury sure that abuse of the type alleged occurred during the period covered by the indictment and, in particular, before the complainant’s 16th birthday, now more than 18 years ago.’
These two cases follow on from the child abuse allegations that lingered around Street actor, Peter Adamson, and ultimately wrecked his career and his life. He was accused of indecently assaulting two young girls, aged 8, at Haslingden public swimming pool but subsequently cleared at Burnley Crown Court. Although Adamson (pictured top centre) was acquitted of the charges, after securing the services of George Carman QC to defend him, he subsequently gave a drink-inspired interview to a reporter on a red-top tabloid newspaper, during which he both acknowledged and denied that he had been guilty: “I am totally guilty of everything the police said,” he said. “But what I hope you will print – there was no sexual intent.”
Adamson had also sold behind-the-scenes accounts of life on the Street for £110,000 (worth over £1 million in today’s money), and was written out of the series as a result. He had played the feisty womaniser, Len Fairclough, in the soap opera.
On Wednesday 1st May 2013, Lancashire Police announced that an 81 year old man had been arrested in connection with two rape assaults of a 15 year old girl in Haslingden in 1967. Police were searching the Wilmslow home of actor Bill Roache, who plays the part of another serial womaniser in the Street, Ken Barlow. Roache was famously quoted only a few weeks prior to his arrest when talking about victims of child abuse: “Everything that happens to us has been a result of what we have been in previous lives.” After a public outcry he was forced to retract the comment. The actor had also said the public should not be judgmental but be “totally forgiving” of people who had committed child sex crimes.
ITV declined to comment on Roache ”whilst the police investigation is ongoing” but it is understood that the character Ken Barlow will not appear in Coronation Street in the near future. Ken Barlow was part of the very first programme in December 1960 and has been a pivotal character ever since. The day after his arrest Roache issued a statement saying: “I strenuously deny the allegations and will focus attention on fighting to preserve my innocence in challenging times ahead.”
Nazir Afzal, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West Region, said in a press statement on 6th June 2013: “We have carefully considered all the evidence gathered by Lancashire police in relation to recent allegations from four complainants that William Roache indecently assaulted them in the 1960s. Having completed our review, we have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest for Mr Roache to be charged with five offences of indecent assault relating to four girls who were aged between 11 or 12 and 16 at the time that the alleged offences happened. We have been reviewing evidence and providing early investigative advice to Lancashire Police regarding these allegations, which were made to police after Mr Roache was charged with two offences of rape on 1 May 2013.
Mr Afzal concluded: ”This decision was taken in accordance with the code for crown prosecutors and our guidance for prosecutors on sexual offences. Mr Roache has a right to a fair trial and it is therefore very important that nothing is said, or reported, which could prejudice that trial. For these reasons, it would be inappropriate for me to comment further.”
Roache appeared at Preston Magistrates Court on 7th June 2013 and, after the Court was told if convicted indecent assaults could attract up to 12 months jail, the case was referred to Preston Crown Court on 10th June where, at a preliminary hearing, a trial date of 13th January 2014 was set. The fresh charges are in addition to the initial two counts of rape Roache faced in May, after which Roache said he was “astounded and deeply horrified”. Formal not guilty pleas were entered at a plea and case management hearing scheduled on 2nd September and Roache’s solicitors added that the actor found the allegations “deeply upsetting” and ”is looking forward to clearing his name before a jury”. Interestingly, at that hearing it was revealed that some of the alleged offences took place in Haslingden, the small Lancashire town featured in the Adamson case above.
On September 15th 2013 a national newspaper reported further lurid allegations that two high profile male Coronation Street stars had been caught in bed with two children aged around 10 to 12 years old. Police are investigating.
The West Yorkshire Police connection comes in the athletic shape of former PC Mick Amos, who served the Force for eleven years. ‘Hollywood’, as he is known to his many police friends, is also an actor in Coronation Street. Having achieved notoriety as the policeman arresting the popular character Tyrone Dobbs, he also appeared in the recent scene that saw the fictional public house, The Rovers Return, firebombed.
Mick Amos, (pictured on the right of the centre picture above) has vowed to confront paedophilia within the police, even though he is no longer a serving police officer, and he will assert all his rights as an honest citizen to fight this child abuse menace, in all its forms and wherever it manifests itself. He will also call in his many celebrity, political and press friends to aid in this fight for justice for children.
As a former Great Britain international at both football and rugby Mick should have all the necessary stamina and fighting qualities needed in this quest. He also has wide experience of working with children of all ages to draw upon as he was, latterly, a very successful schools and community liaison police officer in the Wakefield area, with many commendations for his work.
West Yorkshire Police does, of course, have more known convicted police officer paedophiles than any other police force in the UK (For full list of WY police paedophiles click here). It is, however, uPSD’s belief that there are possibly up to 20 more within the Force and some of senior rank. This is based on the sheer implausibility of paedophilia being confined to mainly younger officers at constable rank.
The officer on the left of the centre picture above is none other than (Sir) Norman Bettison. He was repeatedly challenged by uPSD to denounce paedophilia within the ranks of his own Force. He refused and eventually scuttled off into pensioned retirement, to avoid the sack for gross misconduct, without ever doing so.
In other dramatic developments it was reported last month that a child abuse ‘ring’ had been uncovered that was connected to another popular television soap opera. This time it is the BBC’s East Enders that is at the centre of the paedophilia storm. A six-member police Special Operations Unit has been set up to work full-time on the  investigation — an indicator of the serious nature of the claims. The officers have been seconded from Child Protection units at the Metropolitan Police and Hertfordshire Police.
A BBC spokesman said at the time: “The BBC is not aware of this investigation but we take any allegations of this nature extremely seriously. We will be approaching the police to ascertain the details and to offer our full  co-operation.” Proof of a paedophile ring within EastEnders would be a devastating blow to the BBC in the wake of the Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall scandals. Hall admitted 9 counts of sexually abusing thirteen girls over a twenty year period and was jailed for 15 months (later increased to 30 months after a public protest). The youngest girl abused was only nine years old.

Curtesy of Unprofessional Standards

Greenpeace worried about the detention of their activist Alex

Greenpeace is asking for your help to support detained activist Alex  who is in the hands of the Russians.

Ian from Greenpeace wrote:-

It’s been 100 hours since we heard from Alex. A colleague and a friend, is one of 30 people being held prisoner aboard the Arctic Sunrise. Alex was one of the three activists who locked themselves in the communications room to get the message out, right before armed forces broke in and cut our contact with the ship.

 

Russian media have reported that the Arctic Sunrise will be towed into the port of Murmansk on Tuesday. The activists have not been formally charged with anything yet. Let's use these last few critical hours to pressure the Russian authorities to release Alex and the 29 others.
Please send an urgent email to the Russian embassy to release our activists. More than 300,000 have been sent already, and every message counts.
www.greenpeace.org/freeouractivists
Seizing our ship in international waters is illegal. And the detention of peaceful protestors without charge is wrong. But it’s not too late for the Russian authorities to set them free.
Instead of protecting Arctic oil drillers, governments around the world should be protecting us from the threat that companies like Gazprom and Shell pose to us all.
Alex risked her liberty for all of us, now it’s time for us to stand up for her and help free the Arctic 30.
Ian and the friends and family at Greenpeace

Write to Your MP and ask them to support a national investigation into child abuse cover-ups

Spotlight on abuse is calling for everyone who cares about children to  write to their MP  to call for a national investigation into the decades of cover-up of child abuse.   

Only a national investigation,  and not by the police who  were part of the cover-up, will expose the truth  and stop it from ever happening again.

Spotlight on abuse has written an open letter to David Cameron  and you can send the letter below  to you MP as it is or alter the text  to make it more  personal.

I ask everyone to send a copy of the ‘Open letter to David Cameron’ to their MP with a personal message.
Send via this website: http://www.writetothem.com/
Send a message in your own words, or if you’re pressed for time you could use this draft email template below.
Please contact spotlight on abuse spotlightonabuse@gmail.com  when your MP has replied so their responses can be collated.

Dear [my MP]

I call your attention to an open letter to David Cameron (below) which seeks to expose child abuse – both historic and current.

Whilst the letter is addressed to the Prime Minister, I look to all Members of Parliament to put pressure on the Cabinet and those in governmental office to demand investigation of all paedophiles – no matter of their standing in society or high office.

As my MP, I trust you to represent me on this matter and assist in exposing these horrendous crimes.

Do you support the request, summed up in the final paragraph of the open letter, for an independent inquiry and an immediate national police investigation? 

Yours sincerely,
[your name]


Dear Mr. Cameron
On the very day, 24th October 2012, that Tom Watson asked you a PMQ re. the possibility of a link between a very large and highly organised paedophile ring and No 10, you made a number of quotes to the mainstream media.
You were in fact referring to the Savile/BBC/NHS scandal.
I made a note of some of those quotes :-
”The Government will do all it can do, other institutions must do what they can do, to make sure that we learn the lesson of this and it can NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN”
“Collusion should NEVER happen again ”
”The measure of how our society is, is how we treat its most vulnerable members”
There are no more vulnerable members of our society than children who have been taken in to care and then re-abused by the very people charged with the responsibility of caring for them and protecting them,and even worse then passing them on to be further abused by the very people who make the laws in this country and are expected to lead the way on the moral compass of that society.
I have no doubt that you have watched or been made aware of Channel 4′s Dispatches on 12th September and the allegations that arose from it regarding the role of senior politicians, the security services and the Crown Prosecution Service in covering up the horrendous abuse carried out by Cyril Smith over 5 decades.The overlap with Savile in terms of who knew about this abuse were laid bare.
I also have no doubt that you are aware that your colleagues in your party, Edwina Currie,Gyles Brandreth and Rod Richards have made very damning statements of how well known in Westminster circles it was that Peter Morrison was a dangerous paedophile, and yet his career was unaffected as he rose to be Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party, Mrs. Thatcher’s PPS in 1990 and her campaign manager that same year despite this knowledge having been around for many years.
I also have no doubt that you are aware of the statement of Tim Fortescue,Edward Heath’s Chief Whip from 1970-73, made public on Michael Cockerell’s BBC Documentary in 1995 called “Westminster’s Secret Service “.
Talking about the role of the chief whip, Fortescue said ” For anyone with any sense who was in trouble would come to the whips and tell them the truth ………….. it might be erm erm a scandal involving small boys ……….. we would do everything we can because we would store up brownie points ……. and if I mean, that sounds a pretty,pretty nasty reason, but it’s one of the reasons because if we could get a chap out of trouble then,he will do as we ask forever more.”
I don’t need to tell you of the revulsion I feel towards our political masters having worked with sexually abused children for over 30 years when I heard of how the Whips ran the Dirt Book system.
Your colleague, John Whittingdale, in his role as Chair of the Culture Committee,put himself forward as the moral voice of Parliament in the days following the exposure of Savile on national TV.
He lost no opportunity to appear on every news channel for many days to demand in effect the head of the Director General of the BBC.To date I have not heard you or Mr. Whittingdale demand such investigations in to your own institution despite the mountain of concern a small proportion of which I have referred to above.
Just on Savile alone without looking any further why was there no investigation along the lines of the many BBC inquiries in to why a British Prime Minister was so close to Savile that he allegedly attended 13 consecutive New Year’s Eve parties at Chequers and why the same Prime Minister allegedly persevered for many years in insisting that such an evil man long identified as having a deviant sexual history should get a knighthood,ignoring the advice of her closest advisers.
Why was the same man so welcome in Prince Charles’s properties despite the security services and similar vetting institutions having enough opportunity to tap in to the ” gossip” about Savile that was around for decades.
I would dearly like to go in to more detail but until the Metropolitan Police’s Operations Fernbridge and Fairbank are completed then for obvious reasons I can not.
In the aftermath of the Lord McAlpine affair I was extremely disappointed by the confusion you attempted to create by making accusations of gay witch-hunts. There is no connection whatsoever between being gay and being a paedophile.
This is about and only about people who abuse young children regardless of whether the abuser is heterosexual or gay.
There is no witch-hunt against gay people and it was most irresponsible for a Prime Minister to make such a statement when the abuse of our most vulnerable was the issue.
Now is the time for you to show the genuine commitment expected of a Prime Minister and do what you preached in those statements last October especially ” COLLUSION SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN ” and the demand that ALL institutions look inwards and examine their role in past collusion/cover up.
A starting point, and to give Parliament and Government any credibility in this heinous historical scandal, is for you to put all party political considerations aside and arrange an urgent meeting with Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband to draw up a blueprint as to how your own institution will be investigated along the lines of the way you and colleagues demanded that people be brought to account in the BBC or NHS for their failure to blow the whistle on Savile.
It would be better if you led such an exercise before it is forced upon you by public demand.
The latter will happen in time.
A starting point would be an immediate statement that there will be urgent cross-party talks to set up an independant body to examine who ordered these cover ups of people like Smith and Morrison, after ordering an immediate Police investigation by the National Crime Agency and ensuring that the latter body has sufficient resources to go wherever the evidence takes them and however long it takes. This must include the investigation of living politicians, police officers,civil servants,security services personnel etc.

Yours sincerely,

The source of Tom Watson’s PMQ

Are UK Social Services complicit in child sex abuse procurement networks

 courtesy of the coleman experience 

  



 
Time and time again we hear tell of social services departments across the U.K. turning a blind eye to complaints of wide-scale child abuse rings and in some cases being implicated in them.
In the London borough of Richmond, it’s now been reported that social services knew full well that children were being abused at the Elm Guest house.

In Sunderland, former Director of Social Services, Colin Smart, tried in vain to alert his superiors about abuse taking place in children’s homes but was vilified and dragged in front of the High Court for his efforts.



 
Award winning journalist  Nick Davies  writes that:-

” Cover-up has become part of the story of child abuse, particularly in the children’s homes which were swept by a wave of rape and assault during the last three decades. Over and over again, somewhere in the midst of this wave, a lonely figure would appear, yelling for help, only to be ignored or submerged by the powers that should have reached out a hand.

In North Wales, it was Alison Taylor, the manager of a children’s home, who spent five years banging on the door of her employers at Gwynedd Council, the police, the Welsh Office, the Department of Health, and the Social Services Inspectorate. All turned her away. Undaunted, she compiled a dossier of 75 separate allegations, won the backing of two local councillors and finally secured the conviction of four men for an orgy of abuse. As a result, the Government finally ordered the vast public inquiry which has now heard nearly 300 former residents of homes make detailed complaints of physical and sexual assault against 148 adults.

By that time, however, Alison Taylor had been suspended and sacked.”

In the case of  the North Wales  Bryn Alyn Comunity and the Dolphin Square scandal we find that, rather than stopping child-abuse taking place in children’s homes, social services departments were actually throwing millions of pounds at the owners.  

Child abuse whistle blower  says in her statement that  " Local authorities paid more than £28 million to the Bryn Alyn community of children’s homes. Their owner John Allen was jailed in 1995 for child abuse. John Allen also gave gifts from public funds to the abused children as hush money, one single boy being paid £25,000. "  and  she said  that the public Waterhouse inquiry  "  did not investigate the financial affairs of John Allen or the matter of the gross waste of public money. Public money, which for decades, had been poured into the pockets of paedophiles who were exploiting the children in their care. "  read  the full statement  http://macurstatement.blogspot.com

EIleen Fairweather wrote in the Telegraph in an article entitled The Truth Behind the chid abuse cover up  "I have sometimes thought of those who escaped the Holocaust during the war, but no one believed their stories. This has been a hard journalistic beat to tread. Yet I am not one of the victims of Britain’s holocaust of children, just a witness, a reporter. Dear God, please, this time, let us not fail them."  read more http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10177681/The-truth-behind-the-child-abuse-cover-ups.html

A similar story  of the  betrayed pd innocence emerged in the vile Islington care home scandal, which took place with the complicity of social services and resulted in the tragic and brutal death of Jason Swift by perverted child-killer Sidney Cooke.
 


If, as we’re now beginning to discover, a wide-scale VIP child-abuse ring has been operating in the U.K. for decades, who’s been supplying children to the filthy abusers?
Who else could it be but social services?

Under the guise of ” child protection”, disgusting social workers have been able to gain a steady stream of victims from often poor and powerless families who’ve been unable to fight the system of secret courts and harassing social services.

According to the Telegraph:
” Hundreds of social services staff accused of disciplinary breaches, including paedophile offences, were left free to look after vulnerable people while decisions about whether they should be suspended or struck off were delayed" 

Hearings into their cases were put off for months, and in some cases years, so that the regulator could delay paying the costs, according to a report for ministers. Some of the most serious cases were abandoned with “little or no” investigation, by staff who felt under pressure to shelve cases regardless of the dangers to the public.”

Many decent social workers have deserted the profession or been sacked and that’s left the gate wide open for only ruthless, aggressive, and sociopathic social workers to remain.  Are these not the perfect characteristics needed for guilt-free child-snatching to satisfy VIP abuse rings?

Yes they well bloody are.

That’s filthy Britain for you.

Even social services are in on it.


http://macurstatement.blogspot.com Andrea Davison statement
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10177681/The-truth-behind-the-child-abuse-cover-ups.html
http://davidhencke.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/richmond-social-services-knew-their-children-were-abused-former-childrens-director/
http://www.nickdavies.net/1998/04/01/silencing-a-scandal-the-story-of-colin-smart/
http://google-law.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/margaret-hodge-covered-up-child-abuse.html
http://merovee.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/jason-swift-sidney-cooke-and-tory-cabinet-minister/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/6678045/Paedophiles-continued-as-social-workers-because-of-watchdog-failings.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2224167/Former-Minister-says-Thatcher-aide-paedophile-preyed-boys-home–Hague-known.html
http://thecolemanexperience.wordpress.com/2013/03/23/mr-x-dolphin-square-bryn-alyn-and-the-murderous-arson-attack-connection/
http://thecolemanexperience.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/sister-latex-mr-x-and-the-dolphin-square-connection/
http://thecolemanexperience.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/the-mysterious-death-of-frank-beck-2/
http://thecolemanexperience.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/grafton-close-childrens-home-and-the-elm-guest-house-scandal/
http://thecolemanexperience.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/welcome-to-filthy-britain/
http://thecolemanexperience.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/westminstercouncilandthecreightonscontract

Are North Wales Police doing enough to catch Missing child abuser

A CHILD abuser is on the loose in North Wales.

He’s a freemason.

A retired police detective is the man who says so.

The former policeman is also an abuser who was caught and gaoled.

Both men were members of a child abuse ring organised by a man who had previously attacked and seriously injured two women and had nearly got away with murdering another.

The full story of what happened has never been told.

Rebecca Television asks if the police – and the masons – have done enough to track down the missing masonic child abuser.

LLANDDULAS BEACH
One of the North Wales beaches where a paedophile ring sexually exploited a young girl. Photo: Barry Davies / Rebecca Television

WHEN FORMER Birmingham police officer Raymond Ketland parked his car on a North Wales beach in 2005 a group of men walked by.
One of the group saw 66-year-old Ketland and walked over to him.
At his trial, prosecution barrister Andrew Thomas said Ketland told police he recognised this man as a member of the masonic lodge he belonged to.
The mason asked: “do you want to have a bit of fun?”
He pointed to a girl who was with the group.
Ketland decided to join in the “fun”.
The group sex was organised by Fred Lawlor from Abergele.
He had gained control of the young girl when she was 13.
She was 14 when police rescued her: she told them Lawlor instructed her to have sex with 50 men.
North Wales Police began investigating after a member of the public saw sexual activity and reported it.
Police launched Operation Furley and began to carry out surveillance on beaches between Llandudno and Rhyl.
On one occasion officers saw Lawlor with the young girl.
They considered that she wasn’t dressed appropriately.
He responded by writing to the Chief Constable complaining of harassment.
Eventually police raided Lawlor’s flat and discovered videos of the girl having sex with scores of men.
As well as having sex with the girl himself, Lawlor filmed encounters with other men, sometimes using a hidden camera.
When the videos were examined, police found 17 men who could be identified.

One of these was retired Midlands detective Raymond Ketland.
He was charged with two counts of having sex with a child, taking an indecent image and facilitating a child sex offence.
He was gaoled for two and a half years.   Only two and half years ?

RAYMOND KETLAND

The retired detective sergeant claims he was invited to join the ring by a fellow freemason. Photo: Barry Davies / Rebecca Television

Ketland refused to name the freemason who had invited him to join in the abuse.

A bishop from Liberal Catholic Church, Gerard Crane, appeared as a character witness for Ketland.
The Liberal Catholic Church is not connected to the Church of Rome.
Bishop Crane said he’d known Ketland for several years.
“I don’t know why he did what he did,” Bishop Crane told a reporter.
“He confessed to me and told me it was a moment of madness. He asked for forgiveness.”
“We have prayed together for the unfortunate girl. He is full of remorse and is distressed for any hurt he has caused.”

In December 2009 Rebecca Television asked Bishop Crane if he was a freemason like Ketland.
Bishop Crane said: “I have never denied my membership of freemasonry but it is a personal matter that is no concern of anybody else.”
“I joined many years before I came to live in North Wales, and I am not a member of any Masonic Craft Lodge in the Province of North Wales.”
“Nor have I ever been a member of the same Craft Lodge as Mr Raymond Ketland. I met him socially some seven years ago and regard him as a friend.”
“As such I was able to accede to his request to appear as a ‘character witness’ at his trial, and also to minister to him as a Priest.”
“At the time of the trial, when I heard about the ‘missing child abuser’, I implored Mr Ketland to reveal that person’s name to the authorities, if he knew who it was.”
“I repeatedly begged him to accede to my request if he had any information, but, for whatever reason, he would never do so.”
“In consequence, I never knew and still do not know, the identity of the man in question.”
“I did telephone the Provincial Secretary and asked him to investigate the allegation that one of his officers was the ‘missing child abuser’ but I was never informed as to the outcome of any such investigation which might subsequently have taken place.”
♦♦♦
DESPITE HER ordeal, the girl who was at the mercy of the paedophile ring is fortunate.
She had been enticed into a relationship with a violent woman-hater.
If he had not been caught she might have lost her life.
For Fred Lawlor has a lawless past.
In 1982 he was convicted of actual bodily harm after he repeatedly punched his then girlfriend and then jumped on her stomach.
She was seven months pregnant.
Five years later he attacked another girlfriend.
He first tried to electrocute her by putting the flex from an electric fire into her bath.
When that failed, he picked up a knife and stabbed her repeatedly.
She needed five operations to repair the damage and had to use a colostomy bag for five months due to the lacerations on her bowel.
Lawlor was gaoled for seven years for this offence.  Only 7 years for attempted murder?

Later another partner, Dorothy Carre, was twice reported missing by her family who described Lawlor as a “cruel, manipulative bully”.
She was last seen in 1999.

But it wasn’t until the paedophile ring case in 2006 that her fate was finally revealed.
Police used the BBC Crimewatch programme to appeal for public assistance to help identify the abusers they had not caught.

Dorothy Carre’s sister saw Lawlor on Crimewatch and rang the police to remind them that her sister was still missing.
This time Greater Manchester Police carried out a more thorough investigation.
They found Dorothy Carre’s body in a shallow grave in the cellar of the house she had shared with Lawlor in Bolton.

The skeleton revealed stab wounds to the spine.
The body had been wrapped in a duvet and buried under flagstones in the cellar of the rented house.
In October 2007 a jury at Manchester Crown Court decided, by a 10-2 majority, that Lawlor had stabbed Dorothy Carre to death.

FRED LAWLOR
Psychopath, murderer, child abuser…   Photo: Manchester Evening News

He was gaoled for life.
Dorothy Carre’s daughter said: “Since 1995 Frederick Lawlor has taken our mother from us, initially by manipulating her into staying away from us and finally by committing the worst crime by taking her life in such a cruel, callous, heartless and premeditated way, ensuring she would never return to her family.”
By that time he was already in prison for organising the sex ring in North Wales.
At Caernarfon Crown Court in April 2006 he had admitted 18 sex charges against the young girl – four specimen counts of sexual activity with a child, seven of taking indecent images and seven of causing a child to engage in sexual activity with another adult.
The court was told he’d abused her at least 75 times.
Most of the men did not pay for sex with the girl.
The only one who did was Lawlor’s neighbour Gary Owen, 55, who had already served a six year sentence for sex offences against a 12-year-old girl.
This time around he was gaoled for another six years.
Sentencing Lawlor to an indefinite prison sentence to be reviewed in 15 years, Judge Merfyn Hughes told him “the full extent of psychological damage you have inflicted on this young girl won’t be known for many years.”
“You have completely ruined any immediate chance she may have had of leading a full life. She must have believed sexual promiscuity was the norm.”
“You carried on despite being investigated by police, and even had the affront to write to the chief constable claiming that officers were harassing you.”
He praised the police operation headed by Detective Inspector Wayne Jones for ridding the area of a large number of sex offenders.
“This would not have been possible without the observations carried out by police officers on the ground who visited the beaches.”
“It became a much larger inquiry that anybody had initially, perhaps, expected.”
♦♦♦
ONLY TWO of the men featured in the films remain at large.

Pictures of both have been shown on the BBC Crimewatch programme but they have never been identified.

MISSING ABUSER No 1
This image of an unknown man watching other men having sex with the young girl was taken by Fred Lawlor. Photo: North Wales Police

MISSING ABUSER No 2
The second man police were unable to identify. Photo: North Wales Police

Ketland has never identified either of these men as the mason who introduced him to the ring.

That means the missing freemason is a different man.

A spokeswoman for North Wales Police said: “Ketland would not co-operate with the police therefore it is not possible to say whether there was a masonic connection.”

In November 2009 Rebecca Television asked the North Wales Province of freemasonry if the North Wales Police had asked them for their assistance in identifying the missing masonic abuser.
Provincial secretary Peter Sorahan replied.
“We do not know and were never told who else was involved.”
“Furthermore we are completely unaware as to what action was taken by the Police against any other person and would certainly not support any person who was in any way involved; neither would we tolerate them in freemasonry.”
He said that Ketland was a “joiner” of a North Wales lodge.
In other words, the original lodge he entered – known as his “mother lodge” – is in another province.
He added that Ketland is no longer a freemason.
Sorahan also declined to give details of the lodges that Ketland belonged to.
“As I’m sure you are aware,” he said, “under the requirements of the Data Protection Act we can not disclose the names and personal details of members and their Lodges.”
(The Information Commissioner’s Office says provincial yearbooks are not covered by the Data Protection Act.)
At the time Sorahan was answering these questions, Rebecca Television had not yet been told by Bishop Crane that he had contacted Sorahan’s predecessor as provincial secretary, Leonard Ellis.
We asked Sorahan to confirm that Bishop Crane had contacted Leonard Ellis and, if so, what was the outcome.
Sorahan did not reply.
Chris Connop at United Grand Lodge headquarters in London said: “if the police were to contact us, we would do our best to give any information they requested if we were able to do so. The same is true of the Freemasons in North Wales.”
“They have not been in contact in this case.”
Also in November 2009 Rebecca Television e-mailed North Wales Police and asked if they had been in touch with the masons in North Wales.
It took a month and several reminders before a spokeswoman came back with a statement.
“The Masons have been approached by officers and are unable to assist further with identifying the outstanding offenders.”
Rebecca Television asked provincial masonic secretary Peter Sorahan to confirm that police had been to see him and that their visit had taken place only after we started asking questions.
He e-mailed to say “your assumptions are correct.”
A film crew finally caught up with Ketland in February 2010 as he stopped at a garage to buy a newspaper.
(This encounter can be seen in the video Brothers in the Shadows.)

CAUTION
After Ketland was doorstepped for the Brothers in the Shadows programme, he complained to the North Wales Police that he was being harassed. The force didn’t ask Rebecca Television for its side of the story: it chose to accept the word of a convicted child abuser and sent this caution to editor Paddy French.

He had not answered our letters and wasn’t in when we called at his home in Llandudno.
He told us that the prosecution case at his trial was wrong.
The missing mason was not a member of his lodge.
He was a man he had seen only briefly and at a distance at a masonic social function – he did not know his name.
He said that he believed the man was a member of a provincial grand lodge because, when he first asked him to join the child abuse ring, he was wearing provincial cufflinks.
Rebecca Television has asked the Crown Prosecution Service if it had made a mistake in claiming that Ketland told police that the missing mason was a member of his masonic lodge.
They said they were not in a position to help.
We also asked North Wales Police what Ketland had said in his statement to police.
The force didn’t reply.
♦♦♦
Rebecca Television now knows Ketland’s masonic history.
He resigned from freemasonry in April 2006 after his conviction.
Before then he was a member of the Lodge of St Hilary which meets at Llandudno’s Freemasons Hall.

KETLAND’S MASONRY
When he retired to the North Wales coast, Raymond Ketland joined the local St Hilary Lodge in Llandudno. This is the entry in the 2008 Provincial Yearbook. Ketland insists that the freemason who introduced him to the child abuse ring is not a member of this lodge.

He was also a member of the Gogarth chapter of Royal Arch Masonry.
His original lodge is Hilbre which meets in Neston in Cheshire.
♦♦♦
NOTES
1  A version of this article was first published in 2010 along with the video Brothers in the Shadows.
2  There is no report which brings together the full list of those convicted in Operation Furley.
Police obtained 17 pictures of abusers from the material seized from Lawlor and 15 were eventually caught.
The combined sentences added up to 56 years in gaol.
The following alphabetical list is based on press reports.
Neither the Crown Prosecution Service nor the North Wales Police would fill in the gaps.
ALAN COLCLOUGH, 51, Rhyl
Charge: admitted 1 charge of sexual activity with a child
Sentence: 2 years 9 months
Sex offenders register: details not known.
ERIC (MARK) CRAVEN, 47, Penmaenmawr
Charges: admitted 4 charges of sexual activity with a child, 2 charges of taking indecent photographs and 1 charge of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity
Sentence: 4 years
Sex offenders register: life.
RONALD (ALBERT) FARRINGTON, 45, Birkenhead
Charges: admitted 2 charges of sexual activity with a child and 2 charges of taking indecent photographs
Sentence: 3 years
Sex offenders register: life.
DAVID FORSHAW, 41, Rhyl,
Charges: admitted 1 charge of sexual activity with a child and 1 charge of taking indecent photographs
Sentence: 1 year and 9 months
Sex offenders register: life.
RAYMOND (AUSTIN) FOULKES, 51, Colwyn Bay
Charges: admitted 1 charge of sexual activity with a child and 1 charge of taking indecent photographs
Sentence: 2 years 9 months
Sex offenders register: details not known.
MICHAEL KENNY, 54, Prestatyn
Charges: admitted 1 charge of sexual activity with a child and 1 charge of taking indecent photographs
Sentence: 1 year 9 months
Sex offenders register: details not known.
RAYMOND KETLAND, 66, Glan Conwy
Charges: admitted 2 charges of sexual activity with a minor, 1 charge of taking indecent photographs and 1 charge of facilitating a child sex offence
Sentence: 2 years 6 months
Sex offenders register: details not known.
FREDERICK LAWLOR, 52, Abergele
Charges: pleaded guilty to a series of specimen charges: 4 of sexual activity with a child, 7 of taking indecent photographs and 7 of causing a child to engage in sexual activity with others
Sentence: indefinite, to be reviewed after 15 years
(Already serving life for the murder of former partner Dorothy Carre, several other convictions for violent assault)
Sex offenders register: details not known but probably for life.
GARETH VAUGHAN LLOYD, 47, Wrexham
Charges: admitted 2 charges of sexual activity with a child
Sentence: 3 years 3 months
Sex offenders register: details not known.
JOHN (EDWARD) McCOY, Abergele
Charges: admitted 2 charges of sexual activity with a child
Sentence: 3 years
Sex offenders register: life.
GARY McILROY, 50, Ellesmere Port
Charge: admitted one charge of sexual activity with a child
Sentence: 1 year 9 months
Sex offenders register: details not known.
JAMES MARLAND, 22, Abergele
Charge: admitted one charge of sexual activity with a child
Sentence: 2 years 9 months
Sex offenders register: life.
GARY OWEN, 55,
Charges: admitted three charges of sexual activity with a child
Sentence: 6 years
Sex offenders register: details not known.
RONALD (WILLIAM) ROCHE, 49, Abergele
Charges: admitted one charge of sexual activity with a child and 1 of taking indecent photographs.
(Previously gaoled for 9 years for robbery)
Sentence: 2 years 3 months
Sex offenders register: 10 years.
RICHARD (ALAN) WHITE, 58, Old Colwyn
Charges: admitted 3 charges of sexual activity with a child and 1 of taking indecent photographs.
(Previous conviction for indecency in public)
Sentence: 3 years 6 months
Sex offenders register: life.
Thank you   to   © Rebecca Television 2010 & 2013

Paedophile MP Sir Cyril Smith and how he got away with it watch Dispatches Thursday

Dispatches, Channel 4's award-winning investigative current affairs programme, is to broadcast a programme entitled 'The Paedophile MP: How Cyril Smith Got Away with It' next Thursday.

The programme guide says: 'Liberal MP Cyril Smith was knighted in life and celebrated in death. Behind this public face, Dispatches reporter Liz MacKean investigates Smith's paedophilia and uncovers the inaction by police officers, Security Services, politicians and the Crown Prosecution Service, which allowed Smith to abuse for decades.

'MacKean speaks to victims, police officers and colleagues, and unearths previously hidden investigation files to reveal why Smith's crimes were ignored and how one of Britain's most famous politicians was protected by the establishment.'
Twelve men, including current Rossendale councillor Alan Neal, have accused the late Liberal Democrat MP for Rochdale, who died in 2010, of abusing them at a hostel and a school in the 1960s.

In November 2012, Greater Manchester Police acknowledged Smith was a sex abuser of boys in the late 1960s.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has admitted Smith should have been charged with sex crimes more than 40 years ago.
Lawyer Alan Collins, of Pannone law firm, said the abused had been vindicated "40 or 50 years too late".

Rochdale's current MP Simon Danczuk called for an inquiry into the role of MI5 in a potential "cover-up" of abuse by Smith in the 1960s.




Mr Danczuk also said: "There is no doubt that Cyril Smith seriously sexually abused young boys: why the CPS didn't prosecute more recently is puzzling.

"There are questions to be asked about why the prosecutions didn't take place, not just in the 60s, but in the 80s and the early 90s."

Smith stood down as the Liberal Democrat for Rochdale in 1992. He had been a Labour councillor in the town in the 1950s and 60s.

The programme will be aired on Channel 4 at 11.05pm, Thursday 12 September.

Source   http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/82364/the-paedophile-mp-how-cyril-smith-got-away-with-it

Journalist Leah McGrath reveals UK Government Cover-up of Child sexual abuse

Before David Miranda was detained for nine hours at London's Heathrow Airport, there was me.

The news of Miranda's detainment came while I was cooking dinner in my kitchen, where I make my home in Vermont. It was early evening on a Sunday when, simultaneously, my mobile phone and email blew up. A longtime Wall Street source sent me a link to a New York Times story about Miranda's travails, along with the following message:

Reminded me of your experience. Seems these Brits are thugs dressed in borrowed garbs, speaking borrowed words.

Reading Miranda's account of his treatment - no explanation, no access to his own lawyer, no contact with the outside world, not even his family or his partner, investigative journalistGlenn Greenwald - I remembered the day I was detained, stripped of everything I owned, including all proof of my identity, and locked up in the basement of Heathrow while researching VIP child abuse in the British Isles.

Only, in my case, I was held for more than 12 hours.

Many times since the news breaking of Miranda's treatment, I have wondered, if the U.K. Border Agency could not hold Miranda longer than nine hours under Schedule 7 of the terror laws, what did that mean about its detaining me for over 12?

I am an American, a Tier-1 U. K. visa holder and former resident of Great Britain. I am also an investigative journalist and author with a spotless travel and legal record. In other words, if this could happen to me, this could happen to anyone.

During my 12 hours in captivity, I was not accused of committing any crime or breaking the rules of my visa. In fact, I was using the same visa I had used for almost a decade to do research in the U.K., including while writing stories for The Financial Times, Forbes andFortune.

My crime was researching a topic that the British authorities preferred I did not.

It was Sept. 11, 2011 - the 10-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York. I was glad to be leaving the city, as it was on a high terror alert. I planned to stay in the U.K. for six days to see friends and colleagues before heading to Austria, where I'd accepted an invitation to speak at a bank conference alongside European bank governors and former U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chairman Sheila Bair.

That wasn't all I was doing, however. I had just finished a journalism fellowship at the University of Colorado at Boulder and had begun working on my second book. The focus of my research: a highly political and secretive island off the coast of France called Jersey - the British Crown's wealthiest tax shelter and favored habitué of rich and powerful child abusers. (And yes, a wealthy family on the island once owned the state of New Jersey.)

My detainment came without warning. I arrived early in the morning and headed into the passport check, as usual. A guard asked if I would answer a few questions. I agreed, thinking nothing of it. But no questions were ever asked. Instead, I was escorted to a windowless room in the basement of Heathrow and locked in. At no time was I told that I was being taken into custody or why.

My luggage and personal belongings were immediately impounded. I was marched to a processing center where I was photographed and fingerprinted like a common criminal - only, unlike a criminal, I was not allowed a lawyer or access to my consulate. I also was handed a slip of paper that I still have today, which stated:

You have been detained under paragraph 16 of Schedule 2 to the 1971 Act or arrested under paragraph 17 of Schedule 2 to that Act.

What did this mean? I could not get anyone to tell me.

That was the beginning of perhaps the most harrowing 12-plus hours of my life. What people do not realize is that a nine-hour detainment - or a 12-hour one, in my case - would be borderline tolerable if you knew how long it would be taking in advance.

What the U.K. Border Agency proceeds to do is something else entirely. For every minute you spend imprisoned against your will, the U.K. authorities are actively prepping you for the worst: that you will be held indefinitely, that you may disappear off the face of the earth without recourse or redress. And that feels a lot more like torture.

I was placed in a dirt-stained room with a latrine and no bed. I was left there for many hours. The U.K. Border officers spent this time rummaging through my things in an apparent attempt to reverse-engineer a case against me. They had no interest in speaking with me; to the contrary, all they wanted to do was get at my luggage. I am afraid I was a bit of a disappointment. None of my book research notes were with me on that trip. All I had were clothes and books and shoes.

My requests for information were ignored. I asked if I was being arrested; no one would tell me. I asked many times to call a lawyer or my consulate. The guards laughed at me. I asked, 'What are my rights?' Their answer: 'You have no rights. You are on the U.K. border.' After about eight hours, two U.K. Border Agency officers finally grilled me - first one, then the other - about my work, my finances, my living arrangements, the people with whom I associated and where I was headed. I was not allowed counsel. I told them I would be in the U.K. for six days before traveling to Austria. I showed them my onward flight bookings, arranged by the organizer of the event. The officers looked straight at them and accused me of lying.

The interrogation process was designed to be demoralizing and hostile. I was effectively human garbage, to be threatened with further imprisonment if I did not cooperate. I greatly empathized with Miranda's account of being in fear for his life and his security. No effort is spared by the U.K. authorities in putting you through immense isolation and emotional trauma in the starkest of Orwellian terms beneath the Heathrow Airport.

Once the officers were done going through my things and berating me, I was summarily thrown out of the country and banned from re-entering the U.K. - as well as the island of Jersey - for the next two years. To this day, the U.K. Border Agency has never furnished me with a clear reason why.

After getting ousted from the country, I sent for my things in Jersey, where I kept a foreign visitor-approved office and a pied-à-terre. The parcels, shipped by UPS, arrived weeks late -chopped up and razor-bladed all. It was apparent the boxes had been searched many times by many hands. Inside one of them, I found a slip of paper, which I have kept, stating that the shipment contained an unidentified "contaminant." To this day, UPS cannot explain what this is about and claims its investigation, which is ongoing more than a year later, has been hobbled by multiple delays.

Next month marks the two-year anniversary of my ouster from Great Britain. Since my detainment, my U.K. visa status has been fully restored through the collective efforts of members of the press, including The Guardian and the BBC. A social media campaignbrought international attention to the plight of those suffering in Jersey and, through the herculean efforts of U.K. Member of Parliament John Hemming and Jersey politiciansTrevor and Shona Pitman, I traveled for the first time back to London and Jersey this summer to continue my work with a group of U.K. journalists. I also was able to meet MP Hemming for the first time to thank him.

While much has been put right, the U.K. Border Agency has continued to act as a sort of rogue political body, breaking its own rules; blocking an objective investigation into my treatment at the border; denying administrative review of my visa; and, bizarrely, claiming that the video footage of my detainment had been destroyed, then informing me it had not.

Repeated requests for a copy of the full footage, to which I am entitled under the U.K.'s Data Protection Act, have been willfully ignored.

This past July, a group of MPs, led by Hemming, issued a parliamentary motion insisting on the release of my CCTV footage, as well as "details of the original process resulting in [Goodman's] ban in 2011 and a full explanation of the delays in her being provided with a visa in 2013."

The U.K. Border Agency has not responded, so today, MP Hemming is launching aChange.org petition urging U.K. Immigration Minister Mark Harper and Home Secretary Theresa May to stop stonewalling the release the "missing" footage of my detainment.

Every signature on this petition, which can be found here, sends a strong message to the U.K. and countries around the world that there will be rigorous pushback wherever journalists are treated as criminals or used as political scratching posts while pursuing the truth. Indeed, the ability of citizens around the world to knowledgeably debate issues of the day depends on it.

Writing this article was difficult, as the aftermath of detainment causes serious and lasting side effects. I still adore Great Britain and the beautiful island of Jersey. I cannot help it; they are in my heart.

My visa has been restored. But when I see fellow journalists trying to do their jobs and being harassed and targeted - such as Miranda and Greenwald - it is obvious to me that our basic human rights and crucial press freedoms are in peril and we must stand together to ensure they are not taken away entirely.

 Please sign this petition so that Leah can get the tapes of her 12 hour detention by the British Statae Police.

 http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/uk-minister-mark-harper-mark-j-harper-release-video-of-12-hour-detention-of-journalist-leah-mcgrath-goodman?utm_campaign=new_signature&utm_medium=email&utm_source=signature_receipt#share

 

Follow Leah McGrath Goodman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/truth_eater

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