http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.british/browse_thread/thread/41872759c838004a/066c50cf6f20fe90?q=%22THE+EVIL+THAT+MUST+BE+MADE+TO+SPEAK+ITS+NAME%22+derek+laud&rnum=1&hl=en&pli=1
THE EVIL THAT MUST BE MADE TO SPEAK ITS NAME
What's in a name? Let's try two.
The first is Barry, a young man with dark eyes as intense as Welsh
coal. You will not have heard of Barry, although his story is public
and his tale most appalling.
Barry is one of some 400 witnesses who for almost a year have been
giving evidence to a tribunal taking place under the direction of
silver-haired former High Court judge Sir Ronald Waterhouse. The pace
of business is slow, sometimes painstaking. Usually no more than
three of four members of the public attend.
"No one ever paid any attention", Barry explains. "That's why it
happened. No one gives a damn".
There is a greater chance that you will have heard of John Allen,
another witness who gave evidence in Caernarvon Crown Court last week.
On that occasion the public galleries were more crowded, observers
straining to catch a glimpse of a man whose name once meant something
in North Wales.
For John Allen was a pillar of the community. Public carer. Founder
of the Bryn Alyn network of children's homes that local authorities
supported to the astonishing tune of £28 million. And a man who was
sentenced to six years for crimes of the most unimaginable foulness.
But even as I write the next words, many readers will go no further.
For I have led you into one of the great taboos of our time, the shame
that dare not whisper its name.
The Waterhouse enquiry is considering accusations that for more than
20 years the children's homes of North Wales were turned into an evil
empire dedicated not to caring for children, but to their wholesale
physical and sexual abuse.
Hundreds of children, mostly boys, were systematically tortured and
terrorised. Their assailants were their so-called carers within the
local social services. People like John Allen. And - allegedly -
policemen, peers, even priests. These children claim they were
brutalised into acts of oral and anal sex, sometimes committed
simultaneously, and sodomized with crowbars, bottles and chair legs.
(You'll find more comfortable reading on almost any other page of this
newspaper. You can turn the pages, pass by on the other side as so
many have done all these years. But don't. These children need you).
They were subjected to a daily, almost casual regime of cruelty and
ritual humiliation. Beaten so fiercely that they ended up in casualty
wards. Forced to clean toilets with their toothbrushes. One had his
pet gerbil chopped to pieces in front of him. With a shovel.
Of course, many of the allegations are just that - allegations. But
in the words of Gerard Ellis QC, the leading counsel to the tribunal,
there is no doubt that physical and sexual abuse was inflicted "on an
almost unimaginable scale".
Elected councillors visited these homes regularly, even claimed
expenses for doing so, but heard, saw, and said, nothing. After all,
children have no votes.
Clwyd County Council commissioned a report into the allegations. And
when it was delivered they shredded every copy. Because their
insurance company, Municipal Mutual, threatened to withdraw cover if
the conclusions were made public and opened the door to claims. Money
was put before justice. The truth was buried.
All too often officials who fell under a cloud were allowed to retire
on pensions or move to other jobs. It was so much easier, less messy
that way. Or the facts were simply ignored.
Roger Saint was a foster parent who became a member of the adoption
panel in Clwyd. The local authority was told by police that he had a
previous conviction as a child abuser. What did it do? Absolutely
nothing.
The cowardice ended only last May when Saint was jailed for a string
og further sex offences against children.
Wilful ignorance was the habit in the local social services
departments of North Wales. It couldn't be happening, not here.
After all, the accusers were only children. But not everyone turned a
blind eye. One local social services officer demanded that something
be done. Her bosses' response was to sack her. They decided she
wasn't enough of a team player in the great game of cover-up and
sweep-aside.
But perhaps the greatest cowardice is the one that goes on deep within
us all when we are confronted with the disturbing images of child
abuse. It's simply too offensive. Turns the milk sour on our
cornflakes. We don't want to know. We give it a name - paedophilia -
that sounds like a medical complaint and makes it so much easier to
block out the bloody realities of crowbars, bottles and chair legs.
Yet all of us are in part responsible for this national taboo. "I
talk about child abuse like other people talk about football," Barry
explains, "because that's what my childhood was about. I was the
football. But people get embarrassed. Ask me to stop because they
find it upsetting. They don't want to know."
This is the ferocious challenge for Sir Ronald Waterhouse and his
tribunal. Controversially, he has offered anonymity to most witnesses
during the hearings and, so far, has refused to allow those
complaining of abuse or accused of abuse to be named. ("Barry" is not
his real name and John Allen is an exception only because he has
already been convicted). By offering anonymity, Sir Ronald hopes to
get to the greater part of the truth.
But previous reports have been little more than worthy wodges of paper
urging social services to pull up its socks. Sir Ronald's objective
must be far more ambitious: nothing less than the destruction of the
national cowardice that refuses to face up to child abuse.
And what's in a name? The names of officials who repeatedly failed in
their duty. And the men who have been repeatedly named as abusers.
He must name them all. Yes, this will cause a media feeding frenzy,
it may undermine the rights of the accused. But children have rights,
too, and in the delicate balance of justice, theirs is the greater
right.
And, for once, the media piranha pool might just be a good thing, the
teeth that will tear to pieces the conspiracy of silence. We need to
be confronted with the full horrors of what has gone on in North Wales
and shaken into indignation, not allowed yet again to look the other
way for fear it may spoil our breakfasts.
Fourteen of the children connected with this empire of evil in North
Wales have since killed themselves or died in mysterious circumstances
- almost as many as died at Dunblane. Many, many more have had their
emotional and mental sanity ripped to shreds. Through the Waterhouse
tribunal we have a chance, at last, to put right a very great wrong.
So go to it, Sir Ronald. Make them famous. Name them. Every damned
one.
--------------------------------------------------------
(- end quoted article -]
Now defunct magazine Scallywag covered events at Bryn Alyn in detail,
some years ago. Scallywag is still available online -
www.scallywag.org.
The magazine alleged that the peer referred to in the article is Lord
McAlpine, at the time of the offences treasurer of the governing
Conservative Party. Another regular participant in the activities at
Bryn Clwyd was alleged by Scallywag to be Derek Laud, for years a
leading mover and shaker in successive Conservative administrations.
Scallywag alleged that Laud was a sadist with an abnormally large
penis, who was particularly violent and without mercy in his treatment
of the boys. The magazine alleged that on regular occasions his
victims would end up in casualty wards. He was a leading political
fixer and adviser to Margaret Thatcher although never an MP; indeed he
was pictured waving down to the crowds below from an upstairs window
of 10 Downing Street as the Conservatives celebrated their 1988
election victory.
The former children connected with this empire of evil who died in
mysterious circumstances may have been murdered by the British
security services, the price of their silence their lives. Scallywag
alleged that MI5 used to take foreign diplomats etc to the North Wales
homes, give them boys to "play" with, secretly filmed them as they
buggered, abused and tortured boys then kept the tapes as evidence.
Amazing what a little blackmail leverage can do in delicate
situations...
International Worker No 241, 8 November 8, 1997:
Tpny Hyland wrote an article entitled: 'State cover-up of high level paedophile ring.'
"Care workers ... acted as go-betweens for a paedophile ring that extends into the topmost layers of society.
"Policemen, church ministers, local authority executives, senior businessmen and politicians, including someone believed to be a leading supporter of Margaret Thatcher, have been identified.
"The present Public Tribunal into the case...... measures have been taken to prevent the proceedings from being covered fully in the national media.
"In the event the press has been virtually absent from the proceedings. There would have been no significant national coverage of this major scandal, if not for the work of a single journalist, Nick Davies of The Guardian...
"Waterhouse has also indicated that the final report will not find the "public figure" culpable of any crimes, even though he has been identified by six victims. He stated that whilst a number of the abusers will be named, those of the two policemen will be omitted, even though one of them has already been convicted of sexual offences against children...
"39 children's homes in North Wales have been implicated. Nearly 300 people have given evidence as victims of abuse. Some 148 individuals have been identified as abusers...
Key aspects:
"John Allen, a convicted paedophile, ran a complex of homes in London and North Wales that supplied children to wealthy outsiders. Allen is currently serving a six year sentence.
"At the Bryn Alyn home, two senior officials have already been convicted of systematic sexual abuse of children in their care. Another, Paul Wilson, was convicted of violent attacks on children but given a suspended sentence. He was accused of physical assault on 66 occasions by 66 different boys.
"A room at the Crest Hotel in Wrexham was regularly hired out on Sunday evenings to VIP's who were ensured a steady supply of children for their sexual gratification.
"Over a dozen victims who complained of abuse by the paedophile ring have met suspicious deaths. Two brothers who were abused by Allen were trying to blackmail him. In April 1992 one of them died in a house fire in Brighton. The other died soon afterwards in mysterious circumstances....
"One witness ...claimed to have been abused by 49 different people. At the age of 11, he attended army cadets where two of the instructors, both policemen, raped him repeatedly. At an army cadet weekend camp he was raped by another instructor.
"Far from social services providing a haven from such abuse, it became the means through which he was exposed to even worse physical and mental torment. At his first home he was indecently assaulted by the superintendent, groped by one housemaster, beaten by another, half-drowned by a senior housemaster and slapped by a policemen he tried to complain to.
"At his second home, aged 15, he was abused by those in charge of the centre and offered up to wealthy outsiders. He described one of these as "a powerful public figure". After this man took him to an outhouse and orally and anally raped him, he was told, "Just remember who I am."
"At the age of 16, he ran away from the Wrexham home, but ended up in the custody of one of the army cadet instructors who had raped him. This man introduced him to a group of 20 associates, who took turns to abuse him. Amongst the culprits identified were two jewellers, a director of a major company, a local authority executive, a Roman Catholic priest and another social worker. Many of those identified have subsequently been convicted of sexual crimes against children...
"The most revealing evidence is that regarding one of the paedophiles, who it was hinted at was one of Mrs Thatcher's most prominent supporters.
"When the police finally arrested 17 suspects during an inquiry in 1991 the victim claims, 'For some unknown reason, he was not arrested like anybody else. He was allowed to walk round the North Wales Police headquarters and he was allowed to vindicate himself from anything, as if he was the boss... I tried to tell the police of many instances not just relating to him and I was told at the time, and I will never forget it as long as I live, that they were not interested in that.'
"The tribunal was informed that the North Wales police had in fact recommended that the man be prosecuted, but this was blocked by the Crown Prosecution Service in London - which took over the case from its local branch...
"Those who turned to the police or other social workers for help were met with indifference or outright hostility. A total of 27 separate police inquiries failed to produce anything substantial.
"When the police finally launched a major inquiry in 1991, they secured the conviction of only four of the care workers and concluded that there was no evidence of a paedophile ring. A total of 13 reports by social services went unpublished. Clwyd County Council commissioned an independent inquiry and then ruled that its report could not be published..."
http://conformandobey.co.uk/pages/nick-davies-97.html
October 15th, 1997
PUBLIC FIGURES NAMED IN PAEDOPHILE RING
By Nick Davies, The Guardian (UK)
Policemen, social workers and prominent public figures have been accused of belonging to a paedophile ring which indulged in a relentless campaign of physical and sexual abuse in children's homes in North Wales.
The names of the alleged members of the ring have been given by witnesses in public sessions of the North Wales Child Abuse Tribunal, but they have been suppressed by the tribunal's chairman, Sir Ronald Waterhouse QC, who has threatened the media with High Court proceedings if they print them.
The Guardian today publishes for the first time detailed evidence about the alleged ring, which is said to have been based in Wrexham, and to have infiltrated local children's homes over a 20 year period.
Witnesses claim that members of the ring used their connections with police and social services to conceal their activities. All of the accused have denied the allegations.
Those named to the tribunal include:
A man who bears the same surname as a prominent Conservative supporter. Two witnesses have told the tribunal of a rich and powerful man who belonged to the alleged ring.
The son of an influential peer who admitted to police that he had been having sex with an under-age boy from one of the homes. Despite his admission, he was never prosecuted.
A powerful public official who has previously been cleared of abuse. Six witnesses have given separate accounts to the tribunal of his alleged rape of young boys. Another has reported him attending parties in Wrexham which were supplied with boys from a children's home.
Two social workers and two police officers, one of whom was accused of abuse on four separate occasions and exonerated each time, another of whom has since been jailed in another part of the country for gross indecency with a child.
More than a dozen other local men, including an executive with a local authority, a senior probation officer and a director of a major company.
All those named as members of the alleged ring have denied the charges, either in evidence to the tribunal or through their lawyers.
When the tribunal was established last year, it had been assumed that the press could report its proceedings, using the laws of privilege which allow them to name names from court cases and public hearings without fear of libel actions.
However, Sir Ronald then ruled that the media could not report the name of any living person who was accused or likely to be accused of abusing children in the North Wales homes unless they had previously been convicted of such an offence.
Since then he has extended his ruling twice: he has granted anonymity to one man who died 16 years ago and to another who has twice been convicted of sexually assaulting boys from a North Wales home.
Sir Ronald has argued that his ruling will encourage alleged paedophiles to come froward and give honest evidence without fear of retribution. Critics say this is unnecessary, since he has the power to compel witnesses to attend, and that those who have come forward have done so to deny the allegations and not to make a clean breast of their alleged offences.
One lawyer who has been involved with the tribunal said he feared that the anonymity ruling was actively discouraging witnesses. "Newspaper readers may well have information of potential value to this tribunal. They may themselves have been the victims of abuse, or they may have worked with the alleged abusers. But if the press is not allowed to inform them of the names of those against whom allegations are made, they will not learn that their information is important. So they will not come forward."
The tribunal was ordered by the last Conservative Secretary of State for Wales, William Hague, after Clwyd county council decided not to publish the report of an independent inquiry into allegations of abuse in its children's homes. The tribunal, which has been hearing witnesses for eight months, is expected to continue to take evidence until January.
