Monday 15 October 2012

Jimmy Savile, Jersey, BBC and Comparisons.

Former Jersey Chief Police Officer Graham Power QPM, who regular readers will know was (illegally?) Suspended from duty while (because?) his Police Force were investigating decades of Child Abuse/Paedophilia that Jersey has now become so (in)famous for has responded to a request from VFC and offers us (exclusively) his thoughts on the comparisons with the Jimmy Savile allegations/enquiries and that of  Mr. Power's experiences with the Jersey Child Abuse ongoing scandal.

There are reports that more than a handful of victims have now come forward who have alleged the late Jimmy Savile abused them while in Jersey and up to 60, or more, victims in total nationwide.


Former Chief Police Officer Graham Power QPM.

I have been asked by the Voiceforchildren blog to make some comment on the current enquiries relating to the late Jimmy Savile. I understand that there is an interest in any parallels which may be drawn between the Savile Enquiry and the Jersey Abuse Enquiry. I am also told that there are some comparisons capable of being made between the actions so far taken by the UK Authorities and a debate in Jersey concerning a proposed Committee of Enquiry into Child Abuse.

Since I left the Police Service I have not, so far as I am aware, pro-actively engaged in any publicity or comment in relation to my time as a serving officer. I have however occasionally been approached by journalists, both from the Citizens Media and the Paid Media, who have asked me direct questions. On some occasions I have declined to comment. In other cases I have offered honest comment where I felt that was in the public interest.

Against this background it is no surprise that I have been approached from a number of sources over recent days asking for comment in respect of the emerging allegations concerning Savile.   For the most part I have said that I know little of any allegations against that person.   He was not someone with whom I had any significant involvement.   I recall that I met him once at an official gathering and that was about the extent of my contact.  

I have however when recently asked, commented on some of the characteristics of the Savile affair and how they compare with some aspects of the Jersey Abuse Enquiry. In particular it appears that Savile’s victims saw him as a rich and powerful person who mixed with Royalty and Prime Ministers. They regarded him as untouchable and felt that anything they said to his detriment would not be believed. These feelings appear to have been confirmed by the experiences of those who did attempt to report the abuse. I have seen a TV interview in which one woman describes how as a young girl, she was living in a residential institution when she was abused by Savile. She protested and reported the matter to staff. The response of the institution was to have her punished for telling lies. The UK authorities have addressed this situation by establishing a robust and independent police enquiry which has made it clear that reports will be taken seriously and properly investigated.

Victims of abuse in Jersey told similar stories.  Their abusers were powerful and well connected.  Any reports which were made were disbelieved or ignored.  Only when the leaders of a Police Enquiry made it clear that they were resolved to get to the truth and would stand no interference from the Jersey Authorities was confidence established and the floodgates, which had held back the truth for decades, finally opened. I have received messages from victims which have said that once I was removed from the Force this confidence was damaged and that some victims and witnesses became reluctant to pursue their allegations. I do not have access to official information which enables me to confirm these reports or otherwise. People living in Jersey are better positioned to judge whether this might be true. 

Another common factor in both enquiries is the extent to which the victims were often from troubled backgrounds.  Even if a case had reached the Courts, it might have been claimed that the victims were not credible witnesses.

There is another common factor in the two investigations in that Savile is now deceased and beyond the reach of the Justice System. The same can be said for some of the suspects in the Jersey investigation.  In both cases victims sometimes gained the confidence to report the abuse only when they felt certain that the abuser could no longer do them any harm. The death of the main suspect does not make the investigation pointless. A thorough investigation may reveal the identities of accomplices.   It might also identify those in authority who should have acted but did not do so.   In both investigations there is evidence that senior people, who had a responsibility for the protection of the vulnerable, failed to act. They must bear a significant share of the blame for what happened and it may still be possible to hold them to account.  It is the lack of any positive intervention, and the failure to prioritise the safety of the vulnerable over the interests of the well-connected and the powerful which is a disturbing feature of both investigations.

I have also been asked to comment about a debate in Jersey regarding a proposed Committee of Enquiry. I find this request harder to address given that I have not been in Jersey for a number of years and I am not a close follower of Jersey news. I do however recall that during the time that I was Chief Officer of the Force the Jersey Government said that a full Committee of Enquiry would be established.   I have not followed closely what has happened since with regard to that issue.

I have however noted the actions taken by the BBC in the UK, and UK Government Departments in the comparable circumstances of the Savile case.  I have seen media reports which have said that the relevant organisations will be establishing enquiries to investigate, among other things, the culture in which the abuse occurred, who knew about it, and what action was taken by those with responsibility.   I have noted that these commitments were given within days of the facts emerging and that we are told that the membership of the enquiries and the terms of reference will be available soon.   These actions seem to me to be entirely consistent with the acceptance of responsibility, integrity, and commitment to the public interest which should be expected from credible government bodies in a civilised 21st century democracy.

Jersey residents are better placed than me to comment on whether their own public authorities have demonstrated commitment to a comparable standard.(END)

The former Police Chief makes some interesting points including "A thorough investigation may reveal the identities of accomplices.   It might also identify those in authority who should have acted but did not do so."

Who in Jersey could have but didn't act? Who are still in positions of power who either abused or covered up abuse noting the former Senior Investigating Officer Lenny Harper told us there are at least 4 that he knows of.

Who were Jimmy Savile's contacts in Jersey? Who invited him over here? Who invited him to Haut de la Garenne? Who "made things happen" over here for Savile?

How is it that the UK institutions put in place an inquiry within DAYS and the Jersey authorities take YEARS? Has the Jersey authorities "demonstrated commitment to a comparable standard?"

Will the BBC's investigation be fit for purpose? Will (if it ever happens) Jersey's Committee Of Inquiry be fit for purpose? Will the cycle of intimidation and threats against Abuse Victims ever be broken? Will those, as a result of the Committee of Inquiry, be held to account who covered up the decades of Child Abuse on this island?

There is a common factor explained by the former Police Chief and that is how victims are too scared to speak out against those who hold positions of power or authority and inevitably these abusers never face justice, perhaps more so in Jersey.

If anybody knows of somebody who is/has either abused or covered up abuse then we encourage them to phone the Metropolitan Police HERE




36 comments:

  1. Lenny Harper HAS NOT retired yet!

    Word V "Beercop37"

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  2. Wisdom from Graham Power: "It is the lack of any positive intervention, and the failure to prioritise the safety of the vulnerable over the interests of the well-connected and the powerful which is a disturbing feature of both investigations."

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  3. To be perfectly honest, I am surprised that Mick Gradwell and David Warcup are not more vocal on this subject. Hasn't the local media sought them out for interview?

    They have a privileged insight which would be very useful in the current situation.

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  4. The link for the Met Police (right at the very end) is erroneous. It takes you to the Met Police of Columbia, USA.

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  5. Rob.

    If Gradwell and Warcup had any sense they would be staying right out of the public eye right now. If the State Media had any sense they would be disassociating themselves from them.

    Seeing as that all depends on sense expect the double act that is Gradwell and Warcup to be appearing on a State Media near you soon!

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  6. Does anyone recall the last time Warcup or Gradwell disparaged the Power and Harper investigation? I was just wondering if they would still publicly defend their original false accusations.

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  7. I note that although CTV covered the fact that further victims of JS had come forward, they missed an opportunity to encourage any other who may have been victims to make a complaint with the Police!!

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  8. They - the BBC Jersey, CTV, SOJP, JEP, COM, and many others - do not want any more Jimmy Savile accusers to come forward. That much can be assumed.

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  9. Gradwell and/or Warcup could quite easily repeat their previous lies so long as they were talking to a complicit interviewer who ignored all of the evidence that has been released since they left the island.

    The one way to find a complicit interviewer is to choose someone who was complicit with the original lie, such as the award winning CI TV. When I say 'complicit' - I mean that they broadcast a package given to them on a plate by Gradwell and made no attempt to verify, question, or corroborate anything he told them.

    We know from Leveson how low journalism has fallen http://hashonomy.com/link/leveson-mashup-youtube-673388/ so don't be surprised if the local media lets him comment without being challenged.

    In fact, how many local journalists actually care about the facts and details of the HdlG cover up? Do they care that Gradwell broke the law by leaking details of a live investigation to the Daily Mail? Or that he was palpably lying when he said that there never had been cellars at HdlG?

    They are probably unable to challenge him because the facts that have been revealed as the cover-up was tirelessly exposed are too uncomfortable for them to consider.

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  10. @Anonymous "I note that although CTV covered the fact that further victims of JS had come forward, they missed an opportunity to encourage any other who may have been victims to make a complaint with the Police!!"

    Good point. Every other institution and police force associated with the Jimmy Savile allegations has immediately started an enquiry.

    Have we heard anything from the States of Jersey or its police force?

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  11. @Anonymous, "BBC Jersey, CTV, SOJP, JEP, COM, and many others - do not want any more Jimmy Savile accusers to come forward. That much can be assumed."

    Yes. Who Fixed It for Jimmy when he was in Jersey? He was feted by the authorities, made Mr Battle, given access to at least one of the island's care homes.

    There must be many people who were good 'friends' of his that time willing to share their memories.

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  12. Gradwell said.

    "These are floor voids. They are not cellars, and it is impossible for a grown person to stand up straight in the floor voids under Haut de la Garenne."

    NOT TRUE

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  13. Power wants to know how victims felt when he and Lenny left the SOJP and were replaced by Gradwell and Warcupp.

    Well, although I wasn't an abuse victim, I did get caught up in a troubling (but not law breaking) episode in late 2008 that invovled the police. I can tell you for sure, I had absolutely zero confidence in the new team. At one point, I was referred by a senior police officer to take things up with Warcupp but I turned it down.

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  14. I watched a TV documentary a week or so ago, where a man had kept two young teenage girls as his slaves for sex. The area he used for the 'act' was very low, lower than the low cellars at HDLG.

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  15. once again we get a well considered professional response from Mr Power,certain people should hang their heads in shame at the way he has been treated.If you don't like the message then shoot the messenger comes to mind. I have always thought that the truth will come out in the end,remember there are many who know the truth and who is telling lies. We MUST NEVER GIVE UP NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES,

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  16. "The area he used for the 'act' was very low, lower than the low cellars at HDLG."

    The cellars at HdlG were filled in over the years and the outside ground level has been raised. The cellar windows were also closed up. Somewhere on the interweb-thingy there is a page that has two photos of the building about 50 years apart and you can clearly see the cellar door in the 1950s.

    Also, there was straight-forward oral testimony from residents (not alleging abuse) who recall going into the cellars through a trap-door. There was one interview with an old Jersey man on BBC Jersey, I recall.

    So there is no doubt that there were cellars. Whether or not they were used for abuse, we will now never know.

    But the significant point here is why Gradwell lied and said that there weren't cellars. We have videos of them when they were excavated, and even at that time after years of infilling, they were shoulder height, at least.

    Gradwell's lying about them is part of the coordinated, intentional conspiracy by him, Warcup, and others to close down the HdlG inquiry, and pretty much accuse the victims of lying.

    It seemed like a good strategy at the time: sack the Chief of Police, lie about the reasons, hire a lick-spittle replacement and promise him his boss's job if he helped with the coup, pay some friendly consultants to write a 'damning' financial report, leak selective details of the live inquiry to the Daily Mail, and organise a pre-packaged media campaign saying that the whole thing was a lot of nonsense.

    One key element of their strategy was to prosecute a few low-lying targets so as to say the police had done their job.

    There is more and we could go on, but just read these blogs for the rest of the details. Like when Jersey's Chief Executive Office, Bill Ogley, told a public meeting that if the police wanted to 'get to' one of his employees (accused of abuse), they would have to 'get past me first'.

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  17. Rob.

    From the sworn affidavit of Graham Power QPM.

    "The third example I have chosen relates to a Strategic Planning Workshop held at the St Pauls Centre on Friday 24th October 2008. The Workshop was attended by a number of senior public servants including myself and the Chief Executive. At the commencement of the workshop the Chief Executive asked for silence and said that he had an announcement to make. He named a senior civil servant who was present. The person named is a suspect in the abuse investigation but has not been suspended. The Chief Executive said that the suspect had his total support and that “if anyone wants to get…….(the suspect)…….they would have to get me first”. This announcement was applauded by some but not all of the persons present. I took it as a further indication of the “in crowd” closing ranks against the “threat” of the abuse enquiry. The Chief Executive later played a significant role in my suspension."

    AFFIDAVIT

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  18. Thanks for that excerpt from the sworn affidavit of the former Chief of Police.

    Didn't Bill Ogley later take an early retirement with a mysterious massive golden handshake, personally approved by the Chief Minister? I wonder what service he provided to deserve that payment?

    One thing I find curious about all of this is that all over the Internet we can find blogs such as this one that make serious allegations against senior figures and institutions in Jersey.

    But nobody is ever accused of libel, slander, or telling lies. I wonder if that is because it is accompanied by evidence and testimony from multiple sources and well-informed individuals such as former Chief of Police, Graham Power, Lenny Harper, former Senator Syvret, and the victims themselves.

    I can only assume that if one of you bloggers was accused of libel, then any libel case would have to examine the testimony of those witnesses.

    For example, if they say that there was not a conspiracy to remove the Chief of Police from his position, they would have to contend with the fact that the Home Affairs Minister of the time, Andrew Lewis, lied about the timeline of that decision.

    We know he was lying because forensic examination of the suspension documents shows that they were created at least three days before the Minister told us the decision was taken. Plus his contradictory statements to the States of Jersey and to the Napier inquiry.

    Apart from the 'super-injunction' MP John Hemming tells us they have against Stuart Syvret, the silence of the Jersey authorities is revealing.

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  19. Rob.

    The silence of the BBC has been equally REVEALING

    The Jersey Child Abuse cover-up has been fully exposed ONLY on the Blogs and as you rightly point out almost exclusively with the use of documented evidence.

    The (possibly illegal) suspension of the former Police Chief has been exposed as a sham ONLY on the Blogs with documented evidence.

    Jersey's State Media is left wanting.

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  20. Mr Kent is correct about the importance of Mr Gradwell's lies.

    The actual height of the cellars or whatever else they are labeled is far less relevant than the fact that he lied. The evidence is massively sourced and incontrovertible that the cellars were at the time of the assaults, spacious enough for potential use by adults committing those acts. The local and even international media on site at HdlG made the reporters' observation of that evidence unavoidable.

    The question should no longer be about cellar size or definition then. As with missing forensic evidence, inconclusive testing, and unaccounted for children and the mysterious milk teeth, No one intelligent enough to read a newspaper, let alone write an article, could fail to suspect Mr Gradwell of contradicting their own observable facts.

    The extremely important question is not only why Mr Gradwell lied, but why the state media did not question that. Then, as critical as why Mr Gradwell lied and why the state media did not look at that, is the reason why Mr Gradwell was so observably certain the state media would not question his lies. That is the answer I would most like to know because it almost has to be related to some kind of promises made to the new police team regarding the local media.

    The bitterness expressed by Mr Gradwell and Mr Warcup about the blogs is the most tellingly honest view I observed from either of them. Were they actually bitter with the oligarchy system which promised to support their cover up only to be disgusted when the anticipated control over local media did not extend to blogs?

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  21. The concealment system is still in place with the cover up full steam ahead, but time is imminent for exposure. When Gradwell and Warcup were promised the full support of the establishment and their media minions, the threat from Citizens Media was not on their radar.

    The same power of the internet Warcup railed against would of been seen by bent coppers in the UK or elsewhere in the same situation. The difference was Jersey thought they could promise no hard media questions or interference with the whitewash and that was a promise they couldn't keep to the new cops.

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  22. The search on the JEP online shows almost nothing of Ben Queree reporting. Is he even there anymore? I ask because he wrote something astonishingly unbiased and then was he never heard from again, or am I missing something. Was that his swan song?

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  23. Anonymous above said "Well, although I wasn't an abuse victim, I did get caught up in a troubling (but not law breaking) episode in late 2008 that invovled the police. I can tell you for sure, I had absolutely zero confidence in the new team. At one point, I was referred by a senior police officer to take things up with Warcupp but I turned it down."

    Please can you give us a clue about this troubling episode in late 2008? Other readers may be very interested to hear what you have to say.

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  24. Savile pictured at the Jersey House of Horrors: Paedophile DJ is surrounded by children at care home where 192 'suffered abuse.'

    Lots of comments including this one from Abbi, Guernsey, 16/10/2012 18:42

    People have been trying to talk about this for years... Stories circulate in Guernsey about a 'special house' where children were taken for abuse parties involving all sorts of important figures (and children were swapped back and forth between Swissville here and Jersey's Haute Garenne). They were able to silence people then. I hope they can't still do it.

    Can anyone shed light on the photo? Has the 'Jim Fixed it for Us' it been photo shopped as a couple of comments are suggesting? And is taken next door in Aviemore? Perhaps someone in the photo could let confirm the year and location.

    I think we need to be careful with this one. We don’t need a photo to prove Savile was at HDLG.
    Corroborating victim statements are sufficient , and a search of the JEP could possibly add more information about his official visits.

    I’m interested to know if Savile ever visited Jersey unofficially? With his mother living in the Little Sisters of the Poor in St. Johns Road, it strikes me he'd be making regular visits to Jersey.
    Who were his friends? And which care staff ‘let him in.’ Who authorised his visits to HDLG and other locations where children were present? Did Savile ever perform at the Opera House or go as a Special Guest? Which camp site did he stay in?

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2218517/Jimmy-Savile-pictured-surrounded-children-Jersey-care-home-192-suffered-abuse.html#ixzz29aU2Ej1L

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  25. Had a comment submitted that was deleted by mistake.......Sorry.

    The commenter was asking if anybody knows what has happened to Ben Q from the JEP. I haven't brought a copy of that paper since 2005 so wouldn't know if anything has happened to him.

    Is he no longer writing for it?

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  26. We don't take the paper either but no recent mentions of Ben can be found on their web. His employment status might be worth a look.

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  27. It is strange to read an uncharacteristically unbiased article by him and then hear nothing after that, unless his byline is only found in the print copy.

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  28. Leah Goodman latest-

    Regarding my plight, Jersey Immigration has stated I am quite welcome to return to the island, provided I get a non-existent "Writer's visa." Yes, this visa does not exist. This week, they finally admitted there is no form for such a visa. We are still awaiting a coherent answer as to what they now advise me to do.

    ------------
    What are Jersey officials trying to do? This should not be allowed to carry on, its simple, fill out a form, get a pretty little stamp on it, Leah continues her work.

    Sign the petition here:

    http://www.change.org/petitions/ukhomeoffice-restore-the-visa-of-banned-journalist-leah-mcgrath-goodman-freejersey

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  29. "What are Jersey officials trying to do?"

    Are they making it up as they go along?

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  30. The States must be over ruled.Ex Jersey police chief calls for inquiry. The former deputy chief police officer in Jersey has called for a UK police force to investigate claims Jimmy Savile abused children on the island. But he added he did not think the States of Jersey "would allow anyone independent to come in".Lenny Harper may be right in his comment that "the States would not allow anyone independent to come in."

    However, in view of the new evidence, and the blatant cover up by those involved in the abuse from within the Jersey establishment, the time has come for the States to be reminded that the the Crown retains residual responsibility for the "good government" of the island and will intervene "in the event of a fundamental breakdown in public order or the rule of law, endemic corruption in the government or other extreme circumstances".. This is one of those circumstances where the Crown has no option but to intervene. This scandal with all its wider implications has been going on for far to long and now demands full investigation and prosecution of those involved, no matter what their position is, or was, in the social or political establishment. Should it be established that there are people on the mainland also involved in the cover up by assisting those involved in Jersey to block or obstruct previous investigations, then these individuals too, no matter who they are, must be prosecuted. The victims of Savile and the other as yet unidentified abusers in Jersey, demand justice. There has been too much delay, prevarication and conspiracy to conceal the facts. The United Kingdom must ensure that the rule of law extends into the States Chambers and across the whole island.

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  31. Andrea Davison, Jimmy Savile, SERCO and How it all Fits In With Child Abuse, Covert Arms Shipments and Governement Fraud

    Andrea also found time to work tirelessly to expose pedophiles in the the Police and in the Government Such as Lord McAlpine the Tory Treasurer and Tory Derek Laud. Both were close friends of long-time Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a close friend of Jimmy Savile who recently was exposed as a pedophile. She started to work with the then shadow Home Secretary Tony Blair who tried to get the then Home Secretary Kenneth Clark to take action against the Police. But Clark who years later as Justice Secretary would make sure Andrea was prevented from having a fair trial refused to help and instead protected the paedophiles in his Government and in the Police.

    Andrea and journalist Pete Sawyer continued the exposure through a magazine called Scallywag who’s editor died mysteriously in Cyprus in 1995. Scallywag also exposed that MI5 took foreign diplomats to the North Wales homes and secretly filmed them abusing and torturing boys to use the tapes for blackmail. This is a classic Intelligence modus operandi with regard to child abuse by the famous and influential – especially politicians that they want to control.. This all linked covert arms deals and child abuse.

    In Interviews the victims named many police officers including DC Stephen Winnard of Derby who later arrested Andrea in 2010, and senior figures including Jimmy Saville and Lord McAlpine and all these interviews were kept by Andrea.

    Then the Tory Government ordered a report and Mr Jillings from Derbyshire Social Services was ordered to make a full report into the abuse in Children’s Homes. But the Government refused to publish the report because it dammed the Police in North Wales and Derby and implicated Government ministers and senior Tory’s.

    Then in 1991 the story broke into the main stream when the Independent HTV and Private Eye publiciced the abuse. Between 1991 and 1993, North Wales Police mounted a huge retrospective investigation and subsequently referred some 800 allegations to the Crown Prosecutions Service. Fewer than 3% of these referrals proceeded to trial, much to the dismay and mystification of many of the alleged victims and of the adults who knew the extent and nature of the alleged abuse.

    The North Wales Child Abuse Tribunal of Inquiry was announced in summer 1996 by William Hague, then Secretary of State for Wales. The announcement followed more than a decade of abuse allegations, counter allegations, police investigations, the conviction of a handful of former social workers, the broken promise of a public inquiry, the suppression of at least one damning report on abuse in children’s homes in North Wales, and mounting public and political concern. The Waterhouse Tribunal of Inquiry was commissioned but the judge gave immunity from prosecution to all the paedophiles who gave evidence and so was a total whitewash. The Judge also made it contempt of court for anyone to publish the names of the pedophiles and so the names could never be spoken and lay gathering dust in Andrea's home untill one of the accused DC Stephen WInnard Seized them.

    Fortunately Andrea Davison was not without friends and although the DC Stephen Winnard gloated to stalker Gorden Bowden "we have seized her passport" she easily managed to escape from the United Kingdom and fly to the safety of Argentina. Andrea is now known to be writing a very revealing book and script together with a well know author. The Movie should be a thriller.

    One question arises on who's behalf did the British police prosecutie an important British Intelligence Agent? Something must be very wrong in the United Kingdom! It appears to me that Andrea is part of a Secret Intelligence war and who can tell who is working for who?

    full story to be found http://google-law.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/andrea-davison-jimmy-savile-serco-and.html

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