The difficulties of investigating


The climate of reporting has changed, finds Paul Gosling, but journalists still have to tread a careful path when told of allegations


early 20 years ago, Mark D’Arcy and I wrote the book Abuse of Trust, which examined an institutional child abuse scandal in Leicestershire and the widespread sexual, physical and psychological abuse of children


child abuse N


by care home manager Frank Beck. Friends of Beck assumed our book would expose a miscarriage of justice. Instead, our painstaking research confirmed, in our minds, that a court case had reached the correct guilty verdict on Beck and his associates. The only significant book review at the time slated us for being gullible, falling for a conspiracy between the police and complainants who, it was alleged, made false claims to obtain compensation. A culture existed where victims were disbelieved and the accused assumed innocent. It was, generally, a culture to which the police and the media subscribed. The Beck case was a rare exception, where a senior and influential child care worker, who was also a local politician, was prosecuted and convicted. Our book has been reprinted, with an additional chapter considering related allegations against former local MP Greville Janner, who became Lord Janner (see box). The reviews of this edition are more sympathetic. Gone is the assumption that it is not possible that adults (mostly men) could commit such systematic sexual, physical and mental abuse of children. The atmosphere has changed because of what we now


know about Jimmy Savile, Cyril Smith, Rolf Harris, Stuart Hall and the gangs of paedophile predators in Rochdale, Oxford and Rotherham. It is no longer possible to say that these things are just not believable. Nor is it acceptable to argue – as some, amazingly, did – that paedophilia was fine and an expression of free will between two equal parties. But accepting that these awful crimes are possible is very different from deciding how to respond to allegations. As journalists, we are faced by real practical difficulties in knowing who to believe where allegations are historic. Police officers have similar problems. There are no forensic traces nor, often, other evidence. Witnesses may be dead or untraceable. Diaries and official records may have been destroyed. Buildings in which crimes may have been committed might have been demolished. Getting to the truth of recent and historic cases is


important, not least because the scale of child sex abuse is massive. The Children’s Commissioner reports that 50,000 children have been identified as having been sexually abused


12 | theJournalist Greville Janner MP


Allegations that Greville Janner MP – later Labour peer, Lord Janner – had abused a boy in care were made during the prosecution of Frank Beck and others in 1991. Rumours had circulated previously and Janner had been questioned by the police – when he exercised his right to silence. After the Beck trial, an


official inquiry took place into the failings at Leicestershire children’s homes that allowed an institutional climate of child abuse to take hold. Janner gave evidence to this, both in writing and verbally. But his evidence was given in private and remains secret. There was little, when


Abuse of Trust was published, that could be reported about the allegations against Janner beyond what was said in court – and by Janner himself in parliament. All this changed in the


last months of Janner’s life. It then emerged that police officers who investigated the Beck case had believed there were credible allegations against Janner, but were instructed by senior officers not to pursue them. At least four police


operations investigated


in England and Wales in the two years to March 2014. She believes another 400,000 unidentified children were also sexually abused. In football, following the Andy Woodward allegations, some 1,700 people phoned a hotline in just three weeks to report that they had been sexually abused within the sport as children. As a society, we have yet to come to terms with just how embedded child sex abuse is – within the family, childcare, the entertainment industry and in politics. So it is not surprising that some journalists often receive abuse allegations. How do we tell fact from fiction? Since Abuse of Trust was reprinted, I have been sent lurid allegations against former senior politicians that have a distinct ring of truth. I have been given these on a restricted (not for publication) basis. What should I do if the person who claims to be a victim of very well known former cabinet ministers does wish me to publish? There is a lot of anger among the survivors around the allegations made by “Nick”. He claimed to know about the


Janner while he was alive. More than 30 credible allegations were made by people claiming to have been sexually abused by him. Yet prosecutors had repeatedly refused to prosecute. An investigation by a senior judge published last year concluded that Janner should have faced charges in court. Janner’s family


continues to strongly argue his innocence. The allegations against Janner, the failures of Leicestershire County Council to protect children in its care and the reasons why Janner was never prosecuted will form a strand of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, chaired by Professor Alexis Jay.


ARCHIMAGE / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


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