A governmental quango has mandated the ongoing concealment of papers pertaining to a paedophile ring investigation, despite the fact that these data were publicly utilised to refute significant charges of police misconduct. The UK Government is Protecting Paedophile Rings.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has obstructed this publication’s effort to get papers pertaining to a 1982 raid on the defunct Richmond brothel known as the Elm Guest House.
The home located on Rocks Lane, Barnes, was characterised by the national Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) as “a disreputable establishment where child sexual abuse occurred.”
However, the ICO asserted that the inclusion of references to “criminal offence data” in the requested papers warranted the suppression of the whole collection.
This occurs notwithstanding the legal obligation for public entities to merely redact segments of documents that contain exempt information.
Newsquest is currently deliberating the possibility of initiating legal action against the ICO.
In January, we submitted a report to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) regarding the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) after it denied us access to witness statements collected during a corruption probe.
Among those apprehended in the 1982 raid was a minor employed at the brothel as a masseur providing “sexual services.”
Years later, following the revelations of Jimmy Savile that prompted a surge of historical abuse charges, the abuse victim presented grave accusations of corruption inside the Metropolitan Police.
He claimed west London police had extorted protection money from the brothel’s madam, Carole Kasir, and only investigated her when she stopped paying.
Mrs Kasir has since died – and her inquest heard how she spent her final years complaining of a conspiracy to cover up VIP child abuse at the brothel.
The former masseur further alleged that two undercover officers abused him while spying on the brothel, then other officers threatened him, warning him to “keep his mouth shut”.
The IOPC collected statements from former police and other witnesses, which it relied on in 2018 to publicly dismiss all the former masseur’s complaints.
The published report briefly paraphrased bits of each statement, referring readers to the full statements as appendices for further detail – except, the appendices were never published.
When we asked for them, the IOPC refused us access, claiming a witness statement is the witness’s “personal data”, as it “represents their point of view, their opinion and their recollection of events”.
Our complaint to the ICO said permitting this argument would set a damaging precedent, effectively enabling all public bodies to suppress all witness statements in all instances on the same grounds.
But the ICO has sided with the IOPC, saying the documents “include criminal offence data”.
“The commissioner has seen no evidence or indication that the individuals concerned have specifically consented to this data being disclosed to the world,” its decision notice said.
Newsquest made clear from the outset that any exempt information should simply be redacted.
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