Wanless report finds no evidence of Home Office child abuse cover-up

No evidence of organised attempts by the Home Office to conceal child abuse has been found by a key review into the department’s handling of historic allegations.

The review by NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless and barrister Richard Whittam QC found nothing to support claims that paedophile-rights group the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) was funded by the Home Office.

Pictured: Geoffrey Dickens (left) and Lord Brittan. Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, was brought in to investigate in July after an internal review found the department had “lost or destroyed” 114 files between 1979 and 1999. They included a dossier presented by former Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens to then-home secretary Lord Brittan in 1983.

Mr Wanless was brought in to investigate in July after an internal review found the department “lost or destroyed” 114 files between 1979 and 1999.

However, the conclusions of the Wanless report state: “It is very difficult to prove anything definitive based on imperfectly operated paper records system at 30 years remove.”

It is not possible to say precisely what referrals were given to the Home Office in the period covered, the report adds, as no system of routinely recording such referrals existed then or now.

The report said it was not possible to consider or comment with any confidence on how the police and prosecution authorities handled any material that was handed to them at the time.

“Filing conventions and record-keeping methods used during the period place significant limitations on our ability to re-establish a perfect record of what was known to the Home Office at the time,” the report adds.

The report said it was not possible to say whether files were ever removed or destroyed to cover up or hide allegations of organised or systematic child abuse by particular individuals because of the systems then in place.

However, it adds: “All that said, based on registered papers we have seen, and our wider inquiries, we found nothing to support a concern that files had been deliberately or systematically removed or destroyed to cover up organised child abuse.

“We found nothing specific to support a concern that the Home Office had failed in any organised or deliberate way to identify and refer individual allegations of child abuse to the police.”

Theresa May said she has asked Mr Wanless and Mr Whittham to examine what was done with any material that was passed on to the Security Service, MI5, as well as to take a further look at the role of the police and prosecutors.

The Home Secretary said: “I am determined that appalling cases of child abuse should be exposed so that perpetrators face justice and the vulnerable are protected.”

Mrs May ordered the investigation as part of her commitment to uncover the truth about long-standing claims of child sex abuse by powerful figures.

Mr Wanless’s findings will be used by the wider Hillsborough-style inquiry into paedophile activity linked to public bodies and institutions.

But the hunt is still on for a chairman for that inquiry after Fiona Woolf became the second candidate to step aside from the job.

Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2014, All Rights Reserved.

No evidence of organised attempts by the Home Office to conceal child abuse has been found by a key review into the department’s handling of historic allegations.

The review by NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless and barrister Richard Whittam QC found nothing to support claims that paedophile-rights group the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) was funded by the Home Office.

Mr Wanless was brought in to investigate in July after an internal review found the department “lost or destroyed” 114 files between 1979 and 1999.

However, the conclusions of the Wanless report state: “It is very difficult to prove anything definitive based on imperfectly operated paper records system at 30 years remove.”

It is not possible to say precisely what referrals were given to the Home Office in the period covered, the report adds, as no system of routinely recording such referrals existed then or now.

The report said it was not possible to consider or comment with any confidence on how the police and prosecution authorities handled any material that was handed to them at the time.

“Filing conventions and record-keeping methods used during the period place significant limitations on our ability to re-establish a perfect record of what was known to the Home Office at the time,” the report adds.

The report said it was not possible to say whether files were ever removed or destroyed to cover up or hide allegations of organised or systematic child abuse by particular individuals because of the systems then in place.

However, it adds: “All that said, based on registered papers we have seen, and our wider inquiries, we found nothing to support a concern that files had been deliberately or systematically removed or destroyed to cover up organised child abuse.

“We found nothing specific to support a concern that the Home Office had failed in any organised or deliberate way to identify and refer individual allegations of child abuse to the police.”

Theresa May said she has asked Mr Wanless and Mr Whittham to examine what was done with any material that was passed on to the Security Service, MI5, as well as to take a further look at the role of the police and prosecutors.

The Home Secretary said: “I am determined that appalling cases of child abuse should be exposed so that perpetrators face justice and the vulnerable are protected.”

Mrs May ordered the investigation as part of her commitment to uncover the truth about long-standing claims of child sex abuse by powerful figures.

Mr Wanless’s findings will be used by the wider Hillsborough-style inquiry into paedophile activity linked to public bodies and institutions.

But the hunt is still on for a chairman for that inquiry after Fiona Woolf became the second candidate to step aside from the job.

Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2014, All Rights Reserved.