Police watchdog to investigate claims Met covered up child abuse

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has launched an investigation into allegations of police corruption in London relating to child sex offences dating back to the 1970s, including that officers colluded in the coverup of a high-level paedophile ring.
The allegations, referred by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), include suppressing evidence, hindering or halting investigations and covering up offences because of the involvement of MPs and police officers.
“These allegations are of historic, high-level corruption of the most serious nature,” said Sarah Green, the IPCC deputy chair. “We will oversee the investigations and ensure that they meet the terms of reference that we will set. Allegations of this nature are of grave concern and I would like to reassure people of our absolute commitment to ensuring that the investigations are thorough and robust.”
Parallel investigations being conducted by the MPS into the original allegations of child abuse and the new criminal investigations looking at alleged police corruption are closely linked and well under way, said the IPCC.
“Therefore, after careful assessment, the IPCC will manage the investigations being conducted by the MPS’s directorate of professional standards,” the IPCC added.
Among the allegations to be investigated are that an inquiry involving a operation targeting young men in Dolphin Square, near Westminster, was stopped because officers were too near prominent people.
Another involves a document that was found at an address of a paedophile originating from the Houses of parliament listing a number of highly prominent individuals (MPs and senior police officers) as being involved in a paedophile ring and where no further action was taken.
The IPCC will look into 16 allegations in all, including one involving a surveillance operation in the late 1970s that gathered intelligence on a politician being involved in paedophile activities that was closed down by a senior MPS officer.
Last year, a former Scotland Yard detective who won plaudits for his work on cases including the murder of Stephen Lawrence claimed that he was moved from his post earlier when he revealed plans to investigate politicians over child abuse claims.
Speaking about his inquiries in 1998 into activity alleged to have taken place in Lambeth children’s homes in the 1980s, retired detective chief inspector Clive Driscoll said his work was “all too uncomfortable to a lot of people”.
The Met launched Operation Midland last November following allegations that boys were sexually abused by a paedophile ring centred at a number of addresses more than 30 years ago. An alleged victim of sexual abuse claimed to have witnessed the murder of a 12-year-old boy by a Conservative MP, and said two other boys had been murdered by members of a paedophile network.
One of those addresses was the Dolphin Square apartment block near the Houses of parliament. Detectives have received claims that have led them to investigate other addresses, to establish whether they can be ruled in or out of their inquiries.