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Child sex abuse is still being covered up at ‘the highest level’ warns campaigning MP
14:34, 23 JUNE 2015
BY BEN GLAZE
John Mann says hundreds of thousands of people are just starting to come forward – and they are just ‘the tip of the iceberg’

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John Mann (Pic: SM)Campaigning MP: John Mann claims abuse is being covered up at the highest level
Child sex abuse is still being covered up “at the highest level” with allegations reaching “the very top of society”, an MP has warned.

John Mann says “hundreds of thousands of people” are “just starting to come forward” with allegations – and they are just “the tip of the iceberg”.

Chillingly, he claims the Establishment is still preventing damaging revelations about the “systemic” abuse being made public.

“Without a question there is cover-up at the highest level,” he fumed today.

“What are people scared of? It’s extraordinary that no politician past or present has been put in front of a court yet.

“Who am I to say who’s guilty, who’s innocent? I’m not, that’s for juries. But the fact people haven’t been put in front of the courts is part of the travesty.

PACyril SmithFailures: Cyril Smith was not prosecuted for child sex abuse before he died
“It gives a strong message that there are different layers in society and some people can get away with things.”

The campaigning Labour MP believes discovering why former Liberal MP Cyril Smith was never prosecuted despite numerous child abuse allegations is key to unlocking the truth behind the alleged cover-up.

Smith, who died in September 2010, was held during a 1980s probe into alleged sex parties with teenage boys in south London.

An undercover police operation that gathered evidence of child abuse by the MP and other public figures was scrapped shortly after Smith was arrested.

Mr Mann said: “Why was Cyril Smith, when he was repeatedly apprehended, not prosecuted?

“We haven’t had the answer to that question. Answer that question accurately and a lot more falls out.

PADolphin SquareScandal: One site for abuse was said to be the Dolphin Square apartment complex in Pimlico
“Who was protecting him and why was he being protected? From that flows many, many more things – and many more scandals.”

Speaking in Westminster, Mr Mann said the scandal went to “the very top of society down to every level – across everywhere”.

“There is no section of society, however high you go, that was immune from what was going on,” he said.

“Vast amounts more will come out – and what will come out is hugely shocking and disturbing.

“This is the biggest scandal in this country in my lifetime. And we are only at the beginning of it being uncovered.”

He blasted the “misuse of power” by people in authority, saying it was “at the heart of all the major scandals”.

He went on: “Some of the people who misused it remain in power today, and they shouldn’t be. They should be put in front of the courts.

Campaigner: MP Geoffrey Dickens, who compiled a dossier of alleged VIP abusers
“Progress is slow. We are yet to see any national politician prosecuted … and something’s not quite right in relation to that.”

But he was “mildly confident that people who have been senior in politics” would be hauled in front of judges.

He added: “From the evidence I have seen, it would be quite extraordinary if they weren’t.”

A “phenomenal, extraordinary” number of people had come forward alleging child abuse just in his constituency of Bassetlaw, Notts, Mr Mann revealed.

Their claims involved “the most horrific things in children’s homes, with adopted children, in families (and) with strangers”, he said.

But Mr Mann feared police across the country were unable to cope with the scale of accusations, and demanded more resources for investigators.

PAInquiry: Lowell Goddard, left, is now heading up Westminster’s child abuse probe
Home Secretary Theresa May announced an inquiry last July into historical child sex abuse allegations and claims of an establishment cover-up.

But abuse victims are frustrated at ongoing delays over the probe, led by New Zealand judge Justice Lowell Goddard.

Nigel O’Mara, 51, from the WhiteFlowers campaign, called for files relating to historical abuse cases which are covered by the Official Secrets Act to be released.

He said: “The Official Secrets Act has been used on several occasions to hide these crimes.

“I think that it should be in the public interest for those files to be released, wherever the Official Secrets Act has been used to protect somebody who has been abusing children.”

Full article: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/child-sex-abuse-still-being-5934709