The Daily Telegraph

Three senior figures named in Westminste­r child abuse files

- By Camilla Turner

KEY Westminste­r figures from the 1970s and 1980s, including Leon Brittan, the former home secretary, have been named in a series of newly disclosed government child abuse documents.

The batch of files relate to three senior government figures, all of whom are now dead: Sir Peter Hayman, a former diplomat and M16 official, Sir William van Straubenze­e, a former minister, and Sir Peter Morrison, who was an aide to Baroness Thatcher.

The papers, which were previously thought to be missing, have been shared with the police and will be passed to the Child Abuse Inquiry led by Justice Lowell Goddard.

The Cabinet Office confirmed the existence of the documents following a series of requests from Sky News for a file prepared for Lady Thatcher’s office on the “unnatural sexual” behaviour of Hayman.

While the full contents of the papers has not been disclosed, the files indicate that there were further Government papers relating to Hayman.

They also disclose that the Kincora children’s home in Northern Ireland was at the heart of further correspond­ence involving the security services and that former intelligen­ce officer Colin Wallace raised concerns about abuse there.

The Belfast care home has previously been at the centre of abuse allegation­s and child traffickin­g to England. Lord Brittan was thrust into the limelight in July last year by questions over his handling of a dossier handed to him as home secretary in 1983 by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens, alleging the existence of a paedophile ring at Westminste­r. An independen­t review commission­ed by the Home Office in 2013 found that the department had not retained the dossier.

A furore over the allegation­s led to an independen­t review of the Home Office’s handling of child abuse allegation­s in the 1980s by NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless, whose report last November found no evidence of a cover-up – but warned it was impossible to draw firm conclusion­s.

A second, more wide-ranging, inquiry into official handling of abuse claims was also commission­ed by Theresa May, the Home Secretary.

The inquiry’s proposed chairman Fiona Woolf stood down after questions were raised about her social links with Lord Brittan, who was a near neighbour.

Esther Baker, a child sex abuse survivor who has alleged abuse against senior political figures, said: “I have no idea whether what they reveal will have any bearing on my case or not — but I’m extremely glad for those with current allegation­s that will be validated by the release of these files.”

Lord Brittan denied being guilty of rape in July last year, after being questioned by the police over an alleged sexual offence.

In January, former environmen­t secretary John Gummer, now the Lord Deben, hit out at Lord Brittan’s accusers.

He wrote: “Those who used the cover of Parliament to make unfounded claims should be ashamed of themselves.”

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