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The Truth Shall Make You
SIX QUESTIONS FOR EXARO NEWS
The Metropolitan Police Service has announced a formal review of the way its officers handled allegations of historic child sexual abuse. Former judge Sir Richard Henriques will examine the conduct of Operations Midland, Fernbridge, Fairbank and Hedgerow (and possibly others).
Those operations have cost well in excess of £2 million.
The Met Police statement was short on the detail of what exactly Henriques will examine. It is therefore unclear whether his remit will extend to the role played by Exaro News. If it does not, then his investigation will be a waste of the Met’s resources. Here’s why.
According to its own published statements Exaro has variously been at the heart of, or – in the case of Operation Midland – the cause of, the Met Operations which Henriques will review. For more than three years the website has promoted a series of allegations so assiduously that Scotland Yard has been led to spend millions of pounds investigating them.
At most this has led to one successful prosecution: not one of the most sensational – and expensive to investigate – claims Exaro promoted has led to a single charge.
Given Exaro’s central role in the alleged VIP paedophile abuse saga, I have asked it six serious questions.
- You have claimed credit for assisting the Metropolitan Police’s investigation into Elm Guest House.
“Under Operation Fairbank, the Met launched an investigation into Elm Guest House with Exaro’s help.”
Could you please state:-
- What “help” you provided ?
- What independent efforts you made to establish a factual basis for allegations made by complainants to you ?
- You have claimed credit for the Metropolitan Police launching “Operation Midland”.
Under its wide-ranging ‘Operation Fairbank’, the Metropolitan Police Service’s paedophile unit is investigating activities at Dolphin Square, the complex near Parliament where many MPs have their London flats. The Met’s move was sparked by a report on Exaro in July of two separate witnesses’ accounts of child sex abuse at Dolphin Square more than three decades ago.
Could you please state:-
- What independent efforts you made to establish a factual basis for allegations made by the complainant known as “Nick” ?
- What independent efforts you made to establish a factual basis for allegations made by the complainant known as “Darren” ?
- You have stated that your original report on the Dolphin Square allegations contained only “what had been corroborated”.
We called one of these witnesses “Nick”. He had met Mark [Conrad] two months earlier, and his claims went far further than we reported. We limited our report to what had been corroborated.
SOURCE: http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5655/analysis-why-police-continue-to-investigate-claims-by-nick
Could you please state:-
- Exactly which allegations you corroborated ?
- How you corroborated these allegations
- You have stated that an Exaro reporter provided to the Metropolitan Police Service a signed statement identifying a property in Pimlico as the key to “the dark secrets of a group of VIP paedophiles”.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service’s “Operation Midland” are investigating whether the Pimlico property – identified to them by Exaro – will help unlock the dark secrets of a group of VIP paedophiles. … Just over a week ago our reporter signed a formal statement for police in connection with the property.
SOURCE: http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5514/police-see-pimlico-property-as-key-to-paedophile-murder-case
Could you please state:-
- Whether this “identification” came from a claim from one complainant or more than one complainant ?
- Whether you recorded this “identification” on audio or video ?
- In the event that more than one complainant “identified” the property, what steps you took to ensure there was no cross-contamination between these claims ?
- You have reported that a senior Metropolitan Police Service detective is under investigation for “leaking” (in subsequent reports “suspected of leaking”) the identities of child a=sexual abuse complainants to BBC’s Panorama programme.
Police are investigating a senior detective who is a confidential source for BBC1’s Panorama over the leaking of secret identities in abuse cases …The Met this evening issued a statement in response to the Exaro story confirming that it was investigating a complaint received last month about “improper disclosure”
Scotland Yard has passed to Britain’s police watchdog its investigation into a detective suspected of leaking identities of complainants in abuse cases to BBC1’s Panorama. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) will itself carry out the investigation into the senior detective …
SOURCE: http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5733/ipcc-probes-panorama-source-over-leaking-of-csa-survivors-ids
Could you please state:-
- Whether Exaro as an organization or any of its reporters (including freelance associates) is/are the complainant in this matter ?
- Whether you possess documentary evidence to substantiate this allegation ?
- Your “Editor in Chief”, Mark Watts, stated on Russia today that the VIP child sexual abuse allegations reported by Exaro were “undoubtedly the biggest political scandal in post-war Britain”.
Speaking on Galloway’s programme on Russia Today, Sputnik, Watts said: “This is, undoubtedly, the biggest political scandal in post-war Britain”
SOURCE: http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5605/mark-watts-tells-rt-s-sputnik-about-britain-s-biggest-scandal
Could you please state:-
- Whether Exaro News has unequivocal proof of the abuse and murder allegations it reported ?
- Whether Mr Watts and Exaro News believe even unproven allegations amount to “undoubtedly the biggest political scandal in post-war Britain” ?
In the past Exaro has chosen not to respond to questions about its reporting, preferring instead to attack those who dare to pose them as (variously) “Police/M15 agents” or “an embarrassment to journalism”.
Should Exaro choose to respond to these latest questions I will post their answers on this blog.
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