Elm Guest House: The History of a Cover-Up

If anyone has any doubt that there was a conspiracy to cover up child abuse at Elm Guest House, read this excerpt from a Daily Star article from 28th October 2012, just 4 days after Tom Watson’s PMQ about “a political paedophile ring”:

POLICE probing an underage sex ring at the heart of Maggie Thatcher’s government were warned: “Stop investigating if you want to keep your jobs.”

Officers in London were ­ inquiring into allegations made by a teenage rent boy that a Cabinet minister had been abusing him.

The youth claimed to be one of a number of boys regularly having sex with rich and powerful men in the 1980s – some of whom would fly to the illegal orgies from Europe.

As well as the Cabinet minister – who is still alive – he pointed the finger at judges, European bigwigs and senior civil servants.

He told his story to detectives, who are understood to have received other allegations against the minister.

But a former detective who worked on the case revealed they were ­suddenly told to halt the probe.

The furious ex-policeman said: “It wasn’t that we ran out of leads but it reached a point where a warning to stop came.

“It was a case of ‘get rid of everything, never say a word to anyone’. It was made very clear to me that to ­continue asking questions would ­jeopardise my career.”

Elm Guest House was reported for just 10 days in 1982:

Daily Express, 7th August 1982:

News of the World, 8th August 1982:

Sunday Times, 8th August 1982:

The next day, The Times printed a denial by Scotland Yard:

Guardian, 9th August 1982 (please note this is redacted to protect the identities of two individuals who were cleared of any wrongdoing):

Daily Express, 9th August 1982:

Also on 9th August, The Sun printed the only story it would run on Elm Guest House. They still aren’t reporting on it in 2013:

Daily Express, 10th August 1982:

Daily Express, 16th August 1982:

The reason for the total silence after the initial 10 days of reporting was libel threats from Elm Guest House’s lawyers (paid for by ‘prominent people’ we can assume) combined with threats from Attorney General Sir Michael Havers. This is from Capital Gay magazine, 1st September 1982:

After this, apart from an oblique reference in 1984, I’ve found nothing in the UK media until 1990, when Carole Kasir,  the former owner of Elm Guest House, died an ‘unexplained’ death. This is all the coverage I’ve found so far, I’m assuming the Express, Sun, Star, NOTW etc. were still silenced by the legal threats that were mentioned in the Capital Gay article.

Surrey Comet, 10th August 1990:

The Sport, 10th August 1990:

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Sunday Mirror, 12th August 1990:

The Times, 17th August 1990:

The Sport, 23rd August 1990:

After this there’s nothing that I’m aware of until Operation Fairbank was launched after Tom Watson’s PMQ in October 2012.

Sadly, most of the UK media STILL aren’t reporting on Elm Guest House after almost 31 years. Only Exaro News (internet only), the Sunday People and the Mirror are giving it serious coverage. The Mail and the Independent have run a handful of stories, the Guardian won’t touch it, nor will the BBC, Sky, or any of Murdoch’s papers.