Tom Watson was warned that claims of a VIP paedophile ring had ‘evidentially turned to jelly’ just months after telling the House of Commons that a network of child abusers had operated at Westminster.
Documents obtained by The Mail on Sunday reveal Labour’s Deputy Leader was told that police believed accusations made by a convicted fraudster that senior figures had abused boys at a London guest house to be highly questionable.
Despite that, he pursued and perpetuated untrue allegations made against Lord Brittan, the former Home Secretary who died in 2015 before his name could be cleared, and Tory MP Harvey Proctor.
Astonishingly, a year later, Watson supported similar claims made by fantasist Carl Beech, who was jailed for 18 years after being convicted last month of perverting the course of justice.
Tom Watson was warned that claims of a VIP paedophile ring had ‘evidentially turned to jelly’ just months after telling the House of Commons that a network of child abusers had operated at Westminster
With pressure on Mr Watson to resign over the scandal, an investigation has unearthed a dossier that reveals how:
- Mr Watson was warned by a respected child protection expert that police judged claims of VIP child abuse at Elm Guest House in Barnes, south-west London, to be ‘evidentially like jelly’;
- The detective leading that inquiry told a meeting arranged by Mr Watson that a list of high-profile men alleged to have visited the B&B was ‘not reliable’;
- An award-winning journalist who was assisting Mr Watson found that Chris Fay, a social worker behind the Elm Guest House claims, had been jailed for fraud in 2011;
- Mr Watson was ‘stressed to the max’ when Mr Fay was uninvited from the meeting due to concerns about his credibility.
Last night, high-profile figures whose lives were blighted by Beech’s cruel lies repeated their calls for Mr Watson to quit.
Mr Proctor said: ‘Tom Watson should be ashamed that he allowed claims and rumours to get completely out of control despite receiving these clear warnings. But Tom Watson is not interested in child sexual abuse, he only cares about advancing his political career.’
Daniel Janner QC, the son of the late Labour peer Lord Janner who was falsely accused by Beech, said: ‘These staggering revelations show that Tom Watson knew the allegations were palpably the work of evil fiction. He could and should have shut them down. Instead he fanned the flames of moral frenzy.’
It sparked a police inquiry into allegations made by Mr Fay and Mary Moss, who worked for the defunct National Association of Young People in Care, that the guest house owner had told them about the abuse before her death in 1990
Mr Watson declined to answer a series of detailed questions from this newspaper, but insisted he had acted responsibly and in consultation with the police.
The scandal began in October 2012 when Mr Watson stood up during Prime Minister’s Questions and told stunned MPs that there was ‘clear intelligence’ of a paedophile ring linked to Parliament.
His intervention came after Peter McKelvie, a child protection officer, alerted him to the suppression of evidence in the 1990s about another child abuse ring called the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), whose members included a Tory MP’s half brother.
While subsequent investigations into PIE lead to convictions, an avalanche of other child abuse claims poured in after Mr Watson’s Commons speech. These included lurid claims of child abuse by politicians at Elm Guest House, details of which were published two months later in a red-top newspaper.
It sparked a police inquiry into allegations made by Mr Fay and Mary Moss, who worked for the defunct National Association of Young People in Care, that the guest house owner had told them about the abuse before her death in 1990.
Mr Fay, a former Labour councillor, also drew up a list of alleged offenders, including Lord Brittan and Mr Proctor, from a guest book.
That list was leaked online by Ms Moss in late December 2012. Within weeks, police had launched Operation Fernbridge, led by DCI Paul Settle, the then head of the Metropolitan Police’s paedophile unit.
Mr McKelvie asked experts, including journalist Eileen Fairweather, who had exposed scandals about care homes and PIE to help.
Last night, high-profile figures whose lives were blighted by Beech’s cruel lies repeated their calls for Mr Watson to quit. Pictured: Lord Brittan (left) and former Tory MP Harvey Proctor (right), who were both falsely accused by Carl Beech
Mr Watson then scheduled a meeting in Westminster on July 18, 2013 and asked Mr McKelvie to co-ordinate the guest list, which included child protection officers, current and retired police officers, social workers, a handful of journalists and other campaigners. Mr Fay was also invited.
Days before that meeting, however, Mrs Fairweather and others began to raise questions about Mr Fay’s reliability and he was told he was no longer welcome.
Hours before the meeting, Mr McKelvie sent an email to Mrs Fairweather, Mr Watson and others, explaining what had happened: ‘We were right to exclude Chris Fay from tomorrow even if our complicated on-off, on-off scenario stressed Tom out to the max.’
Describing a meeting with DCI Settle during which Mr Fay had been discussed, he added: ‘They [the police] thought they were on to a winner on the back of Chris’s info but when they got into it evidentially it turned to jelly.’
Suspicion: An extract from Peter McKelvie’s email to Eileen Fairweather about Chris Fay
Mr Watson did not attend the July 18 meeting because he was ill, but a member of his staff took notes.
Those minutes – also obtained by this newspaper – detail how DCI Settle said key evidence about the Elm Guest House probe was flawed.
‘The guest book from Elm Guest House cannot be used as reliable evidence, as it has been added to over the years. It is not possible to tell when the writing is from,’ the minutes state.
Mr McKelvie then asked DCI Settle about ‘lots of allegations about MPs and Ministers’, but crucially added: ‘Where are the victims?’ DCI Settle replied: ‘There doesn’t seem to be evidence of the cover-ups we’ve been discussing.’
Mrs Fairweather, who had previously met and interviewed Mr Fay, warned the meeting ‘there are organised groups who are using diversion tactics to take the focus away from real paedophiles’.
In a separate chain of emails between Mrs Fairweather and Mr Watson in October 2013, the journalist raised more concerns about Mr Fay.
‘A good defence lawyer will have a field day with Chris,’ she wrote. ‘The fact he is so inconsistent, and baulks when asked for ultimate proof, and doesn’t seem able to offer corroboration, is why I didn’t run with anything by him.’
She also discovered and, she says, shared with Mr Watson, that Mr Fay had been jailed for a year in 2011 for his part in defrauding pensioners.
Despite these warnings, Mr Watson kept quiet about the concerns over the claims’ credibility. Indeed, in July 2014, he actually demanded more funding for Operation Fernbridge.
Days later, Beech’s allegations were published by the now-discredited news website Exaro which had been working with Mr Watson.
Using the pseudonym ‘Nick’, Beech made allegations against two former Conservative MPs and other VIPs. One of the places where Beech alleged the gang had abused children was Elm Guest House.
Three months later, Beech supplied Scotland Yard with a list of 12 names, including Lord Brittan and Mr Proctor, against whom Mr Fay had previously made erroneous claims. In response to Beech’s list, the Met launched Operation Midland and in December 2014, Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald wrongly described his claims as ‘credible and true.’
Police raids were made on the homes of men accused by Beech, but the case collapsed in March 2016 when no evidence was found. Beech then became the subject of a new police probe.
Operation Fernbridge, which cost around £2 million, was also closed.
Last night, Mrs Fairweather said: ‘Tom Watson had been repeatedly warned, so why did he carry on listening to the fantasists?
‘Child abuse became a political football. My concerns were, and still are, that this was an anti-Tory abuse campaign.’
In a statement, a spokesman for Mr Watson said: ‘Following his PMQ in 2012, many victims of historic child sexual abuse contacted Tom. He worked closely with the police and followed their guidance on how to handle cases.
‘At every point, the information was shared with the police because only they could evaluate information and allegations.
‘As Peter McKelvie was right to point out, there were many allegations against MPs from all parties that didn’t pass rudimentary evidential tests.
‘Yet for decades victims of child sexual abuse had been ignored or failed by the criminal justice system. And we know now that in some cases, powerful politicians were treated differently.
‘The case of this one fraudster must not take us back to a time where people are too frightened to report serious crimes against innocent children.’