By Cathy Fox
Clive Driscoll had earned for himself a reputation for being able to fix difficult situations after his success in re-establishing policing in Brixton after the riots. He had also set up the first domestic violence unit in the country.
Clive had just been made into a Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) when he was asked by Gordon Briggs, another DCI, whether he would work in child protection in Lambeth. Clive accepted, replacing his old friend Jim Brightwell at Ambassador House in Norwood.
Brightwell’s file on what was wrong with police and Lambeth Council relations was tw0 foot thick [2a]. Two days later Clive went to a meeting that Briggs was having with Lambeth Council [p208] which talked about Operation Progarda and Operation Care.
Clive spoke later to Libby Blake from Child Services. She told him [p209] that John Carroll had indecently assaulted a 12 year old in the Wirral and later worked at Angell Road Childrens Home, eventually running it. Carrolls visitor Steve Forrest had AIDS and had abused a teenage boy there. She also told Clive that Carroll was tip of the iceberg. “The childrens homes have been the playgrounds for the rich and powerful for many years”.
Clive also spoke to Councillor Anna Tapsell. She told him that in February 1993 Bulic Forsythe had discovered child abuse pictures on council property featuring children in “care” of Lambeth, as well as Lambeth council members and was going to expose the whole operation. He told a secretary in the lift that he was going to spill the beans, but he was murdered that night and men were seen removing boxes from his flat before it was set on fire [p210] [2] [2b].
Operation Trawler was set up with two officers from child protection work put onto chasing information about Angell Road [p211]. Someone admitted seeing pornography change hands on council property and someone else said that a video was circulating that showed prominent people in sexual activity with minors.
A pornographer behind the cameras home was raided in Wales and a car load of perverted images taken [p212].
Clive’s supportive and helpful boss, Gordon Briggs was taken off the assignment and Clive does not say who replaced him, but this affected Clives confidence in his support from Ambassador House.
Clives investigations had produced a list of about 12 names. He feels he was ambushed by Lambeth Council at a meeting to discuss the boy raped by Steve Forrest, and they had not even told the boy that Forrest had got AIDS. They said that it was not in the childs best interests! When Clive said he would tell the boy, as it was his right to know, then it was threatened that they would have Clive removed from his post. Some of the people present had also used strange hand signals, as Clive describes in the following extracts.
Clive was asked for the list of suspects, which he eventually gave. The next day a caller to Clive told him to forget about the Lambeth kids and sinisterly and threateningly saying that they knew where Clives children were.
Anna Tapsell, the councillor, had a visit from Special Branch and told her to keep her nose out of the investigation.
Clive was told he was being moved from Lambeth. There was also a complaint against him from a member of the public and although he did not know it at the time, he was banned from Lambeth for treading on peoples toes, an order that is thought to come from a parliamentary level [p208].
Clive was moved to Operation Trident. He still wanted to help vulnerable children and so he volunteered at Valerie Sinason’s clinic, a respected therapist who ran the Clinic for Dissociative Studies [p233]. She introduced him to “Sue” who was a council worker, who was drugged by a male member of staff and the victim of multiple rape on Council property by local politicians and other known people, all dressed in robes and animal masks and chanting.
She made a complaint and then had acid thrown in her face. When she refused to withdraw her statement, someone broke into her house at night, doused her bed with petrol and set it alight as reported in the paper
1995 Jun 2 South London Press Petrol attack to silence rape victim [10]
Sue is an immensely courageous lady for going public with her story.
Her story was very similar to one in York, and other victims also corroborated her story. Clive wanted to help “Sue” but her case was already part of Operation Progarda. Merseyside Police, who had instigated the inquiries in Lambeth when investigating John Carroll for Operation Care, wanted to take over the case as “all the Metropolitan Police were bent” [p235] but the Met had refused.
Sue lost all faith in the Police as nothing was being done despite her having named several prominent people. Clive began to suspect that the particular personality or “alter” that had been abused in Sue, was still being abused. It turned out the “trigger” which tripped her into that abused personality was in certain emails being sent to her. Sue wanted her computer taken away to stop this which Clive arranged. The computer was full of sickening images with a trail to where they originated.
The computer and images were handed over to Operation Middleton, which had replaced Clives Operation, but they did nothing with it themselves and refused to let Merseyside have it.
Operation Middleton was a whitewash which was easy to spot just from the absurdly low numbers of victims. In my article written two years ago when Lambeth published the Operation Middleton Final Report in response to a Freedom of Information request I wrote “Only 49 victims from at least 20 homes and at least 19 perpetrators? This does not add up, there are obviously way more victims. 16 perpetrators dead before they get to Court out of 19? “[11]
Clive also heard from others who were raped in rituals with masks and cloaks. He handed all the information to SO5 (Special Operations 5 Metropolitan Police) [p239]. Nothing was done.
Who was involved that was powerful enough to put a whole Met Police Operation on ice? Clive and Sue have their suspicions.
Peter Mandelson may be in a good position to know. The Needleblog states “he was a councillor for Lambeth Borough in the early 1980s around the time that the politician in question was first seen by a witness who had been a trainee at Angell Road at the time.
Not only that but in the 5 months from July 1998 until his resignation as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in December 1998, he would have been in the same government as the alleged paedophile minister, at the time that Detective Chief Inspector Clive Driscoll was investigating these allegations.” [12]
It continues “As a close friend and confidante of the Prime Minister, isn’t it a reasonable assumption to make that Tony Blair would have consulted with Peter Mandelson, a master of news management, about these damaging allegations ?”
Has anybody asked him ?”
Well have they?
It appears that the Blair government was briefed about police paedophile probe involving Labour minister BEFORE it was halted [8], something which Blair has previously said he had no recollection [16]. Little seems to have happened since he “demanded” an investigation into this [16]. Tony Blairs list of Ministers is here [13]
I believe Clive Driscoll is a man of integrity, and a man I would trust and a man of great courage to act as he has throughout his career and and write what he has in his book. I recommend his book to you [1].
Source: Lambeth Part 4 – Clive Driscoll – In Pursuit of the Truth | cathyfox blog
