Suspected Members of Sex Abuse Ring Arrested

By Karen Morrison
The Sun
February 6, 2013

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4781833/suspected-members-of-1980s-london-guesthouse-sex-abuse-ring-arrested.html

Sex gang member ... bragged about links to ex-PM aide

Elm Guest House ... under investigation

TWO suspected paedophiles have been arrested as cops investigate historic child abuse at a London guesthouse and care home.

The men, aged 66 and 70, were arrested in raids at their homes in Norfolk and East Sussex this morning.

The allegations are linked to Elm Guest House and the Grafton Close care home in Barnes, south west London.

The Elm Guest House was allegedly run as a male brothel in the early 1980s and boys from the care home are alleged to have been taken there to be used by adult men.

A child protection campaigner claims the house was raided in the 1980s by cops but the evidence no longer exists.

The arrests were made as part of Operation Fernbridge which was launched after concerns were raised in the House of Commons.

Last October it was revealed in Parliament that a file used to convict Peter Righton of importing child pornography in 1992 contained “clear intelligence” of a sex abuse gang.

One member of the gang had bragged about links with a senior aide to a former prime minister.

A spokesman for Richmond Council said: "Richmond Council considers the safeguarding of all children and young people as an utmost priority and we take any allegations of abuse very seriously."

Commander Peter Spindler from the Met Police said: “It is vital that anyone who has been affected by or has information about activity in the early 1980s at the Elm Guest House, or the Grafton Close care home, in Barnes, speaks to the NSPCC on their helpline on 0808 800 5000, or their local police.”