UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Sam Jones and agencies
The Guardian, Wednesday 6 February 2013
Detectives investigating historical claims of child abuse have arrested two men on suspicion of sexual offences, Scotland Yard has said. A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said a 66-year-old man from Norfolk and a 70-year-old man from East Sussex were arrested on Wednesday morning and taken into police custody. The Diocese of East Anglia confirmed that the man arrested in Norfolk was Father Tony McSweeney.
Scotland Yard launched the investigation, known as Operation Fernbridge, last month after Labour MP Tom Watson claimed that a “senior aide of a former prime minister” had links to a member of a paedophile ring.
The investigations are focusing on allegations of child abuse in the early 1980s at the Elm guest house and the Grafton Close care home in Barnes, south-west London.
Watson claimed that a file used to convict Peter Righton of importing indecent images of children in 1992 contained “clear intelligence” of a “widespread paedophile ring”. Raising the issue during prime minister’s questions, Watson added: “One of its members boasts of his links to a senior aide of a former prime minister, who says he could smuggle indecent images of children from abroad.
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