UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
The Guardian, Friday 17 October 2014

A full and urgent investigation into the disappearance of key child sex abuse files is needed to address public suspicion of a cover-up, the influential Commons home affairs select committee has said.

The MPs’ demand comes from their follow-up inquiry into the response of authorities in Rotherham during which they heard evidence that the files of a council researcher detailing the extent of suffering had been stolen in 2002.

The Commons home affairs committee’s report, published on Saturdaysays this was not the first case wherein there were allegations that files relating to child sex exploitation had disappeared.

“The proliferation of revelations about files which can no longer be located gives rise, whether fairly or not, to public suspicion of a deliberate cover-up.