Police investigate 1,400 child sexual abuse suspects

WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2015

More than 1,400 suspects have been investigated by police probing historic child sex abuse allegations against VIPs including politicians, celebrities and institutions.

The figures were revealed by Operation Hydrant, a group set up by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) to explore links between child sexual abuse committed by "prominent public persons".

Norfolk Chief Constable Simon Bailey, the NPCC's lead on child protection, said: "The referrals are increasing on an almost daily basis. The numbers I refer to today are a snapshot in time."

Ian McFadyen, a survivor of child sexual abuse, said that the numbers would come as little surprise to other survivors. "Everyone has said we've seen the tip of the iceberg, I'm saying we haven't even got in the boat to go to the iceberg."

He told Channel 4 News that he felt the timing of the police's announcement was likely to be a plea to the Home Secretary Theresa May for the resources to handle the cases. "The number of cases is mind-blowing, as is the fact that the number has been released. Is this about Theresa May and money? I am ever the sceptic but the police are going to be swamped by this."

Mr Mcfadyen said that those officers who have experience of dealing with cases of child sexual abuse need to be given dedicated roles in order to pass their specialist knowledge on.

'Unprecedented increase'

Out of the 1,433 suspects identified by police on Wednesday, 216 are now dead.

Mr Bailey said that out of these 1,433 suspects, 666 relate to institutions and 357 separate institutions have been identified by the operation.

He said 261 are classified as people of public prominence, of these 135 come from the world of TV, film or radio, 76 are listed as politicians, 43 from the music industry and seven are from sport.

Mr Bailey said: "We are seeing an unprecedented increase in the number of reports that are coming forward. That has brought about a step change in the way the service has had to deal with it."

He said it is projected that police will receive around 116,000 reports of historic child sex abuse by the end of 2015 - an increase of 71% from 2012.

He added: "There is no doubt (Jimmy) Savile has had an effect on us. We are getting dealing with more and more allegations."