DAVID Cameron has intervened over fresh allegations about the 1980s child abuse scandal in North Wales by ordering an urgent investigation.
After No 10 made clear the Prime Minister was taking a "close interest" in the abuse claims, which include allegations against a senior Tory from the Thatcher era, Mr Cameron announced the new probe while on a trade mission to Abu Dhabi.
Abuse victim Steve Messham wants to meet Mr Cameron. The PM said: "These actions are truly dreadful and mustn't be left hanging in the air. I am taking action today, first of all to make sure Mr Messham can meet urgently with the Secretary of State for Wales so he can hear his allegations and his points directly.
"Secondly, I am going to be asking a senior independent figure to lead an urgent investigation into whether the original inquiry was properly constituted and properly did its job and to report urgently to the Government. But third, I would also urge anyone who knows anything about these matters to go to the police."
Downing Street signalled there may be two inquiries, one to look at the original inquiry and the second the police response at the time.
A three-year inquiry into child abuse claims at the Bryn Estyn children's home was led by Sir Ronald Waterhouse, a retired judge. Some 28 alleged abusers were identified but not named.
Peter Howarth, who was Bryn Estyn's deputy head, was jailed in 1994 for for sexually abusing teenage boys. He died in jail.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article