The child abuse cover-ups that Musk is conveniently not getting outraged about
As Elon Musk and others clamour for an inquiry over grooming gangs in the north of England, where is the call for a closer look at what is going on elsewhere from the Church of England to our top private schools, asks Rowan Pelling, who says institutional cover-ups are rife across all levels of society
It’s a bit astonishing to wake up and find that – hallelujah! – the sexual abuse of young women is the number one story in the UK. And that the government has finally acted to make the reporting of child sex abuse mandatory. God knows, enough campaigners, like inquiry head Professor Alexis Jay, veteran journalist Julie Bindel, and Lucy Duckworth from the Survivors’ Trust, have strived for years to propel their life’s work to the top of the political agenda.
It’s just a shame that so many zealous new converts to the cause (yes, Elon Musk and his X-bro army) appear to believe that the rape perpetrated by men of Pakistani origin was a unique evil unparalleled in the annals of history.
Or that the real problem is safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, despite the fact that she’s devoted her entire working life to the better protection of women. (Three of the Telford survivors have signed a letter stating “no one in public life has done more to support victims and survivors”.)
No one denies that what happened in Rotherham, Rochdale and Telford is a huge, gutwrenching scandal; that some officials hesitated to investigate in the name of “race relations” and that much of the police force who are paid to protect us dismissed the abuse of white working-class girls – often in and out of care – who they regarded as unreliable witnesses.
In fact, there’s now a race to proclaim these oft-reported tidings loudest, by many who didn’t seem to give a monkey’s as recently as last week. But if you’ve ever looked into the sheer scale of sexual abuse against innocent young people in this country and the scandals that were covered up within living memory (not just Jimmy Savile), then you’ll be left reeling.
It’s not just the thousands of violated young people among all classes and ethnicities, it’s the institutional indifference, not to mention the widespread distaste for the wrong kinds of victims, horrific details and inconvenient facts – let alone a reluctance to question our great institutions.
Few thought to mention the irony that on the very day Pakistani grooming gangs topped our political agenda, the Archbishop of Canterbury was laying down his ceremonial staff after the Makin report found he’d failed to take sufficient action on behalf of the victims of barrister John Smyth (who groomed and beat young men at Christian camps until they bled and had to wear nappies).
As a direct result of the inaction at the highest echelons of one of our most prized institutions, Smyth moved his operations to Africa, where one young victim was found dead in a swimming pool. This appears to represent the tip of the iceberg in terms of Church of England sex scandals and efforts to suppress their investigation.
I must confess a close personal interest in church stories as someone close to me was sexually abused when he was a young boy boarding at a CoE prep school run by Anglican priests. He told me on many occasions how the headmaster took him into his bed and that he was far from the only boy who received this “special” treatment.
One of his closest friends had a breakdown over it all in later life and was himself accused of abusing a young man. The late John Hurt had been a fellow pupil at the same school, raging years afterwards to those close to him, “The place should be burnt down!”
I’ve also been closely involved in helping a friend report the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of the Rev David Barnes, chaplain of Sutton Valence School in Kent until the mid-1980s.
The worst part of the memories for that friend was the fact the chaplain (formerly an RAF cleric) had a shoebox full of Polaroids of the boys he’d abused. This wasn’t a one-off lapse but involved serial grooming and rape over many years.
My friend discovered (thanks to his lawyer’s investigation, not the school’s) that one victim had finally reported the abuse to his parents and Barnes had been quietly whisked away. He was subsequently moved to at least three parishes, where it defies credibility to believe he didn’t come into contact with children. I found an old Sutton Valance school journal from the time he departed listing the Bishop of Maidstone as a governor. The whole story yelled “cover-up”.
When are we going to accept that child rape happens across the board in care homes, in our towns, at the hands of grooming gangs, in isolated rural communities, within the church and schools, at the hands of teachers?
Despite overwhelming evidence the man was a serial abuser – meaning my friend won a legal claim against the school in 2023 – it took me five years to place the story.
I was told by various editors that readers had a limited appetite for pieces that undermined the church and private schools. In short: bringing this stuff to light is as appealing as looking at a crushed slug under a microscope – an inconvenient narrative at what happens to children at some of our elite institutions that have taught or anointed the most powerful among us.
All my friend wanted was an apology and an institution that demonstrates true willingness to be accountable and transparent. On and on the stories go. At the last count, at least six female friends – of various ages and backgrounds – all have troubling stories that they’re still slowly untangling. The most harrowing conversation I had this year was an interview I conducted with Earl Spencer about the appalling abuse he suffered at prep school and documented in his memoir, A Very Private School.
When are we going to accept that child rape happens across the board in care homes, in our towns, at the hands of grooming gangs, in isolated rural communities, within the church and schools, at the hands of scoutmasters, sports coaches and music teachers? Cover-ups are often not long behind.
Or that these institutional outrages, involving thousands, are dwarfed by the main locale for sex abuse, which is within the home. The Independent Inquiry into Childhood Sex Abuse (IICSA), involving 15 investigations, ended in 2022 and – until yesterday – not one of the report’s recommendations had been implemented. That gives you some measure of how “urgent” Badenoch, Braverman, Starmer, Davey, Farage et al found the matter until the world’s richest, noisiest troll went off the deep end on X.
As for the newly enlisted online warriors now claiming devotion to the child abuse cause: it’s strange, but no bloke ever said to me in passing conversation, “You know what’s terrible – the way we’ve done sweet FA to turn IICSA’s safeguarding recommendations into law!”
But that’s always the way in this country. People clamour for an inquiry and then do absolutely nothing about its findings. That’s why Alexis Jay, an academic you really should know, isn’t backing the mob call for yet another probe. We know the horror story thus far, it shames us all. Musk’s outrage has at least shone a light on the hundreds of recommendations from the last probe that haven’t been implemented. We know what needs to be done. The time has come to stop talking about it and do it – for children everywhere.