Betrayal of Innocence: Shortly after this smiling photograph was taken, this boy fell into the clutches of a paedophile ring. Almost four decades later he has told his story to police - and now wants others to do the same
Wed 28th Nov 2018, Yellow Advertiser
SEX CRIME detectives are once again investigating a historic paedophile ring based in Shoebury, after receiving detailed allegations from a new complainant.
The man, now in his late 40s, described years of abuse during a series of video-recorded interviews at Rayleigh police station, which began in summer.
He has now called on other victims and witnesses to come forward.
Police knocked on the man’s door last year, saying they had reason to believe he was abused by the network. He initially declined to cooperate but later changed his mind.
He told the Yellow Advertiser: “Initially, I thought that I’m nearly 50 now so they’re probably all dead. Then I found out some of them were still around and had access to kids.”
The man gave his final interview last week. Police must now investigate his alleged abusers, one of whom is currently a scout leader.
The man has made abuse allegations about more than a dozen people, mostly linked to the ’Shoebury Sex Ring’, but some not. Among those who were not is a former police officer.
Some of them he knows by name, others only by nicknames used by the sex ring’s leaders. He can describe the insides of some abusers’ homes in detail and has given police a number of addresses.
The Shoebury ring was active throughout the 1980s. Two men were prosecuted in 1990 for being its ’leaders’, but police never brought charges against any other abusers.
Key details of the man’s allegations are corroborated by a stack of historic documents, shown to the YA by professionals who worked on the original case between 1989 and 1991.
The documents have never been made public, but copies were handed to police by whistleblowers in 2016, when the case was reopened as a direct result of a YA investigation.
They included a list, created in 1990, of around 60 children believed to have been abused by the ring. It was based on the testimony of known victims, who named other children they had seen with the paedophiles. The new complainant’s name appears on that list.
He told police he and others were driven to ’parties’ to be abused, naming a number of boys who were taken with him. Several of those names also appear on the 1990 list.
He said they were taken to locations including Basildon, Walthamstow, Marks Tey and Brighton.
He also said three members of the ring were linked to man who abused him at a children’s home.
In addition to his own abuse, the man has told police about abuse of other children that he was a witness to, including a mixed race boy who he saw abused by a care home worker.
The investigation is being conducted by Essex Police sex crimes officer Caroline Thrower, who can be reached at 101.
To speak to a YA reporter in confidence, call 01268 503493.
Back to Shoebury Paedophile Ring Investigation
Back to Portfolio
|
