2022 February 19 FOIA Centre Mark Watts Dolphin Square BOOK - 3 articles Mark Watts 10p

Dolphin Square was focus of previously unknown Met operation on ‘VIP paedophiles’19.02.22 By Mark Watts 1-10
Police ran a secret operation into alleged child sexual abuse at “sex parties involving political, government and military figures” at Dolphin
Square and other locations.
A former detective at the Metropolitan Police Service’s paedophile unit revealed details of the previously unknown case, ‘Operation
Mileshogue’ – dating from 1996 to 1999 – in interviews with officers from the same force in 2016.
The investigation into allegations of “organised sexual abuse” of children in care in London targeted MPs, a Navy officer and a sensitive figure
who worked for the government in arms sales, according to the ex-detective’s account to the Met’s professional standards department (PSD).
The same officer also revealed that a separate investigation into organised crime in south-east London in 1991 seized from a safe an audio
tape on which an MP is heard “having sex” with a “teenager”.
The Met passed the ex-detective’s bombshell witness statements and related material to the inquiry sponsored by the Home Office into child
sexual abuse for its Westminster investigation.
But the inquiry failed to call him or any other witness in relation to either operation.
Its report on the Westminster investigation – despite damning a culture of “turning a blind eye,” as well as “actively shielding and protecting
perpetrators,” and “covering up” allegations of child sexual abuse – completely ignored the former officer’s account.
The inquiry formally adduced the ex-detective’s witness statements and related material on the final day of the Westminster hearings in March
2019 in what became known as the “document dump”, but there was no meaningful reference to the gravity of what they contained.
Despite effectively identifying the MP caught on tape in the adduced evidence, presumably by mistake, the inquiry protected the MP by
making it a criminal offence to name him. The inquiry used a codename for him – “WM-F7”.
The media ran no report on any of the material. I highlighted what it contained at the time in this Twitter thread and this one, but it is set to be
featured in a new book out next week, Scandal at Dolphin Square: a notorious history, by Simon Danczuk, the former MP, and Daniel Smith.
As a result, the book re-opens the scandal of child sexual abuse by ‘VIPs’ despite continuing attempts by sections of the media to pretend that
it never happened.
The book will plot the history of sex, spy and political scandals at the private housing estate in Pimlico near Westminster favoured by MPs and
other prominent figures.
The inquiry anonymised the ex-detective in his statements to “GB”. His statements record him as being born in 1959, making him about 62
now.
GB talked to ‘Operation Winter Key’, the Met PSD’s investigation into allegations of historic child abuse involving institutions and prominent
people.
Met bosses starved Operation Mileshogue of resources, he said.
A transcript prepared by Operation Winter Key of one of its interviews with GB quotes him as saying: “When I tried to get MH [Mileshogue] off
the ground it took a year for the docket to be accepted.”
“It bounced back and forwards… It took nearly a year for authority just to go and interview. It was so slow.”
He also believes that suspects were tipped off about surveillance on them.
He revealed that armed Special Branch officers even stopped a police surveillance team watching a suspect in Operation Mileshogue, after
threatening his colleagues with a gun. I set out in a second piece what GB says about Operation Mileshogue in what is, at times, a graphic
account.
Separately, he said that a mystery senior officer from a regional crime squad approached him in a pub to warn him off the organised-crime
investigation that had ensnared an MP engaged in sexual activity with a teenager.
Notes prepared by Operation Winter Key of a meeting with GB record: “He describes the other males [sic] voice as youngish male but
impossible to say how young. Cannot remember what the other male was saying on the recording. He describes the voice as ‘teenager, child
that sort of age it was a young person.’”
I set out in a third piece what GB says about the organised-crime investigation and the MP caught on tape, and part of his account is also
graphic.
Mark Watts (@MarkWatts_1), co-ordinator of the FOIA Centre, is the former Editor-in-Chief of Exaro.
Met in organised-crime raid seized MP’s ‘sex tape’ with ‘teenager’ from gangster’s safe 19.02.22 By Mark Watts

Detectives on an investigation into organised crime in 1991 stumbled upon an audio tape on which an MP is heard “having sex” with a
“teenager”.
They had just raided the business premises of a “prime suspect” arrested as part of an organised-crime gang that was allegedly into property
fraud and corruption, according to the officer known only as “GB”, who was then based in Rotherhithe in south-east London.
The inquiry sponsored by the Home Office into child sexual abuse failed to call as a witness either GB, or the MP caught on tape, to whom it
refers as only “WM-F7” or even his associate in organised crime who held the tape in her safe, known only as “WM-F172”.
The inquiry’s report on the Westminster investigation completely ignored the former officer’s account.
But GB’s bombshell evidence is set to feature in a new book out next week, Scandal at Dolphin Square, by Simon Danczuk, the former MP,
and Daniel Smith.
The inquiry formally adduced the ex-detective’s witness statements and anonymised him in them to “GB”.
GB talked about the MP and the sex tape in interviews with Operation Winter Key, an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Service’s
professional standards department into allegations of historic child abuse relating to institutions and prominent people.
Met notes of Operation Winter Key’s two meetings with GB record (as it appears in the original document, as with all material quoted,
complete with punctuation and other typing errors):
“Whilst searching her house [GB] states he found an audio recording in a safe of a male having sex with a child. He states that he
knew that the male’s voice was [WM-F7] who was an MP at that time and [GB] was aware that [WM-F172] would accompany [WM-F7]
to high-profile functions.
“GB does not know for certain but he believed that [WM-F7] may have been blackmailed by [WM-F172] due to her having possession
of this recording. He remembers that children from GLCH [Green Lane children’s home] and a children’s home in Deptford were
staying overnight at [WM-F7] house.
“This information was passed over to security services MI5 as it was too big and too political for local police to be dealing with.”
The revelation piles further pressure on the CSA inquiry because the Security Service, better known as MI5, was supposed to hand over all
material in its possession relating to possible child sexual abuse and MPs.
But there was no indication in the MI5 disclosures of the MP’s sex tape with a teenager.
An anonymous MI5 witness, understood to be its legal director, told the #CSAinquiry on Day 6 of the Westminster hearings that it had handed
over all relevant material from its files on allegations of child sexual abuse against MPs.
But GB’s account undermines this claim, and yet the inquiry failed to follow up MI5’s omission.
The Met notes of its meetings with GB continue:
“After a few weeks he tried to get the recording from property in Rotherhithe but it was missing and never found. He describes the
property office as not very secure and most people had access to the keys.
“He believes that someone was protecting [WM-F172] or [WM-F7] and also felt that [WM-F172] may have been an informant as she
was only ever found guilty of a couple of frauds and received a suspended sentence although he did not know this for certain.”
A Met transcript of GB’s interviews recounts more detail of his recollections of that raid: (For those for whom reading about sexual abuse may
be a ‘trigger’, you may want to skip the following, graphic section of evidence.)
“We came across a safe that she wasn’t going to open and didn’t have the key. We were going to call a locksmith when she opened
it and we found the tape recording. We thought it might be more evidence of what we were looking for. We got back and listened to
the tape.
“[WM-F7] has a distinctive voice realised it was his voice on it and he was engaged in having sex with someone another male. We
knew he had an association with WM-F172 as there had been bits in the press attending functions with her on his arm.”
“Q- Describe the voice that you believed was WM-F7
“A- I don’t know how to describe his voice, its distinctive and it was him, as far as I was concerned it was him.
“He was the local MP for [redacted] I had seen him a few times around, I had spoken to him a few times, on TV, he is regularly on. He
has a twang to his voice, if you heard it you would know it was him
“Q- What did you hear on the recording

“A- It was obvious he was having sex with someone basically, grunts, groans, his voice encouragement and bits and pieces and it
went on for a while.
“Q- Did you hear what the other person was saying, what the voice sounded like
“A- I can’t really recall it it sounded a youngish male basically or you could gather from it
“Q- How young are we talking
“A- Impossible to say
“Q- Young male as in teenager or above or are we talking child
“A- It was teenager, child that sort of age it was a young person. He was in his 40s this was significantly younger probably a child or
young adult, grunts and groans and talking during sex it wasn’t exactly a young conversation. It sounded like they didn’t know that
they were being recorded.
“Q- What was the recording done on what type
“A- Can’t remember if it was an ordinary cassette or micro cassette. I think it was just an ordinary cassette
“Q- It was just audio
“A- Just audio
“Q- Anything written on the cassette you can remember
“A- I can’t remember
“Q- From that recording this teenager or child can you remember what they were saying
“A- No
“Q- What made you believe it was a young person or child
“A- The voice was higher just the whole tenure of it being encourage to participate as though he was talking to someone young,
couldn’t say if it was a child could have been a young person, it was definitely someone on the younger side
“Q- Were there sounds of distress
“A- No it was consensual our main concern was that he was often protecting her when people were complaining to him about [WM-
F172], people had gone to his surgery to complain that the villains had got their [sic] but he said no I’m sure not. He was on her arm
at places and it wasn’t until about 10 years later that he came out being gay before that the people of [redacted] would not have
voted for him.”
The Met notes of its meetings with GB record:
“He describes the other males [sic] voice as youngish male but impossible to say how young. Cannot remember what the other
male was saying on the recording. He describes the voice as ‘teenager, child that sort of age it was a young person.’
“[WM-F7] was in his 40’s and GB describes the other voice as significantly younger and talking during sex but not ‘exactly a young
conversation’… No sounds of distress and consensual.”
According to the Met transcript, GB says that he thinks that two colleagues listened to the recording with him. He continues:
“We were going to keep it quiet. We couldn’t say if it was a child, was an MP being blackmailed, was he being blackmailed by [WM-
F172] therefore by most of the villains in South East London.
“Q- When you say you were going to keep it quiet was there a conversation around that
“A- Yeah the DI [detective inspector] was going to take it to SB [Special Branch] I think we didn’t want to make it worse. It needed
appropriate people to deal with it, we couldn’t deal with it as the local CID. It was going to be taken up elsewhere as far as we were
aware.
“Q- Who was the DI at the time
“A- Micky Suett

“Q- There was a conversation about this going to SB as the local CID couldn’t deal with it
“A- Yes the three of us didn’t saying anything to anyone else. Then the tape went missing.”
“We weren’t sure who had taken it had SB come along and taken it. It was not booked out, it wasn’t where is should be
“Q- Was this fed back to the DI
“A- Yes
“Q- Do you know what happened from there
“A- I think he may have done a copy so I don’t think he was that worried. We all talked about doing a copy each and keeping hold of
it.”
“Q- Did you know that for certain or was it just a comment saying he would make a copy
“A- I just felt confident he had made a copy, we talked about making copies ourselves
“Q- Did you make a copy
“A- Don’t recall making a copy, no.”
“Q- Who would have had access to the property office
“A- It would have gone to the property store at Southwark once it had left us because she was a prisoner it would have been booked
in at Southwark
“Q- It was moved from Rotherhithe”
“A- Yeah after the arrest was made she went to Southwark as there was no facilities at Rotherhithe. We would have taken the stuff
back to the office in Rotherhithe to listen and book it in and leave it in the property store.”
“Q- At the time you found this tape was it a case of you all being worried that an MP was being blackmailed by [WM-F172] and other
villains or did you look at it as a child abuse aspect
“A- Couldn’t say for a 100% that it was a child it was just things that came latter [sic], children in, children I was investigate [sic]
later from the Children’s Home spending the night at his constituency surgery seen coming out in the morning
“Q- So it was later on in your career when you discover all that and that’s when you thought
“A- Yeah it was later on, just as I left Rotherhithe to go to the CPT [child protection team] I remember having a conversation with the
Ch Supt [chief superintendent] there Alan Evershed. I don’t know how we got on the subject but it was about [WM-F7] He may have
been briefed by Mick Suett about children coming out of his constituency surgery in the early hours of the morning
“Q- That information was fed to you so you didn’t witness it yourself
“A- I did later. There were children there that were related to [name redacted] that group of kids were the ones coming out of his
constituency surgery. Those kids like [WM-A118] and [WM-A119] never said anything about [WM-F7]. Alan Evershed telling me
about the kids coming out of the surgery and we were doing some observations around there about a child we knew who was a
prolific burglar we caught him coming out of his constituency surgery.”
“Kids had been staying there. The one kid I saw, can’t remember his name was from Rotherhithe. Same sort of thing he was into
burglaries, stealing he was about 15 or 16 and had stopped all of a sudden. He was coming out there one morning. I don’t think we
were doing a surveillance, just driving past, it was towards the end, when I was leaving there. Evershed said he received information
that kids were spending the night at the surgery.”
Met notes of a meeting between officers on Operation Winter Key and GB record:
“Whilst having a conversation with Ch Supt Alan EVERSHED, about [WM-F7], he was made aware that children, some of which
believed to be from GLCH [Green Lane children’s home], had been seen coming out of [WM-F7] constituency surgery in the early
hours of the morning. He states that at one point, whilst working on the [WM-F172] investigation, he was to witness a young boy
leaving the surgery whilst driving past one morning.”
GB says in a witness statement of 2017 to Operation Winter Key:
“Matters relating to [WM-F172] had very little relevance to child abuse enquiries. This was an investigation carried out whilst I was
based at Rotherhithe Police Station [and] involved a large scale fraud involving local authority housing.

“The only link to child abuse was through [WM-F172] and [the] MP at the time [WM-F7]. At the time of her arrest her property was
searched and in a safe was found an audio tape on which I believed that I heard [WM-F7] voice. From the tape he appeared to be
engaged in a sexual activity with a young male.
“The tape was stored at Southwark Police Station but it disappeared. As far as I was concerned only 3 people knew the content of
the tape. I believe the loss of the tape was deliberate, however housekeeping at Southwark at the time was not the best which would
have made any theft easy.
“During the course of the investigation [redacted] children were seen leaving the constituency office of [WM-F7] and his relationship
with [redacted] children were brought to the attention of Chief Superintendent Alan Evershed.”
GB recounts how he was threatened in about 1991 by a mysterious senior police officer over the organised-crime investigation. He says in the
witness statement:
“Shortly after the arrest of [WM-F172] I contacted a friend/colleague whom I had known since my early days at Chelsea and arranged
to meet with him at a pub in Dulwich. Whilst waiting in the pub I was approached by an individual who claimed that he was a
Detective Superintendent from the Regional Crime Squad. He proceeded to threaten me over my involvement with the [WM-F172]
investigation. During the following 24 hours I attempted to identify the individual but could not do so. I made the arrangements to
meet my friend over the phone from the CID offices at Rotherhithe and Southwark.”
Met notes of a meeting with GB say:
“Whilst working on the [WM-F172] investigation in about 1991, he was sitting in a pub in Rotherhithe on his own. He remembers
seeing a police car outside and thought his friend had arrived in it. Whilst at the pub he was approached by a man who showed his
ID stating he was Superintendent from the South East Regional Crime Squad. He was told to stop the investigation into [WM-F172]
or he would tell everybody that [his female colleague] [redacted].”
“Only person he told about the threat was [his colleague]. She was very angry and never spoken [sic] to GB again. As the male left
GB looked outside the window and saw him getting into a car with another man who I [sic] had not seen previously. He noted the
car registration and ran it through PNC [police national computer]. He states it was not local but registered somewhere up north. He
cannot remember any details of this and at that time unable to identify the owner. GB believed he was told to stop the investigation
into [WM-F172] because either [WM-F172] was an informant or it was to protect [WM-F7], however no evidence to prove this.”
According to the Met transcript, GB says:
“I was meeting a friend of mine in a pub on the way home from Rotherhithe. I got to the pub and outside was what was obviously a
police car. I thought it was my mate taking the piss. Got inside and there was someone there who introduced himself as a Supt
[superintendent] from the Regional Crime Squad. I thought he might be with my mate but he wasn’t. We started chatting. He started
blowing smoke up my bum about things I had done, new [sic] a lot about me. He said we should stop the investigation into [WM-
F172] for everyone’s interests
“Q- Do you know who he was
“A- No. I took the car reg at the time and ran it through, not locally but someone up north but never identified. Can’t even remember
his name, I had it all written down. I didn’t know who he was but he was purporting to be from the job. That’s how he knew I was
going to be in the pub because I had phoned my mate once from Rotherhithe and once from Southwark confirming the meeting so
unless it was someone in those offices listening to me no one else would have known I was going there. He was waiting for me so
we had this conversation. It was a case of my saying no I don’t think we will stop the investigation. Making life difficult if [his
colleague, redacted detail] Making life difficult for me. That was it and off he trotted.”
“I met with [my colleague] the next day and told her what happened she went off on one and I never actually got to tell her they
claimed they [redacted].”
“Q- This male introduced himself as a Supt RCS
“A- Yes claimed to be from the South East Regional which made sense with the job car outside that got into when he left
“Q- What did he look like
“A- About 5’10”, slim face, small moustache, quite skinny,
“Q- Was he on his own
“A- Strangely when he got into the car someone else got into the car I hadn’t seen before the two of them got into the car to leave.”
“Q- Did he say why he wanted this stop
“A- No. Theres [sic] two theory’s [sic] one is about [WM-F7] or about [WM-F172]. I think she may have been an informant. Certainly
my life turned to shit afterwards
“Q- After that meeting

“A- Yeah
“Q- Was that investigation still going on…
“A- Yeah we got to the stage, I think we were charging her that week or the following week. This was days before she was charged…
The CPS put a bar on me from attending court
“Q- Why was that
“A- Because I was under investigation. Strangely someone had made a complaint against me. I had received the 163A which meant
that the complaint was over. The complaint started again I was reinvestigated for it.”
“Q- What happened with [WM-F172] trial
“A- I didn’t go but I heard from someone else she was found guilty on some of the counts and someone went in to see the judge
[implying that police requested a light sentence because she was an informant]. That’s what I heard but of course I wasn’t there.
“Q- Did you ever mention to anyone else, senior officers about this person threatening you in the pub to drop the investigation
“A- No
“Q- Why
“A- I didn’t trust anyone, wasn’t going to do it. I wasn’t going to stop, no [sic] in my nature
“Q- Anymore you can tell us about the [WM-F7] [WM-F172] element
“A- No. I can’t be sure but it was always in the back of my mind these were the same group of kids [as in Operation Mileshogue], but
there. But never did any of the lad I dealt with ever mention him its just the tape recording suspect, whether it was a child or not,
being known and talked about regularly about the kids coming out of his address. He could have been a nice man putting them [up]
for the night, nothing a 100 per cent.”
Mark Watts (@MarkWatts_1), co-ordinator of the FOIA Centre, is the former Editor-in-Chief of Exaro.
Ex-detective reveals police probe into VIP paedophiles’ on this website. abuse parties at Dolphin Square 19.02.22 By Mark Watts
Detectives from Scotland Yard hit a hitch during their operation to clear up claims that police had long covered up child sexual abuse by ‘VIPs’.
The team from the Metropolitan Police Service’s professional standards department (PSD) had found an incredible witness, a former detective
from their own force who had worked in the paedophile unit from 1996 to 1999.
But the ex-officer, whose evidence is so sensitive that the inquiry sponsored by the Home Office into child sexual abuse has designated his
name top secret and insist on calling him only “GB”, was feeling distinctly nervous with the idea of talking about what he knew to officers from
‘Operation Winter Key’, the Met PSD’s investigation into allegations of historic child abuse relating to institutions and prominent people.
He raised concerns – often voiced by former officers – that he would be breaking the Official Secrets Act by talking about what he knew.
The senior investigating officer (SIO) of Operation Winter Key, Detective Inspector Dan Setter, personally spoke to GB to re-assure him that
he would not be in breach of the Official Secrets Act by talking to his team about Operation Mileshogue or about the MP caught on the “sex
tape” with a teenager.
Setter backed this up with an e-mail, five days ahead of a second meeting in December 2016 between two other officers on Operation Winter
Key and GB. A Met transcript of GB’s interviews with Operation Winter Key noted these re-assurances.
The two officers from Operation Winter Key, detective constable Kathleen Drummond and a trainee detective constable, settle down at GB’s
home to hear his extraordinary account…
The inquiry failed to call GB or any other witness in relation to his evidence. Its report on the Westminster investigation completely ignored the
former officer’s evidence.
But GB’s bombshell account is set to feature in a new book out next week, Scandal at Dolphin Square, by Simon Danczuk, the former MP,
and Daniel Smith.
GB explains to the officers from Operation Winter Key that he took the allegations, as he describes them in a witness statement, of sexual
abuse at various locations including Dolphin Square of “young boys within the care system” from Bermondsey to Thamesmead with him when
he transferred to the Met’s paedophile unit in 1996.
He had first learnt of the allegations while at the child protection unit at Shooters Hill police station in Greenwich borough between 1991 and
1996. In a witness statement of 2017 for Operation Winter Key, GB says (as it appears in the original document):

“It was whilst in the later part of this position that I became involved with allegations that children in care or of interest to Social
Services were involved in organised sexual abuse, involving individuals and sex parties involving political, government and military
figures, this was later to become Operation MILESHOGUE.
“This was an intelligence led operation relating to paedophiles, the investigation did not begin until I started at the Paedophile Unit
as the borough did not have the facility to investigate the matter, we were overstretched keeping up with referred matters.
“It took me a long time to start Mileshogue, eventually I opened a CR docket [a criminal file log] and submitted a report on paper to
push the matter. Eventually I was given authority to begin an intelligence led operation confined to the activities of the 6 core
subjects named by the children. I made applications for surveillance and specialist facilities, but these were refused.”
Operation Mileshogue centred on a Greenwich-based pimp who supplied seven or eight identified “young boys” for sexual abuse at parties at
Dolphin Square, or at one of five client suspect’s homes, or on a boat, described by boys as a “little gin palace”, according to a transcript of
GB’s interview with the Met’s Operation Winter Key.
The boys were from Green Lane children’s home in Greenwich, says GB. Two of the boys, given the codes WM-A118 and WM-A119 by the
inquiry, were refugees. GB had interviewed them, according to the Met’s transcript (as it appears in the original document, as with all material
quoted, complete with punctuation and other typing errors):
“Those boys I interviewed on tape several times. They claimed one another had been abused by other people, were taken to parties
and things by [the pimp] himself he was like a modern day Fagan [sic].
“He also had them doing robberies and burglaries but he was also an informant for the police, inform on them and then turn up as
their appropriate adult. These were kids all from local Children’s Home. He would befriend them and take them out.”
The pimp talked WM-A118 and WM-A119 into ‘TICs’ (or cases to be ‘taken into consideration’), GB says according to the transcript.
“[He] would tell them they would get a better deal that way so the kids would spill their guts. They were both up on about 120
burglaries going to court. The burglaries, the guy sending them there is the police informant so it ended up going before a judge
and the whole lot was quashed.
“[WM-A118] and [WM-A119] were terrors, scourge of that area. Robbing stealing everything whatever they were told. About 20 boys
were involved ripping Greenwich apart.”
Met notes of Operation Winter Key’s two meetings with GB record:
“GB states that [two] boys [WM-A118 and WM-A119] alleged that [the pimp]… would take them to parties to be abused.”
“One of the subjects lived within Surrey Constabulary… the operation originally confined to the subject became an enquiry run by
Surrey Constabulary.”
One suspect “was already a high-profile subject of interest in Surrey,” GB says in a statement, a former head teacher who was living in Surrey
and who was previously exposed by a newspaper. This became ‘Operation Lucifer’. He says that he was also assigned to that operation.
As a result, Surrey Police ran parts of the case under ‘Operation Lucifer’.
The transcript records GB as saying:
(For those for whom reading about sexual abuse may be a ‘trigger’, you may want to skip the following, graphic section of evidence.)
“There were several named people involved, one was a former head teacher who lived in Surrey they were taken to to abuse. He ran
a gay/child photography, he was a photographer and head teacher.”
“He was a named suspect. Several other people were involved. One was a guy who lived in Orpington with another fella. During the
investigation we found out he worked for the government in some role. What we do know is he was at a conference for arms sales.
We followed him around.”
“He was something to do with Government arms sales. Can’t remember his name or partner’s name. The pair of them were named
people by the children as abusers.”
“Going back to [the modern-day Fagin] he would take kids round to various addresses, there was a core group of about 5 people’s
homes, 5 suspects that were names. There were others, the boys were taken to what they call the Dolphin Place, we thought that
was Dolphin Square. They used to talk about a big dolphin there. Also that they were taken out on a boat, a little gin palace, they
were abused there. They knew of a network of other children who were abused. We were told that one of [the pimp]’s boys had been
beaten up in Trafalgar Square, had serious brain injuries. From what the boys say this lad was going to inform police, tell them
everything. [The pimp] got hold of him, beat him up, he was left brain dead.”
Asked “what info he [the beaten-up boy] was going to give”, GB is recorded in the Met transcript as saying:
(For those for whom reading about sexual abuse may be a ‘trigger’, you may also want to skip the following section of evidence.)

“Around people [the pimp] was taking them to see. More Dolphin Square, it was to do with Dolphin Square.”
“He was a young… lad at the time about 14. He started young. He was about 10 when he started to be abused. He had moments of
clarity talking about being abused, talked about [name redacted] taking him places, talked about a Dolphin, the Dolphin place and
going on a boat.”
GB interviewed him in a secure unit.
(For those for whom reading about sexual abuse may be a ‘trigger’, you may also want to skip the following, graphic section of evidence.)
“He had difficulties, one minute you were talking to him the next he was masturbating in the corner. It was totally sexualised
behaviour. He would try and rape other boys in the secure unit.”
“I only ever saw him in the secure unit. I didn’t speak to him before he was attacked. He was in the secure unit for his mental health
after being beaten up. [WM-A118] and [WM-A119] told me about their friend who was going to tell and this was what happened to
him and this why [sic] [WM-A118] and [WM-A119] were afraid to talk about anything to with the guy who was running it.”
Asked how many suspects there were in Operation Mileshogue, GB says:
“5 core people named [besides the pimp], the other [sic] were just nicknames and descriptions. Only 5 names, the boys actually
knew their names.”
The suspects’ names were recorded on the case file, he adds.
The Met notes of its meetings with GB record:
(For those for whom reading about sexual abuse may be a ‘trigger’, you may also want to skip the following section of evidence.)
“One of the children from Green Lane was about to go to the police to name MP’s [sic] who had been abusing him. Before he could
give his information he was attacked in Trafalgar Square and left brain damaged.”
“He was also told that a male called [name redacted] who’s [sic] surname he cannot remember but who he describes as a ‘Fagan’
type character, was taking children to parties to be abused and also getting the children from Green Lane and other Children’s
Homes, to commit burglaries and then report them to the police for committing the offence.”
No one was caught for savagely beating the boy.
The Met’s meeting notes continue:
“When attempting to get the boys [WM-A118 and WM-A119] to give more details of the offences committed against them, they would
only describe what had happened to the other boy and not what had happened to them. They would not admit that they themselves
had been abused.”
Asked what WM-A118 and WM-A119 said about Dolphin Square, the transcript records GB as saying:
(For those for whom reading about sexual abuse may be a ‘trigger’, you may also want to skip the following section of evidence.)
“There was someone in the Navy that they had met there. Supposed to be a politician involved that they had met but no name.
Things they were told by [name redacted]. Half the time they were taken to these places they were drunk out of their brains. They
would top them up with more alcohol and they would be abused.”
“Q- How did you identify the venue as Dolphin Square?”
“Didn’t particularly, they said there were Dolphins and it was near Westminster Bridge. They used to call it the place with Dolphins.”
“Q- Ever take them for a drive round to identify the place?”
“No they mentioned Dolphins and Westminster Bridge. I went to see [the Fagin-type pimp] a guy can’t recall name, he uses four
different names, he was running the boys, he had been a rent boy and got the lads to work for him. He also mentioned Dolphin
Square he had been there as a child himself, been abused.”
“I saw him in prison, [name redacted] the Fagan type.”
“Q- Who else in the office knew about Dolphin Square?”
“Everyone I suppose, we had briefings, every now and again we get an operation. It was there that GP [the late DC Graham
Passingham] would tell me that he had interviewed before and there was a load of prominent people living in Dolphin Square that
was all part of his enquiry. When I mentioned the boys mentioned Dolphins it moved onto Dolphin Square.”

“Q- Did you put in for more resources help to assist you, who did you send that to?”
“Yes to Commander C1.”
“We thought that a good hit on these people would have been telephone intercepts because we could see they were talking to each
other every two or three days. I put in a request for the intercepts and it goes on a first come first served basis no priorities we
weren’t regarded as a priority so that’s why I went to Surrey and Surrey decided it was a priority.”
“When I tried to get MH off the ground it took a year for the docket to be accepted. I wrote the report and it was about a year later.
“It bounced back and forwards, you can’t put that, [sic] in you can’t put that in it went back and forward. It took nearly a year for
authority just to go and interview. It was so slow.”
“WM-A118 I think was about 8, with him aged 8 through to about 14. He was 13 or 14 when I was interviewing him.”
GB expanded on the “gin palace”, according to the Met’s transcript of its interview with him:
(For those for whom reading about sexual abuse may be a ‘trigger’, you may also want to skip the following section of evidence.)
“Gin Palace is a boat, a certain type of boat, they often used to go off shore people they met on the boat, it was basically an orgy on
the boat, the boat would sail outside of British territorial waters because there were people on there that wouldn’t do it in the UK,
didn’t want to be seen in the UK.”
“Q- Who was taking them there?”
“[The pimp] or any of the 5 main core people. [The pimp] would take them to them and they would take them on, the kids would stop
with him for the weekend and do whatever he told them. That person would take them somewhere else and swopsies [sic] of boys
when they go there basically the way paedophiles were working meet up, meet up in a hotel in a room or something like that each
would bring their own boy, swop boys and be there for the weekend or that night.”
A police doctor examined the boys, says GB. The doctor described WM-A118 as have been abused to the point, says GB in an especially
graphic part of his account (which you may also want to skip if reading about sexual abuse may be a “trigger”), “where he was going to have to
use a tampon just to keep his bum closed.”
Asked how long he was “dealing with MH”, the transcript records GB as saying:
“3 years, all the time not a 100%. It sat in the background. If I got some time I dealt with it.”
Met notes of meetings with GB say:
“GB worked on this operation on his own and was not given the resources to help him. He took Mileshogue with him when he
moved to the Paedophile Unit at NSY [New Scotland Yard] in around 1996.”
“One of the subjects lived within Surrey Constabulary… the operation originally confined to the subject became an enquiry run by
Surrey Constabulary.”
Asked how many people were on Operation Mileshogue, the transcript quotes GB as saying:
“Just one, me. It was difficult to get help, get anything started and in the end Surrey took over the one aspect which related to the
guy who was a former Head Master. They put him under surveillance. They did come into London to have a look at other people’s
habits but it was really just me.”
“Yes it went to Surrey they got what I could never get they got telephone intercept for the main suspects. The core group of 5 would
talk to each other virtually every other day. We put the intercept on and from that day for the two months they were on, I think, the
guy that lived with the man who worked for the Government in Orpington never phoned anyone during that whole period. He didn’t
receive phone calls from anyone during that period.”
He adds that the operation evaporated when he left the paedophile unit in 1999. He says that suspects in Operation Mileshogue cropped up in
a separate investigation into the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE):
“One of my roles at the Yard was Operation HATTON which again was an intelligence led operation into the workings of Paedophile
Information Exchange (P.I.E.), the subjects of Operation Mileshogue had strong links to Hatton but no longer attended the meetings.
I worked on this enquiry until I left the paedophile Unit.”
GB, according to the Met transcript, recalls a troubling episode that raises further questions about how the suspects may have been tipped off
about surveillance of them:
(For those for whom reading about sexual abuse may be a ‘trigger’, you may also want to skip the following section of evidence.)
“Surrey were investigating this one person, it was the Crime Squad that did it.

“The Squad that were doing the surveillance and observation, one of their members was getting married, so for that weekend they
were not going to work on it. It was only because I was passing by that I changed the tape. The guy in Surreys [sic] house was a
permanent video feed from a house in a back garden opposite. I was passing by going to relatives nearby and went in and changed
the tape. So the tape went from Friday to Saturday, 24 hour tape so I changed it on Saturday or Sunday, could have been Sunday,
anyway I changed the tape and the guy from Orpington and his partner turned up at the house with a boy aged about 9 or 10 and
went into the house. The kid was in there for about half an hour or so and came out.
“There was no one doing a live active surveillance that weekend so all of a sudden you have this child going into the house brought
from the other end from our ground.
“That was it, they decided all the 5 core suspects would have their houses raided the same morning, look for stuff and low and
behold there wasn’t much there.”
Surveillance officers of Surrey Police on ‘Operation Lucifer’ had an even bigger shock while watching another suspect near Kensington Palace
Gardens, GB says in a witness statement to Operation Winter Key:
“The Surrey surveillance team who whilst following one of the subjects of Operation Mileshogue who had become prominent in
Operation LUCIFER, were challenged by armed plain clothed officers who told them to stop the surveillance as the subject was a
government official engaged in an arms conference. Whilst I did not witness this incident I believe that it took place near Kensington
Palace Gardens in Central London.”
The Met’s meeting notes add:
“GB remembers an occasion when [a suspect] was being followed by Surrey officers and they were stopped by Special Branch
officers who held a gun to them warning them to stop following [the suspect] as he was involved with arms dealing. [GB] did not
witness this but was told this information. He also remembers there were telephone taps on his [the suspect’s] house and as soon
as the tapes went on there were no calls to the house. He believed that the suspect et al were being warned that they were being
looked at by surveillance officers.”
In a separate investigation, GB says that a mystery senior officer from a regional crime squad warned him off an investigation into organised
crime that had caught an MP on tape engaging in sexual activity with a teenager.
Mark Watts (@MarkWatts_1), co-ordinator of the FOIA Centre, is the former Editor-in-Chief of Exaro.