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BBC Panorama

Police claim BBC Panorama paedophile investigation ‘compromises’ their own enquiries

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By John Glenday, Reporter

October 7, 2015 | 2 min read

Scotland Yard has taken the unusual step of pre-empting an episode of the BBC’s Panorama programme investigating allegations of an alleged paedophile ring operating at Westminster by claiming it would ‘compromise’ their own enquiries.

Panorama, BBC

In VIP Paedophile Scandal: What's The Truth? Panorama casts doubt on the reliability of the key accuser, a man referred to only as ‘David’, after he said a list of names he’d provided of his alleged abusers had been conceived ‘as a joke suggestion to start with’.

The vulnerable witness went on to accuse Chris Fay, former head of the scrapped National Association of Young people in Care of ‘putting words in his mouth’.

The Metropolitan Police warned however that these revelations ‘could compromise the evidential chain should a case ever proceed to court’ in an 850 page statement issued ahead of the broadcast. They also warned that the piece may deter other victims and witnesses from coming forward in future.

Defending the decision to broadcast Panorama editor Ceri Thomas, said: “What we’ve found while we’ve been making this Panorama is a concern that all those big institutions – the police, press and politicians – are so determined to atone for the sins of the past that they’re in danger of inventing whole new categories of mistakes.”

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