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Previous posts have mentioned that Sir Ronald Waterhouse, who carried out the mother of all cover-ups when he Chaired the Waterhouse Inquiry, was a personal friend of many of those who were responsible for facilitating and concealing the abuse of children in care in north Wales that he was supposed to be investigating. I knew that Waterhouse grew up in north Wales and practised as a barrister and then sat as a judge on the corrupt Chester and Wales Circuit for decades but the depths of Waterhouse's corruption and the sheer number of his personal links with those involved with the abuse of children was not apparent to me until I read his autobiography 'Child Of Another Century'. Ronnie's autobiography is little more than a long list of the names of corrupt lawyers, politicians and others and an account of the fiddles that they, along with Ronnie, performed to convict innocent people or ensure that the guilty got off.
Ronnie Waterhouse was the networker's networker – I could never do justice to Ronnie's toadying skills on this blog, but I will write some posts drawing attention to the highlights. From his earliest years, Ronnie was acutely aware of whom it was worth ingratiating oneself to. North Waleians like Sir Ronnie Waterhouse and Sir William Mars-Jones who became London based lawyers and High Court judges are portrayed in the London-based media as country bumpkins of enormous talent who were socially mobile on account of their essential wonderfulness. Whilst it is true that the Waterhouses and Mars-Jones's of the world were not as privileged as many of the people with whom they worked in later life, they were born into a group of people who constituted an elite in north Wales.
When Waterhouse and Mars-Jones were growing up, their families were almost as posh as you could get in north Wales. There was a small number of land owning gentry, but the socio-economic composition of north Wales was rather different to England and a lot of English people did not understand this when they wrote about the bumpkin Ronnie or 'farmer's son' William Mars-Jones. There was a certain amount of resentment towards Waterhouse and Mars-Jones's class in north Wales – they are frequently referred to as the 'Liberal Nonconformist elite'. They were a group of people who gained dominance in the 19th century and produced many of the movers and shakers of 20th century north Wales. It was felt by many that they literally ruled north Wales and they really did piss some people off. Whilst there were many people among them who involved themselves with radical causes – most famously of course pacifism – they were at the same time a profoundly socially conservative group of people. They didn't identify as politically Conservative, but they had many similarities to the rural Conservatives in the West Country with whom I was very familiar when I was growing up.
It was this group of people in north Wales who packed the County Councils, the magistrates benches, the health authorities, the social services committees etc. Whilst I believe that not all of them knew of the extent of the abuse of children and mental health patients in north Wales, some of them undoubtedly knew exactly what was going on and ensured that it continued. I was told many years ago – by someone who, like me, wondered how many people knew exactly how serious Dafydd Alun Jones's crimes were – that Dafydd had 'duped' a lot of people from the Welsh middle classes with his anecdotes of a childhood of praying in Welsh and learning Bible verses.
When I witnessed Jones doing this I used to piss myself laughing and wonder how anyone could ever be taken in by such an old ham, but then I thought well, if you are 70 and in chapel and you have not witnessed what Dafydd does and says when he thinks that certain people are not watching, perhaps you would think that he was a kindly old rather eccentric doctor from a previous era. However by the time that the Waterhouse Inquiry was happening, the Jones-related anecdotes flying around north Wales were so florid and so numerous that I don't think many people could really have claimed to have honestly believed that there was not a problem. The prevailing situation by then was that Dafydd and a number of utterly corrupt people around him had led north Wales into crime so serious that no-one could afford to admit what had gone on. As the wife of Ron Evans, the crooked lawyer employed by Gwynedd County Council, told me, Ron told everyone that what had happened was so serious and so indefensible that none of them must ever say a word about any of it or they'd all be in prison. They're still adhering to Ron's instructions.
To be fair to many people, by the time that Waterhouse was Chairing that Inquiry, a lot of people were simply far too frightened to challenge Dafydd and the paedophiles. They knew damn well that dissenters found that their careers would be wrecked, that people would be bankrupted and that in cases of where someone would not shut up, they were found dead. North Wales: it's called serious organised crime and it involves gangsters. They are not very nice people and I can understand how terrified you were. However it is the inevitable consequence when a whole region spends decades toadying to some deeply unsavoury people on the grounds that they know Uncle Goronwy or they're in the same chapel or that those telling tales of abuse and serious crime are only kids in care or psychiatric patients so the best way of dealing with the problem is to pretend that it doesn't exist.
I can feel quite sorry for paedophiles on the grounds that their sexual development has gone seriously wrong and that there is no help for them even when they beg for it – which some of them do. The people whom I will never forgive are the Ronnie Waterhouses of the world. The indulged, entitled, privileged offspring of a region where so many had so little and who spent a lifetime grovelling to the Mr Bigs of England, supping and dining at the Savoy on a regular basis, professing their love of the common man back in north Wales whilst the children of the common man were battered, abused, trafficked to provide sexual services to some sadly inadequate people and stitched up and imprisoned if they complained. Lest people accuse me of aiming a kick at the chapel goers of north Wales who are always an easy target, I hasten to add that the Neil Kinnocks and Ron Davies's of south Wales – the alleged working class sons of toil – are just as guilty. They knew what was going on as well and concealed it. The Kinnocks' troughing outdid Ronnie Waterhouse's. Then there's the swathes of pompous Top Doctors, the daft little Angels, social workers, the corrupt plods, etc. Not many people come out of this smelling of roses.
Many people assisted in propelling Ronnie Waterhouse into high society when he was young, but one name stands out – Sir William Mars-Jones, Ronnie's pupil master. As mentioned in previous posts, William Mars-Jones was from Denbighshire and became a big name in London legal circles, yet retained his links to north Wales. Mars-Jones was the Big Mate who was wheeled out when Dafydd and the paedophiles met serious resistance from someone whom they couldn't just swat in the usual way. Mars-Jones was very, very influential in legal circles. When he was older he was the stereotype of a batty old homophobic conservative judge, but as a young man Mars-Jones was active in the Labour Party, as was Ronnie.
I read Adam Mars-Jones's memoir of his father a few days ago and I realised from Adam's book just what a powerful figure Mars-Jones was. I got the distinct impression from Adam's book that Adam was under no illusions about his father or the role that he played in concealing the barrel of crap in north Wales and I kept wondering why Adam didn't write the sort of book that Dominic Carman did and expose just how malevolent his father was. Then I came to the bit when Adam mentioned that on the completion of the draft of one of his novels in which Adam had mentioned one of his father's legal cases, the publisher – Faber – handed the draft to the libel lawyer Peter Carter-Ruck to read. Carter-Ruck was a close friend of William Mars-Jones. Faber told Adam that if the draft was published, both Faber and Adam would be sued for seditious libel. Just in case Faber and Adam dared go ahead, it was made clear that as a bonus, all of Faber's big name authors would take their business elsewhere.
'We're the paedophiles' friends and you can't touch us.'
Adam Mars-Jones is a novelist who did not inherit money. He needs his publishers and cannot publish what his father and his father's friends and colleagues did. I am not a famous novelist. Dafydd and the paedophiles have already wrecked my life and career several times over anyway and I witnessed at first hand what they did. The name of Adam's aunt is actually on the highly incriminating documents in my possession. As they say in north Wales Adam – dim problem. You might not be able to publish but I can. I have 10,000 incriminating documents that even Peter Carter-Fuck can't argue with.
Readers who follow the comments section of this blog will have noticed that on a recent post about the Mars-Jones's, someone left a comment stating that Adam was alleged to have been a visitor to the children's homes in north Wales. I have no idea whether he was or not, but it's worth mentioning here that I too visited institutions which were the sites of serious abuse – I was friends with those within and was keeping an eye open… Adam Mars-Jones had a partner who died of an HIV related condition and he also worked as a buddy for the Terence Higgins Trust. I mentioned in my posts 'Apocalypse Now' that a lot of the rent boys who died of AIDS in the 1980s had been residents of children's homes in north Wales who were trafficked to London. It is highly likely that Adam worked with some of those young men and realised where a lot of them had spent their youth. Perhaps he began popping into children's homes in north Wales to find out what the hell was going on. With a surname like his, the people running those homes would never have suspected that Adam would have had a shred of sympathy with the residents or any interest in the dreadful things that were happening to them…
I mentioned in my post 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' that confidential information about me and others who had dared complain about Dafydd and the paedophiles was being CC'd to a Mrs D. Mars-Jones, who I presumed was Mrs David Mars-Jones. David Mars-Jones was, as confirmed by Adam's book, William Mars-Jones's younger brother. David Mars-Jones's wife was called Dilys. Yes, it was definitely her then. I presume that Dilys Mars-Jones was a member of Clwyd Health Authority – although Dafydd and the paedophiles were so bloody lawless that she may not even have been that.
Adam's book mentions that William Mars-Jones used to stay with David and Dilys when he went to north Wales. David was a Freemason which William thought was questionable. Adam noted that David interpreted this as William not understanding how business was conducted in the country – I'm sure that William Mars-Jones knew just what the Freemasons of north Wales got up to, or at least some of them. Adam observes that the Garrick played the same role in his father's life that the Freemasons did in David's. Yes – and when a dissenting voice couldn't be controlled by the Freemasons (for example if the dissenting voice was a social worker who was a whistleblower or an angry older lady with a brain or, perish the thought, a Bangor student who pissed herself laughing at a mad old psychiatrist's efforts to chat her up and his subsequent threats), help from the Garrick was enlisted…
Adam saw the Mars-Jones's of north Wales as his backward looking country cousins, but they really were quite something in the region. William Mars-Jones's father was a farmer and owned and ran the local PO and shop – his father before him had been Chairman of Denbighshire County Council. From the information given in Adam's book there was not just one farm between the extended family, there were several – Adam mentions two aunties who each possessed a farm whom it was believed were relieved of their property in the 1970s by David's 'sharp practice' and who ended up living in Colwyn Bay. Adam explicitly states that William believed David's business deals and acquisition of wealth to have been questionable. Adam also mentions that for some reason an Eddy Batty from Liverpool had a share in David's farm.
Adam summed up the difference between his uncle and his father by saying that David wanted honours and William wanted cash. People from north Wales who desire honours have ended up doing some pretty disgusting things for some pretty disgusting people and a High Court judge in need of money with a brother in that position might find himself severely compromised.
I mentioned in my post 'The Defence Of The Realm' that David Mars-Jones was High Sheriff of Clwyd in 1989. Adam mentions that David had been Mayor of Colwyn Bay.
Colwyn Bay was a hub of corruption in north Wales. The North Wales Police HQ was there and Chief Constable Sir Philip Meyers had built a personal 'office' at his home where business was conducted – at the time the force was notoriously corrupt (see post 'Top Of The Cops'). The Gwynfa adolescent psychiatric unit where the most dreadful abuse of children occurred was located at Colwyn Bay. The Angel in charge was a former North Wales Hospital Denbigh nurse, Nigel Mannering Berry – he lived in Colwyn Bay and was a leading light in the Colwyn Bay Masonic Hall (see post 'Don't Be Silly, He's Nice'). Professor Robert Owen who concealed the crimes of Dafydd and the paedophiles lived in Colwyn Bay and received inappropriate telephone calls and mail from inappropriate people regarding NHS business at his home address (see post 'In Memoriam – Professor Robert Owen'). Huw Vaughan Thomas – the Chief Exec of Gwynedd County Council, 1991-96, as the paedophile gang raged within its children's homes and who some years previously had spent six years as Chief Executive of Denbighshire County Council – lived at Colwyn Bay (see post 'I Know Nuzzing…') with his wife, Enid Rowlands, who was involved in NHS governance (see post 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'). Of course Gordon Anglesea, the senior police officer who was imprisoned for sex offences against children in care in north Wales, lived and worked at Colwyn Bay. David Jones MP, who spent years working as a solicitor in north Wales watching in silence as Dafydd and the paedophiles stitched up the innocent, ended up in Colwyn Bay (see post 'The Right Honourable David Jones MP') – David Jones is also a Freemason. Many, many more paedophiles' friends were out at Colwyn Bay with them. It was a hot spot.
Adam mentions an Aunty Mary – Mary Cobley – who lived in Denbigh and David's two daughters Jenny and Eleri.
Adam also talks about a holiday home that his father owned at Rhosneigr on Anglesey, the purchase of which David had assisted back in the 1960s. Rhosneigr is a popular second home destination and in recent years it has become very expensive. By north Wales standards Rhosneigr is a big village but it is still small enough for regular long term second homers to have known each other.
Someone else whose parents had a second home at Rhosneigr – and who inherited it from them – was Duncan Orme, who studied biochemistry at UCNW in the 1980s. Duncan took a sabbatical year as the Welfare Officer in the UCNW Students' Union. It was Duncan to whom I made representation about Gwynne the lobotomist in the early summer of 1984. Duncan admitted that there was a major problem with Gwynne and tried to persuade me to drop my complaint. When I refused, Duncan crapped himself and fled (see post 'Just A Language Divide?'). Duncan went into NHS management and ended up as Financial Director for one of the very troubled NHS authorities in England.
Duncan Orme knew that three students had attempted suicide after encountering Gwynne the lobotomist. At least. Duncan will have known of much more as well.
An excellent foundation for a career in the NHS Duncan! You ignore patient harm related to crime whilst playing at being a student politician, you get a Third and then fail your accountancy exams – of course you will become Financial Director of an NHS Authority! Because you kept your mouth shut about a bloody paedophile gang.
Sir William Mars-Jones was President of UCNW, 1982-95. Which spanned quite a few of the lobotomist and paedophile years – and the term of Duncan's office as Welfare Officer and the first part of Duncan's NHS career.
Duncan when you were at university, you were widely regarded as a bit of a wally, not very bright and a bit inadequate. You have now been outed as an amoral ally of the Westminster Paedophile Ring. You epitomise everything that is wrong with the NHS. I have never forgotten the time that you told me how much you enjoyed your days at Millfield School and that no matter what politics you were forced to proclaim at university, you would buy your own kids the best education that you could possibly afford. Having known two people who escaped to Millfield from the shite comprehensives of Bridgwater and who had very much happier teenage years as a result I didn't recoil in horror at your hypocrisy because I had knew parents who watched their kids attempt suicide and took the view that this could not continue. But you knowingly assisted a paedophile gang who murdered their victims. That is a whole order of magnitude of difference from a parent who is desperately trying to stop their 12 year old from topping themselves.
I bet that you don't use the NHS do you Duncan.
I have just popped over to Linked In and found Duncan's latest. He's told a porkie – he states that he was Welfare Officer in 1986. I'm fairly sure that it was 1984 – because I consulted Duncan within weeks of encountering Gwynne the lobotomist, which was in 1984. Duncan's Linked In however does tell us that he was 'Nightline' co-ordinator in 1984. 'Nightline' was the student run and staffed helpline at UCNW. The Nightliners tended to be well motivated but, like all student helpers, often out of their depth. I do know that the Nightliners knew about Gwynne and those attempted suicides because I knew four Nightliners and they were well aware. Some Nightliners went into social work after graduation – they knew about the paedophile gang…
Here are the rewards that Duncan reaped for keeping quiet and having a father who knew William Mars-Jones:
1987-91: Financial Trainee and Principal Auditor, Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust
1991-93: Management Accounts, Barts NHS Trust
1993-02: Head of Financial Management and Deputy Director of Finance, Northampton General Hospital
2002-07: Director of Finance, Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust
2008-10: Non-Executive Director, BMI Three Shires Hospital
2007-10: Director of Finance, St Andrew's Healthcare
2010-11: Chairman of the Lighthouse Centre – 'a rape crisis centre offering a professional service for anyone who have experienced sexual violence, whether recently or in the past, operating since 1986'.
2011-present day: Operational Director of Finance, Nottingham University Hospital; 'Leadership of award winning finance department'.
Every NHS organisation that Duncan has worked for has had serious difficulties. He boasts that as Director of Finance at Northampton, he 'turned around' the service and made millions in savings. Yes, Duncan is one of those highly paid NHS conference-attending managers who whittle away at patient care – particularly mental health, learning disabilities and the elderly – whilst spending money on executive offices and bonuses for people like himself when they have 'turned around' services.
St Andrew's Healthcare has been at the centre of scandal after scandal after learning disabled people have been abused or died whilst in their 'care'.
As for Duncan's Chairmanship of a sexual violence centre – I am tempted to quip that perhaps those who suffered at the hands of Dafydd and the paedophiles should try knocking at Duncan's door, but nearly all of them are now dead…
When Alison Taylor, Mary Wynch and I were making a lot of noise, Duncan landed his first job at the Royal Free. During the first police investigation into the existence of a possible paedophile ring in north Wales, Duncan was hiding away at Barts – where Dafydd's mate Prof Linford Rees had ruled the roost for decades (see post 'A Galaxy Of Talent'). In the year that the North Wales Police found 'no evidence' of a paedophile ring, Duncan landed his job as Head of Financial Management at Northampton General Hospital. Whilst the Waterhouse Inquiry took place Duncan was promoted to Deputy Director of Finance at Northampton. His nose was probably so deep in the NHS trough of plenty that he didn't even have time to stick his head up and say 'I Know Nuzzing…'
Once old Ronnie had given the biggest offenders a clean bill of health and the bellyaching about a cover-up had died down, the sky was the limit for Duncan…
I think that there might be more than one porkie on Duncan's Linked In profile. Because a few years ago I googled Duncan and he was at that time Director of a very troubled scandal ridden Trust next door to Mid-Staffs – that particular part of Duncan's career has disappeared from his Linked In details.
The 'turn around' Finance Director who made £18 million of NHS savings enjoys his gin palace moored off Anglesey.
The Waterhouse and Mars-Jones families will have known each other before Ronnie became a pupil of William Mars-Jones.
The Waterhouses came from Flintshire, the neighbouring county to Denbighshire, the stomping ground of the Mars-Jones's. There was and is a lot of cross border activity between the two counties.
Ronnie's dad Thomas was at one time the Vice-Chairman of the Flintshire Quarter Sessions and Ronnie mentions in his book that his own career was given a boost when he was young by the Holywell solicitor J. Kerfoot-Roberts and Cyril Jones, a solicitor who practised in Wrexham – they were both 'supporters' of William Mars-Jones, who had already established himself as a lawyer.
Ronnie's dad was a member of Holywell Urban District Council and was Chairman in the early 20th century. He was a high profile Liberal when the Liberals were the biggest party on the Council (and a very influential force in north Wales per se). Thomas was Chairman of Flintshire Education Committee, 1925-34. So he probably knew Prof J.E. Daniel, a theologian and inspector of schools in north Wales at the time (see post 'Tuppence And His Fragrant Wife'). J.E. Daniel's son is the hideous Huw Daniel, who like Ronnie spent a lifetime on the corrupt Chester and Wales Circuit and who was so looking forward to imprisoning me on the basis of the perjury of the paedophiles' friends in 2004 – Huw became very angry when the case collapsed (see post 'Interesting Happenings In The Legal System'). Can you still fit into that ludicrous General Pinochet outfit of yours Huw, because those seams and buttons were certainly straining as a result of all those dinners on the last occasion that I saw you dressed up in your gear.
Ronnie was also mates with Justice John Roch who was someone else on the Chester and Wales Circuit who wanted to imprison me on the basis of the perjury of the paedophiles friends in 1990 (see post 'Some Big Legal Names Enter The Arena'). On that occasion Roch had to throw out more than twelve charges against me because WHOOPS the paedophiles' friends had lied – there was of course no action taken against anyone for perjury.
John Roch disappeared off the face of the earth – and indeed the internet – a few years ago, so I was gratified to find him mentioned in Ronnie's book. After Roch fumed at not being able to imprison me and ignored the perjury of those giving evidence, he became Lord Justice Roch. Lord Justice John Roch has now reappeared in corners of the internet.
Lord Justice Roch might like to make a statement to the police about the bizarre events in Chester Court in 1990 when the paedophiles' friends demanded my imprisonment for contempt of court, particularly now that I have documents in my possession demonstrating that the court and judge were changed at short notice without my barrister being informed – yet the paedophiles' friends received a handwritten note from the Legal Dept of Gwynedd County Council explaining this to them. The note also told the paedophiles' friends who to speak to when they arrived at the court – that person would also show them the affidavits and tell them what to say when they gave evidence. The note to the paedophiles' friends told them to 'familiarise' themselves with the affidavits and evidence – which suggests that they had not seen any of it before. Further details and the names of all of the crooks involved can be found in my post 'Some Big Legal Names Enter The Arena'.
Ahem. Just a little bit irregular I think Lord Justice Roche.
The whole scene was witnessed by the solicitor who accompanied me to court, Meleri Tudor. Meleri came with me because WHOOPS the date of the case clashed with another case that my usual solicitor had to be present at, although he was desperate not to send me into the paedophiles' den unaccompanied. So his assistant Meleri came with me. I always liked Meleri and I very much appreciated her company, but she swore blind that the last minute change of venue and judge was just a blip – as was the fact that my barrister was not informed of this essential information. I now have documentation that shows quite clearly that there was no blip – there was corruption of the most serious sort at work.
Meleri moved on to work at another solicitor's firm in Caernarfon shortly after the saga in Chester and the last I heard she had become a judge. On another occasion Meleri witnessed Tony Francis (Dr X) abuse process whilst he was in the witness box in Bangor Magistrates Court demanding my imprisonment. Meleri did stop him immediately and the magistrates also reprimanded him, but I remember Meleri commenting afterwards to me that 'Francis knew exactly what he was doing and he knew that he shouldn't have done it'.
At the time I just thought that Francis was seriously pissed off with me and had lost his rag, but since then I have acquired numerous documents written and signed by Francis in which he describes how he and others will frame me for serious offences for which there was no evidence.
I've got a stack of such documents Meleri, they were a bunch of lying crooks who were running the paedophile gang that you all maintained did not exist. Time to cough…
Not only did Ronnie's dad reach the heights of being the High Sheriff of Flintshire in 1942, but he was also Chairman of the County Finance Committee when the estate for Mold Crown Court was purchased. The building which currently houses Mold Law Courts was developed as a result of the efforts of T.M. Hadyn Rees, the Chief Executive of Clwyd County Council, 1974-77 (see post 'Ain't Nothing Clean – Not Even The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists'). The Waterhouse Inquiry was tasked with investigating the abuse of children in care during that time. Ronnie's autobiography makes it clear that he knew Hadyn Rees. He mentions him by name and furthermore before he was Chief Exec of Clwyd County Council, Hadyn Rees was the Deputy Clerk and then Clerk of Flintshire County Council. Sir Ronnie, in his capacity as a barrister, acted for Flintshire County Council on many occasions and took instructions from Hadyn Rees.
After Hadyn Rees retired as Chief Executive of Clwyd he became a magistrate.
Ronnie's book mentions that he attended a dinner at the Shire Hall in Mold in 1978 – it was held in his honour by the Chairman of Clwyd County Council and was attended by 'many north Wales friends'. Many of whom will have also been paedophiles' friends.
There's nothing like an independent judicial inquiry is there.
Not that Ronnie was only mates with paedophiles' friends in local authorities in north Wales – he was friends with paedophiles' friends in local authorities in west Wales as well. In May 1983 Ronnie was involved in litigation in Swansea and Carmarthen Courts brought by the Welsh Office and seven local authorities – led by Dyfed County Council – in an attempt to gain a High Court order against some travellers. There was a paedophile gang operating in Dyfed and Pembrokeshire in the 1970s and 80s. In 1980, the County Secretary of Dyfed County Council Ioan Bowen Rees moved to Gwynedd to take up the position of Chief Executive – where he did nothing about the paedophile gang operating in the Council's children's homes (see post 'I Know Nuzzing…').
Ronnie knew the influential Flintshire farming family of paedophiles' friend and Tory politician Beata Brookes (see post 'The Celtic Iron Lady And Yet More Recent History'). At one point George Brookes did battle with Flintshire County Council after they ordered him to move his caravans. Ronnie noted that 'a great deal of money was at stake for the appellant, who was a strong Conservative supporter'. Brookes had wanted to instruct Sir David Maxwell Fyfe QC (a famous homophobic Welsh judge and former Secretary of State for Wales known as Dai Bananas), but Sir David had recently metamorphosed into Viscount Kilmuir as Lord Chancellor, so George Brookes slummed it and instructed the then Viscount Hailsham QC, who was soon to be appointed First Lord of the Admiralty.
The wife and son of the Fifth Sea Lord Admiral Sir Alec Bingley – Lady Juliet Bingley and William Bingley, who worked for MIND and in William's case the Mental Health Act Commission as well – were involved in concealing the criminality of Dafydd and the paedophiles for years. My post 'The Defence Of The Realm' also names other very high ranking naval officers who were involved in ignoring, or concealing, serious wrongdoing associated with sexual offences against children.
Lord Hailsham was the First Lord of the Admiralty, 1956-57. So he will have known Sir Alec Bingley, Lord Louis Mountbatten and others named in my post 'The Defence Of The Realm'.
William Mars-Jones was in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve during the war. But so many of the paedophiles' friends served in the Royal Navy or the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve – including of course Gwynne the lobotomist…
William Mars-Jones served in Malta during the war. Sir Alec Bingley was stationed in Malta when he was Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet in the late 1950s/early 60s. Lady Juliet Bingley was friends with the Prime Minister of Malta and Ronnie Waterhouse knew Lt General Sir William Dobbie, the Governor of Malta, 1940-42.
In response to George Brookes instructing Lord Hailsham, Flintshire County Council instructed Edmund Davies QC to lead, with Ronnie as his junior. Ronnie tells us in his book that this case resulted in his highest fee to date for a single case and that there was 'further reward' when Brookes appealed. There was thus another magistrates hearing on a date when Hailsham and Edmund Davies were unavailable. St Asaph's Magistrates Court heard the case in July 1955 – the Chairman of the bench was the brother of Judge David Pennant, who was a descendant of Thomas Pennant.
The Pennant family are part of the extended family of Antoinette Sandbach, the Tory MP for Eddisbury. Antoinette's father Ian Mackeson-Sandbach was the most senior Freemason in North Wales throughout the years of failed investigations into organised child abuse in north Wales and during the Waterhouse Inquiry. Antoinette's grandmother Geraldine Mackeson-Sandbach was the President of the Denbigh branch of the Royal College of Midwives. Before Antoinette became an AM and then an MP, she worked in the office of David Jones MP. For more details on the Sandbach clan, see post 'News Round Up, 19 January 2018′.
A whole extended family of paedophiles' friends there.
Flintshire County Council won the case against George Brookes. But there was yet another hearing in 1957. By this time Hailsham was in the Cabinet, so Brookes instructed Ted Maggary QC, later Vice-Chancellor and de facto Head of the Chancery Division. Edmund Davies was engaged elsewhere and Hadyn Rees decided that it wasn't necessary to have a leader on the Council's side and Ronnie acted for the Council. Ronnie doesn't relate the outcome of this bizarre dispute involving caravans at St Asaph which involved some of the most senior lawyers in the UK, but Ronnie did note that he 'was fortunate that Maggary proved to be a very courteous opponent' and 'we disposed of the case in two much shorter days'.
I suspect that a very dirty deal was done somewhere within those two short days which was why the big names made themselves scarce. I doubt that George Brookes spent all that money for nothing and knowing how the paedophiles' friends conduct business, this saga over the caravans at St Asaph which involved none other than Lord Hailsham could hold the key as to why Beata Brookes – a universally loathed old bag – ended up as the leading female Tory politician in Wales despite no-one wanting her in that position.
Beata Brookes was a social worker before her ascent upwards into the higher echelons of the paedophiles' friends and her gaining numerous positions of responsibility in the health and social care services in north Wales.
Ronnie's dad, being prominent in Flintshire County life, will have known Lloyd Tyrell-Kenyon, the 5th Baron Kenyon. Lord Kenyon was the most senior Freemason in north Wales, a member of the North Wales Police Authority, Chairman of Clwyd Health Authority, President of UCNW, 1947-82 (preceding William Mars-Jones), Deputy Lieutenant of Flintshire, a magistrate, a member of Flintshire County Council and much more besides (see post 'A Bit More Paleontology'). Lord Kenyon's adult son Thomas Tyrell-Kenyon was known by the social services to be sexually using at least one underaged boy in the care of Clwyd County Council's Social Services. On one occasion in 1979 Thomas spent the night in the Crest Hotel in Wrexham with the boy and took compromising photos of them together. The following morning Thomas made a complaint of theft against the boy on the grounds that the photos and Thomas's clothes had disappeared. Thomas was quite clear when he called the police with regard as to why he had spent the previous night in bed with a boy in care. The boy was sent to a detention centre. Thomas faced no action. Thomas Tyrell-Kenyon died of an HIV related condition in 1993.
Ronnie knew Lord Kenyon as well. In his book Ronnie mentions chatting to him in 1984 at the annual dinner for old students of Ruthin School in north Wales.
Ronnie and his network were able to show a great degree of tolerance in the face of sexual transgression. In 1945 Ronnie's parents were looking for a suitable Liberal Parliamentary candidate for Flintshire and one of Ronnie's duties was to drive the candidate about. Ronnie explained in his book that one day as Ronnie was driving, the candidate had the 'impertinence and stupidity to make an unambiguous homosexual advance'. Ronnie stated in his autobiography that if he'd have told his father, the candidate would have been disowned. Ronnie doesn't provide a very convincing explanation as to why he didn't tell his father that a gay groper was being fielded as the Liberal candidate, but he does mention that the seat was won by the Tory Nigel Birch.
However, perhaps Ronnie didn't need to tell his father. Ronnie admitted that 'our candidate's proclivities were quite well known when he stood again for Parliament, this time in Anglesey against the popular Cledwyn Hughes'. Lord Cledwyn was a loyal paedophiles' friends for decades – he was also mates with Glenys Kinnock's parents and was one of those who inducted the Windbag into Welsh Labour politics.
Ronnie doesn't mention the gay groper's name, but it's not rocket science to work out that it was John William Hughes. Obviously a Ron Davies situation (see post 'Cottaging At Castle Gate'). 'Well of course if we'd have known we'd have acted immediately.'
There is a great deal of 'not knowing' in north Wales, as the social anthropologist Isabel Emmett observed in her 1964 work 'A North Wales Village: A Social Anthropological Study' (see post 'How No-One Knew About Dr Dafydd Alun Jones'). Not that even Isabel Emmett could have predicted the mass outbreak of not knowing that afflicted north Wales when Ronnie Chaired that Inquiry.
Ronnie and his dad weren't the only red hot networkers. Ronnie's Uncle Horace did pretty well. Horace sat on the Holywell Urban District Council and was also a member of the English Congregational Church in Holywell. The Waterhouses were a well known Congregationalist family in north east Wales (Ronnie's dad was a deacon in the Tabernacle Church) – as were the Mars-Jones's.
Ronnie's Uncle Sidney trained for the Congregationalist ministry at the Lancashire Independent College in Manchester and subsequently worked as a Minister in Hemel Hempstead and in East Sussex. The Waterhouses had branches of the family in England – Ronnie's dad was from a big family and the siblings had scattered all over the place. Ronnie married the daughter of an influential Birmingham family.
Ronnie was a lay preacher from the age of 17. He had been invited to fulfil the role by the father of his friend J. Gwynne Williams. J. Gwynne Williams later became the Professor of Welsh History at UCNW and the Vice-Principal, as well as the President of the National Library of Wales and Chairman of University of Wales Press. His father was the supervising Minister of the Welsh Wesleyian Methodist Church circuit at Holywell.
Ronnie's sister went to Howells School, Denbigh, a popular independent school for girls in north Wales. The actress Nerys Hughes went there (see post 'Have The Lambs Stopped Screaming?') as did many other well known people from north Wales. The Mars-Jones's lived in a village just outside of Denbigh and will have known many alumni of Howells School.
Ronnie's sister extended the influence of Ronnie and the gang. Ronnie's sister Sylvia worked for the BBC intermittently throughout her life – her first job with them was as a producer for 'Woman's Hour' – and she also worked for 'Vogue Export Book', the 'Daily Express' and 'Time and Tide', which was owned and edited by Lady Rhondda. Sylvia married John Thompson, a journalist on 'The Observer'.
Ronnie's brother Stuart was active in the Liberal Party and stood as a Liberal Parliamentary candidate.
When he was young Ronnie Waterhouse was not only active in the Labour Party but stood as a Labour Parliamentary candidate on a number of occasions. William Mars-Jones stood as the Labour candidate for West Denbighshire in the 1945 General Election.
Ronnie was the Labour candidate for West Flintshire in the late 1950s. He knew Bessie Braddock, a fearsome battleaxe who was a leading light in Liverpool Council and then the Labour MP for Liverpool Exchange, 1945-70. Bessie Braddock was hated by many in Gwynedd because of her lack of sympathy and insulting behaviour regarding Welsh protests over the flooding of Capel Celyn in 1965 to form the Tryweryn Reservoir to supply water to Liverpool. At the time of the Tryweryn protests dear old Dafydd was a medical student in Liverpool, masquerading as a Welsh freedom fighter and was popping across to Ireland to learn at the knee of some IRA activists (see post 'A Network Stretching Back Decades…'). So Dafydd wasn't one of those involved in Welsh activism who refused to resort to violent means. Neither did his fellow activists know that in his day job Dafydd was busy cultivating the friendship of corrupt English professionals in Liverpool whom he relied upon very heavily in later life (see post 'These Sharks Are Crap As Well').
Whilst campaigning, Ronnie shared a platform with Nye Bevan in East Flintshire and he noted in his book that paedophiles' friend Baroness Eirene White (see post 'A Bit More Paleontology') was 'always helpful and generous'. At one point Ronnie was joined on the campaign trail in north Wales by Barbara Castle, who made a 'rousing speech' in Rhyl.
In 1963 Ronnie was shortlisted as the Labour candidate for Wolverhampton North East via the help of Denis Howell, the Birmingham Labour MP who was famously the Minister for Snow, Floods, Drought and then Sport under Harold Wilson. Ronnie lost out to Renee Short, who in later life proved herself to be a loyal paedophiles' friend in the Commons (see post 'Little Things Hitting Each Other'). The other candidate was Martin Ennals, brother of paedophiles' friend Lord David Ennals (see post 'MIND Are Out For Mental Health – Never For Themselves Of Course'). During the years in which he led Amnesty International, Martin Ennals managed to ignore some dreadful things – such as the framing and wrongful imprisonment of the Birmingham Six.
Ronnie was involved in the Labour campaigns in West Flintshire in 1964 and in East Flintshire in 1966.
In 1969 Ronnie stood for selection as the Labour candidate for Wrexham against Tom Ellis – Ronnie's sponsor was the Wrexham solicitor Stanley Williams. By 1969 there was an abusive regime at Bryn Estyn at Wrexham and John Allen had just established the Bryn Alyn Community nearby. Tom Ellis was the Labour MP for Wrexham from 1970 and in 1981 he joined Dr Death and the gang in the SDP (see post 'The Celtic Iron Lady And Yet More Recent History').
All the local solicitors and MPs knew about the abuse of children at Bryn Estyn and Bryn Alyn.
Ronnie had yet another stab at getting into Parliament in 1970 when he stood for selection as the Labour candidate for East Flintshire. On that occasion Ronnie was supported by the TGWU and Tom Jones, the Wales regional TGWU organiser (see post 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'), but he lost out to Barry Jones who was subsequently elected. Lord Baz as he now is had a background in teaching and the NUT and has been a loyal paedophiles' friend over many years (see post 'It Wasn't On Our Radar').
Friendships across the political divide are not unusual, but Ronnie took this to the limit. His autobiography names scores of politicians – Liberal, Labour, defectors to the SDP and Tory, with whom he was very friendly. He was even on good terms with a few Communists and members of the Redgrave dynasty. As long as they wielded a bit of power and influence they were OK by Ronnie.
Ronnie didn't become involved with the Labour Party until 1952 – when he was at Cambridge he was in the Cambridge University Liberal Society and made many friends there. His closest friend was Sir Robin Day and of course with Robin Day came friendships with a host of media folk. Ronnie knew many other Liberals as well – including Eric Lubbock aka Lord Avebury (see post 'He Knows Where The Bodies Are Buried'), Jeremy Thorpe, Cyril Smith and Clement Freud. His memories of Jeremy were that he was an 'elegant old Etonian', who 'played the violin' and was impressively close to the Lloyd George clan. Whereas most of us remember Jeremy best for standing trial for conspiring to kill his gay lover.
Ronnie and William Mars-Jones were very friendly with Lord Emlyn Hooson, another member of the Chester and Wales Circuit and Liberal MP for Montgomery, 1962-79. Alex Carlile was a member of Hooson's Chambers – the Alex Carlile who stopped asking awkward questions about Mary Wynch and then picked up a peerage a few years later. The Hoosons were neighbours of the Mars-Jones's in Gray's Inn and the Hoosons' Montgomeryshire home was close enough to Ronnie's other friends and hang outs for him to be a regular visitor.
Emlyn Hooson was involved in the secret inquiry which was held into Jeremy Thorpe years before Thorpe stood trial for conspiracy to murder Norman. Hooson was told quite clearly by Norman Scott and a Welsh friend of Norman's who knew Hooson that Jeremy had been a very, very naughty boy indeed whilst he was being elegant and impressing people with his violin playing (see post 'My How Things Haven't Changed'). Hooson professed to have been horrified at Jeremy's activities but no-one removed Jeremy from the leadership of the Liberal Party and when years later Justice Cantley, the presiding judge at Jeremy's trial, hurled invective at Norman, Hooson didn't say a word. Hooson remained silent when Jeremy was acquitted.
When Ronnie was at Cambridge, Glyn Tegai Hughes was President of the Liberal Club, who became another mate of Ronnie's. Tegai Hughes stood as the Liberal candidate for Denbigh in 1950, 1955 and 1959. Tegai Hughes became Warden of Gregynog. Gregynog is a mansion in Powys originally owned by sisters Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, who donated it to the University of Wales in 1960 for use as a conference and arts centre. The Davies sisters were wealthy women who accumulated an impressive art collection. Ronnie's parents knew their brother Lord David Davies of Llandinam, the Liberal MP for Montgomeryshire, 1906-29 and who was a visitor to the Waterhouse family home.
I have mentioned in previous posts that everyone who stood for election or who was elected for Denbigh remained silent about Dafydd and the paedophiles. Nearly everybody in Denbigh were employed in jobs that were dependent upon the North Wales Hospital. There were hundreds of people banged up in there being abused but they did not have votes. The patient batterers and paedophiles' friends did. Isn't that right Dafydd/Paul Flynn/Ieuan Wyn Jones/Robyn Lewis and the rest of you who said not a word about the horror just a mile or so away from the town as you stuffed leaflets through people's letter boxes emblazoned with you wearing a rosette. Not so much 'if you want a nigger for a neighbour vote Labour', but if you want a murderous paedophile for a neighbour vote for absolutely any of this lot, their lips are sealed.
I have mentioned that Mars-Jones was an enthusiastic member of the Garrick – Ronnie was also a member. As was Robin Day – Day lunched at the Garrick daily and sat on the executive committee – and of course numerous high profile people from the worlds of law and entertainment. Much of Ronnie's life revolved around the Garrick and its members.
In 1952 Justice Croom-Johnson recommended that Ronnie should join the Garrick. In 1958 Malcolm Morris QC 'urged' Ronnie to join – I very much doubt that Ronnie had ignored Croom-Johnson's advice, I suspect that the waiting list was long and that the Garrick wasn't tripping over itself to let Ronnie in at that point. In 1962 Robin Day was allowed through the door and arranged for Ronnie to be proposed as a member by ITN editor Sir Geoffrey Cox. Ron was elected as a member in 1964. Ronnie loved the Garrick so much that when he retired and sold his London home – he wasn't homeless, he still had a country seat in Herefordshire – if he and his wife were in London (which was frequently, there were all those important people to hobnob with after all, even in retirement and the Savoy is not to be found in Herefordshire) they lived at the Garrick for a 'very reasonable' rent.
Ronnie's notion of what constitutes accommodation was flexible. The Garrick suited him and Lady Waterhouse down to the ground, but he did mention in the Waterhouse Report that children 'leaving care' at the age of 16 in north Wales were housed in 'unsuitable accommodation'. Was the unsuitable accommodation a bit damp perhaps? Unheated? Er, no. According to the former kids in care, the 'unsuitable accommodation' in question were brothels. They left 'care' and were trafficked to brothels in London and Brighton. Which for the purposes of the Waterhouse Report doubled up as 'unsuitable accommodation'. Furthermore if Ronnie really believed that those kids weren't housed in the unsuitable accommodation until they were 16, he's even thicker than I've given him credit for. They'll have been sent to the unsuitable accommodation when they were 14 or 15 – or as soon as they had been beaten and raped into submission and Dafydd et al could be reassured that they had given up trying to escape or complaining to the police about what was happening.
But then Dafydd told people that I had lived in his 'therapeutic community' after he had unlawfully imprisoned me in Bryn Golau Ward with victims of the paedophile gang. Dafydd: Brown and me did have a really good laugh at that. And an even bigger laugh when, Ronnie Waterhouse-style, Dafydd's partners in crime at St George's Hospital Medical School and Springfield Hospital – who admitted in writing that Dafydd was sexploiting the patients and that they suspected that Tony Francis might have been as well – obediently repeated to each other that Dafydd had really tried with me, I had even been in a therapeutic community, so that just showed that I was a complete recidivist.
Hanging out at the Garrick was certainly good for name-dropping purposes. Ronnie mentioned in his book that he found himself dining next to Kingsley Amis. The one who wrote 'The Old Devils'… In May 1990, Ronnie attended a particularly big knees-up at the Garrick held for paedophiles' friends Geoffrey and Elspeth Howe. The Commons speaker Bernard Weatherill attended and the booze up was presided over by Ronnie's Cambridge friend Lord Jenkin of Roding aka Patrick Jenkin. Ronnie's Cambridge buddy Peter Cooper was there.
Peter Cooper was someone who nearly came a cropper on life's journey. Cooper had been 'personal assistant' to Sir Edward Hulton and Lord Tim Beaumont, but he then rashly 'joined Sir Bernard Audley who established the market research company AGB Research plc'. AGB Research was acquired by Robert Maxwell and as with anything acquired by Cap'n Bob there was not a happy ending. Another one of Ronnie's circle, Peter Jay – Jim Callaghan's son-in-law – was the Cap'ns Chief of Staff, but Ronnie stresses that Jay parted company from the Cap'n in 1990. When the Cap'n went overboard and the missing millions became obvious, Peter Jay and Peter Cooper were able to reassure everyone that they knew nuzzing.
Ronnie and his friends were often at the scene of unfortunate events concerning money. Ronnie was treasurer for Middle Temple for many years and somehow in 1995 funds from Middle Temple found their way into a dodgy Bulgarian bank. Then a great deal of Middle Temple's money was lost when Baring's bank collapsed.
Another memorable celebration at the Garrick was held in 2001, to celebrate Alan King-Hamilton's 100th birthday. King-Hamilton was the notoriously obnoxious old judge who presided over Peter Hain's trial and insulted Peter Hain, when someone many years ago – widely presumed to be the security services – tried to fit Peter Hain up for robbing a bank. Which was about as convincing as the poison pen letter which was sent to the authorities at De Montfort University stating that Brown was a 'known paedophile' who had 'committed many offences' when he worked at Aston University, but had never been caught – so he wasn't a 'known' paedophile then was he Dafydd/Elfed/Martin??? (see post 'A Nasty, Ludicrous Poison Pen Letter').
I'll say that for Dafydd and the paedophiles, they've probably taken at least 10 years off my life with stress, but they have provided me and my friends with a great deal of entertainment.
Guests at King-Hamilton's 100th birthday included paedophiles' friends the Onslows (I think that might have been Michael Onslow aka Viscount Cranley and his wife), Michael and Christina Mates and Jeremy and Verna Hanley. Ronnie's sister Sylvia and her husband John Thompson also attended. Entertainment was provided by those lame old wallies Kit and the Widow, who used to be given much air time on Radio 4. If I was Kit and the Widow I'd be really worried if I was considered to be suitable as the cabaret for the 100th birthday celebrations of a biased judge and his crooked circle of paedophiles' friends. Jeremy Hanley knew that Sir Peter Morrison was a child molester because he told Gyles Brandreth.
The Duke of Edinburgh is or was the Patron of the Garrick and Ronnie loved it when Phil the Greek and the other Royals turned up.
Ronnie's autobiography supplies the details of some of the trials that he was involved in, including many in which Mars-Jones also played a part. Ronnie and his colleagues were certainly adept in the art of moving goalposts/flexing boundaries.
In 1952 Ronnie was the prosecuting barrister in a north Wales case in which his father was one of the JPs. Normally of course this would be considered completely unacceptable, but this is Ronnie and his dad who we're talking about. No problem!!!
Another 1952 case involving Ronnie as Counsel but this time as defence took place in London. (Mars-Jones and Ronnie worked out of Mars-Jones's London chambers but they did a huge amount of court work in north Wales among their family and friends.) Ronnie was defending a medical student at Westminster Hospital on theft charges. The medical student had got pissed, broke into the nurses' hostel and then stolen a purse. The charges were burglary and breaking and entering with intent to steal. Ronnie contacted the Dean of the Medical School and they both agreed that although this young man really had gone a bit far, he was after all a young doctor in the making so what he didn't wasn't the sort of burglary and breaking and entering that plebs indulge in and well the purse had definitely gone missing and it did rather look as though he had stolen it, but it's not really stealing is it. As for the nurse to whom he'd broken into the building to gain access, well she was most upset but the dizzy little thing probably didn't know her own mind….
I suspect that there may have been a few incidents of this nature during Dafydd's student days. Only Dafydd would have probably been found stark naked in the hostel as well as drunk. Not that we need to speculate about Dafydd's youth to understand how Ronnie was able to see the good side of people. At one point in the Waterhouse Report Ronnie notes that 'apart from the sexual assaults' there was no evidence of violence on the part of John Allen – there was, a number of witnesses described John Allen's explosive rages and violent assaults, but Ronnie dismissed them as liars. Furthermore Ronnie noted that John Allen was kind and generous to the boys in his care when he was told that John Allen was paying boys to have sex with him and purchased certain boys – described by the other kids in Bryn Alyn as 'Allen's bum boys' – motorbikes and hifi systems.
John Allen is currently serving his third prison sentence for sexual assaults on children.
In the late 1980s when I told Jeff Crowther, the nursing officer at Ysbyty Gwynedd, that Dafydd was sexually exploiting female patients, Jeff told me that one needed evidence and although there were many stories of this nature about Dafydd, no-one had any evidence. I told Jeff that there were young female patients living in Dafydd's house with him and that this was common knowledge. Jeff told me that a lot of people thought that Dafydd was a kind man who offered a home and employment to patients.
Jeff: Dafydd only offered homes and jobs to young female patients. He didn't have 60 year old men living in Rhianfa, Talwrn with him.
Come forward Therese, the young woman who lived with Dafydd in Rhianfa in about 1994, your evidence is needed!!! How much did Dafydd pay you and what were your terms of employment?? Do you have your P45?? Therese was a lovely young woman and I am sure that if she really had a choice she would not have been living with a dandruff-covered nutter like Dafydd, but as Dafydd had complete control no-one ever found out whether she was living with him out of choice or whether he had destroyed her life by illegally imprisoning her in the dungeon at Denbigh and then made her the generous offer of bed n board.
As the proverbial fighting drunken tramps say to each other – you want a scrap Top Doctors?? Caaaame on…. I have many, many more such memories, so you just continue to tell us all that the only problem with the NHS is 'low pay' and 'resources'.
Ronnie wasn't one for questioning the very obviously flawed legal system within which he worked even in cases which ended in death. In 1954, paedophiles' friend Edmund Davies QC (see post 'A Bit More Paleontology'), Mars-Jones and Ronnie were prosecuting at the murder trial of 25 year old Ronald Harries at Carmarthen Assizes. Harries stood accused of the murder of his second cousins after they disappeared and Harries was the last person to see them. Harries maintained that he had driven them to Carmarthen Station where they caught a train for London, where they were then due to go forward elsewhere for a holiday. Ronnie explained in his book that it was the super-sleuthing of a Detective Superintendent Capstick of Scotland Yard who led the investigation that resolved the case. Capstick organised a search party of 400 farmers over an area of 80 square miles. The bodies of the missing couple were found some seven months after they had disappeared in a 'part of a field where the kale had been planted upside down'.
How exactly does one plant kale upside down? If, after burying the bodies, Harries had planted the kale upside down – presumably he was the village idiot – with the leaves in the soil and the roots sticking up above the ground, the kale would have died within hours and not been in any fit state to conceal two corpses.
Sir Cecil Havers – whose son Michael years later as Attorney General blocked the prosecution of the diplomat Sir Peter Hayman for child sex offences – presided over the trial and Ronnie noted that a crowd of 5000, 'mostly women', cheered the outcome and booed Ronald Harries as he was led away to Swansea Prison.
The Case of The Upside Down Kale went to the Court of Appeal – I cannot think why, it was obviously a rock solid case – but fortunately that bastard Harries lost the appeal. The appeal was lost on the strength of 'Capstick's excellent report of his investigation' which accompanied Ronnie's brief.
Ronald Harries was hanged. That'll teach him to plant kale upside down.
Presumably the Case of the Upside Down Kale is another one of those classics in the annals of Welsh law, along with the imprisoning of the Rev Emyr Owen of Tywyn in 1985 for cutting the penises off corpses, feeding one penis to the seagulls and injecting the other penises with hot water to make them stand up all erect-like. No severed penises were found, no corpses sans penises were produced and furthermore anyone with A level biology knows that you couldn't induce an erection in a severed penis, by hot water or anything else. Who was the prosecuting barrister who told the court this nonsense? Step forward Huw Daniel. Now Huw, as a former biology teacher, let me explain that a penis needs to have a blood supply to become erect. Even your penis, if it were chopped off and injected with fluid, would not become erect. If indeed it ever does anyway even when it is connected to its blood supply. You might not have liked the Rev Emyr because he was dangerously gay and as a Minister and Sheriff of Caernarfon Crown Court he will have found out what the rest of you were up to, but whatever he was guilty of it was not what you told the court and for which he went to prison.
Ronnie was happy to stress that those in his Chambers didn't need a body to know that someone had been murdered and indeed to work out how the 'orrible murder had been committed. After Ronald Harries got the chop, a Polish man was convicted of the murder of his business partner at Carmarthen Assizes. There was no trace of any body and no evidence, but the Pole was a Bad Lot and everyone knew that he'd done it. Furthermore they knew how – he'd fed his partner to the pigs. You can't argue with that. The prosecuting Counsel was Esyr Lewis, for Mars-Jones.
Esyr Lewis also gets a mention in Adam Mars-Jones's book as a friend and neighbour of his father's in Gray's Inn. As a child Esyr lived in south Wales but the family moved to the north of England when he was ten. He served in the Intelligence Corps in the late 1940s. Esyr Lewis became a Deputy High Court judge.
In Feb 1958 Ronnie was the prosecuting counsel in a rape case at Chester Assizes – Justice Salmon was presiding and Emlyn Hooson was defending. The alleged rape had taken place in Flintshire. Ronnie noted that the alleged victim was a 'pretty bus conductress' and the accused 'a less than attractive Italian immigrant'. The pretty bus conductress had left a dance with the less than attractive Italian immigrant and it was alleged that he'd raped her in a car. It was stated that the pretty bus conductress was a virgin. The problem that everybody had was that the car was considered to be too small to be the scene of a rape so there was speculation as to whether the pretty bus conductress had just regretted losing her honour to an Iti. Ronnie remarked that Justice Salmon – an 'excellent judge' – summed up and cast the seeds of doubt in the jury's mind. The Iti was acquitted and the next day the pretty conductress threw herself in the River Dee and drowned.
Well Ronnie and Justice Salmon were so upset. Ronnie stressed to the readers of his book that Justice Salmon was 'liberal and humane' and 'deeply affected' by the suicide of the pretty bus conductress. Was Justice Salmon so deeply affected that he thought 'Christ I've really screwed up there, I don't want to make another mistake like that again', resigned and then spent the rest of his life working for the Benevolent Society for Pretty Bus Conductresses Who Have Been The Victims Of Sexual Violence? No. Justice Cyril Salmon continued his career and ended up as a Lord of Appeal. Just like John Roch.
There were some colourful characters in north Wales. In his autobiography Ronnie explains that on one occasion he breakfasted with William Lloyd George, brother of David, THE Lloyd George. Ron enjoyed this treat whilst he was staying with William Lloyd George's son, William Lloyd George junior, known as Wyl bach. Ronnie remembered that in the mid 1960s a judge at Chester Assizes was going to criticise Wyl bach in a civil case. So William Lloyd George senior 'was trundled into Court the next day where he sat glaring at the judge, who was so incredulous to see this living embodiment of history that his nerve failed him and the criticisms were left unspoken'.
'We're the paedophiles' friends and you can't touch us.'
When Ronnie appeared in court alone, his 'staple diet' was personal injury cases, often for steel workers in south Wales, miners in north Wales or members of the TGWU. By the time that Ronnie was Chairing the Waterhouse Inquiry, the TGWU represented many health and social care workers.
Ronnie went one better than representing the TGWU members though. One of the solicitor's firms which sent a lot of work Ronnie's way was Russell Jones and Walker – who acted for the Police Federation as well as steel workers.
Ronnie undertook a lot of divorce work. So he'll know about the Top Doctor in north Wales who gave medical evidence against his own wife, declaring her mad and unfit to have custody of the children. The Top Doctor gained custody although he had neither the time or inclination to look after the children and he hired a series of patients as nannies to look after them. His wife had left him for one of his patients, a man called Harry, who was found hanging dead after she lost custody of the children (see post 'He Knew Far, Far Too Much').
What was the Top Doc's name now?? Er, a very Welsh name… Dr Ieuan Wyn Finlay??? Dr Iorwerth Jekyll??? Dr Gwilym Frankenstein??? Cannot think who it might have been…of course Ronnie might not remember the case, after all a Top Doc's wife running away with one of his patients and then him hanging himself after she loses custody of the kids because the Top Doc has given psychiatric evidence against her is an everyday occurrence.
I expect that the Top Doc involved was a kindly man who just wanted to provide employment as nannies for some of his patients. Of course, once his wife had moved out there'd be space in the bed for a few more people as well.
Croseo i Rhianfa, employment agency and homeless shelter for nubile young women.
Sometimes I wonder if readers in England might think that I'm just making all this up. Now that I'm writing it down I can see just how extraordinary it is. No wonder 'no-one knew', it's just the sort of thing that no-one would ever notice isn't it.
Ronnie appeared regularly at Caernarfon Crown Court when he was a barrister, as of course did Mars-Jones. In Nov 1975 Mars-Jones was involved in a trial at Caernarfon in which defendant Norman Owen was accused of influencing a jury in a previous trial. Owen was defended by Ronnie's mate Peter Weitzman QC. Even Ronnie admitted that the evidence against Owen was indisputable and Owen was found guilty and imprisoned. However everyone received quite a surprise when the conviction was quashed at a subsequent appeal Chaired by Lord Justice Lawton on the grounds that according to Lawton the crime with which Norman Owen was charged no longer existed. Ronnie and his colleagues were thrown into a state of confusion – because at the time that Norman Owen was charged and stood trial, the crime most definitely existed…
In my post 'These Sharks Are Crap As Well' I discussed the 1993 trial of Derek Hatton and two other Liverpool City Councillors which Ronnie presided over at Mold Crown Court. The trial was part of a much bigger police investigation into local authority corruption, Operation Cheetah, which was derailed when Ronnie acquitted Degsy and his mates. I wondered why the trial of three Liverpool City Councillors on fraud charges involving Liverpool City Council took place in Mold. Ronnie explains in his autobiography that the trial was held at Mold so as to be without prejudice. Whereas Ronnie had previously presided over the trial of Ken Dodd for tax evasion in Liverpool, Ken Dodd's home town and the base of Ken Dodd's fan club…
Ronnie's book mentions that Sir Rodney Klevan QC, who defended Derek Hatton at the 1993 trial in Mold, defended in many high profile cases of murder and fraud. Sir Rodney successfully defended the ex-Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar on bribery charges in 1997. Sir Rodney was leader of the Northern Circuit, 1992-95. So he was leader of the Northern Circuit shortly after his fellow judge on the Northern Circuit Sir John Kay issued an injunction against me from the High Court in Leeds of all places on the basis of the perjury of two colleagues of the paedophile gang, one of whom had never met me and one of whom had met me twice (see post 'Some Big Legal Names Enter The Arena').
What I didn't realise until I read Ronnie's autobiography was that by the time Ronnie acquitted Derek Hatton and his colleagues, Ronnie was already experienced in handling trials of Liverpool City Councillors facing corruption charges. In April 1978 Ronnie and Mars-Jones were involved in a trial in Liverpool in which Councillors stood accused of corruption, when it was discovered that the jury had received copies of the official report on the case compiled by a senior police officer. In such circumstances there should have been a retrial, but somehow Ronnie and Mars-Jones persuaded the judge Derek Hodgson not to order a retrial. The defendants were acquitted.
Sir Derek Hodgson was a Law Commissioner and the Chairman of the Howard League for Penal Reform. In his capacity as a High Court judge, he was very generous to a number of defendants, some believed rather rashly so. He failed to imprison a number of people who had committed brutal assaults and murders. Sir Derek did however deal very harshly with one defendant – Winston Silcott in 1987, when Hodgson was presiding over the trial of those accused of killing Keith Blakelock. Hodgson was aware that the alleged confession of Silcott was unsupported by other evidence, but Silcott was convicted and described as 'evil' by Hodgson after conviction. In 1991 Silcott was released on appeal after it was accepted that his confession had been forged by the police.
Ronnie's 'useful vehicle' on the circuit was his steady supply of work in defending men who were under 24 and charged with unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16 but over 12. Some of those cases will have involved young men having sex with their girlfriends who were not quite 16. Other cases will have been the rape of girls of 13. In the light of Ronnie's comments and conduct at the Waterhouse Inquiry I don't like to think of what went on in those cases with Ronnie on the loose. Ronnie's book tells us that with regard to such cases, Lord Morris of Borth-y-Gest, the Lord of Appeal, was 'at the summit' of these cases in Caernarfonshire, wheras Lord Aberconway, the 2nd Baron, was 'at the base'. Lord Aberconway had been the PPS to David Lloyd-George and was Chairman of the shipbuilders John Browne and Co and according to Ronnie was good enough to 'weep sympathetically' as pleas were made in mitigation. It was Lord Aberconway who was at such a loss in court that his summing up had to be prepared for him by the clerk of the peace as the case progressed and would then be handed up to him at the appropriate moment.
Another of the elements of the staple diet for Ronnie and his colleagues at the Quarter Sessions pre the 1967 breathalyser was drink driving charges. Ronnie noted that junior barristers became so good at ensuring that people were acquitted that further legislation was introduced.
The Chairman of Flint Magistrates, Alderman H.R. Thomas, was a longstanding Liberal friend of Ronnie's dad. Therefore the Holywell solicitor J. Kerfoot-Roberts proposed that it should be Ronnie who would make repeated applications for a licence to sell alcohol at the New Hotel in Flint. It took a long time but the New Hotel did eventually get its licence thanks to Ronnie. The Ronnie who grew up in a family who prided themselves on being temperance and who displayed their certificate testifying to 100 years of abstinence on the wall inside their house. It was of course up to Ronnie as to whether he kept up the family tradition of temperance or not. But the logic of Kerfoot-Roberts was exactly that of whoever decided that Ronnie was to Chair the Waterhouse Inquiry – this is a man with no principles at all who is related to, or friends with, all the interested parties. He's the man for us.
One Liverpool brewery called, most appropriately, Bents, also employed Ronnie…
In 1980 Ronnie presided over the Moriah Chapel case in Caernarfon – the Calvinist Methodist Chapel of Wales sued some building contractors after the Chapel burnt down. Ronnie's mates Emlyn Hooson and David Clarke were acting as counsel. No-one seemed to know why the chapel had burnt down – it was yet another one of those inexplicable fires in north Wales – although the defence ventured an interesting theory that a bird had entered the chapel, picked up a cigarette butt, had flown around with this dog end and set the chapel alight. In the midst of the mysterious fire and the outlandish theories as to how the fire had started, after considering the case carefully Ronnie declared that whatever the cause of the fire, it had obviously been the fault of the building contractors and he therefore found in favour of the Calvinist Methodist Church, for which I am sure that the Calvinists were most grateful.
Mervyn Phillips was the Chief Executive of Clwyd County Council, 1977-92, whilst the paedophile gang made merry in the Council's children's homes. Mervyn was extensively involved with the Welsh Calvinist Methodists, as well as a great many other things (see post 'Ain't Nothing Clean – Not Even The Welsh Calvinist Methodists'). Of course Ronnie will have known Mervyn.
In Feb 1983 Ronnie was involved in a 'gruesome murder case' at Caernarfon for which Ronnie's knowledge of the socio-economic and linguistic backdrop of north Wales proved invaluable. The defendant's first language was Welsh and he had exercised his right to have his trial heard in Welsh. The defendant had every right to do this and people in Wales fought long and hard for this right. Neither would such a request have been at all unusual in Caernarfon. No-one actually told the defendant that he couldn't have his trial heard in Welsh – that would have been breaking the law and Ronnie et al would never do that – but it seems that no-one tried very hard to ensure that he understood the proceedings, which it would seem were in, er, English. Ronnie wasn't that concerned because he pointed out that the defendant had been held at Risley Remand Centre 'for so long' that 'he had become accustomed to speaking English rather than Welsh'. Ronnie observed that after the trial which was held in a foreign language the defendant was 'rightly convicted of murder' and sentenced to life imprisonment.
In 1983, the screws at Risley Remand Centre were notorious for inflicting gratuitous violence upon the inmates; for refusing to ensure that Welsh speaking inmates could understand what was being said; and for doing deals with corrupt police officers and lawyers in which prisoners were framed. Prisoners knew when this might be going on because they found that they were spending inordinately long periods of time in Risley, as their cases were inexplicably repeatedly adjourned or charges were altered. People I know who were in Risley spoke of hearing the screams of the other prisoners at night as they were beaten up by the warders and one man whom I met in the North Wales Hospital Denbigh described how he was sharing a cell with a suicidal man who began his final successful suicide bid when they were in the cell together. The Denbigh patient rang and rang for the warders but no-one answered. He then spent a considerable period of time in the cell with the corpse. I was told by other people who had been in Risley that the warders 'never' answered the bell no matter how serious the situation. It was policy not to answer.
Risley was the domain of Dafydd and the paedophiles' friends.
Ronnie's book mentioned something that I was unaware of – that those providing the interpretation for Welsh language court hearings were often Nonconformist Ministers. The sort of dispossessed people from Gwynedd who ended up in the clutches of Risley Remand Centre very often spoke Welsh and spoke it far better than English but were not very good at reading and writing Welsh. They certainly would not usually have the literary proficiency in Welsh that a Nonconformist Minister would have. The difference in their abilities would often be so great that the interpreter, if he was unscrupulous, would be able to substantially mislead the defendant…
No wonder Huw Daniel ensured that the Rev Emyr Owen went to prison for crimes so bizarre that no-one would ever listen to a word that Emyr said again.
The head of Ronnie's Chambers at one time was Gerald Thesiger QC, the cousin of Wilfred Thesiger, the last of the Great Imperial Explorers. Ronnie himself became head of Chambers in 1975.
Lord Morris of Borth-y-Gest was another member of Ronnie's Chambers and other tenants included John Roch, as well as Lord Gareth Williams of Mostyn – a very good friend of the paedophiles who was Attorney General under Blair, 1999-2001 (see post 'People With Energy') – Gerard Elias QC, who assisted old Ronnie at the Waterhouse Inquiry and Patrick Harrington. One of the juniors in the Chambers was H.J. Baxter, a County Court judge who had served as a Lt Col in the Intelligence Corps during WWII. As did a number of those who protected Dafydd and the paedophiles. Baxter shared a room in Chambers with Anthony Barrowclough, who was appointed the first Parliamentary Ombudsman in 1985.
Ronnie Waterhouse became a QC in 1969, the same year as Mars-Jones became a judge. The appointments will have been made by Lord Gerald Gardiner, Lord Chancellor under Harold Wilson.
William Mars-Jones's wife Sheila was also a barrister who was a reporter for 'The Times' and 'Weekly Law Reports'. Sheila was also Chair of the London Rent Tribunals.
William Mars-Jones was a good friend of paedophiles' friend barrister Peter Thomas, Conservative MP for Conway and then Hendon South and Secretary of State for Wales throughout Ted Heath's Gov't (see post 'The Cradle Of Filth'). Peter Thomas was brought up in Denbighshire.
Adam's Mars-Jones reminds us in his book 'Kid Gloves' that his father had a reputation for hating police corruption and the porn industry. Huw Daniel had exactly the same reputation – but I know that Huw didn't always act on his publicly pronounced principles…
Adam discusses his father's reputation for 'charm' and 'charisma' and observes that in reality his father often behaved in a rather lame, witless way and not just in the company of his family. He noticed that nonetheless people who were not family members would continue to fall around laughing and maintain the myth that William Mars-Jones was something special when the evidence was in front of them at that very moment that he wasn't. Adam states that it was as if his father was constantly in a game of 'Simon Says', except that his father didn't need to do the 'Simon Says' bit – 'he just said things and people surrendered all resistance'.
I've taken a bit of interest in people who are described in the sort of terms that Adam's father was, because a number of the paedophiles' friends – including Dafydd – were regularly described in such terms in north Wales. Now there are some people who do have charisma and charm and can dupe people, but believe me, Dafydd was not one of them. There was only one reason why no-one was prepared to discuss Dafydd's ludicrous yet very unacceptable conduct in realistic terms – they were frightened of him because they knew that he was very, very nasty with equally nasty associates. No-one who met Dafydd really found him charming – if he was trying to be nice he was a creep and a ham and when there were no witnesses about he was frankly intimidating. People who could not deny Dafydd's excesses took refuge in statements about him being 'eccentric'. No, eccentric people simply pursue their own path with little regard for social convention – they don't run sex trafficking gangs.
Dafydd's mate and protector Professor Robert Owen was described in his obituaries as 'charming' with an ability to 'persuade people to do things without them realising it'. When I met Professor Owen he was indeed charming and he gave every impression of being very unhappy with what had happened to me at the hands of Dafydd and being determined to get to the bottom of it. That was why I agreed to the terms of his inquiry. What I didn't know was that Professor Owen was a liar – he was a friend of Dafydd's, a friend of Tony Francis's, a friend of Robert Bluglass's and indeed was well networked into the whole paedophile gang. If I really wanted to, I could lie through my teeth and mislead people as well, but I wouldn't mistake this for having special qualities – particularly if I was in a senior position professionally and able to end the careers of anyone who crossed my path.
It's no great mystery Adam – they were a bunch of ruthless, white collar crooks who mixed in circles of vacuous, unprincipled, rather weak people. Your father was feared because innocent people knew that they could be framed and imprisoned and those who were Top Doctors had the ultimate weapon – when you get ill, we will not treat you no matter how serious your condition. This was what happened to me and to other people who challenged them. People were left with agonising conditions (for which the Top Docs themselves rushed straight to the opiates if they were afflicted) and were refused all care and treatment. The Top Docs have done their worst to me and good friends of mine for 30 years now – they didn't predict that we would arrive at the place satirised in Monty Python's Life Of Brian, where the man is about to be stoned to death for saying 'Jehova' and John Cleese tells him that he'll make it worse for himself if he says 'Jehova' again. So the man yells 'how can it be worse, I'm going to be stoned to death, Jehova, Jehova, Jehova'.
You idiots Top Docs – some of my friends are dead, I've been refused treatment for the only three serious conditions that I have ever had and was left to die on each occasion, Brown and another witness were left in agony for days when they had kidney stones and ended up piddling the stone out a la the Middle Ages and there have been repeated attempts to imprison me. So now you've got this blog.
Jehova, Jehova, Jehova.
Adam's book mentions the John Vassall spying case which severely embarrassed the Macmillan Gov't until the Profumo Affair eclipsed it. Vassall was a gay civil servant who was blackmailed into spying for the Soviet Union for a number of years in the 1950s and 60s. Vassall worked at the Admiralty in the Naval Intelligence Division and then in the Private Office of Tam Galbraith, a Tory politician and Civil Lord of the Admiralty. After letters from Galbraith were found in Vassall's possession, there was rumour and speculation that Galbraith and Vassall were involved sexually and that Galbraith might have shielded Vassall. A committee of civil servants investigated and cleared Galbraith but no-one was very convinced so the PM ordered another inquiry which concluded that no-one at all in any senior position had assisted Vassall.
Earlier in his career Tam Galbraith had served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve along with the best of them…
Tam Galbraith was the Tory MP for Glashow Hillhead, 1948-82. His death triggered the by-election which saw paedophiles' friend and mentor to Tony Blair Roy Jenkins became the SDP member for Hillhead.
After he was released from prison in 1972, John Vassall changed his name and lived in St John's Wood – which was where Ronnie Waterhouse lived – and worked for a firm of solicitors at Gray's Inn. Mars-Jones was a member of Gray's Inn and lived in a Gray's Inn apartment. Vassall died after suffering a heart attack on a London bus. In Nov 1996. Just after Ronnie opened the Waterhouse Inquiry.
After William Mars-Jones died, when Adam sorted through his possessions he found a few memorable objects. One was a gift that a defendant had given William after William had successfully defended him on charges related to crimes involving steel, although the evidence against the defendant had been substantial. The defendant had sent Mars-Jones a gift made of steel engraved with the slogan 'in appreciation of the preservation of my stainless character'. Adam also found an over-the-top Christmas card that Sheikh Ahmad Yamani, the Saudi oil Minister, had given William Mars-Jones in 1984. Adam was perplexed because he was unaware that his father had known Sheikh Yamani.
Sheikh Yamani does however seem to have had a few dealings with people in Wales. George Thomas became friendly with him in 1977 and the Sheikh subsequently flew Thomas and Thomas's dodgy money lender friend Julian Hodge around in the Sheikh's private jet (see post 'It Wasn't On Our Radar').
William Mars-Jones was friends with Philip Yorke, the last 'squire' of Erddig, the stately home near Wrexham which is now in the hands of the National Trust.
Whereas Ronnie was Treasurer of Middle Temple, Mars-Jones was Treasurer of Gray's Inn.
Another associate of Mars-Jones's was Sir Edward Gardner QC. Gardner was a resident of Gray's Inn who had the required CV – he had served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and had spent many years as a Tory MP. Gardner was for 25 years a Governor of the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children, which acted as a magnet for paedophiles' friends.
Adam Mars-Jones mentions the Preacher of Gray's Inn, the Rev Roger Holloway. The Rev Roger was a rather unusual Rev. Roger Holloway went to Eastbourne College and then spent his national service in Kenya during the Emergency. Roger shot a Mau Mau insurgent whom he came across in a forest at night dead and did the same to a buffalo. Holloway brought the buffalo's head back to the UK with him and had it mounted above his bed in his London flat. Holloway spent time as a big game hunter and also worked for Pfizer as a salesman and brand manager, flogging the slimming range Limmits. In 1960 he joined the advertising agency Robert Sharpe and Partners, managing the Players and Unilever accounts. In 1963 he embarked on a long career in the wine business when he joined the Charrington United Breweries Group (later Bass Charrington). He then moved to Jardine Matheson and was MD of its wines and spirits division, 1982-88.
By this time Holloway had become actively engaged in the Church. A protégé of his friend Robert Runcie, he was ordained a priest by the Archbishop at Lambeth Palace in 1981. He served as a 'worker-priest' at St John's Cathedral in Hong Kong, the Anglican church in Tokyo and at the US Central Intelligence and National Security Agency facilities in Asia.
In 1988 Holloway returned to London. As Priest-Vicar at St Margaret's, Westminster, he took his turn at prayers in the House of Commons, where he became a favourite of the then Speaker Betty Boothroyd. He combined this role with the duties of appeals Director of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and Director of the Industrial Christian Fellowship. Holloway will have been aware of the scams within the Imperial Cancer Research Fund which erupted in the form of the Bristol Cancer Centre/Chilvers Report Scandal in 1990 (see post 'Reports Of Death Were Greatly Exaggerated').
In 1997 Holloway was elected Preacher (effectively Chaplain) to Gray's Inn, continuing in this post until his death in 2010.
William Mars-Jones knew Sir Hildreth Glyn-Jones, who had qualified as a pharmacist before practising as a barrister. Glyn-Jones was leader of the Chester and Wales Circuit in the mid-1940s and a Recorder of Cardiff in the late 1940s/early 1950s. He became a High Court judge and after he retired he became a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in 1975.
Ronnie worked with a number of junior barristers who later became even more well-known than the rest of Ronnie's friends and colleagues. In 1977 Ronnie was working on a case with his junior Derry Irvine, who in turn rolled up with his two juniors, a Cherie Booth and a Tony Blair. Ronnie was mates with George Carman QC anyway, the crooked barrister (see posts 'No Ordinary Methods' and 'No Ordinary Methods – Supplementary Post') whom Tony Blair worked for. Ronnie was good friends with Derry Irvine and Derry's wife Alison (who later left Derry Irvine for Donald Dewar) and in 1978 Ronnie holidayed in a French chateau located near to where Alison and Derry Irvine were also holidaying.
When Ronnie nipped over to Hong Kong in 1997 for a break to relieve the tedium of listening to the witnesses during the Waterhouse Inquiry (see post 'Mr Thomas Waterhouse – An Apology') he ended up having tea and a chat with the Governor, one Chris Patten and his wife Lavender. Derry had a hand in organising the jaunt.
Lavender was later a Patron of Prof Mark Williams's Oxford Mindfulness Centre. As if being Patron of a Centre built on the back of a research fraud committed by a paedophiles' friend wasn't sufficient (see post 'The Biggest Expert Of The Lot'), Lavender was Patron whilst her husband was Chancellor of Oxford University – which employed Mark Williams and hosted his Centre…
Whereas William Mars-Jones was a good friend of Ronnie's who exerted great influence in north Wales, Ronnie also had a mate who was revered and feared in south Wales – Leo Abse, the lawyer who was the Labour MP for Pontypool and then Torfaen for decades. Abse was one of Ronnie's neighbours in north London and Ronnie was friendly enough with him to go on holiday to the south of Italy with Abse and his wife Marjory. They were joined by Thatcher's mate Woodrow Wyatt and his wife Verushka (see post 'An Appalling Vista'); Kingsley Amis's wife; Roy Jenkins and Bill Rodgers; Robin Day. Peregrine Worsthorne joined in the party – he stayed at the Abse's place.
Peregrine Worsthorne spent many years working at the Telegraph and for many years edited 'The Sunday Telegraph' where he published opinions that were not usually found even in 'The Sunday Telegraph'. A memorable column of Perry's argued that working class people should not be allowed to enter universities – this was many years before 'widening participation' – because it would give them a glimpse of a lifestyle to which they could never aspire and they'd become all resentful and rebellious. Before Perry points at me as a prime example, I'll remind him that I only went off the rails when I discovered that a great many Top Docs and others were concealing organised crime. I wasn't exactly a Conservative voter before that, but to be honest Perry, I didn't imagine that I would ever one day publish something like this blog…
In recent years Perry has become a figure of fun because after many years of loyal service railing against homosexuality, Perry has provided detailed descriptions of his homosexual encounters at Stowe School with, I think, George Melly.
Perry defended the conduct of Pinochet's forces in the 1973 Chilean coup, and wrote that he hoped the British Army would launch a coup in Britain if a radical minority socialist government should ever enter power.
Ronnie Waterhouse obviously found Sicily to his liking, he crashed out there again in 2003 with Geoffrey and Elspeth Howe and David and Anna Skeggs. Dr David Skeggs was an oncologist who studied at Oxford and Barts. He did his national service with the Royal Navy and then returned to Barts to work. Skeggs was Director of the Radiology Centre at the Royal Free Hospital, 1964-88. After Skeggs left the NHS he became Director of Radiotherapy at the private Cromwell Hospital.
In 1997, following revelations that some women with breast and cervical cancers were being given substandard radiotherapy treatments at some hospitals, Skeggs appeared on 'Panorama' to help draw attention to a problem which he regarded as wholly avoidable. Although Skeggs will have known that this was happening for years…
The pressure group RAGE (Radiotherapy Action Group Exposure) had been fighting for compensation for patients with radiation-induced injuries for several years, and Skeggs explained that he had decided to speak out because he felt that 'somebody in the medical establishment has got to stand up and speak for them'. Not that Skeggs had ever done so previously.
In retirement, Skeggs directed his energies to supporting the UCL Cancer Institute Research Trust as a Trustee and, from 2006, as Chairman. He played a major role in raising £4 million for a special facility for patients taking part in clinical trials of new treatments for cancer and led the charity in developing facilities at the new UCL Cancer Institute in Bloomsbury and at the college's Royal Free Hospital campus. Whilst he knew that the research fraud and ineffective treatment of patients was continuing.
Ronnie Waterhouse also took holidays with Leon and Diana Brittan.
Ronnie acquired a taste for indulgent holidays years before he joined the Cosa Nostra on a regular basis – his book mentions a 'sybaritic summer holiday' in the south of France that he took in 1957, with the Hoosons and Robin Day – they were joined by the BBC producer John Danvers.
In 1971-72 Ronnie was involved in an action for slander involving Leo Abse, in which Leon Brittan, Ronnie's junior, was defending. Leon Brittan worked as Ronnie's junior again in 1976 when Arthur Scargill sued the 'Sheffield Star' for libel.
I have blogged about Leo Abse previously – he was an unpleasant aggressive man who was a lifelong friend of George Thomas and concealed George Thomas's child molesting ways by resorting to bribery and intimidation when necessary (see post 'It Wasn't On Our Radar'). Leo Abse has been the subject of an investigation into historical child abuse himself and he was someone whose writings and conduct were very obviously questionable at times, but I would imagine that as in the case of William Mars-Jones, a lot of people were just far too frightened of Abse to state the obvious.
Abse came from a legal family which also numbered among its members psychoanalysts and Top Doctors – the most famous being Danny Abse – and Abse had a big interest in psychoanalysis himself. Leo Abse did sometimes use psychoanalytic theory to make some interesting observations, but he very obviously also used the Top Docs ploy and utilised psychoanalytic theory to excuse himself or simply to throw mud at his opponents.
I have just finished reading Abse's volume 'Tony Blair: The Man Behind The Smile'. Not only does Abse extrapolate to ridiculous lengths on the basis of the limited information that Blair has made publicly available about his early life, but Abse really chucks the abuse about on the grounds of Blair and Cherie's allegedly 'dysfunctional' families. This is a man who was close friends over decades with a brutal, lying child molester – but George Thomas was, Abse tells, us a pure Christian soul with noble motivations who was burdened by being gay.
A further irony is the amount of time in 'Tony Blair: The Man Behind The Smile' that Abse devotes to 'perverts' – he seems to be referring to sado-masochists. Give me a sado-masochist over a child molester any day Leo. Abse bangs on at length about narcissists – like Blair was at university according to Abse – who grow their hair long and wear colourful ridiculous clothes (in Blair's case, purple loons). As I was reading this, my first thought was that long hair and colourful loons were standard issue for young people of Blair's generation and then I remembered that one Leo Abse was well-known for his highly decorative coloured waistcoats – very nice waistcoats in fact. Abse had obviously foreseen the charges of hypocrisy – he explained that his bright waistcoats weren't a sign of narcissism, that was just everybody else's coloured waistcoats. No, Leo's coloured waistcoats were a sign of him expressing his individuality and rebellion on Budget Day…
Leo continues in this vein throughout the book. Everybody else's family traumas – even ones that aren't the result of any perceived moral failing such as Blair's dad's stroke – allegedly result in damaged, deranged children who grow up to be seriously inadequate people who cannot be trusted on any matter. Even the photo that Cherie issued of her holding her own baby Leo as a newborn demonstrates that Cherie is a crazed nutter who as a mother cannot sacrifice her own needs for the sake of her baby. I too am of the opinion that Cherie is a bit mad but I didn't draw that conclusion from Cherie having her photo taken with the new baby – I think that is a fairly popular past time among new mothers.
Leo Abse really does rival Dafydd et al in his book. Questionable psychoanalytic theory is used to discredit the actions and motives of absolutely everybody else, yet the same theory is used to put a positive spin on everything that Leo did – some of which was pretty sordid.
I did however discover something informative but deeply worrying from Leo's book. That he was a member of the Houghton Committee, whose deliberations led to the Children Act of 1975. Anyone who has known anything about the harsh reality of the UK's children's/child protection services over the past few decades has looked on aghast as more and more power has been given to an endemically corrupt, chaotic state system dogged by a major problem with gangs of organised child abusers operating within its ranks. As the years pass with yet more admissions of 'God there is one hell of a problem here and it is not with inadequate parents' and the most dreadful first hand tales from kids who grew up in 'care' regarding what was done to them whilst they were in 'care' continue, legislative changes removing more and more rights from biological parents continue apace, with the people drafting the legislation urging that social workers and Top Doctors should be 'listened to'. Those of us who have been on the receiving end of those professions respond by wondering whether the politicians/judges making these utterances have ever met one of the social workers or Top Docs in whose opinion they have so much faith.
It seems that the rot began with – or was certainly accelerated by – paedophiles' friend Leo Abse. In 1967 Harold Wilson appointed Jim Callaghan as Home Secretary. Abse, as a result of his concern for children without two stable parents, persuaded Callaghan to establish an advisory committee to deal with this matter, with Abse as a member. Abse had previously set up an all party group of MPs 'committed to pressurising the Home Office' to reviewing the adoption and fostering laws.
Abse knew that at that time, fostering and adoption arrangements in the UK were ramshackle. Arrangements were frequently made privately between individuals, or by gynaecologists or hospital matrons and screening procedures by adoption societies frequently involved no more than ensuring that the prospective adoptive parents were of the desired religious denomination. I know of several instances in which mothers were undoubtedly coerced into handing over babies whom they desperately wanted to keep. Not only unmarried mothers either – I know of a case in the mid-1970s in which a pregnant woman in her late 20s from north Wales was banged up in Denbigh and then taken to the St David's Laundry in Bangor (see post 'The BMA And It's Ethics') to give birth. The baby was unlawfully removed from her by the combined forces of her own mother, the staff of St David's Laundry and dear old Dafydd et al. The reason? She had left her husband and refused to go back to him when her family ordered her to. This lady then spent the rest of her life as a 'community psychiatric patient' under the 'care of' the abusive Arfon Community Mental Health Team – as did a daughter to whom she subsequently gave birth. I knew many of the details because I was friendly with her some 17 years ago. Where is she now? She's dead of course. She was found dead just about the time that the Waterhouse Report was published…
So Abse knew that this sort of thing was going on – rampant abuse on the part of professional people. So who did Callaghan/Abse ensure were the members of the Houghton Committee? The very people who had carried out the abuses of vulnerable pregnant women – 'for politically correct reasons, one Tory MP…the other members all already had, as directors of social service departments or adoption societies, as paediatricians, child psychiatrists or jurists, considerable fieldwork experience in adoption'.
If Leo Abse had wanted to increase the abuses in the system he could not have done better. By the time that the Committee was established, paedophiles had infiltrated most of the social services depts in the UK and many of the gangs were linked. The Committee was Chaired by Sir William Houghton. William Houghton worked for ILEA – which had been infiltrated by paedophiles…
The Houghton Committee sat for three years, 'taking evidence' and then 'produced a unanimous report'. William Houghton himself died during that time.
After Abse et al had produced their report with recommendations, Abse wanted action and quickly. So her persuaded Dr David Owen – Dr Death was still a back bencher at the time – to sponsor an Adoption Bill. According to Abse, he approached Dr Death because Dr Death had been fortunate enough to have drawn in the Private Members ballot the right to have time to introduce a bill. Not only was Dr Death up for playing ball, but Abse, Dr Death et al got their act together to such an extent that they had their legislation ready and waiting for the incoming Labour Gov't when Heath's administration fell. Bills usually fell by the wayside with a change of Gov't – not this one. The incoming Labour Gov't took it up and it reached the statute book as the Children's Act of 1975.
On the basis of Abse's account, there seems to have been a great many fortuitous events involved in all this. Abse just happened to have set up an all party group just before Jim Callaghan just happened to be appointed as Home Secretary, who just happened to be receptive to Abse's request and then Dr Death was up for grabs as soon as Abse's Committee of paedophiles' friends had written their Report. Even a change of Gov't didn't disrupt the process – the new (Labour) Gov't took up the Bill and within months, bingo, Abse and the paedophiles' friends were home and dry.
I have no idea how many of those involved in this were 'charmed' by the 'charismatic' Leo Abse or how many were intimidated by this deeply unpleasant man into following his orders.
I have mentioned in previous posts that John Allen set up the Bryn Alyn Community in 1968 and by the mid-1970s business was booming. Allen's venture was followed by a number of other people arriving in north Wales in possession of enough money to buy isolated old buildings for use as children's homes or residential schools. The kids housed in those establishments will have been housed there under the Children's Act 1975…
I have previously wondered who was behind the business model which underpinned the Great North Wales Children's Home Boom. John Allen came from Ipswich in Suffolk, so he had been on the turf of Dr J.G. Howells, the paedophiles' friend who pioneered 'family therapy'.
Howells was originally from Anglesey and studied first at King's College, London and then at Charing Cross Medical School. He served in Germany as a medical officer to the Northamptonshire Regiment. Theological training led to the award of the AKC, coincident with his medical training.
After training at the National Hospital, London in neurology, Howells trained at the Maudsley Hospital in psychiatry, where he worked for a period in the psychoanalytical unit. He left the Maudsley disillusioned with psychoanalysis in the hope of being able to practice a different psychopathology elsewhere. This was at the inception of the NHS when innovation was encouraged and Howells set up his unit in a general hospital in Ipswich. Howells was the Director of the Institute of Family Psychiatry at Ipswich, 1950-85. The Institute was affiliated to the University of Cambridge and formed part of the postgraduate medical education of that university.
Throughout Howells's career he sat on numerous influential NHS, professional and academic committees including the East Anglian Regional Hospital Board (1965-74), the Faculty Board of the University of Cambridge Clinical Medical School, the British Medical Association Psychological Medicine Committee and the Council of the Royal Medical Psychological Association. Howells served as Secretary and Editor of the Society of Clinical Psychiatrists.
Howells lectured all over the world, sharing platforms a with many significant individuals of his time, including Benjamin Spock and A.S. Neil. He was a council member of the World Psychiatric Association. The American Psychiatric Association appointed him a distinguished fellow and many American universities offered him chairs. Yale University even offered to transport his whole research team to the US.
Howells was a key figure in the establishment of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, along with Sir Martin Roth and that enormous inexplicable loan from Marks & Spencer (see post 'The Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Connection?').
J.G. Howells will have known Dafydd and many of those who protected Dafydd and he will almost certainly have known Trumpers (see post '95 Glorious Years!') and perhaps Tuppence's wife – Lady Mary Archer – as well (see post 'Tuppence And His Fragrant Wife').
My suspicions as to who formulated the business plan behind the Great North Wales Children's Home Boom are increasing… However it certainly never occurred to me that it was Leo Abse who was the driving force behind the legislation which made it all possible.
Jehova, Jehova, Jehova…
In 'Tony Blair: Behind The Smile', Abse makes reference to dining at Number 10 with Callaghan and his wife Audrey. Abse approves of Audrey – in his opinion she's everything that Abse thinks that a woman should be, just a nothing really. I don't know how fond of Leo Abse Callaghan and his wife really were though. Callaghan did not like Abse's child molesting mate George Thomas one bit – Callaghan knew of Thomas's ways, as did most other people in politics in south Wales. However, George Thomas did get on very well with Harold Wilson. It was Harold Wilson who moved Callaghan from the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer to that of Home Secretary in 1967. At that time Bryn Estyn was still managed directly by the Home Office – Callaghan was one of the Home Secretaries who concealed the abuse of the boys there.
Audrey Callaghan was derisively named 'the Yorkshire Pudding' on account of her not prancing about like Posh Spice. However she had rather more about her than is widely publicised. In 1959 Audrey was elected as the member for Lewisham for the London County Council. She took a special interest in children's homes and in the Children's Committee. From 1964 she was an Alderman of the GLC and Chairman of Lewisham Council's Children's Committee, where she was an Alderman when the GLC was abolished. Audrey was Chair of Governors for GOSH (Great Ormond Street Hospital), 1969-82 and Chair of the Hospital's Special Trustees, 1948-90. She was a fundraiser for GOSH for 30 years and for 15 years until 1999 was a Trustee of the Wishing Well Appeal. The spectre of Jimmy Savile looms large.
Jehova, Jehova, Jehova…
In 1987 Jim Callaghan became Lord Callaghan and he and Audrey retired to their farm in East Sussex. They supported causes related to the University College of Swansea, of which Callaghan was President.
The Callaghan's daughter Baroness Margaret Jay was a good friend to the paedophiles and became a Health Spokesman and Minister for Wimmin under Blair (see post 'Another Episode Of Friends…').
Whilst Leo Abse and the paedophiles' friends sat on the Houghton Committee, the paedophile who was Abse's friend, George Thomas, was Secretary of State for Wales. In this capacity Thomas concealed the abuse of children in north Wales. George Thomas was succeeded as Secretary of State for Wales in 1970 by William Mars-Jones's mate Peter Thomas – who concealed the abuse of children in north Wales, as did every other Secretary of State for Wales (see post 'The Cradle Of Filth').
It was in 1969 whilst George Thomas was Secretary of State for Wales when the responsibilities of the Welsh Office were extended to include Health and Social Services. One year after John Allen set up the Bryn Alyn Community in north Wales…
Leo Abse did of course have previous for successfully getting legislation through Parliament. It was Leo Abse who sponsored the private member's bill after Harold Wilson won the 1966 General Election which was supported by Home Secretary Roy Jenkins – another paedophiles' friend (see post 'The Most Dangerous Man In The World – Part I') and led to the Sexual Offences Act 1967 and the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality.
The irony was that years after Leo Abse's efforts succeeded in decriminalising homosexuality, up in the North Wales Hospital Denbigh Dafydd and Gwynne were inflicting their own special brand of torture on adult gay men in the name of 'aversion therapy'. Whilst they ran a sex abuse ring whose activities included concealing child abuse and trafficking the children who were in care – thanks to the Children Act 1975 – into gay sex work…
Either Leo Abse was working very hard to engineer a situation in which adult gay men with a predatory nature could have sex with coerced teenaged boys or Leo Abse was a very confused man.
Leo Abse was succeeded as the Labour MP for Torfaen by Paul Murphy. Blair had appointed Paul Murphy as Secretary of State for Wales by the time that Ronnie completed the Waterhouse Report and it was Paul Murphy who took receipt of the Report and declared himself to be delighted that a transparent and through investigation had been conducted with not an element of a cover-up. Before becoming an MP, Paul Murphy had spent many years as a Councillor in Torfaen. He knew Abse well.
Leo's friend Ronnie Waterhouse did a bit of trailblazing for sexual liberation himself. Interestingly, Adam Mars-Jones's book tells us that it was Ronnie Waterhouse who spent much time trying to enlighten William Mars-Jones – unsuccessfully – re homosexuality.
In 1965 Ronnie was instructed by the solicitors Lawford and Co to act in a case for the Albany Trust. The Albany Trust began life as a respectable charity whose work complemented that of the Homosexual Law Reform Society. When male homosexuality was partially decriminalised in 1967, the Albany Trust metamorphosed into an educational and counselling organisation, including developing sex education. The Albany Trust rather lost its way and was brought into disrepute when it produced literature in collaboration with paedophiles' rights groups PIE and PAL. In the 1980s, the Home Office whilst Ronnie's friend Leon Brittan was Home Secretary, funded the Albany Trust to carry out some questionable 'research'.
I mentioned in my post 'Pets Win Prizes' that within days of the Jillings Report being submitted – the Jillings Investigation being the first external inquiry into the abuse of children in the care of Clwyd County Council (see post 'It's A Piece Of Cake') – Clwyd County Council was dissolved in a local authority reorganisation by the Local Gov't Boundary Commission.
Ronnie Waterhouse joined the Boundary Commission in 1972 and reviewed boundaries across the whole of Wales for the next four years. Ronnie stated that a 'most influential fellow member' was Dr Elwyn Davies, who was Secretary of the Council for the University of Wales for many years, then the Welsh Secretary for Education and then in 1977 was appointed as the President of the National Library of Wales. Other members included Winifred Matthias, the former Tory Lord Mayor of Cardiff and Bill Coleman, a Labour Councillor from Gelligaer.
In 1974, veteran paedophiles' friend Lord John Morris – whom Blair brought out of mothballs and appointed as Attorney General when Blair was elected as PM in 1997 – asked Ronnie to take over the Chairmanship of the Boundary Commission for Wales. Morris had been a pupil in Ronnie's Chambers. William Mars-Jones's mate Lord Peter Thomas, John Morris's predecessor, had appointed the members of the Boundary Commission, but Morris was able to either accept or reject them. The Deputy Chairman of the Commission was Michael Gibbon QC – who was godfather to Ronnie's daughter Laura. Gibbon – who became a senior circuit judge and recorder of Cardiff – succeeded Ronnie as Chairman of the Boundary Commission in 1978. Gibbon is a member of the Council of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. He lives in London and works from Chambers there, but his family are from south Wales. His wife Amanda's parents farm in mid-Wales. Much of Gibbon's work at the Bar has involved representing Gov't Depts. Probably when they have flouted the law or harmed citizens.
I highly recommend readers to pay a quick visit to the website of the Honourable Society of Cymmorodorion. The entire Society is composed of members of the Royal Family or paedophiles' friends.
After all that bad publicity when the Tawel Fan Scandal reared its head again last week, I was expecting a TV programme about some wonderful aspect of life in Gwynedd or perhaps an announcement that a 'research team' based at the Betsi has scored another first. I was not disappointed – BBC News Wales online are reporting that cancer time waiting lists in Wales are the best in the UK! Which does not explain why the clinical outcomes are far from the best in the UK…
In the light of the paedophiles' friends continuing the PR war, I'll name a few more sinners.
Caaaaam on….
Ruhi Behi, the former Head of the School of Healthcare Sciences at Bangor University. Behi was an Angel from the North Wales Hospital Denbigh who went to UCNW to do a psychology degree. Behi did emerge with a degree but students on his course were convinced that he had obtained it fraudulently. Not only did they never see Behi in lectures, but he was also working as an Angel in the C&A Hospital in Bangor throughout the whole time. Two of the psychology students were watching carefully and they are convinced that someone else was attending the course and sat finals in Behi's name. This was back in the 1980s and such practices were known to have happened at Aston University at the time, although in the case of Aston it had involved some wealthy students from the Middle East who had sent their servants over to Aston to undertake their degrees for them. The attitude of the Top Docs and Angels at Denbigh was so dreadful that they'd have had no problem using the services of servants. In fact Dafydd did so regularly…
When Head of Healthcare Sciences at Bangor, Behi presided over an appalling regime of homophobia and – ironically – racist bullying. I was told stories of overseas students being told that they 'smelt' so much that it was necessary to lock them outside of shared offices and of ethnic minority students on placement at Wrexham travelling miles to submit course work, only to be told by vindictive staff when they arrived that 'the office is closed now', the decision to close having been taken as soon as the student was seen approaching the building.
Many staff and students simply left the School of Healthcare Sciences in a hurry without explanation but a number did try to make representation about the appalling conduct of Behi and some of his colleagues. I knew two people who knew one of those who did try to raise the alarm very well. She was a young woman who was doing a PhD in that School who was effectively driven to a nervous breakdown by her PhD supervisor. This young woman couldn't understand why there had been no response to her complaints. She eventually left with no resolution and after a period of illness, took up a job in Liverpool. I was told that she left 'feeling very bad about her time in Bangor'. After the student left, the PhD supervisor concerned stated that her student had been 'like a frightened rabbit caught in the headlights'. A colleague observed that therefore the main beam should have been switched off.
The PhD student who followed in the footsteps of the frightened rabbit was treated just as badly by the same supervisor. This supervisor wrote derogatory – and factually inaccurate – comments about the PhD student's work (I saw the documents concerned). This PhD student also had a breakdown and left without completing his PhD. Before he withdrew, I accompanied him to a meeting in the University HR Dept during which his supervisor's conduct was explained in detail. We were told that the supervisor was known to be a problem but we were warned that if the student made a formal complaint, the PhD supervisor would make a counter-allegation – she had told a number of her colleagues that she wanted to leave Bangor University and if possible she wanted a payout before she left. There was double trouble because this woman's husband was also in dispute with Bangor University, having recently left his job there to join Glyndwr University.
The PhD supervisor concerned did leave, to take up a post of Chair of Nursing in Glyndwr University. She left Bangor at the same time as one of her colleagues, who was responsible for postgraduate students. When he left, a stack of letters was found in his old office – complaining about the dreadful conduct of the now Chair of Nursing at Glyndwr University. None of the very serious complaints had been dealt with.
So who was this Professorial Angel who induced breakdowns in PhD students and whom the University did not dare challenge for fear that she would make counter-allegations against the students if she was challenged?
Step forward Professor Fiona Irvine, who is now Head of Nursing at Birmingham University and a specialist in 'end of life care' no less. Fiona certainly ended a few academic lives when she was at Bangor. She left behind a trail of damaged students who had been reduced to jelly. Particularly one clever young Welshman whom Fiona LOATHED because he was bright and could see that academically she could not cut the mustard.
Fiona Irvine was involved in community nursing in north Wales. She will have known about the abuse of children and mental health patients.
Irvine began life as an Angel at Hammersmith Hospital in the 1980s. So she will have witnessed the malpractice and research fraud there that I did at that time. Only Irvine chose to join in the party.
Ruhi Behi co-authored academic articles as all aspiring Angels are now required to do. One of Ruhi's articles appeared in the 'British Journal of Nursing' in 1995 and was entitled 'Ethical Issues in Research'. Obviously a colleague of Dafydd's who worked in a region where fraud in 'healthcare research' was endemic would know all about this.
Ruhi's article was coauthored by Dr Mike Nolan. Dr Mike Nolan is now Professor Mike Nolan of Sheffield University. Mike was the first Professor of Gerontological Nursing in the UK! Where did Mike gain such expertise? Er – in the Deiniol Day Hospital in Ysbyty Gwynedd in the early 1990s. I remember the Deiniol Day Hospital well – it was next door to the Menai Day Hospital for the mental health patients. Mike's managers were the very same people whose conduct I have detailed on this blog – people who ignored patient complaints, who forged documentation, who were fiddling the finances in a major way, who lied and lied and lied both in Court and elsewhere. And who were concealing serious criminality.
The glorious legacy of Mike Nolan and those other leaders in north Wales who had so much expertise in the care of elderly people has now exploded in the form of Tawel Fan.
I knew someone who undertook a student placement in Mike's Deiniol Day Centre. They told me that it was not quite what Mike pretended that it was…
Mike entered nursing in the 1970s. Before that he trained as teacher.
Anyone for concealing child abuse?
I mentioned that Fiona Irvine worked at Hammersmith and joined in the party. Someone else from Hammersmith did that as well – one of the students who was with me on the MSc in Experimental Pathology, 1986-87, at Hammersmith Hospital/Royal Postgraduate Medical School. There was much malpractice witnessed by the students on that course and as a result by the end of the course no-one wanted to take a job at Hammersmith/RPMS. A lot of students were very voluble about the misconduct that was prevalent. There was however one student who, when we began the course, was as critical as everyone else but at some point became very, very friendly with the course leader, Dr Malcolm Alison and Alison's boss, Professor Sir Nick Wright (see post 'A Cause Close To Our Hearts'). Other people knew this student much better than I did and denounced him as being completely unscrupulous – there were also allegations that he was needlessly cruel to research animals.
That student emerged from the course with a distinction, but more mysteriously with a place to study medicine as a mature student funded by the Royal College of Surgeons no less. Allegations flew that a very, very dirty deal had been entered into. I have no idea of what the basis of the dirty deal was alleged to have been, but it was presumed by everyone that this student had discovered wrongdoing of such enormous proportions that he had been bought off.
So who was the lucky lad? None other than Dr Cyril Rooney, who is now the senior consultant in respiratory medicine at the Mayo University Hospital in Ireland. Dr Rooney was the centre of a bit of adverse publicity a few years ago when a patient in his care died. The patient's family kicked up a fuss and eventually there was an investigation which revealed that Dr Cyril Rooney didn't know – or at least claimed not to know – about the actions of his junior colleague which had resulted in the patient's death. The dead man's family alleged that the hospital had been most reluctant to come clean about the circumstances of the patient's death and had attempted a cover-up.
Now for another memory of life at St George's Hospital Medical School, circa 1990. I was reminded of this the other day when someone observed that although medical schools have been banging on about training medical students in communication for many years now, many doctors still have great problems talking to patients.
St George's liked to think that it was at the cutting edge of medical education and the students were given a heavy dose of the fluffy bits of medicine such as 'communication'. Did the students respond positively to this? Not really, they thought that it was all a bit bizarre. One reason why this conclusion was drawn was that St George's really pushed the boat out and along with communication, the students were also subjected to a module on 'sexuality' to broaden their horizons. It certainly did – it blew their minds. They were given talks by gay people which involved graphic descriptions of gay sex, but the students were broadly OK with that. After all, some of them were gay. What caused the excitement was The Videos. The students were shown videos of people having sex. There was one video which was the subject of intense discussion – the video of elderly people having sex with each other. The questions on every student's lips were 'how the hell did anyone get the elderly people to agree to be filmed doing THAT???'
But St George's had access to some people whose lifestyles differed from the rest of us. Such as Professor Oliver Brooke, their Prof of Paediatrics, who was jailed for the possession of huge amounts of child porn just before the grumble flicks for the med students were made.
Want more Top Docs? Caaaaam on….