Thread by @MarkWatts_1

1. Day 3 of Westminster hearings at #CSAinquiry – my round-up in 20 tweets.

Today, powerful testimony from some former police officers at the sharp end of #VIPaedophile cover-ups.

And an attempt to cover it up.

2. Howard Groves, former Met DCI, told #CSAinquiry of a “briefing by a senior officer” in around 1984 when he was a PC in a group on an investigation that was part of ‘Operation Circus’.

Senior officer warned that the inv would stop if they encountered “people of prominence”.

3. Howard Groves told #CSAinquiry that this warning on “prominent people” was given to a team that were to deal with photographs seized in ‘Operation Circus’ from a photographer.

The pictures showed men sexually abusing boys as young as 11 or 12...

4. In questioning Howard Groves, counsel to #CSAinquiry, Brian Altman, referred to these boys as having “prostituted themselves”.

It is astounding that counsel to #CSAinquiry should think this an appropriate way to refer to boys – of 11 or 12 – who were sexually abused by men.

5. Howard Groves told #CSAinquiry, as his voice began to break with emotion, that this #VIPaedophile warning when he was in the Met “left an indelible mark on me as a police officer.”

6. The warning about “prominent people” was, Howard Groves told #CSAinquiry, one of “two things that have stuck with me for all of my service”.

The other was when an officer challenged his position as an inspector on a case because he was black.

7. Howard Groves to #CSAinquiry on warning about “prominent people” and racial incident in Met: “So for those who may think that I’m making this up, those two things have stuck with me for all of my service.”

8. Robert Glen, former Met superintendent, told #CSAinquiry that his senior officer blocked him from arresting “Sir” Cyril Smith in 1978 after a surveillance operation in north London caught him at an address where boys were being sexually abused...

9. Robert Glen to #CSAinquiry: “It was quite clear there was good evidence to suggest that Cyril Smith was involved in some form of obscenities with young boys.”

“He was seen in the company of young boys, seen entering property.”

10. Robert Glen to #CSAinquiry: “There was evidence there, clearly. I gained from the team that there was evidence… that would justify the arrest of Cyril Smith.” This evidence came from a surveillance operation.

Guess what happened...

11. Robert Glen told #CSAinquiry that because of the sensitivity of arresting “Sir” Cyril Smith when he was an MP, he thought that he had better consult his chief superintendent, Neil Diver.

It did not go well.

12. #CSAinquiry heard that when Robert Glen told Chief Supt Neil Diver that his surveillance team had – over “quite a few weeks” – accumulated “sufficient evidence” to seek an arrest warrant from a chief magistrate for “Sir” Cyril Smith, his boss was “incredibly annoyed”...

13. Chf Supt Neil Diver “said to me that we should never have got involved in it, and it was of a far too political nature.

“It would cause political upheaval if we went ahead with the arrest of Cyril Smith. And we were told to stop.”

Robert Glen, ex-Met, to #CSAinquiry.

14. Robert Glen to #CSAinquiry on not arresting “Sir” Cyril Smith: “If it was anybody else… we would have gone out and obtained a warrant.

“But because he’s an MP, there seemed to be this great reluctance.”

“I was very, very annoyed… the team, they were equally annoyed.”

15. Paul Foulston, ex-detective from Thames Valley Police, told #CSAinquiry that two Special Branch officers tried to stop him and a colleague in 1976 interviewing a witness, who claimed to be sexually abused as a boy by “Sir” Cyril Smith, in an unrelated murder case...

16. Paul Foulston told #CSAinquiry that Special Branch officers “advised us that to interview this person was not in the national interest.”

They wanted to i/v witness to eliminate him from a murder inquiry.

But witness wanted to tell of sexual abuse by “Sir” Cyril Smith.

17. Paul Foulston told #CSAinquiry that he came forward after “Sir” Cyril Smith’s brother claimed that there was no evidence to support allegations of child sexual abuse by the late MP.

“I was somewhat angered by his statement to say there’s no proof.”

18. Yesterday, counsel to #CSAinquiry asked panel to adduce statements from IOPC and Met corporate witnesses that dismissed nearly all claims by police whistleblowers of #VIPaedophile cover-ups of one sort or another, and publish them on inquiry website...

19. Today, counsel to #CSAinquiry omitted to ask panel to adduce statements from police whistleblowers on #VIPaedophile cover-ups and publish on inquiry website.

So, during a break, I asked him whether he would do so.

“Not necessarily, no.”

This is the Orwellian #CSAinquiry.

20. Not a single statement from a police whistleblower on #VIPaedophile cover-ups was adduced by #CSAinquiry, so not one is being published on inquiry website.

So, inquiry is publishing statements on world according to #IOPCwhitewash, yet not police whistleblowers’ accounts.