Thread by @MarkWatts_1

1. Day 5 of Westminster hearings at #CSAinquiry – my round-up in 22 tweets.

After two days of evidence on how police were stopped from investigating #VIPaedophiles, today we heard of the same problem for the media...

2. Don Hale @perryscope21 told #CSAinquiry how Barbara Castle gave him a pile of minutes of secret meetings in 1984 of a committee of MPs and Lords that wanted to promote the lowering of the age of consent.

The papers identified 16 politicians, he said...

3. Don Hale told #CSAinquiry that minutes of secret parliamentary group that wanted to lower age of consent showed the regular attendees: Charles Napier, Keith Joseph, Jeremy Thorpe, Rhodes Boyston and Peter Hayman.

4. Barbara Castle’s documents showed that Leon Brittan or Edward Heath would chair meetings of the secret group of politicians that wanted to lower age of consent, Don Hale told #CSAinquiry...

5. Don Hale said that, according to Barbara Castle, Rhodes Bhoyson distributed PIE’s magazine, Magpie, within Westminster and helped raise funding for the notorious pro-paedophile group.

“She described it as a ‘brown-envelope operation,” #CSAinquiry heard...

6. Barbara Castle told Don Hale, he said at Westminster hearings of #CSAinquiry, that Home Office gave “substantial funds” to PIE with backing of Special Branch who “were insisting on this... £20,000-plus.”

7. Barbara Castle wanted the story out about secret meetings of MPs to press for cut in age of consent.

“She said she had been to quite a few of the nationals and they wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole,” Don Hale told #CSAinquiry...

8. On the secret group of MPs at private meetings to discuss a cut in age of consent, Barbara Castle “thought many of them were protected by certain editors of the nationals,” Don Hale told #CSAinquiry.

9. Don Hale told #CSAinquiry that he called Jeremy Thorpe about the secret meetings.

“The next day, Cyril Smith… turned up unexpectedly at my office… he stormed in, he was swearing and f'ing and blinding… he was absolutely breathing fire. I thought he was going to hit me.”

10. Cyril Smith “was determined that I shouldn’t publish a story about this. He wanted me to hand over everything to him there and then, which I refused to do. He got very, very aggressive.”

Don Hale to #CSAinquiry on obtaining those leaked minutes of meetings in Parliament.

11. “Then we had an early-morning raid by Special Branch… a gang of about 15 policemen came charging in,” Don Hale told #CSAinquiry.

They threatened him with jail, claiming that to publish was “potentially perverting the course of justice… a threat to national security.”

12. Don Hale to #CSAinquiry on Special Branch and those parliamentary meetings linked to pro-paedophile group PIE and the campaign to lower age of consent: “They came determined to confiscate those documents. And I was pushed and shoved until I agreed to release them.”

13. Barbara Castle told Don Hale that Special Branch were sometimes following her because of her interest in secret parliamentary group linked to PIE, #CSAinquiry heard.

“She believed she was under surveillance.”

Clearly, Barbara Castle was a threat to national security, too.

14. Counsel to #CSAinquiry – after soft-balling corporate witnesses for IOPC and Met earlier in the week – questioned Don Hale @perryscope21 like a chippy hack prosecutor cross-examining a scruffy ne’er-do-well in the dock of some provincial criminal court...

15. After Special Branch seized file, counsel to #CSAinquiry asked Don Hale that all-important question that was on the tip of ALL of our tongues…

“Did you ask for a receipt?”

A: “No.”

Q. “Why not?”

A: “I don't know. With hindsight, there’s a lot of things I wish I’d done.”

16. Neither counsel to #CSAinquiry – nor any panel member – thought to ask Don Hale whether Special Branch might have been, er, bluffing when they told him that they had a D-Notice.

One can understand why he might not have challenged them at the time. Or asked for a receipt.

17. In 1987, News of the World called Don Hale, he told #CSAinquiry, re “secret meetings being headed by Leon Brittan”, that “people in power” wanted to lower age of consent.

“They were determined to run a story… I thought… maybe… a story would appear, and it never did.”

18. Again, #CSAinquiry initially omitted to adduce Don Hale’s statement, but did adduce three police statements even though he disputed their accuracy.

Inquiry even managed to adduce Tom O’Carroll’s statement along the way, despite not doing same for Don Hale’s statement.

19. Amid increasing protests from some core participants about inconsistent decisions on which written statements are adduced, and well after Don Hale finished giving evidence, his two written statements to inquiry were finally adduced.

20. Don Hale let rip at #CSAinquiry about IOPC-managed report that dismissed his claims. “I have dealt with the likes of IPCC and, before them, CIB2, who work in this way.

“It's the same MO. No matter what they call themselves now… they are trying to discredit my evidence.”

21. Don Hale told #CSAinquiry that IOPC-managed report on his claims “is absolutely riddled with errors, inaccuracies and incorrect information…”

“It omits a lot of crucial information… It says it is a managed report, but clearly, it is mis-managed… totally ridiculous.”

22. We then heard from Brigadier Geoffrey Dodds, ‘D-Notice’ committee secretary.

In summary, he told #CSAinquiry that all is fine and upstanding.

And it always has been.

Jolly good show.

Westminster hearings resume on Monday. First of two days for Peter Morrison MP.

Erm, not in person, you understand.

Not so much *for* Peter Morrison MP, as *about* Peter Morrison MP.

Westminster hearings resume at #CSAinquiry on Monday. Wednesday is Cyril Smith day, Thursday for the Green party and Friday is for old whips. Bg: foiacentre.com/news-CSA-inqui…