Over 1400 suspects in UK sex abuse case

More than 1400 suspects have been identified in a UK investigation into past child sex abuse.

A national UK police group looking into potential links between multiple British investigations into past child sex abuse say more than 1400 suspects have been identified.

The National Police Chiefs' Council, which coordinates separate abuse allegations across Britain, said on Wednesday 261 suspects were "people of public prominence".

They included 76 politicians, 135 people from TV, film or radio, and 43 from the music industry.

Most of the others were said to be offenders who operated inside schools, children's homes and religious bodies.

Of the total, 216 are dead.

Norfolk Chief Constable Simon Bailey said the referrals were "increasing on an almost-daily basis".

He added that revelations about the scale of abuse by late children's entertainer and charity fundraiser Jimmy Savile "no doubt" had an impact on the unprecedented number of allegations.

Britons were horrified to learn after Savile's death in 2011 that he had been a serial predator, abusing children in places including hospitals for decades.

Other well-known figures have since been investigated for or convicted of using their positions to get away with abuse.

Home Secretary Theresa May said it was almost certain more allegations are to come.

An official inquiry is underway looking into whether British public agencies had neglected or covered up abuse allegations from the 1970s.

Another victim, BAQ, said then Father Pell and Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns must have known about the abuse at the Christian Brothers-run St Alipius primary school.

"If children from other totally separate primary schools in the area knew what was going on at St Alipius, I cannot accept that Bishop Mulkearns or Father Pell didn't know what was happening.

"It is inconceivable that they didn't know," he told the commission.

He said in particular he could not accept that Bishop Mulkearns did not know about the abuse by Brother Gerald Leo Fitzgerald.

"I can't accept that he was not told about Brother Fitzgerald's abuse when Brother Fitzgerald would have abused almost every boy that came through his class at St Alipius for years."


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Source: AAP



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