Victim ‘dug his own grave’ on country estate ahead of Peter Righton’s gruesome attack
By Tim Wood | 26 February 2015
Andrew was lying on the ground between a pick-up truck and a car when Darren arrived at a bizarre scene at Thornham Magna country estate.
Darren, not his real name, had been ordered to go to a parking area on the estate in Suffolk. He was a 15-year-old lad in care who was sent to the secluded estate for work experience.
Andrew was a Down’s syndrome sufferer, aged in his 30’s, according to Darren. Andrew had annoyed Peter Righton, the paedophile who supplied boys to politicians and other prominent people and who had the run of the estate.
Dressed in his work shorts and T-shirt, Andrew was between the two vehicles, which were facing each other.
Darren recalled: “Peter told me to secure his [Andrew’s] hands to the front of the car.” Righton also told Darren to tie Andrew’s feet to the tow-bar connection point on the front of the pick-up truck.
“Peter ordered me to tie Andrew face-up to the front of each vehicle.”
“I was given duct-tape to wrap around his wrists and ankles. There were some lengths of blue, marine-type rope, which I attached to the front of the two vehicles, and secured them to his legs and wrists.”
“Andrew was saying, no, but he was not struggling. I think that he was too frightened.
Righton sat in the driver’s seat of the pick-up, and started the engine, while someone else did the same in the car opposite.
Darren said: “Both vehicles then slowly reversed, and I heard a scream. I think that he must have passed out because he made no more sound.”
Afterwards, one of Righton’s associates approached Darren. “He gave me a huge clap on the back, as if I had done well, and a Rothmans cigarette, which in those days was very prized amongst those working on the estate because it was seen as an upmarket brand.
“He was obviously pleased with me. I do not know for sure whether Andrew was killed. But he had been a regular fixture on the estate, and that was the last I saw of him.”
“Two days later, I walked past the place where we had dug four of the graves, and they were filled in. I never saw Andrew again. I believe that he was murdered and put in one of those graves.”
Andrew had helped Darren dig six graves – four in a field, and another two in some woods on the estate – shortly before the horrifying attack.
Darren first gave an account to Exaro of what Righton did to Andrew in August last year.
In January, Exaro revealed how Darren is one of three witnesses who have testified to child sex abuse by MPs and other prominent people at Dolphin Square, the apartment complex near Parliament where many politicians have their London homes.
Righton, who had been regarded as one of Britain’s leading specialists in child care, was a founder of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), which promoted sex with children. He was fined £900 in 1992 for possession of obscene images of children.
He was 17 at the time of his abuse at Dolphin Square in 1993, then below the age of consent, although not today.
In any event, he says that he did not consent to the sexual attacks. In an anonymous video interview with Exaro, Darren urged police to arrest the MPs and VIPs who sexually attacked children at Dolphin Square.
Darren named Lord Brittan, former home secretary, as one of his abusers. Brittan was under investigation by Scotland Yard’s paedophile unit at the time of his death.
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