Detectives hear horrific account from key witness of child sex abuse at Dolphin Square
By Mark Conrad, Mark Watts and Alex Varley-Winter | 1 November 2014
“Nasty, cruel, sadistic and hateful.” That was how “Nick” described the former Conservative cabinet minister who he says sexually abused him at Dolphin Square.
The ex-minister treated boys with “complete contempt”, sexually abusing him “probably every time I was there”, he said. “He would treat me like I was not even human.”
As he recalled horrific details of sexual abuse at Dolphin Square, a block of luxury apartments near Westminster, Nick also spoke of how a second ex-MP was especially violent towards boys. The MP liked to cut boys with a knife.
“We never spoke back to them, or attempted to fight them off. You could not. They would punish you all the more for it.” Asked how he knew who they were, he said: “They were so powerful that they were often blasé about their identities.”
“Nick”, as he is known to protect his identity, is a key witness at the centre of a new investigation by the Metropolitan Police Service’s paedophile unit into historical allegations that MPs and other VIPs sexually abused children at Dolphin Square.
Exaro’s report in July on “abuse parties” at Dolphin Square for MPs and other VIPs led the police to launch the fresh line of enquiry.
Nick agreed to talk to the Met after he and a separate witness gave accounts to Exaro of how MPs and others prominent people sexually assaulted them at Dolphin Square and elsewhere.
Many features of their accounts are remarkably similar. They may have met as boys, as they were trafficked around the VIP party-circuit in London to be sexually abused. A key venue for “abuse parties” were apartments at Dolphin Square, which is known for the intrigue that surrounds the complex.
Nick identified two former Conservative MPs – including an ex-cabinet minister – among several prominent people who he says sexually abused him and other boys at locations that included Dolphin Square.
He has given Exaro – and detectives – fuller details about what he says took place at Dolphin Square.
“Some were quite open about who they were. Some were not. Very powerful individuals. Some very nasty individuals. Just with one thing on their mind,” he said.
“You got to know them over a number of years. Some, I knew very well at the time, but did not know exactly who they were or what they did, and it is later on that I have been able to put names to faces.”
“It usually followed a similar type of pattern. So we, all the boys, would be asked to do various things or perform, or follow their orders, do whatever they wanted us to do. Then, there might be a break.
“And then, there would be more private time, as they call it – one-to-one time.”
He said that the ex-minister sexually abused him on “more than a dozen” occasions over a few years. The ex-minister told him his first name, although only after a year of knowing him. “It was only later in my adult life that I then knew who it was.”
The senior politician would slap him before and during abuse, said Nick, although he was “not as forceful” as some others.
Nick said that he saw the ex-minister abuse other boys, probably more than a dozen times: “I think, most of my friends.”
According to Nick, the ex-minister encouraged other abusers to cut boys. The ex-minister watched others cut boys, but not do it himself. The second ex-MP did cut boys: “Do it himself… no hesitation.”
Nick said that both politicians were among those who raped him over a filled bath, while holding his head beneath the water.
“I and other boys lived through it. It was part of my life for a long time. Unfortunately, these things occur across society. It knows no bounds, it crosses all social and community groups, and I and others lived through it. It was our world at the time.”
“I hope that they will start making arrests.”
Unlike many, Nick is a survivor of child sex abuse who has gone on to have a successful life.
Last week, Exaro revealed how the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, described child sex abuse as “rampant” in UK institutions, including the Church of England.
Related Stories: Child sex abuse, ‘Fernbridge’ and ‘Fairbank’: Exaro story thread
