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Elm Guest House hoax
The Elm Guest House was a hotel in Rocks Lane, near Barnes Common in southwest London. In a list produced by convicted fraudster Chris Fay, several prominent British men were alleged to have engaged in sexual abuse and child grooming at the Guest House in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Labour MP Tom Watson, having heard testimony from Carl Beech, suggested in an October 2012 statement to the House of Commons that a paedophile network which had existed at this time may have brought children to parties at the private residence.
During 2014 and 2015, allegations against several leading politicians of the period, mostly now deceased, were made public in the British press. Many of these claims were examined and discredited in an October 2015 episode of the BBC current affairs television programme, Panorama.
The role of the guest house became the subject of a Metropolitan Police Service investigation known as Operation Fairbank in late 2012. The purpose of this "scoping exercise" was to assess Watson's claims. As a result of allegations arising from Operation Fairbank, a full criminal investigation called Operation Fernbridge was launched in February 2013. No evidence of abuse connected to the Elm Guest House was uncovered, and the operation was closed in March 2015. Another investigation, Operation Midland, was set up to examine claims of possible murders. A subsequent inquiry found that those investigated by Operation Midland had been victims of false allegations. In November 2016, the then-Metropolitan Police commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, made a personal apology to the innocent parties involved. In May 2019, Beech, who was himself found to be a child sex offender, was placed on trial, charged with perverting the course of justice and fraud, which he denied. Beech was found guilty and sentenced to 18 years in jail in July 2019.
The three-storey Elm Guest House was in Rocks Lane, close to Barnes Common in southwest London. It had eight guest rooms, and its facilities included a sauna, solarium and video studio. The Edwardian house has since been converted into two-bedroom apartments, and the current occupants are not connected to the allegations.
In the 1970s, Elm Guest House owners Haroon and Carole Kasir allowed male prostitutes to take their clients to the establishment. A party was raided by the police in 1982 and the Kasirs were charged with running a disorderly house. The identities of the men who attended the party are not known and have been the subject of much speculation in subsequent years. By 2012, The Independent described the house as a "conspiracy theorist's dream".
Carole Kasir died in 1990 at the age of 47; an inquest found that the cause of death was suicide due to an overdose of insulin.
In 1990, according to journalist James Hanning, Chris Fay, a Labour councillor, convicted fraudster and a campaigner for the National Association of Young People in Care, claimed on oath that former Home Secretary Leon Brittan had been involved in abuse and that in March 1990 he had seen a photograph of Brittan with a young boy. He said the picture had been shown to him by Carole Kasir, co-owner of the Elm Guest House, who died weeks later. Fay alleged that children from the Grafton Close Children's Home in Richmond, southwest London, had told him they had been trafficked to Elm Guest House. He drew up a list of public figures that he said victims had told him had stayed at the Elm Guest House.
The list included former government ministers, senior MPs, top police officers, judges, pop music stars, and people with links to the Royal Households. It was uploaded to the internet.
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Elm Guest House hoax
The Elm Guest House was a hotel in Rocks Lane, near Barnes Common in southwest London. In a list produced by convicted fraudster Chris Fay, several prominent British men were alleged to have engaged in sexual abuse and child grooming at the Guest House in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Labour MP Tom Watson, having heard testimony from Carl Beech, suggested in an October 2012 statement to the House of Commons that a paedophile network which had existed at this time may have brought children to parties at the private residence.
During 2014 and 2015, allegations against several leading politicians of the period, mostly now deceased, were made public in the British press. Many of these claims were examined and discredited in an October 2015 episode of the BBC current affairs television programme, Panorama.
The role of the guest house became the subject of a Metropolitan Police Service investigation known as Operation Fairbank in late 2012. The purpose of this "scoping exercise" was to assess Watson's claims. As a result of allegations arising from Operation Fairbank, a full criminal investigation called Operation Fernbridge was launched in February 2013. No evidence of abuse connected to the Elm Guest House was uncovered, and the operation was closed in March 2015. Another investigation, Operation Midland, was set up to examine claims of possible murders. A subsequent inquiry found that those investigated by Operation Midland had been victims of false allegations. In November 2016, the then-Metropolitan Police commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, made a personal apology to the innocent parties involved. In May 2019, Beech, who was himself found to be a child sex offender, was placed on trial, charged with perverting the course of justice and fraud, which he denied. Beech was found guilty and sentenced to 18 years in jail in July 2019.
The three-storey Elm Guest House was in Rocks Lane, close to Barnes Common in southwest London. It had eight guest rooms, and its facilities included a sauna, solarium and video studio. The Edwardian house has since been converted into two-bedroom apartments, and the current occupants are not connected to the allegations.
In the 1970s, Elm Guest House owners Haroon and Carole Kasir allowed male prostitutes to take their clients to the establishment. A party was raided by the police in 1982 and the Kasirs were charged with running a disorderly house. The identities of the men who attended the party are not known and have been the subject of much speculation in subsequent years. By 2012, The Independent described the house as a "conspiracy theorist's dream".
Carole Kasir died in 1990 at the age of 47; an inquest found that the cause of death was suicide due to an overdose of insulin.
In 1990, according to journalist James Hanning, Chris Fay, a Labour councillor, convicted fraudster and a campaigner for the National Association of Young People in Care, claimed on oath that former Home Secretary Leon Brittan had been involved in abuse and that in March 1990 he had seen a photograph of Brittan with a young boy. He said the picture had been shown to him by Carole Kasir, co-owner of the Elm Guest House, who died weeks later. Fay alleged that children from the Grafton Close Children's Home in Richmond, southwest London, had told him they had been trafficked to Elm Guest House. He drew up a list of public figures that he said victims had told him had stayed at the Elm Guest House.
The list included former government ministers, senior MPs, top police officers, judges, pop music stars, and people with links to the Royal Households. It was uploaded to the internet.