State secrecy? Govt media adviser denies D-notices suppressed child abuse claims

The chairman of a committee that oversees Britain’s media blackout system has denied claims that state orders were given to withhold child abuse allegations against the late MP Cyril Smith MP.

TagsChildren, Crime, Police, Politics, Scandal, UK

In his first interview as Chairman of the Defense and Security Media Advisory Committee, Air Vice-Marshal Andrew Vallance said police may have handed fake gagging orders, known as D-notices, to a number of news outlets.

The government D-notices are issued to news editors, demanding they withhold information from the public on national security grounds.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today program, Valance said “not a shred of evidence” exists that authorized D-notices were issued.

Don Hale, former editor of the Bury Messenger, claims he obtained a cache of files in the early 1980s regarding a group of elite political figures who seemed sympathetic to notorious pro-pedophile group The Pedophile Information Exchange (PIE).

Among these high-profile figures was the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith.