NYP Officers Child-Abuse Investigations: Pt. 5

NYP Officers (Child-abuse Pt. 5): Update on OPERATIONS MAGNOLIA & MANUKA

by TIM HICKS

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Introduction: NYP Custody Scandal

Recently, the NYE has run a series of articles covering sexual offences committed by North Yorkshire Police (NYP) Custody Officers against female detainees and possibly children at one or more NYP Custody Suites. Since the NYE started raising this issue, reports by Dame Vera Baird KC into Greater Manchester Police (article here: NYP Custody Scandal. Baird Report vindicates NYE and by Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza (article here: NYP Custody Scandal. de Souza Report vindicates NYE) have independently raised similar concerns.

However, despite knowing about this issue since 2022, no NYP Chief Officer or the Deputy Mayor for York and North Yorkshire, Jo Cox, who is responsible for holding the North Yorkshire Police to account, will comment on these issues.

Predictably, none of the mainstream media outlets in North Yorkshire are covering this issue either, so it appears that no action has been taken to address them.

The inevitable consequence of this is that it essentially gives custody officers from NYP a free hand to carry on abusing, should they be that way inclined and choose to do so.

The NYE will continue to raise this issue.

Introduction: The Kirklevington Detention Centre and Throxenby Hall Scandals

The NYE has also been covering the horrific sexual, physical and emotional abuse of children at Kirklevington Detention Centre (KDC) in North Yorkshire by Prison Officers and civilian staff. Cleveland Police is running an investigation into these offences.

It is also investigating allegations that Officers from NYP, Cleveland Police and four other Police Forces witnessed the abuse at KDC while escorting prisoners there from court, but did nothing to intervene or prevent it. Both investigations are codenamed OPERATION MAGNOLIA.

The NYE has also been covering the horrific sexual, physical and emotional abuse of children at Throxenby Hall in Scarborough by Council Residential Care Officers since 2019. It is alleged that the paedophile ring there, was protected by the Council’s Social Workers.

North Yorkshire Police is the force that is responsible for investigating the abuse at Throxenby Hall, which is code named OPERATION MANUKA.

The BIG Silence: Update on the KDC and Throxenby Hall investigations.

Continuing the NYE’s relentless exposure of sexual abuse of children in North Yorkshire, we are now able to provide an update on the twin shambles that Operation Magnolia and Operation Manuka have become.

Chief Constable Forber of NYP is refusing to comment on the Throxenby Hall investigation Operation Manuka. As is Deputy Mayor for York and North Yorkshire Cox, who is responsible for holding NYP to account for this failure to investigate or comment, but does not.

Cleveland Police is the Force responsible for investigating the abuse at Kirklevington Detention Centre. Chief Constable Webster of Cleveland Police is also refusing to comment on Operation Magnolia.

It is alleged that Police Officers from the North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Northumbria, Cleveland, Durham and Lancashire forces were involved in the abuse at Kirklevington Detention Centre, Northern Echo article here. Clearly an alarming allegation and you would think one that would cause grave concern amongst these forces.

However, in addition to Chief Constable Forber of NYP and Chief Constable Webster of Cleveland; Chief Constable Robins of WYP, Chief Constable Hatchett of Lancashire Police, Chief Constable Jardine of Northumbria Police and Chief Constable Rachel Bacon of Durham Constabulary (pictured in the lead illustration) are also refusing to respond to media enquiries from the NYE on Operation Magnolia.

Commissioner Storey of Cleveland Police, Commissioner Dungworth of Northumbria Police, Deputy Mayor Lowe of West Yorkshire Police and Commissioner Grunshaw of Lancashire Police are the officials responsible for holding the police from these forces to account. Despicably, they are also refusing to comment. Essentially, they are blindly backing up their respective Chief Constables. The only exception was Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Durham Joy Allen, who provided this comment for the NYE’s readers:

“Having established that this is an ongoing police investigation, and that primacy of this investigation does not rest with Durham Constabulary, it will not be appropriate for PCC Joy Allen to comment.”

I can only describe PCC Allen’s response as an irresponsible and despicable buck-pass. PCC Allen knows that the investigation is stalled and Cleveland Police is refusing to comment or take action to ensure that any Officers from her Force that have been involved in abusing children in North Yorkshire are held to account for it.

So the NYE’s investigation into police corruption at KDC and Throxenby Hall has faced exactly the same response from the Police as their refusal to investigate the NYE’s original exposure of Peter Jaconelli and Jimmy Savile in 2012.

However, as our readers would expect, the NYE’s investigation has continued undeterred. I can report that there has been a major and ominous development in the Throxenby Hall investigation. Predictably, this has not been developed by the Police, with all their powers and access to sophisticated policing and surveillance techniques. It has been generated by the the NYE’s chief reporter Nigel Ward, who lived in the area at the time of these crimes. Nigel has confirmed:

“A number of men who were formerly pupils at Throxenby Hall came forward to me when the NYE exposed Jaconelli in 2012 and confirmed to me that Peter Jaconelli regularly visited Throxenby Hall and took boys into Scarborough.

The allegations of sexual abuse against him were widespread and it was well-known in Scarborough at the time that he was a serial abuser of boys. I have no doubt that he was visiting Throxenby Hall for this purpose and that North Yorkshire Council and North Yorkshire Police were fully aware of this.”

In short, boys from Throxenby Hall were being trafficked to Peter Jaconelli. His ring in Scarborough included Jimmy Savile and it must be a concern that they may have been trafficked on to Savile as well.

Many readers will, I feel, conclude that following the convictions of PC Couzens for rape, kidnapping and murder and serial rapist PC Carrick, who were both protected by the Police, the similar failure of NYP and Cleveland Police to investigate Police Officers for abusing children are further examples of why public confidence in the Police is at an all-time low.

Coming next: The role of North Yorkshire Council in the Throxenby Hall scandal.

NYE Appeal for Information

If you have had a bad experience of being strip searched, or if you were badly treated in an NYP Custody Suite, at Throxenby Hall, or at Kirklevington Detention Centre, please let the NYE know in complete confidence using the letters@nyenquirer.uk email address.

The NYE would particularly like to hear from:

• Anyone who knew Martin Mennell, who drowned in the Throxenby Hall swimming pool.
• Anyone who knew Graham Atkinson, who was a pupil at Throxenby Hall, who died on the 23^rd of November 1975.

Right of Reply

If you are mentioned in this article and do not agree with the views expressed in it, or if you wish to correct any factual inaccuracy, please let me know using the letters@nyenquirer.uk email address and your views and a correction will be published if appropriate.