Watchdog to investigate UK police over child abuse failures

By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - The watchdog which oversees British police said it had launched an investigation into allegations London police chiefs dropped inquiries into child sex abuse claims because they involved politicians and high profile figures. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it would examine allegations police suppressed evidence, hindered investigations into paedophile rings and covered up crimes because they involved lawmakers (MPs) and police officers. London's Metropolitan Police are themselves currently investigating allegations of sex crimes involving powerful establishment figures from the 1970s and 1980s, including claims that three young boys had been murdered. However, the IPCC will be looking at why detectives failed to act between 1970 and 2005 after victims and some former officers came forward to say inquiries had been either dropped or accusations ignored. "These allegations are of historic, high level corruption of the most serious nature," said IPCC Deputy Chairman Sarah Green. "Allegations of this nature are of grave concern and I would like to reassure people of our absolute commitment to ensuring that the investigations are thorough and robust." The IPCC said among the 14 allegations was a claim an investigation targeting young men in Dolphin Square, a central London block of flats close to parliament, had been dropped "because officers were too near prominent people". Another said a document was "found at an address of a paedophile that originated from the Houses of Parliament listing a number of highly prominent individuals (MPs and senior police officers) as being involved in a paedophile ring and no further action was taken". A further accusation was that a senior officer halted an inquiry after an order came from "up high". The Metropolitan Police said it had voluntarily referred the corruption allegations to the IPCC and said it was committed to investigating claims of historical sex abuse. The British government has ordered a major inquiry into decades of child abuse and whether powerful figures covered it up, following a series of shocking scandals. These included revelations that late BBC presenter Jimmy Savile abused hundreds of victims for decades, accusations about Cyril Smith, a former lawmaker in northwest England who died in 2010, and the disclosure some 1,400 children were abused in Rotherham, northern England. Earlier this month Harvey Proctor, a parliamentarian in the 1980s, said his home had been searched by police but added he had "not been part of any rent boy ring with cabinet ministers, other members of parliament, generals or the military." (Editing by Dominic Evans)