Home Secretary Theresa May will make a statement to parliament on Tuesday about how claims of child abuse at care homes in north Wales were handled by police.
Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday ordered an urgent probe into the way the claims dating back to the 1970s and 1980s were dealt with after allegations that a senior politician was involved.
The initial inquiry conducted by former High Court judge Sir Ronald Waterhouse in the 1990s reported its findings in 2000.
“Given the nature of these concerns, given the background, given the appalling nature of child abuse, we need to look very carefully to make sure that what was done in the past did indeed cover everything it needed to do, and was done properly,” May told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“I will obviously be making a statement in the House today about how support will be able to be given to North Wales Police in terms of looking at the police investigation.”
Cameron announced the new investigation after a BBC report said an unnamed leading Conservative politician from Margaret Thatcher’s time as prime minister, from 1979 to 1990, was involved in the abuse.
“Child abuse is an absolutely hateful and abhorrent crime and these allegations are truly dreadful and they mustn’t be left hanging in the air. So I am taking action today,” Cameron, the current leader of the Conservatives, said during a trip to Abu Dhabi.
Cameron added that he was arranging for Steve Messham, a victim of the scandal who made the claims about the unnamed Conservative party figure, to meet with Secretary of State for Wales David Jones.
The BBC programme that aired the claims about the Tory politician, Newsnight, has itself been embroiled in a row over whether it covered up claims that late television star Jimmy Savile was a serial child molester.
Meesham told Newsnight he was abused by the politician more than a dozen times during the late 1970s.
The unidentified politician told The Daily Telegraph newspaper that the allegations were “totally untrue” and threatened legal action if his name appeared in the story.
May to update parliament on care home abuse probe
