57 lines
No EOL
11 KiB
Markdown
57 lines
No EOL
11 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
tags:
|
|
- Organization
|
|
- ChildTrafficking
|
|
- Brothel
|
|
- UK
|
|
- 1980s
|
|
- VIPNetwork
|
|
- PoliticalConnections
|
|
- SpartacusConnection
|
|
category: "Private Organization"
|
|
summary: "Barnes guest house run by Haroon and Carole Kasir, raided on June 19, 1982; the inquiry into child sexual abuse found one child victim evidenced and no VIP identified."
|
|
location: "London, United Kingdom"
|
|
updated: 2026-09-22
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
The Elm Guest House was a suburban brothel operating near central London in the early 1980s that served as a front for an international child trafficking network connected to powerful political and business figures. The establishment, run by German couple [[Haroon Kasir]] and [[Carole Kasir]], displayed a sign reading "Spartacus, Club - Welcome" and was part of the broader [[Spartacus International]] network operated by [[John Stamford]].[^1]
|
|
|
|
### The Raid and the Inquiry Findings
|
|
|
|
Elm Guest House, in Rocks Lane, Barnes, south-west London, was run by Haroon and Carole Kasir and advertised as a gay guest house. It came to police notice late in 1981, when someone reported concerns about a 10-year-old boy there to Richmond police station; after a surveillance operation in which two undercover officers entered the house posing as members of the public, the police raided it on the night of June 19, 1982, and arrested twenty people, including the Kasirs. In April 1983 the Kasirs were convicted of running a disorderly house and each sentenced to nine months' imprisonment, suspended for two years, and fined 1,000 pounds. None of the guests was convicted of any offense.[^2][^3]
|
|
|
|
Giving evidence to the [[Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse]], Commander Neil Jerome of the [[Metropolitan Police]] said that the investigation had found evidence of sexual abuse of a single child at the house, the 10-year-old boy, whose account and a medical examination showed extensive abuse, and no evidence that other children had been abused, and that "no individuals of prominence" had been seen there during the surveillance or found there in the raid. A social worker, Andrew Keir, alleged that on the night of the raid the boy had named one of his abusers as "Uncle Leon," who might have been a politician from "the big house," and that the detail had been left out of the interview notes; the Independent Office for Police Conduct found "no substance … at all" to the allegation. Another investigation, Operation Yvonne, examined allegations by a man who had been a 17-year-old masseur at the house that undercover officers had sex with him before the raid and that he was abused in custody, and found no evidence to support them. Jerome called the "Elm Guest House list" of VIP visitors, promoted by Chris Fay and Mary Moss, of "zero evidential value" and its creation "certainly dubious," and noted Fay's conviction for money laundering.[^3]
|
|
|
|
Carole Kasir was found dead in June 1990; the inquest ruled her death a suicide. At the inquest Fay, of the National Association of Young People in Care, said Kasir had told him boys were trafficked from Grafton Close Children's Home and abused by VIPs at the guest house, and he repeated the allegation in a [[BBC]] *Panorama* program in 2015. The inquiry recorded that no politician or VIP was ever identified as having been involved.[^2]
|
|
|
|
### Allegations
|
|
|
|
In June 1982, Metropolitan Police raided the Elm Guest House following an investigation into illegal brothel operations. The raid revealed that visitors were provided with a price-listed menu of sex to indulge in with boys as young as ten. Twenty-three men were said to have been detained on the premises, which contained bedroom suites festooned with whips, chains, and ropes, along with communal areas including a lounge bar, spa and sauna facility, and a screening room for pornography. According to police sources, three of the guests were parliamentary ministers, while a fourth was a member of the Queen's royal staff. Metropolitan Police had been expected to reopen files on the murder of one boy and the disappearance of another in their investigation into a VIP homosexual vice network in London.[^1]
|
|
|
|
All reporting on the matter was subsequently denied in official statements. While a Scotland Yard official initially described it as just a routine investigation into a brothel, sources close to the investigation claimed the top brass had ordered everything to be played down and that every attempt was being made to ensure the names of VIPs using the place did not leak out. The [[The Sunday Times|Sunday Times]] reported that Scotland Yard denied claims of a security risk, stating that Special Branch was not taking part in inquiries. The men detained were released without charge, and reporting on the matter soon ceased, possibly upon intervention by Attorney General [[Michael Havers]].[^1]
|
|
|
|
The owners, Haroon and Carole Kasir, were charged for keeping a disorderly house and possession of child pornography. However, the child pornography charge was dropped in 1983 after seven hours of video footage seized from the premises was ruled inadmissible. By agreement with defense lawyers, the prosecution slashed eight hours of videos to just 45 minutes, and the judge made an order forbidding the press to identify the child in the case.[^1]
|
|
|
|
### VIP Network and Political Connections
|
|
|
|
In 1983, Tory MP [[Geoffrey Dickens]] handed Home Secretary [[Leon Brittan]] a dossier on members of parliament and the Queen's royal staff alleged to have been part of a VIP pedophile ring with ties to the [[Pedophile Information Exchange]] (PIE). Dickens compiled a list of names and planned to disclose them in Parliament, stating that the Scotland Yard report contained names of top people in public life and show business. Shortly after handing over the dossier, Dickens began receiving death threats and his home was burglarized multiple times. His name and personal details were found in a notebook belonging to fugitive [[Arthur Hutchinson]], wanted for triple homicide, leading to a security detail being placed on Dickens.[^1]
|
|
|
|
The circumstances surrounding the Elm Guest House resurfaced in 1990 during an inquest into the death of former owner Carole Kasir, who died from an insulin overdose. Social worker [[Mary Moss]] testified that Kasir had approached her in 1989 with evidence that boys from [[Grafton Close Children's Home]] were supplied as prostitutes to VIP guests of the Elm Guest House in the early 1980s. According to Moss, the home, run by Richmond Council, supplied boys under age 14 to the gay guest house frequented by top MPs and judges. Kasir had been involved with a group of child pornographers linked to the foster home's management and was in fear for her life before her death.[^1]
|
|
|
|
During the 1990 inquest, Mary Moss and [[Christopher Fay]] claimed Kasir was murdered over evidence she kept on the Elm Guest House's VIP clientele. Fay testified Kasir had shown him a photograph of a former Tory Cabinet minister in a sauna with naked boys, and that a bishop, high court judge, social services director, and top businessman were among those captured on video at the hotel. The cabinet minister was identified as Leon Brittan, the same Home Secretary who received Geoffrey Dickens' dossier. Another parliamentary minister named was [[Cyril Smith]], who was posthumously exposed as a serial violent sexual abuser of boys in 2013 and was said to have been a frequent visitor to the Elm Guest House.[^1]
|
|
|
|
### Government Connections and Later Investigations
|
|
|
|
In 1992, social services director [[Peter Righton]], the top UK government adviser on child protection services, was arrested after customs officials intercepted child pornography addressed to him from Amsterdam. Righton was a member of the Pedophile Information Exchange named in the VIP pedophile dossier from 1983. He was questioned in connection with indecent assaults on children in the London area as part of a nationwide inquiry following the closure of New Barns, a school for emotionally disturbed children in Gloucestershire. Righton held a senior post with the [[National Children's Bureau]] and was a respected figure in the child care field.[^1]
|
|
|
|
According to information leaked by Mary Moss in 2013, Carole Kasir had stated that two men named [[Terry Dwyer]] and [[John Rowe]] persuaded her to renovate her townhouse into a spa and sauna facility for members of Club Spartacus in 1979. She was put in touch with [[Peter Glencross]], a close associate of John Stamford who acted as the commercial agent for Spartacus International. The Elm Guest House displayed a Club Spartacus sign, and letter correspondence from Spartacus International addressed to the Elm Guest House from 1981 exists as evidence of this connection.[^1]
|
|
|
|
In October 2012, Labour MP [[Tom Watson]] asked Prime Minister [[David Cameron]] to investigate evidence of a powerful pedophile network linked to parliament and No. 10. This was followed in November by accusations against Cyril Smith by MP [[Simon Danczuk]]. These statements, made in the wake of the [[Jimmy Savile]] scandal, led to a Metropolitan police investigation into historical allegations of child abuse by a VIP pedophile ring allegedly made up of high-ranking government officials who frequented the Elm Guest House in the early 1980s.[^1]
|
|
|
|
In an ITV interview, Mary Moss stated that the Elm Guest House had been used to make child pornography, describing it as a child porn racket and a money-making business. She recounted cases of boys who were abused at Grafton Close children's home and procured for the Elm Guest House where they were filmed to make child porn that was then distributed. This testimony aligned with the extensive video equipment and screening room discovered during the 1982 police raid.[^1]
|
|
|
|
### Footnotes
|
|
|
|
[^1]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited. It gives twenty-three men detained where the inquiry gives twenty people arrested including the Kasirs, and describes Cyril Smith as confirmed as a visitor, where the inquiry found no politician or VIP identified.
|
|
[^2]: Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. *Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse Linked to Westminster: Investigation Report,* February 2020, Part B.3, "The 1980s," paras. 9-12. https://web.archive.org/web/2021/https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/investigation/westminster/part-b-allegations-child-sexual-abuse-linked-westminster/b3-1980s.html
|
|
[^3]: Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. *Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse Linked to Westminster,* February 2020, Part D.7, "Allegations connected to Elm Guest House," paras. 70-74. https://web.archive.org/web/2021/https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/investigation/westminster/part-d-police-responses-allegations-westminster-child-sexual-abuse/d7-allegations-connected-elm-guest-house.html |