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POWERFUL people tried to cover up a suspected children’s home abuse ring said to involve a Labour minister and a convicted paedophile, it was claimed yesterday.

A 16-month investigation has revealed that former residents at the London home told detectives a group of paedophiles attacked children there.

But soon after a former social services manager told police about the politician’s alleged evening visits in the early 1980s, the Met’s inquiry was suddenly halted.

And experienced detective Clive Driscoll, who had been heading it, was moved to other duties.

Yesterday, two former social services employees involved in the case claimed there appeared to have been a cover-up when Driscoll was removed.

One – the former manager who alerted police in 1998 – said: “One wonders why Scotland Yard would be so desperate to stop it being investigated.

“I believe it was stopped because somebody in power was trying to prevent any further investigation into the politician and his possible involvement in unlawful activity.”

And Dr Nigel Goldie, a council boss in charge of child protection in Lambeth in 1998, said: “There were some allegations that children were being abused by one or two prominent persons.

“There were a lot of very senior people trying to put a lid on it. There could well have been good reason for it (Driscoll’s investigation) being ended but the manner in which it was done suggests some form of cover-up.”

An internal Lambeth Council memo shows there was an intention to brief then health secretary Frank Dobson about the police investigation into the Angell Road home in Brixton, south London.

But Dobson says that he does not remember being briefed and was never told a minister in Tony Blair’s government was suspected of child abuse.

Both Goldie and the former manager have called for an independent inquiry into their suspicions that the minister was protected by the establishment.

The former manager said that in the early 80s, she saw the politician visiting Michael John Carroll, who ran the home.

She claims council officials failed to take action over her suspicions that Carroll was at the centre of a paedophile ring.

Carroll was finally arrested in 1998 over child sex attacks – including some at Angell Road – dating back three decades. He was jailed for 10 years.

He was allowed to run the home until 1991 despite the council learning in 1986 that he was convicted of abusing a 12-year-old boy at a Merseyside home in 1966.

Goldie, who was assistant director of social services at Lambeth, began helping Driscoll, an experienced detective inspector, to investigate allegations of abuse in 1998.

But Driscoll was suddenly taken off the case and the inquiry was taken over by a team selected by Department of Health officials, Scotland Yard chiefs and Lambeth Council.

Goldie said: “Clive started talking about the politician. He said there were other things he believed had not been investigated and needed close scrutiny.

“He articulated that his approach was to shake the tree and be quite open about what he was doing and see what happened. It is interesting that Clive’s method of shaking the tree brought about the response that it did.”

Goldie added: “The allegation was that the politician had been seen going in and out of Angell Road. There were allegations he sexually abused children.”

A short time later, Goldie said, he received a “very cloak and dagger” call from a senior police officer and met him and a junior colleague twice.

He recalled: “They said essentially that they saw it as fantasy. They were rubbishing Clive’s evidence.

“They said Clive hadn’t been able to provide evidence for the claims and that he was being subjected to a disciplinary process and that was the end of the allegation and I was told not to tell anyone or repeat it. It was heavy.”

Driscoll was questioned under caution by Met officers for allegedly naming politicians among those he was

investigating. The proceedings were later dropped as was the disciplinary notice.

Goldie added: “What is needed is a proper independent investigation with a judicial element.”

Driscoll’s investigation was scrapped shortly after Ron Davies resigned as Welsh Secretary following his mugging by a male prostitute he had met in a well-known gay pick-up zone.

A week later, Agriculture Minister Nick Brown was forced into revealing he was gay by the News of the World.

Neither man is the minister who was suspected of child abuse.

Blair’s spin doctor Alastair Campbell recalled in his diary for November 1998: “As TB said later, with a touch of black humour, we could get away with Ron as a one-off aberration, but if the public start to think the whole Cabinet is indulging in gay sex, we might have a bit of a political problem.”

Driscoll’s investigation was shut down that month.

Sir Denis O’Connor, then an assistant commissioner, set up a new probe in November 1998 codenamed Operation Middleton.

The multi-million-pound five-year investigation was contacted by more than 200 alleged victims and secured three convictions.

In 19 cases, the suspects could not be identified, fuelling fears a network was operating involving men from outside the care system who were not known to children’s homes residents.

A number of former Lambeth children’s home residents have recently come forward to police to allege abuse.

One former residential social worker faces trial next year for alleged child sex offences. A 63-year-old man and a 78-year-old woman have been arrested and remain on police bail.

In 1999, Carroll pled guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to 35 sex offences against 12 boys, some as young as eight.

Scotland Yard have failed to respond to a detailed list of questions on the affair but said last week: “Various inquiries relating to Operation Middleton remain ongoing.”