Police investigating 1,400 suspects in VIP child sex abuse inquiry

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Clockwise from top left: Fred Talbot, Gary Glitter, Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris, Stuart Hall, Max Clifford.

    

More than 1,400 suspects have been investigated by police looking into child sex abuse allegations against VIPs including politicians, celebrities and institutions.

A national police group, known as Operation Hydrant, released the figures at a briefing on its inquiry into possible links between child sex abuse investigations involving public figures currently being run by different forces across the country.

Chief Constable Simon Bailey, chair of the group, told the briefing that out of 1,433 alleged offenders identified nationwide, 76 were politicians, 43 were from the music industry, seven were from sport and 135 were from the TV, film or radio industries. Some 216 are now dead.

76 are politicians both local and national 43 from music industry 7 from sport 135 from tv film or radio #abuse— Sandra Laville (@sandralaville) May 20, 2015

"The referrals are increasing on an almost daily basis. The numbers I refer to today are a snapshot in time," Bailey said.

Operation Hydrant, created by the the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), the body that superseded the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), is not leading any particular investigations itself but gathering intelligence on a number of ongoing inquiries.

Among investigations into historical sex crimes are Operation Pallial, which is looking at claims of abuse in care homes in north Wales and an inquiry into Knowl View school in Rochdale, where the late MP Sir Cyril Smith is said to have abused boys.

Bailey told the briefing that among the total number of suspects, 666 were alleged to have offended within institutions.

Detectives have identified 154 schools, 75 children's homes and 40 religious establishments among the institutions.

In addition, reports of non-historic child abuse have more than doubled in three years.