For more than forty years, scandalous accusations have surrounded Richmond’s ‘Elm Guest House’ in Rocks Lane, Barnes: prominent paedophiles, compromising images, a flawed police inquiry, and a madam discovered deceased after attempting to expose the truth. However, following the incarceration of one accuser for falsifying claims, the entire incident was labelled a ‘hoax.’
In late 1981, the Metropolitan Police Service received an unusual tip-off.
The individual, identifying as “a homosexual lord,” reported a west London bed and breakfast where “a male child was being sexually exploited for remuneration.”
He stated that the establishment – the Elm Guest House, located on Rocks Lane, Barnes – was also engaging in alcohol licensing violations and distributing “illegal pornographic video material.”
Police documents indicate that this tip-off coincided with “rumours” suggesting that the same B&B was “being visited by prominent public figures, including members of parliament.”
This initiated a six-month period of intermittent police monitoring, which involved deploying two undercover policemen to the bed and breakfast, masquerading as a homosexual couple.
The investigation concluded in June 1982 with officers executing a surprise raid on the B&B.
A 10-year-old child was evaluated and found to have indicators of severe sexual abuse.
Carole Kasir, the owner, was initially charged with child sex offences but was ultimately convicted just for operating a brothel.
A 17-year-old male, residing at Elm Guest House for around two months, was also apprehended during the operation. He was employed there as a masseuse and acknowledged offering “sexual services” to male clients.
Although he was a minor at the time, he faced criminal charges.
The Elm Guest House was situated on Rocks Lane in Barnes, inside the borough of Richmond (Image: Google Street View)
In 2012, disclosures regarding Jimmy Savile prompted a surge of historical abuse charges, among which was a former adolescent masseuse from the Elm Guest House.
A middle-aged man has petitioned the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) to allege abuse and corruption against unidentified former Metropolitan Police officers.
He asserted that the two undercover cops who penetrated the B&B prior to the raid had engaged in sexual relations with him on separate occasions.
The suspicions of his corruption were partially centred on Kasir. He stated that she informed him she had remitted protection money to the local police, who consequently overlooked the brothel’s operations.
However, after she ceased paying the payments, he claimed that the police obtained the information that resulted in the raid.
Following his apprehension during the operation, the masseur alleged that cops conducted a strip search and performed digital penetration, asserting it was essential to ascertain whether he was concealing any items.
As his trial approached, he claimed he was threatened by other cops who cautioned him to “remain silent.”
“We can apprehend you at our discretion,” he remembered them stating.
The allegations against him were subsequently dismissed, hence he was never required to testify.
The cashier was unable to substantiate the masseur’s claims, as she was discovered deceased from an insulin overdose in 1990.
An inquest revealed consistent testimony indicating that she spent her last months in a state of paranoia, asserting to acquaintances that she was being pursued, harassed, and threatened by law enforcement and security agencies due to her possession of evidence regarding the trafficking of boys to VIPs.
The outrageous allegations garnered attention in 1990 when presented in open court.
Kasir was so apprehensive that she employed a private detective. Following several months of investigation, he also concluded that “she was in peril.”
He informed the coroner that he was aware of Members of Parliament “involved in child pornography,” but the police had directed him and Kasir “to remain silent.” Kasir claimed to have concealed documents with an attorney.
Two child protection professionals testified that Kasir had approached them with her information, identifying “numerous prominent individuals” and asserting that she had photographic evidence.
The cashier asserted that boys had been trafficked for exploitation from a children’s home in Hounslow known as Grafton Close. A trafficker residing in Bexhill-on-Sea was implicated in child pornography, she informed them.
This ultimately proved to be at least grounded in reality years later.
John Stingemore, an employee at Grafton Close in Bexhill, was convicted in the 1980s for sexually assaulting a kid in the home.
Following the Savile revelations, other men approached law enforcement to say that Stingemore had photographed them for the purpose of child pornography. He passed away prior to facing trial; nonetheless, his co-defendant was found guilty.
John Stingemore, a former employee of Grafton House, was charged with offences when Grafton boys began to report incidents following the death of Jimmy Savile; however, he passed away prior to standing trial.
In 2012, law enforcement faced pressure to re-examine Elm Guest House and Grafton Close.
The ex-masseur submitted his IOPC complaint. The Grafton boys were advancing. Journalists and social media users were re-examining the evidence from Kasir’s inquiry.
Investigators found that the 1982 case files had been either misplaced or obliterated, prompting them to pursue and interrogate the surviving cops instead.
Some declined to comply, while others provided testimony.
Chief Inspector Brian Lock, the highest-ranking officer participating in the operation, verified that two officers had conducted undercover work in the prior months.
They became aware of a gathering anticipated to attract prominent individuals, prompting the establishment of the raid.
Two undercover officers entered as comrades concealed outside prepared to strike.
One donned a counterfeit plaster cast on his arm, covering a “covert signalling device.” At the designated moment for colleagues to enter, he would activate the button.
However, everything went awry. He inadvertently pressed the button, prompting officers to break through the door as the event had just commenced.
The surgery was poorly executed, and there would be no opportunity for a redo. Who would be audacious enough to frequent Elm Guest House for nefarious operations now that it is widely known the cops are surveilling there?
An undercover officer reported that Carole Kasir claimed to have clients who were esteemed members of the society, and a small child was seen at her brothel exhibiting sexualised behaviour (Image: IICSA)
The police undoubtedly anticipated the possibility of apprehending VIPs during the operation.
An undercover officer informed the post-Savile reinvestigation that Kasir had bragged to him in 1982 about “parties and notable individuals frequenting the location.”
However, he stated that she never identified individuals.
Another undercover cop has since deceased, however his 1982 statement endures. He reported Kasir asserting that her clients were “a solicitor, a priest, and a retired banker.”
Raid officer PC Christopher Wicks informed the reinvestigation that there had been significant confidentiality around the operation, owing to the potential participation of prominent public individuals.
Three additional policemen distinctly recalled being informed during the pre-raid briefing that “prominent individuals” could be in attendance.
District of Columbia Christopher Carter, who handled the individuals apprehended during the operation upon their arrival at the Richmond police station, stated that one was “a respected member of society” — but, their identity has never been disclosed.
Chief Inspector Lock, however, asserted that there were “no VIPs” there when officers entered.
An further undercover police officer said that Carole Kasir had claimed notable individuals participated in gatherings at her brothel (Image: IICSA)
The deceased undercover officer documented in his 1982 statement on a youngster, approximately 10 years old, who exhibited “sexualised behaviour” in the guest house.
The infant was commonly addressed as ‘she’ and ‘little queen,’ he documented.
A witness to the raid, Stephen Short, confirmed this, informing the reinvestigation of a “young child” known as “Queenie.”
PC Jeff Goodhall recalled observing a “young lad,” while PC John Osborne remembered two young boys: a child in a nappy and an older boy exhibiting “sexually precocious behaviour.”
PC Osborne recalled this individual donned in an executioner’s mask, brandishing “a buttock-smacking paddle,” who was ultimately identified as an architect from Cambridge.
An further officer, who conducted an undercover operation at Elm Guest House on the day of the search, reported being escorted upstairs to a room filled with televisions and “naked men all engaged in sexual acts.”
He stated that he was thereafter led to another room where he observed “a young boy, approximately eight years old, with short, dark hair, on his knees, engaging in oral sex with an adult male.”
However, he declined to document these memories in a statement, asserting that he “could not afford” for his name to be disclosed.
PS Nigel Plank, stationed at Richmond police that evening, recalled the presence of a forensic medical examiner and the arrival of a “young male” who had been sexually abused.
PS Peter Simon, who was also present at the station that night, recalled a youngster of nine or ten years old being admitted.
A social worker present during the police interrogation of a ten-year-old child, who was extracted from the guest house during the raid, subsequently revealed that the boy identified one of his assailants as “Uncle Leon,” a politician associated with “the big house.”
A third undercover officer deployed to the Elm Guest House asserted that he observed a kid being assaulted but declined to provide a formal witness statement, citing concerns about potential repercussions. Image: IICSA
The operation was deemed by officials as “disappointing” and “a failure.”
One – PC Brian Priest – even proposed to the reinvestigation that it had been intentionally mishandled.
“I am uncertain whether this was not a concealment for something,” he stated. I harbour suspicion, however I am uncertain of the reason. It is merely an emotion I experienced at that moment and continue to experience. This raid was flawed.
PC Lester Ferguson said investigators that he subsequently heard “rumours regarding special branch police officers removing documents due to the involvement of MPs and judges” – but, he possessed neither evidence or direct information.
A guy apprehended during the raid informed the police that Kasir had “alluded to possessing photographs and videos of prominent visitors,” including “celebrities and government officials” — corroborating the assertions ascribed to Kasir eight years subsequently during her inquest.
However, she was ultimately convicted just of maintaining a disorderly residence. The troubling accusations regarding Elm Guest House first emerged during her inquest, during which a coroner determined her death to be a suicide.
Witness statements from the inquest, similar to the 1982 police files, seem to have been lost or obliterated. Kasir’s police files also reflect this.
The coroner’s office has consistently declined to provide two purported suicide notes written by Kasir.
Personal Computer Brian Priest informed investigators that he had consistently harboured suspicions regarding the intentional mishandling of the raid (Image: IICSA)
Chief Inspector Lock characterised the masseur’s IOPC complaint as “utter nonsense,” asserting that the two undercover police were heterosexual and hence would not have engaged in sexual activity with him.
The surviving undercover cop stated that he and his associate would never have jeopardised their integrity by engaging in any illicit or obscene conduct.
The IOPC stated that there were “inconsistencies” in the masseur’s statements and that “no evidence was collected that would seem to corroborate the allegations.”
Adrian Fulford KC, one of Kasir’s solicitors, stated that he remembered proposals indicating that “an individual at the location had sexual contact with one or more undercover officers.”
The IOPC decided that allegations of Kasir paying protection money to the police “cannot be established with any degree of certainty.”
No evidence was provided to corroborate the masseur’s account of being undressed and penetrated during the raid, nor of authorities advising him to remain silent.
The sole potential deficiency noted was that he “was merely 17 years old and seemed to have been regarded solely as a suspect.” A witness of this nature would be handled differently by law enforcement today.
John Stingemore, a paedophile from Grafton Close, was discovered deceased at his residence weeks prior to his trial.
His co-defendant, Anthony McSweeney, was found guilty in 2015 of sexually assaulting a juvenile boy at Grafton Close, in addition to three counts of producing indecent photos of minors.
Catholic priest Father Tony McSweeney was found guilty in 2015 of a single count of indecent assault associated with John Stingemore and Grafton Close. He was incarcerated for three years for that offence and offences involving indecent photographs. Simultaneously with the emergence of the Grafton lads, another individual, Carl Beech, also came forward. He asserted that he was victimised by prominent paedophiles at various sites, including Elm Guest House.
He was then revealed to be a paedophile who had investigated prior allegations, fabricated his own narrative, and utilised it to obtain compensation for criminal injuries. He had defamed innocent individuals, such as former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor, by labelling them as paedophiles and murderers.
Beech received an 18-year prison sentence.
The assertion that a boy identified an abuser from Elm Guest House as “Uncle Leon” was rejected by the contemporary reinvestigation as lacking “substance,” since the remark was omitted from the police interview notes.
In 2020, the national Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) determined that Elm Guest House was “a disreputable establishment where child sexual abuse occurred.”
Nonetheless, the title of the scandal’s Wikipedia page was altered in 2020 to “Elm Guest House Hoax” by an editor who then vanished from the site.
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