Tory child abuse whistleblower: 'I supplied underage rent boys for Margaret Thatcher's cabinet ministers'
Whistleblower and former Conservative party activist Anthony Gilberthorpe says he provided child prostitutes for a sex and drugs party with top politicians
Senior Tory cabinet ministers were supplied with underage boys for sex parties, it is sensationally claimed.
Former
Conservative activist Anthony Gilberthorpe said he told Margaret
Thatcher 25 years ago about what he had witnessed and gave her names of
those involved.
His
allegations that he saw top Tories having sex with boys comes after
David Cameron launched a Government inquiry into claims of a cover-up.
Anthony, 52, said: “I am prepared to speak to the inquiry. I believe I am a key witness.”
Trawling
seedy streets during a Tory conference, Gilberthorpe says he was asked
to find underage rent boys for a private sex party at a top hotel.
Today, more than three decades later, he claims he was acting on the orders of some of the most senior figures of Margaret Thatcher’s government.
Anthony
says he was a full-time political activist when he helped procure the
“youngest and prettiest” boys for several cabinet ministers after being
told to find “entertainment”.
In
a series of explosive claims about conferences at Blackpool and
Brighton in the 1980s, he alleges boys as young as 15 indulged in
alcohol and cocaine before they had sex with the powerful politicians.
He says one person who attended a party is a current serving minister.
Others said to be present at the parties included Keith Joseph, Rhodes Boyson, Dr Alistair Smith and Michael Havers
As
a young aspiring politician, Mr Gilberthorpe admits being in awe of the
men, but now insists: “They manipulated and groomed me to do their
bidding.”
He
said: “I was just 17 when I first went to a conference in Brighton in
1978. I couldn’t believe I was rubbing shoulders with all these
important people and I couldn’t believe that they were taking such a
keen interest in me. I would have done anything for them because I was
so desperate to make it in politics.
“During
the years I was attending conferences between 1978 and 1985, I was a
full-time political activist. At the same time I was running for office
in district and county council elections.”
Cabinet Minister: Former Education Secretary Keith Joseph
Mr
Gilberthorpe claims that at the 1983 Blackpool conference he was asked
by Dr Alistair Smith – the Tory Party Chairman in Scotland – to arrange
for young rent boys to have sex with two high-profile cabinet ministers,
who we are not naming today.
Other MPs at that party were said to include Rhodes Boyson and Keith Joseph.
In
that week he presented the then-Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher with a
cake to mark her 58th birthday. But he says he also had a more sordid
role – using his young looks to find these underage boys for her
ministers.
At the time, the age of consent made it illegal to have gay sex with anyone under 21-years-old.
He
said: “Dr Smith, who I looked up to at the time and was the most
important Tory in Scotland, told me to go and fetch some
‘entertainment’, which was code for young boys and handed me a handful
of bank notes. There was about £120.”
Mr Gilber-thorpe claims he was not shocked by the request.
He said: “It was a norm and an open secret that these older members of the Tory party, like
Dr Alistair Smith, paid for young men to join them at sex parties.
Dr Alistair Smith, paid for young men to join them at sex parties.
“It
was the first time I was asked to fetch them but it was hardly
surprising as I was becoming one of their trusted people. There was a
well known and used cruising area close to the Imperial Hotel, which was
a conference hotel. The hotel was not open to the public.
“I was expected to find the youngest and prettiest boys. It was what those men wanted.
“In fact it was all they wanted.
“So
myself and another Tory candidate walked down there and sat on some
benches underneath an archway in the Pavilion area of Blackpool and
waited.”
Attorney General: Lord Michael Havers
He
said they were approached within minutes by a “guy aged about 20”
called James. He went on: “I asked him if he wanted to come back to the
hotel and he said ‘yes’. We asked if he had any
mates and he went away and came back with two boys who were aged about 15 and no older.
mates and he went away and came back with two boys who were aged about 15 and no older.
"It was a surreal situation as we were dressed in suits and ties and they were wearing jeans.
“We
said we would make it worth their while and the older one held out his
hand and I passed him the money to share out. I promised him there would
be plentiful amounts of free booze.”
Mr
Gilberthorpe claims he then asked hotel security to contact a man
inside who worked at the Conservative Party Central Office to arrange
for the three rent boys to be given security clearance and special
badges that would allow them to enter the Imperial.
He
said: “All MPs, members of the National Executive and chosen delegates
were given name badges that allowed you access to the conference hotel.
“Some
of them had a small Oscar sign in the corner which was a code to allow
others to know you were allowed into these secret parties.” He claimed
the Hollywood-style Oscar symbol was actually in honour of gay writer
and poet Oscar Wilde.
Once
inside the Imperial, he says the group walked up several flights of
stairs to a room where politicians were waiting for them, along with a
table of cocaine.
In attendance: Rhodes Boyson at the Conservative party conference in Blackpool, 1987
He
said: “We took them straight upstairs and into a room where Dr Smith
and other MPs were waiting for them at the party. They were given drinks
and cocaine to snort and then they were all moved into the centre of
the room.”
Mr
Gilberthorpe said he witnessed two senior Tories having sex with the
boys. He said: “A couple of other MPs were in the room. I can clearly
remember seeing one politician, who is now a serving Tory MP, standing
there and watching.”
Mr
Gilberthorpe also claims that two years earlier in 1981 he saw Sir
Michael Havers – then Attorney General – at a swimming pool party at the
Tory conference in Blackpool, where underage boys were encouraged to
perform sex acts on several politicians, who we are also not naming
today.
He recalled: “In 1981 I was invited back to the Imperial Hotel by a Conservative councillor.
“He was a big player in the notorious right-wing group the Monday Club.
“We arrived at around midnight and I was led down some stairs to a door where two men were stood as security.
“We
were allowed to enter and I was led through a tiled changing room where
there were piles of clothes strewn across the floor. We then walked
into an area where there was a large pool and lots of men either stood
around naked or simply wrapped in towels.
“Among
the MPs I recognised in there were Keith Joseph and Rhodes Boyson. I
saw the Attorney General Michael Havers down there as well.
“There
were a couple of glass tables set up as a mini bar with bottles of
spirits on them and there was cocaine on several tables. I saw several
boys who were clearly aged between 15 and 16 down there and I saw that a
few were performing sex acts on MPs.
“Other
young men were acting as waiters walking around with little black bow
ties on. I was completely shocked by it because I was still only 20 and I
had never seen anything like it.”
He
added: “I stayed for a couple of hours but was tired because a
conference was always a boozy affair where mainly spirits were drunk in
large quantities from about 5pm onwards.”
Mr
Gilberthorpe, now 52, says he also attended a sex party at the Grand
Hotel in Brighton during the Conservatives’ 1984 conference.
On
the night before the seafront hotel was hit by an IRA bomb attack, he
claims he saw senior MPs engaging in sex acts with boys below the age of
consent at a “corridor party” held in a row of rooms on the fourth
floor.
He
said: “There were two guys on the door at the end of the corridor and
because we were in the group I was allowed to enter. Several doors were
left open and others were closed.
“There
were several men walking from one room to another and enjoying sex acts
with other naked men, including boys who were clearly only about 15 or
16 years old. I saw Keith Joseph there and a politician who is now still
a serving MP.
“It
was held on the night before the bomb went off and afterwards one MP
crudely joked that it was a good job it was, or there would have been
rent boys falling through the floor.”
Mr
Gilberthorpe, who decided to finally break his silence because he fears
an Establishment cover-up, also claims that in the aftermath of the
bombing, in which five people were killed, he was asked to look after
two rent boys.
He said: “I rushed over there from my hotel after I heard the blast and saw Keith Joseph stood outside in a blanket.”
Yesterday he said: “I was a teenager when I first met these men and they manipulated me and groomed me to do their bidding.
“Because
they were the most powerful men in the land, I was led to believe it
was all OK. In truth they were abusers and once they had tired of me
they simply discarded me. It is time this came to light before anyone
else is abused.
“They didn’t think they were doing anything wrong and it was the norm then. They felt untouchable.”
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