Child Abuse at University College School Hampstead, Jonathan Self, Janner and IPSO
University College School Hampstead will probably not be grateful to Daniel Janner for keeping the school in the news over child abuse allegations. Daniel Janner took a dislike to a Mail article from Jun 2015 on grounds of accuracy, privacy and harassment and complained to IPSO in April 2016 who issued their decision on 22 Jul 2016. HT to @mwalkedine for noticing and tweeting it recently. I would not like to choose between all three parties in terms of their reputations and behaviour, but IPSO, the so called Independent Press Standards Organisations [4] decided in favour of the Mail and against Greville Janners barrister son, Daniel. Their judgement is IPSO 02680-16 Janner v Daily Mail, see Appendix 1 below or [2] The original Mail article is 2015 Jun 24 Mail Online Lord Janner and the paedophile ring at his son's elite school: Labour peer's link to institution where teachers abused boys is here [1] and as much as will copy is reproduced in Appendix 2 for reference. The article revolves around the revelations in a chapter in Will Self's 2001 book where he names three of his abusers. One was a politics teacher, Michael Densham, a second was another teacher at the school Tony Ford, whilst a third was a former pupil Basil Moss. Another two in the child abuse network were not named but described as two teachers from the UCS junior school. Apparently it generated a few headlines at the time, but they are not known at the present time. The 2015 Mail article said that Greville Janner MP was a regular visitor to the school, which his son Daniel (Danny) Janner attended, and Greville had been a close friend of Michael Densham since 1968. Densham also had driven a coachload of boys to Leicestershire to campaign in elections for Greville Janner. Janner also invited its pupils on guided tours of Parliament.
The paper asks "First, did Janner pursue relationships with any of the many, many boys he met via University College School? And second, was he a member of a wider paedophile ring whose members included Mike Densham, Tony Ford and a smattering of UCS colleagues?"
It goes on "Perhaps they would be best pursued by the police."
Densham committed suicide in 1998 but Tony Ford just disappeared in 1978 after allegations of child abuse. It is not known if the police or IICSA have pursued this child abuse network.
Hampstead, part of the London Borough of Camden, is also where Greville Janner used to live, in the house in which his daughter now lives. Articles on Janner on Operation Greenlight are here [7] , cathy fox blog articles on Janner are here [5].
This teacher in an unknown Hampstead Junior School was let off child sexual abuse in 2012 - Ham and High Hampstead teacher walks free after sexually abusing nine-year-old girl [6].
Hampstead was also the location for alleged ritual abuse at a primary school [8]
Hampstead is also where Joginder Sanger lived. He was exposed as getting rich from asylum seekers when a boy Rossi Matuvovo went missing from the Thornecliffe Hotel which Sanger owned in 2004. Standard Revealed: the asylum tycoon [11] Sanger also owns the Washington Mayfair Hotel which has links to Vaz's dubious visits [12] [HT @cassandracogno]
Hampstead is also the location of 790 acres of Hampstead Heath [13], where many an MP has taken an evening stroll and met new people. The Heath is managed by City of London Police Force but an anomaly means the Heath has its own private 12 strong Constabulary, not subject to Freedom of Information laws, who work with the Met Police [13] .
Police ready to investigate historic sex abuse claims against West Hampstead tennis coach [14]
Daniel Janner says that his father did not commit any child abuse [10] David Henke argues against this [9]. The bottom line is how Daniel Janner know his father did not abuse children? Has he proof on each and every occasion? He obviously has not, but he is trying to use all the methods he can to stop investigations and comment on his father. Mind you, he does have a large financial interest in doing this!
Camden also has much to be questioned on child abuse Cathy fox blog Camden posts [15] and Scepticpeg CAMDEN SOCIAL SERVICES & A DANISH CULT? [16]
David Aaron0vitch, aka Corporal "Don't Panic" Jonesovitch, child abuse denialist for the rich, famous, establishment and "elite" and Professor of Self Importance also lives in Hampstead. No doubt he is sharpening his pencil..."couldn't happen in Hampstead, I live there, I would know about it, nothing to see here...deny, dont panic, deny, dont panic, deny, moral panic, aaargh.. nothing to see I tell yer.. I would know..I used to be a commie but MI5 are better...satanic rhymes with panic I can use that ad infinitum, dont panic, dont satanic panic..I know best...everyone else is stupid..dont panic, whats cognitive dissonance to do with me? Its panic I tell you, you bunch of ignorant trots and fools...Hampstead is lovely, I live there...many rich people do...couldnt happen here, not in my backyard, dont panic...that lovely Janners was my friend you know...
Corporal Jonesovitch often writes for the Times - the child abuse deniers paper of choice, owned by Rupert Murdoch.
Jonathan Self's chapter that relates to child abuse at University College School is included below.
A possibility for the gay club on Finchley Road mentioned on page 90 where Densham took Jonathan Self could be Le Cage D'Or, which had a room upstairs called Shane's. It was behind former John Barnes department store (closed 1981) near Finchley Road tube station. Below is a map of the relative positions with the school. [HT @cassandracogno]
Please note that victims of abuse may be triggered by reading this information. These links are generally UK based.
The Sanctuary for the Abused [A] has advice on how to prevent triggers.
National Association for People Abused in Childhood [B] has a freephone helpline and has links to local support groups.
Other useful sites are One in Four [C]
and Havoca [D].
Jim Hoppers pages on Mindfulness [G] and Meditation [H] may be useful.
Hwaairfan blog An Indigenous Australian Approach to Healing Trauma [J]
Survivors UK for victims and survivors of male rape or the sexual abuse of men [K]
Voicing CSA group [L] helps arrange survivors meetings in your area
Links [1] 2015 Jun 24 Mail Online Lord Janner and the paedophile ring at his son's elite school: Labour peer's link to institution where teachers abused boys http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3138264/Lord-Janner-paedophile-ring-son-s-elite-school-Labour-peer-s-link-institution-teachers-abused-boys.html [2] IPSO 02680-16 Janner v Daily Mail https://www.ipso.co.uk/rulings-and-resolution-statements/ruling/?id=02680-16 [3] 2002 via Amazon Jonathan Self Self Abuse https://www.amazon.co.uk/Self-Abuse-Jonathan/dp/0743230973/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473194051&sr=8-1&keywords=jonathan+self+self+abuse [4] Wikipedia IPSO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Press_Standards_Organisation [5] Cathy Fox Blog articles on Janner https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/?s=janner [6] 2012 Oct 25 Ham and High Hampstead teacher walks free after sexually abusing nine-year-old girl http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/crime-court/hampstead_teacher_walks_free_after_sexually_abusing_nine_year_old_girl_1_1669170 via [6a] Operation Greenlight https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/0FE31538-2121-8495-33A5-86073BE95DE1/thought/918#-8929 [7] Operation Greenlight Greville Janner https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/0FE31538-2121-8495-33A5-86073BE95DE1/thought/918#-2881 [8] Aangirfan 2016 Feb 1 COVER-UP OF SATANIC CHILD ABUSE IN HAMPSTEAD'; SECURITY SERVICES INVOLVED? http://aanirfan.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/satanic-child-abuse-in-hampstead.html [9] 2016 Sept 6 David Henke Blog Daniel Janner is wrong to say all allegations of child sex abuse against his father must be fabricated https://davidhencke.com/2016/09/06/daniel-janner-is-wrong-to-say-all-allegations-of-child-sex-abuse-against-his-father-must-be-fabricated/ [10] 2016 Aug 1 Leicester Mercury Greville Janner's son: my father did not sexually abuse children http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/greville-janner-s-son/story-29573508-detail/story.html [11] 2014 Oct 5 Standard Revealed: the asylum tycoon http://www.standard.co.uk/news/revealed-the-asylum-tycoon-6943075.html Joginder Sanger and missing boy Rossi Matuvovo [12] 2016 Sept 6 Mail Keith Vaz's brief encounter with young man at a London hotel: Scandal-hit MP is seen on CCTV enjoying an half-hour rendezvous at four-star establishment (where it's said he goes for 'a wash') http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3775550/Keith-Vaz-s-brief-encounter-young-man-London-hotel-Scandal-hit-MP-seen-CCTV-enjoying-half-hour-rendezvous-four-star-establishment-s-said-goes-wash.html [13] Wikipedia Hampstead Heath https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampstead_Heath [14] 2015 Jun 11 Ham High Police ready to investigate historic sex abuse claims against West Hampstead tennis coach http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/crime-court/police_ready_to_investigate_historic_sex_abuse_claims_against_west_hampstead_tennis_coach_1_4107520 [15] Cathy fox blog Camden posts https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/?s=camden [16] 2016 Sept 22 Scepticpeg CAMDEN SOCIAL SERVICES & A DANISH CULT? https://scepticpeg.wordpress.com/2016/09/21/camden-social-services-a-danish-cult/ [A] Sanctuary for the Abused http://abusesanctuary.blogspot.co.uk/2006/07/for-survivors-coping-with-triggers-if.html [B] NAPAC http://www.napac.org.uk/ [C] One in Four http://www.oneinfour.org.uk/ [D] Havoca http://www.havoca.org/HAVOCA_home.htm [E] SurvivorsJustice Triggers post http://survivorsjustice.com/2014/02/26/triggers-what-are-they-and-how-do-we-work-through-them/ [F] SurvivorsJustice Blog http://survivorsjustice.com/ [G] Jim Hopper Mindfulness http://www.jimhopper.com/mindfulness/ [H] Jim Hopper Meditation http://www.jimhopper.com/mindfulness/#cultivate [J] 2016 Jan 5 Hwaairfan blog An Indigenous Australian Approach to Healing Trauma https://hwaairfan.wordpress.com/2016/01/05/an-indigenous-australian-approach-to-healing-trauma/ [K] Survivors UK website for victims and survivors of male rape or the sexual abuse of men https://www.survivorsuk.org/ and twitter https://twitter.com/SurvivorsUK [L] Voicing CSA website – http://voicingcsa.uk/ helps arrange survivors meetings in your area. Voicing CSA supports the IICSA and VSCP and works to help adult survivors of child sexual abuse find their voice This is all written in good faith but if there is anything that needs to be corrected please email jonself@cathyfox.33mail.com cathyfox the truth will out, the truth will shout, the truth will set us free “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” – Edmund Burke “He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.” Charles Peguy To sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards out of men – Ella Wheeler Wilcox Appendix 1 Decision of the Complaints Committee 02680-16 Janner v Daily Mail Summary of Complaint
The Hon Daniel Janner QC complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation that the Daily Mail breached Clause 1 (Accuracy), Clause 3 (Privacy) and Clause 4 (Harassment) of the Editors’ Code of Practice in an article headlined “Lord Janner and the paedophile ring at his son’s elite school: Labour peer’s link to institution where teachers abused boys”, published online on 24 June 2015.
The article reported that in the 1970s, there were four paedophile teachers at University College School (UCS) in Hampstead, which it referred to as a “paedophile ring”. It reported that the ring had been “exposed” in 2004 in the autobiography of a former pupil, who had named two teachers that he said had sexually abused him, who were also named in the article. The article reported that one of the named teachers met Lord Janner in 1968, when Lord Janner sent his son, the complainant, to the school, who was also named in the article. The article reported that the teacher would take pupils to Lord Janner’s constituency to spend a day working in his campaign office. It also reported that a former pupil recalled Lord Janner inviting pupils on guided tours of Parliament, and that other pupils had said that he regularly gave lectures at the school to the teacher’s pupils. The article quoted an unnamed former pupil, who described Lord Janner and the teacher as “thick as thieves”, and reported that a named former teacher at the school had confirmed that the two men were well-acquainted.
The article reported that the Director of Public Prosecutions had announced that the police had sufficient evidence to charge Lord Janner with 22 “paedophile offences”, but that he would not face trial on these charges on account of his dementia. It also reported that a Member of Parliament had used Parliamentary privilege to claim that Lord Janner had molested a named nine-year-old boy, but that the Janner family maintained Lord Janner’s innocence, and would “doubtless” respond to this claim by pointing out an inconsistency in the allegation. The article questioned whether Lord Janner pursued relationships with any boys he met at UCS, and whether he was a member of the “paedophile ring” at the school.
The complainant said that he was unaware of the two named UCS teachers committing any sexual offences, and asserted that there was no “paedophile ring” at the school. The complainant did not dispute that one of the named teachers organised for pupils to canvas for his father in Leicester, or that the teacher invited his father to give talks at the school. However, he denied that his father was personal friends with this teacher, and said that his father was not involved in any paedophile ring at the school. The complainant said that his father met the teacher through him in 1970, rather than 1968. The complainant said that the allegation that his father had molested a nine-year-old boy was false. He said that the article’s reference to his attending UCS was intrusive, especially given it was in the headline and sub headline to the article, and that he felt harassed by the article.
The newspaper said that the existence of a paedophile ring at UCS had been well documented in the autobiography of the former pupil, who described being sexually abused by two teachers, one of whom was subsequently sacked by another school for sexual abuse, and another of whom disappeared from UCS after being accused of abuse. The newspaper said that the allegation that Lord Janner had molested a 9-year-old boy was raised in Parliament using privilege, and that the article both highlighted the apparent inconsistency in the allegation, and made clear the Janner family’s position that Lord Janner was innocent. The newspaper said it had a number of sources who confirmed that Lord Janner and one of the named teachers were friends, and noted that it was not in dispute that this teacher had organised trips for pupils to visit Lord Janner’s constituency, and that Lord Janner had given lectures at UCS. The newspaper said that the article only made peripheral reference to the complainant, and did not link him to the paedophile ring. The newspaper said that the fact the complainant attended UCS was not private information, and noted that this information was available on his publicly accessible professional profile.
The newspaper offered to remove reference to the complainant from the headline, and from one of the picture captions. It also offered to amend the article to refer to the paedophile ring as “alleged”.
Relevant Code Provisions
Clause 1 (Accuracy)
The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including pictures.
A significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distortion once recognised must be corrected, promptly and with due prominence, and - where appropriate - an apology published. In cases involving the Regulator, prominence should be agreed with the Regulator in advance.
iii. The Press, whilst free to be partisan, must distinguish clearly between comment, conjecture and fact. Clause 3 (Privacy)
Everyone is entitled to respect for his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence, including digital communications.
Editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual's private life without consent. Account will be taken of the complainant's own public disclosures of information.
Clause 4 (Harassment)
Journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit.
They must not persist in questioning, telephoning, pursuing or photographing individuals once asked to desist; nor remain on their property when asked to leave and must not follow them. If requested, they must identify themselves and whom they represent.
iii. Editors must ensure these principles are observed by those working for them and take care not to use non-compliant material from other sources. Findings of the Committee
The Committee noted the complainant’s position that he was unaware of there being a “paedophile ring” at UCS, and that it was inaccurate to claim that there was one. However, a former pupil had alleged that he had been abused by two teachers while he was a pupil at the school, and the complainant did not dispute that one of the teachers allegedly involved disappeared from UCS after being accused of abuse, or that the other teacher was subsequently sacked from another school for sexual abuse. The article made clear the basis on which this historic allegation was being made. The Committee did not establish that it was misleading to refer to there being a “paedophile ring” at UCS, in this context. This aspect of the complaint did not raise a breach of Clause 1.
The Committee noted the complainant’s position that the allegation that Lord Janner had molested a 9-year-old boy was false. The article did not report this as fact but explained that this was an allegation made in Parliament and subject to privilege, and it was not suggested that this was an inaccurate report of Parliamentary proceedings, which the newspaper was entitled to report. In addition, the article made clear that Lord Janner’s family maintained that he was innocent, and noted the apparent inconsistency in the allegation. This aspect of the complaint did not raise a breach of Clause 1.
The Committee noted the complainant’s position that Lord Janner was not friends with the named teacher, or that they were “as thick as thieves”. However, the complainant did not dispute that the teacher took UCS pupils on trips to Leicester to canvas for Lord Janner, or that the teacher invited Lord Janner to speak at the school. In these circumstances, it was not significantly misleading to report that the two men were friends, or to report a former pupil’s opinion that they were “as thick as thieves”. This aspect of the complaint did not raise a breach of Clause 1. The article’s reference to the two men meeting in 1968, rather than 1970, was not a significant inaccuracy in the context of the article, and did not raise a breach of Clause 1.
The complainant did not dispute that Lord Janner had met the teacher through him, and the fact that the complainant had attended UCS was not in itself private information, and was published as part of his profile in a leading legal directory. The Committee did not consider that the article’s reference to the complainant was intrusive or gratuitous, and there was no breach of Clause 3.
The fact that the complainant felt harassed by the publication of the article did not raise a breach of Clause 4, which generally relates to the conduct of journalists during the news-gathering process.
Conclusions
The complaint was not upheld.
Remedial action required N/A Date complaint received : 30/04/2016 Date decision issued: 22/07/2016 Appendix 2
Lord Janner and the paedophile ring at his son's elite school: Labour peer's link to institution where teachers abused boys
Four paedophile teachers abused boys at University College School in 70s
Led by politics teacher Michael Densham, the ring were exposed in a book
Son of Lord Janner attended the school along with other famous alumni
By Guy Adams for the Daily Mail
Published: 23:50, 24 June 2015 | Updated: 05:47, 25 June 2015
1.2kshares
Lord Janner, whose son attended the University College School in Hampstead, where four paedophile teachers used their positions to abuse teenage pupils
To upwardly mobile residents of Seventies North London, an old boy’s tie from University College School, Hampstead, was the ultimate social calling card.
An exclusive institution, with Edwardian architecture and picturesque games pitches, it admitted only the brightest boys, and was rightly famed for creative, sporting and academic prowess.
The ranks of ‘Old Gowers’, as alumni are known, included a host of the great and good, from athlete Roger Bannister to film star Dirk Bogarde and the celebrated mountaineer Chris Bonnington.
Despite its fee-paying status, UCS was (and still is) run according to a liberal philosophy that included a statutory ban on religious education and a refusal to acknowledge, in any formal way, differences of ethnic or cultural background.
This made it the favourite public school of the local area’s social elite, who — in time-honoured tradition — were happy to overlook any principled opposition to private education when it came to the treatment of their own children.
The roster of pupils duly contained the offspring of many Labour grandees, including both sons of the party’s former Prime Minister, Harold Wilson.
A few years later, UCS would educate the likes of Tristram Hunt, the son of a Labour peer (and now Shadow Education Secretary), Jonathan Freedland, the Left-wing commentator, and Ian Katz, a former Guardian journalist who is editor of BBC2’s Newsnight.
Yet behind its historic red-brick facade there lay a troubling secret. For throughout this heady era, the UCS staff room was home to four paedophile teachers, who used their positions of authority to prey on teenage pupils.
The ring, led by politics teacher Michael Densham, was sensationally exposed in 2004 by the writer and entrepreneur Jonathan Self, who had attended the school with his brother, Will, the novelist.
In an autobiography titled Self Abuse, Jonathan revealed that he had ‘suffered repeated sexual abuse by two of the masters at UCS senior school for most of the three years I spent there’, from 1970 onwards.
The book devoted an entire chapter to this catalogue of exploitation, saying it began on a school trip when he was ‘barely 13 years old’ and Densham plied him with alcohol until he was ‘vomiting drunk’.
‘He begged me to take off all my clothes and get into bed with him,’ Self recalled. ‘What started as, effectively, a rape continued much in the manner of an illicit affair.’
The teacher, then in his 30s, would typically take his victim to ‘restaurants, pubs and a gay club in the Finchley Road’, before ending their liaisons by forcing him to have sex in his car (‘short and hurried’) or in a bedroom of his home in Ealing, ‘a drawn-out business’ Self found ‘abhorrent’.
Over the course of the abusive relationship, Self says that Densham introduced him to several other paedophiles connected to UCS, including former pupil Basil Moss, who ‘was always kissing me and pinching my bottom’, and two teachers from the UCS junior school ‘who made a similar nuisance of themselves’.
Self was then raped by yet another professional associate of Densham’s called Tony Ford, a UCS art teacher, who ‘became so insistent I have sex with him that in the end I gave in’.
‘I wouldn’t keep harassing you,’ Self recalled Ford saying on the day he finally consented. ‘But I know you have done it with Mike and it just isn’t fair that you won’t do it with me.’
This troubling saga generated a smattering of ugly headlines when Self’s book was published, just over a decade ago.
Yet, perhaps due to the fact that Densham and Ford were no longer around (one disappeared, one committed suicide, in murky circumstances) no proper police investigation was conducted.
Instead, to the presumed relief of the authorities at UCS, the saga of the Seventies paedophile ring was allowed to slide quietly into history. That was then, however.
The ring, led by politics teacher Michael Densham, pictured, was sensationally exposed in 2004 by the writer and entrepreneur Jonathan Self, who had attended the school with his brother, Will, the novelist
Today, things could be about to change. For, more than 40 years after Self was abused, events only a few miles from leafy Hampstead are about to return this sordid chapter in the public school’s history to the top of the news agenda.
To blame is Greville Janner, the former Labour MP, who has been splashed across the front pages in recent months.
The 86-year-old peer, a flamboyant amateur magician ennobled by Tony Blair, is at the centre of heated public debate over claims that for decades he was a prolific abuser of young boys.
Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders announced in April that the police had sufficient evidence to charge him with 22 paedophile offences, including 16 indecent assaults and six acts of buggery.
She added, however, that he will not face trial on a single one of the charges, involving nine separate children from 1969 to 1988, on the grounds that he is suffering dementia, which means he is ‘not fit to take part in any proceedings’.
The decision has sparked huge controversy, not least since dozens of further alleged victims have since come forward. The ruling is being reviewed, and an announcement regarding whether it will be overturned is expected imminently.
Police in Scotland are also looking into claims that Janner abused boys north of the border. Since they operate under a separate legal system to England, the peer could, in theory, face prosecution there.
The ongoing scandal further deepened this week when Labour MP Simon Danczuk used Parliamentary privilege to claim Janner had ‘violated, raped and tortured’ children inside the Houses of Parliament, molesting a nine-year-old boy, Paul Miller, at the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster.
Miller, who has given a signed statement to police, believes he was targeted after Janner began visiting his school, Braunstone Frith Primary, in Leicester.
He says he was then abused when the MP invited eight of its pupils to visit him at the Commons in 1969.
The Janner family — who have always proclaimed the peer’s innocence — would doubtless respond to Miller’s claims by pointing out that Janner was not elected to Parliament until 1970.
Either way, it’s nonetheless intriguing — not to say somewhat troubling — to discover that Braunstone Frith Primary wasn’t the only school on Janner’s radar during this murky period in his personal history.
During the late Sixties and Seventies, I can reveal that Janner just happened to be a regular visitor to the classrooms of University College School, where his circle of close acquaintances included a bespectacled teacher by the name of Michael Densham.
An exclusive institution, with Edwardian architecture and picturesque games pitches, University College School admitted only the brightest boys, and was rightly famed for creative, sporting and academic prowess
The two men met in 1968, when the future MP for Leicester West, who lived in Hampstead, decided to send his son, Daniel, to UCS.
They proceeded to forge a friendship which, according to several former pupils and members of staff, saw Janner build close links with Densham and his teenage pupils, visiting the school to lecture them on a regular basis.
Intriguingly, in light of this week’s revelations, he also invited its pupils on guided tours of Parliament.
What is more, during three General Election campaigns, one in 1970 and two in 1974, the paedophile teacher would even drive bus-loads of UCS sixth-form boys to Leicester to spend day after day working in Janner’s campaign office, and canvassing on his behalf.
‘Denham and Janner were as thick as thieves,’ is how one former pupil puts it.
‘He was constantly coming into school to do things such as lecture Mike’s politics society or help out his A-level class with projects.
‘You don’t think much of it at the time, but Densham was a showy bastard, who was well known for groping pupils and making dodgy sexual remarks.
‘With the benefit of hindsight, it does all look very, very suspicious.’
Paul Manski, a lawyer who left UCS in 1973, says: ‘Greville Janner came to school quite regularly to speak. I can recall two or three lectures while I was in the sixth form. They took place in a downstairs theatre called the Crypt, next to the cricket nets.
‘There were also quite a lot of times when Densham organised visits by boys to his constituency during elections.’
A friend of Manski, who went on one such Leicester trip, says: ‘It was sold to us as a chance to see a typical day in the life of a constituency MP.
‘I remember being shown around the offices of a local newspaper, going to his surgery and doing some canvassing, which was odd as I wasn’t really a Labour supporter. Greville Janner was perfectly friendly, and he and Densham were clearly close.
‘Densham was drawn to famous people and was an inveterate name-dropper. He always used to claim to be on first-name terms with Harold Wilson, too.’
Michael Alsford, a teacher at UCS from 1967 until 2005, confirms that Densham and Janner were well acquainted. He describes his former colleague as a ‘brilliant teacher, but obviously a flawed man’, and says that Densham would ‘take groups of boys up to Leicester West to help with canvassing at election times’.
Densham was drawn to famous people and was a inveterate name-dropper. He used to claim to be on first-name terms with Harold Wilson, too
‘We had plenty of elections in the Seventies, and I clearly remember Mike talking about it.’
Another former student recalls joining Janner on a private tour of the Commons.
‘I was a few years below his son, Danny, and met the MP when he came to speak to Densham’s class. We had a chat, and he then sent me a letter asking me to visit, so I did. Lots of other pupils went on similar tours.
‘Obviously, we all thought at the time that he was just being kind. But given what we now know, the whole thing does seem very dubious.’
All of which poses a couple of pressing questions. First, did Janner pursue relationships with any of the many, many boys he met via University College School?
And second, was he a member of a wider paedophile ring whose members included Mike Densham, Tony Ford and a smattering of UCS colleagues?
Perhaps they would be best pursued by the police.
In a statement this week, a UCS spokesman said it ‘takes the welfare and protection of its pupils as a matter of the utmost importance, and if the police were to contact the school we shall give them every assistance’.
One person who won’t be able to help them, however, is Michael Densham. Forced out of UCS in July 1980, after several complaints about his conduct, he was subsequently sacked by a primary school in Ealing, West London, after being caught sexually abusing a paperboy.
At around the same time, he inherited hundreds of thousands of pounds on the death of his well-to-do parents, but spent it all, in the words of a friend, on ‘boys, holidays and nightclubs’ in little more than a year.
Finding himself destitute, he began stealing money from former friends, was jailed in the late Eighties for credit card fraud and eventually committed suicide by jumping in front of a train on February 11, 1998.
As for Ford, the second named member of the UCS paedophile ring, he was suspended one Thursday in 1978, amid allegations that he had groped a teenage pupil.
He walked back to his nearby flat, packed a suitcase and drove away, never to be seen again by friends, colleagues or family members.
‘Tony just disappeared,’ says Alsford. ‘Police refused to investigate, so his mother hired a private investigator. But they never found any trace of him.’
Just another strange and murky twist in this increasingly unsettling scandal.