Martin Walkerdine's Correspondence with Ian Bell
The BBC Northern Ireland programme Spotlight excellent programme on Morris Fraser - Morris Fraser, the Paedophile Doctor was on recently [see below] Since then, the indefatigable Martin Walkerdine [@mwalkerdine] has been investigating more about Morris Fraser.
https://youtu.be/RXGVLA8BHJ8
Fraser was organist at Parish Church of St John-at-Hackney, where church authorities are now trying to ascertain when he was there and if he committed abuse whilst there.
Martin Walkerdine's has also corresponded with Ian Bell, co-defendant with Morris Fraser in 1971 trial. Here is his correspondence.
Hello Mr Ian Bell
I am hoping you will go on the record concerning what happened at Bow Street Mag Court in 1971 over allegations that you and Mr Roderick Morrison Fraser were abusing boys from Northern Ireland and sending them to London at the address belonging to Mr Geoffrey Roger Mitchell for which you at Bow Street pleaded not guilty for which your case file went to Crown Court to face the charges you were accused of at that time.
How did you know Dr Morris Fraser born in Inverness but worked mainly in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Have you been a member of P.I.E for which Dr Morris Fraser was member of.
Did you ever go to Northern Ireland to meet Dr Morris Fraser.
What happened at Crown Court where you found guilty or not guilty.
Have you been questioned in the last 4 years by any police force in the United Kingdom over historical child abuse investigations.
Are you still in contact with Dr Morris Fraser.
Have you ever been to apartment block called Dolphin Square in London.
Was Geoffrey Roger Mitchell questioned by police as witness or even suspect during Dr Morris Fraser court trial and this includes your own court trial.
How did Geoffrey Roger Mitchell know Dr Morris Fraser to allow him to use his London address to abuse boys from Northern Ireland.
Have you or Geoffrey Roger Mitchell been asked to attend The Hart Inquiry that is dealing with child abuse in Northern Ireland.
I would like if you will answer these questions and go on the record and I might ask some follow up questions on this subject matter.
Best Regards Mr Martin Walkerdine
Dear Mr Walkerdine -
Thank you for your curious email. The public record is, as you suggest the public record – but beyond that you are, as far as my knowledge goes of what was by the standards of those times an unremarkable and brief if grubby misdemeanour, you are allowing your imagination to run riot, fuelled by some basic errors of fact, or certainly some suggestions about the man Fraser which, neither at the time nor since, I would never have been in a position to be able to confirm or deny, nor be interested in.
These points include:
1. I have never been resident in Northern Ireland, and have no connection there.
2. I had and have no knowledge of Morris Fraser’s birth or background – I think I assumed him to be born in N.Ireland and he certainly had an accent that at the time I must have accepted as such, though more than that I cannot recall, nor indeed exactly how or on what premise he originally approached me. My recall of the period, the best part of 50 years ago, is hazy – partly because like so many young gay men at the time, I spent a good deal of my spare time over-indulging in alcohol and what we would now call ‘controlled substances’, and had lots of passing acquaintances on the London gay scene, many probably now long dead, who in turn knew many others. I would guess – but am not sure – that Fraser surfaced as one such, though precisely what his sexual appetites were was at first unclear – perhaps even to him. Nor can I recall even vaguely how I became aware of him.
3. I think he claimed to be a psychiatrist, and that his claimed – perhaps real – doctorate was therefore medical. I think he also claimed to be married or living with a woman, though I may be mistaken and I neither have nor had any first-hand knowledge of that or any other aspect of his professional or private life. I say that because it seemed to become clear that he was a complicated person and something of a fantasist, or at the least a manipulator of the facts – but how much of that was conscious and deliberate, or involuntary, I could not say, and I did not know him long enough to discover more, even had I been interested to do so.
4. My recollection is that Fraser said he was involved in helping young people from tough areas of Belfast via youth organisations or other means, theoretically to give them a break from what I guess were chaotic circumstances (though my hazy knowledge of N.I. history is insufficient for me to be sure at what point in the development of ‘the troubles’ this was). The incident in question happened soon after my becoming aware of Fraser, and was floated as being a weekend holiday somewhere they would never have had chance to visit. I was at that time one of a shifting group of people of my age who – like may others in London then, and perhaps still - shared the costs of living in large Victorian flats.
This one was in Pimlico, and the lessee was GR Mitchell, who was frequently absent working elsewhere. There were often spare rooms, especially in the summer, and in agreeing to Fraser’s suggested visit I am not sure I even sought Mr Mitchell’s permission – the trip only involved two or three days. As it turned out this was decidedly unfair to him since his name got dragged into the brief publicity about the affair as lessee of the flat, even though he had no personal involvement in organising it, nor became accused of or implicated in any charges or accusations that followed. Your suggestion that anyone ‘sent boys to London’ to that address sounds dramatic but has no foundation in fact – Fraser came over with them on this brief one-off holiday visit and they all went back together, and neither I nor, certainly, Mr Mitchell, took any role in organising the details of their travel over. It was a disaster, and an eye-opener - they spent much of the time shouting slogans at passers-by about the Pope and other religious references, about which nobody in London had the least knowledge or interest. The result was that to make it tolerable the whole party – including me - spent altogether too much time drunk. Fraser refused to try and exert any control over them, implying that it was precisely to allow them freedom from their unhappy lives that he had organised the trip – and as soon as they were gone I wrote telling him exactly what I thought, and that if this was his interpretation of psychiatry, it was world of which I needed no further knowledge or involvement.
5. We fell out badly, and I heard no more until many months later, when it became a court case. We never met again either during the case or later, and I have no knowledge of what happened other than – via my solicitor - that he pleaded guilty at a magistrates court and was summarily dealt with without fuss, whereas my plea – supported by my lawyers – of not guilty meant that it had to go to the Crown Court.
Some while later – perhaps months, perhaps a year or more - I can’t recall – I was taken aback to get a letter or postcard or call from Fraser, saying that he was now working in or near London, and would I like to meet to shake hands and ‘clear the air’? I said absolutely not – and am relieved that I have never heard anything either from him, or about him in the 45 years since.
6. I have no knowledge, now or at any time, about any of the other questions you raise, which seem more relevant to the scare stories of 2016, which the newspapers seemed to be telling us are fantasy, than to the real world of London almost 50 years ago. Yours
I. Bell
Martin has also pointed out that there is an Ian Bell on the Albany Trusts minutes, though it is not certain it is the same one. [1]
For more information on Fraser and others that Martin is researching, check out his twitter feed @mwalkerdine. He is a whizz on finding out addresses.
For my posts on Morris Fraser [5]
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 May 18 Bits of Books Blog 1976: Albany Trust’s PIE & PAL minutes of meetings and was ‘John’ of the drafting committee from BBCR3? https://bitsofbooksblog.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/1976-albany-trusts-pie-pal-minutes-of-meetings-and-was-john-of-the-drafting-committee-from-bbcr3/
[2] 1973 BBC https://t.co/9frG4syDHh Dr Fraser on the BBC in 1973 two years after his conviction
[3] Cathy Fox Blog The Times 12th October 1974 The Times Child Care Officer is Jailed for Assaults https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/2016/01/23/12th-october-1974-the-times-child-care-officer-is-jailed-for-assaults/
[4] BBC i player http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07g3mc3/spotlight-the-paedophile-doctor
[4a] 2016 Jun 9 Needleblog BBC Morris Fraser the Paedophile Doctor https://theneedleblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/09/dr-morris-fraser-the-paedophile-doctor/
[5] cathy fox posts on Morris Fraser https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/?s=morris+fraser
[6] AIOA ... Expert Advice on New Organs and Organ Restoration Ian Bell https://t.co/YwfONX8B9T
[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 fraser@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