Pervert son of a former Black Rod was quizzed by police investigating the Westminster child-sex abuse claims over his late father Sir Frank Twiss’ connection to a prolific paedophile MP
Two retired policemen reveal they were banned from investigating Twiss
The Mail on Sunday tracked down Twiss to a dingy flat in West London
He said he had given up ‘spanking’ boys and bragged of his access to Parliament
12 May 2018
Claims about a Westminster child-sex ring took a new turn last night when it emerged that police have interviewed the paedophile son of a former Black Rod, the Queen’s envoy in the Lords.
Roddam Twiss – whose father Sir Frank was Black Rod in the 1970s, responsible for security and ceremonies at the Lords – was quizzed by officers investigating the claims.
The news came as two retired policemen told The Mail on Sunday they were banned from investigating Twiss in the late 1970s after Liberal MP Sir Cyril Smith, a prolific child-sex abuser, was allegedly seen taking a rent boy to Twiss’s London home.
They say Mr Twiss:
Was well known among London’s rent boys;
Was banned from the Palace of Westminster by his father;
Visited Dolphin Square, the private apartment block in Westminster where Establishment figures allegedly had wild parties.
Police say their inquiries were halted when they told their superiors Twiss could be involved in a wider racket supplying rent boys to VIPs.
Incredibly, they didn’t know former prep school teacher Twiss had been jailed in 1967 for assaulting boys as young as 11, tying them up and beating them.
He was later imprisoned twice for fraud.
Nor did they know that he rented a room to Lennie Smith, one of Britain’s most vicious paedophiles.
The Mail on Sunday tracked down Twiss to a dingy flat in West London.
Twiss, who changed his name to Raymond Gibson in a bid to shake off his past, strongly denied any wrongdoing – but confirmed much of what the two policemen said.
He spoke frankly of his jail terms, said he had given up ‘spanking’ boys, and bragged of his access to Parliament and Dolphin Square, calling it ‘a den of iniquity for 30 years’.
He displayed an expert knowledge of London’s rent boy scene in 1970s and 1980s and described the ‘dangers’ faced by gay MPs and peers who picked up young men.
Twiss said he felt ‘alarmingly well’ for his 78 years. But asked if he knew the names of the politicians involved, he said: ‘No. And I wouldn’t tell you if I did.’
The Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, Admiral Frank Twiss, approaches the Speaker and members of the House of Commons to summon them to the Bar of the House of Lords for the state opening of Parliament
He said he had no idea police had investigated him at the time.
The developments come after a series of claims and counter-claims regarding allegations of a historic child sex abuse ring at Westminster.
Much-publicised claims that young boys had been raped and even murdered at Dolphin Square by VIPs turned out to have been made by a fantasist. Today’s disclosures will spark fresh speculation that not all the claims of sexual misconduct and rent boys at Westminster were groundless.
The new claims are expected to be considered by Alexis Jay, head of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, who has reaffirmed her determination to find out if claims of a Westminster paedophile ring were covered up.
In a statement on Thursday, she vowed to look into ‘concern that police investigations into possible child sexual abuse linked with Westminster may have been the subject of inappropriate interference’.
She added she would also look into the disclosure last year that MI5 and the Director of Public Prosecutions lied to cover up the Cyril Smith rent boy scandal.
The MoS was told of the allegations about Twiss by two former vice squad officers. They investigated him after monitoring the ‘Meat Rack,’ a notorious haunt for rent boys in Piccadilly. They saw Smith pick up a youngster and followed him to an address in Cricklewood, North-West London.
When they found out that it was the home of Twiss, they investigated him and uncovered his links to the corridors of power. When they told their superiors, the investigation was abruptly scrapped.
The two former police officers, who have asked to remain anonymous, said they were deeply frustrated by the decision. One went on to hold a series of high-profile security jobs and the other worked for a well-known sports team.
One of them recalled: ‘We went to the police station in Belgravia, and found a file that said Twiss had been banned by his father from entering the Palace of Westminster. He also went to Dolphin Square late at night. We thought he could be procuring boys for bigger figures from pimps at the Meat Rack. Well-to-do people would not want to be seen somewhere like that. We also followed him to the Meat Rack. Our superiors called it off. We assumed it was to protect VIPs.’
Asked why they did not discover Twiss’s 1967 conviction for assaulting young boys, one of the former policemen said: ‘We had trouble finding out anything about him.’
As well as serving as Black Rod, Twiss’s father Sir Frank was Secretary to the Lord Great Chamberlain, whose duties include dressing the Monarch on Coronation Day. After he died in 1994, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh attended his thanksgiving service.
Well-connected: Sir Frank Twiss, the former Black Rod
A former Admiral, Sir Frank had connections to Royal, military and political elites. In 1960 he was made Naval Secretary to First Sea Lord, Lord Carrington, later Defence Secretary under Edward Heath and Foreign Secretary under Margaret Thatcher. As Second Sea Lord in 1968, Sir Frank ordered a crackdown on the ‘unnatural vice’ of homosexuality in the Navy.
There have been persistent claims that Meat Rack inquiries were blocked to protect VIPs. In 2016, former Chief Inspector Howard Groves said police were warned not to investigate Establishment figures. And Norman Tebbit, a Cabinet Minister in the 1980s, has said there ‘may well’ have been a cover-up to protect ‘the system.’
With their permission, this newspaper passed details of the two officer to Wiltshire Police, which carried out Operation Conifer into claims about Sir Edward Heath. Officers interviewed both men.
Mr Twiss told us that three officers from the operation interviewed him for three hours. He denied any wrongdoing.
‘The rent boys would claim to be over age but were more like 14’
‘I thought I’d be dead by now, but I’m alarmingly well,’ says Roddam Twiss as I interview him at his dingy flat in West London.
At 78 his memory is as sharp as a knife as he describes the London rent-boy scene of the 1970s and 1980s and the ‘Meat Rack’: ‘It started at the railings of the Regent Palace Hotel.
‘Rent boys looking for customers would lean on the railings and men looking for boys would go and see if they fancied anyone.
VIP parties: Dolphin Square
‘But it was dangerous. Most of the boys just wanted to rob you for drugs. It was much safer to pick up one in one of Soho’s gay drinking clubs. They would all say they were over age but some were more like 14 or 15.’
Twiss says political figures were among those who went looking for rent boys. But asked if he knew their names, he replies ‘No. And if I could I wouldn’t tell you’, adding: ‘There were more Tories than Labour.’
When I ask Twiss what he knows about claims of a paedophile ring at Westminster, he says police investigating historic child abuse visited him recently and spent three hours asking him similar questions, mainly about Sir Edward Heath. He told them he did not believe the former PM abused young boys.
As we chat in his front room, Twiss introduces me to Martin, 28, who he says is his carer. A succession of other scruffy young men stroll in and out of the flat. ‘I’m gay – I make no bones about that,’ says Twiss, unprompted.
He says he met scandal-hit Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe ‘in passing’ and was ‘always suspicious’ about him, and adds that ‘everyone knew’ Cyril Smith was picking up young rent boys in Soho.
When I tell Truss he was followed by police around 1978 or 1979, he is shocked.
But he corroborates key aspects of the police story: he lived above a parade of shops in Cricklewood and was a regular visitor to Dolphin Square. However, he flatly denies Smith took a rent boy to his flat. ‘I knew Cyril was into boys. But absolutely not. It would have brought shame to my father.’
Asked if he was a ‘fixer’ who procured rent boys for other Westminster figures, he replies sharply: ‘Even if I was I wouldn’t tell you, I assure you.’ And he insists he never went to the ‘Meat Rack’.
However, he is happy to boast of his connections. ‘My father was Black Rod and high-profile in political circles… I used to visit him at the Lords where he had a grace and favour home.’
His second entrée to high society was through his ‘stockbroker’, the Hon Mervyn Greenway, millionaire playboy son of the 3rd Baron Greenway. ‘Mervyn knew everyone in high places,’ says Twiss. ‘I met them through him.’ He often visited Greenway at his flat in Dolphin Square, a place he says was perfect for residents, including Westminster figures, who wanted to misbehave.
‘If you knew the right porter, you’d leave a few pounds and they would allow your guests in with no questions asked.’
Parties would start in the flats and then ‘spill outside into the square on balmy summer evenings. It was ‘a den of iniquity for 30 years’, with residents’ ‘mistresses and prostitutes’ among the guests.
Including male prostitutes? ‘Yes, probably.’ But again, he can’t – or won’t – name names.
Twiss says his father ‘thought I should have done more with my life’ and was disappointed he did not follow him into the Armed Forces, instead going into teaching. But he refuses to believe his father banned him from the Palace of Westminster.
He says he gave up ‘spanking’ young boys long ago and he changed his name to Raymond Gibson after finishing his third jail sentence in 2006 and ‘disappeared’ from London, moving to Sheerness, Kent.
Twiss happily agreed to meet me for dinner the next day to continue our conversation. But he cried off at the last minute, texting: ‘I told you all I can remember. I am not willing to defame the dead because it will only hurt their families.’
Roddam Twiss – Abuser with a long history of scams and assaults
Roddam Twiss has a string of criminal convictions. In 1967, he was jailed for three years on seven charges of assaulting boys as young as 11. He and another man were said to have ‘stripped, tied up and beaten’ their victims.
In the 1980s, he served 18 months in jail for a business con, seeking investment in a fake cheesecake factory. And in 2004 at Southwark Crown Court, he was handed a three-and-a-half-year sentence for a £1.2 million scam.
He was accused of duping wealthy Americans using ‘flannel’ and dropping the names of ‘titled and influential people.’
Sir Cliff Richard appeared in Parliament alongside DJ Paul Gambaccini
It was also said that Twiss tried, unsuccessfully, to entice DJ Paul Gambaccini into investing in one of his dubious schemes.
Roddam Twiss – He rented a room to vile paedophile
When police investigated Roddam Twiss in the late 1970s, it appears they had no idea that one of Britain’s most vicious paedophiles, Lennie Smith, was renting a room from him.
Twiss confirmed that Smith, jailed in 1992 for his part in a paedophile gang that killed five boys, once rented a room at his Cricklewood Broadway flat.
Twiss said he helped police to investigate Smith, adding: ‘He was a nasty individual and I was content to provide police with information they deemed useful.’
The paedophile, above, was reportedly 23 when he left Twiss’s flat, which suggests it was around 1978 or 1979 – the same time police were investigating Twiss after following Cyril Smith to Cricklewood.
How Twiss aided Kajagoogoo star
Help: Twiss with Limahl
In a curious episode of his past life, Twiss helped to fund the early pop career of Kajagoogoo lead singer Limahl.
Twiss told us he met Limahl, real name Chris Hamill, when the singer was a teenager.
Hamill lived with him in Cricklewood and Twiss would drive him to clubs including gay haunt Heaven, where DJ Paul Gambaccini was given Hamill’s demo tape in 1982.
Limahl (Hamill) later moved in with Gambaccini.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5721973/Pervert-son-former-Black-Rod-quizzed-police-investigating-Westminster-child-sex-abuse-claims.html
Dame Alun Roberts @ciabaudo
Today’s MoS article flies in the face of the drivel that the Fail has been reporting that Nick is a fantasist. They must be very afraid of this man …
Paul Gambaccini , far right, with, from left, Jimmy Savile, Ed Stewart, Dave Lee Travis and Annie Nightingale at Radio 1’s 15th birthday party in 1982
Diary of a witch-hunt: In his own words, Paul Gambaccini reveals the pain of being denounced as a sex attacker and demonised by police – all on fantasists’ claims
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3223622/Diary-witch-hunt-words-Paul-Gambaccini-reveals-pain-denounced-sex-attacker-demonised-police-fantasists-claims.html
Savile sex scandal hits horrific new low as former colleague Paul Gambaccini claims on Radio Five Live that DJ was a ‘necrophiliac’
Former BBC DJ said he was aware of claims in the eighties
‘The expression I came to associate with Savile’s sexual partners was “under-age subnormals”, says colleague of the Jim’ll Fix It presenter
In 1990 interview Savile dismissed claims he was a necrophiliac after saying he took pleasure in taking dead people to a hospital mortuary
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2221922/Jimmy-Savile-necrophiliac-says-colleague-Paul-Gambaccini.html
Paul Gambaccini threatens legal action against ‘vile’ Met police
20 Oct 2016
Paul Gambaccini and Sir Cliff Richard leave parliament on Monday after meeting MPs and peers to warn them of the impact of being wrongly accused of sex crimes
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/20/paul-gambaccini-threatens-legal-action-against-vile-met-police
1974 Sir Frank Twiss …he took over as Secretary to the Lord Great Chamberlain, and then, when the Lords’ Serjeant-at-Arms retired, he took over that job too, involving everything to do with housekeeping and security. In the mornings, he comes down from his one-bedroom flat in the Palace.
The Observer 03 Nov 1974
Twiss
UK Admiral Sir Frank Roddam Twiss, the Second Sea Lord, warning commanders to be on the look out for “unnatural vice”.
The Navy’s chief lawyer noted: “It is not necessary to carry out a witch hunt for the more discreet offenders … that it goes on discreetly and hidden away need not cause us too much dismay.”
In 1981, 11 members of the crew of the Queen’s yacht ‘Britannia’ were charged in connection with sex. scandal
11 Britannia Crewmen Charged In Sex Scandal .
1964 Commission issued to Frank Twiss…authorising him …to assemble Courts-Martial as often as he shall see occasion.
Mischief@mischiefx
Times, Sep 6 1967 Roddam Quintin Twiss, son of Sir Frank Twiss (Black Rod/Admiral of the Fleet)
…charged with assaulting a boy aged 11
Anthony Daly @anthonydaly01
Well this is interesting. In #PLAYLAND I describe how one evening I was introduced to a group of paedophiles, all of whom used silly nick names. One man was introduced to me as Mr Twist (as in Oliver). The MoS has just revealed his identity: Roddam Twiss!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5721973/Pervert-son-former-Black-Rod-quizzed-police-investigating-Westminster-child-sex-abuse-claims.html …
justme @zante03
well if this doesn’t tie a bunch of child rapists and murderers to the establishment via at least RODDAM TWISS (now RAYMOND GIBSON) of West
Lennie Smith shacked up with Twiss Lennie Smith part of the Dirty Dozen who murdered Jason Swift and other young lads. Sidney Cooke still alive isn’t he @anthonydaly01 << lucky escape
HRH Crafty Muvva @craftymuvva:
I believe Smith lived with Twiss in Belgravia before later on shacking up with the Telegraph sub-editor.
Anthony Daly @anthonydaly01
Tom Driberg lived in the Barbican. He died in 1976, a year after I met him.
Truthseeker @thewakeupcall09
Apparently there was a paedophile ring operating in Barbican in 1982/84. Paedophile Roger Took, director of the Barbican Art Gallery
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2008/07/the-establishment-paedophile-how-a-monster-hid-in-high-society/
Roger Took
The Establishment Paedophile’s wife
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1083032/The-Establishment-paedophiles-wife-My-husband-8217-s-secret-tore-lives-apart.html
2013 – 6th Feb – John Stingemore, 70, St leonards on Sea East Sussex, and Tony McSweeney, 66 a Roman CatholicPriest
from Norfolk arrested by MET police under OP Fernbridge and questioned at Belgravia station in relation to Elm Guest
House abuse allegations.
link
Driberg befriended at various times the satanist Aleister Crowley and the Kray twins.
After his death, allegations were published about his role over many years as an MI5 informant, a KGB agent, or both.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Driberg
Driberg with Reggie Kray
Dribreg with Lord Boothby
Cliff Richard and Lord Boothby
http://aanirfan.blogspot.com/2014/08/cliff-richard-top-pedophile-rings.html
Anthony Daly @anthonydaly01
Lord Boothby lived in 1 Eton Square where he was visited by Ron Kray and rent boys. He moved in the same circles as L’Isle.
link
HRH Crafty Muvva @craftymuvva:
So Tom Driberg was living in Mountjoy House and Roddam Twiss was living in Thomas More House at the Barbican in 1975.
Roddam Twiss lived in a flat in Pimlico in mid-1980s. Known to rent-boys as ‘The Teacher’.
Back in 1967:
1967: Roddam Twiss, teacher & Richard J Hitchcock, driver:
1967: Roddam Twiss
Grayshott is in Petersfield.
Petersfield is near where Vishal was found & where Lennie Smith’s death was registered…
Even though it was reported that Lennie Smith died in a paedo unit in Nottingham.
My Sweet Landlord @MySweetLandlord
MP for nearby Petersfield in 1982 was Michael Mates. Of Dolphin Square fame.
Father claims Scotland Yard covered up son’s murder by Westminster paedophiles
Exclusive: The father of murdered eight-year-old Vishal Mehrotra says police ignored a tip-off that the boy may have been abducted by a VIP paedophile ring
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11239535/Father-claims-Scotland-Yard-covered-up-sons-murder-by-Westminster-paedophiles.html
HRH Crafty Muvva @craftymuvva:
Did his ‘stockbroker’ go down to Fontwell often, I wonder? Wasn’t there a big race on there during the weekend Vishal disappeared?
I just checked – it was Goodwood racing that weekend.
Martin Walkerdine @mwalkerdine
Michael Mates lived at Durford Mill / Mehrotra body found Durford Abbey Farm just 200 yard away
Dame Alun Roberts @ciabaudo:
Wasn’t that just a couple of hundred yards from Michael Mates MP’s doorstep?
Michael Mates MP lived at Dursford Mill …
Isn’t Paedobritain a small world? Michael Mates was campaign manager to paedophile Patrick Rock!
Was Michael Mates, friend of Rantzen’s lover Fairbairn, ever interviewed by Police re. Vishal’s disappearance.
aanirfan.blogspot.de/2016/02/vishal-mehrotra-michael-mates-asil-nadir.html?m=1 …
Michael Mates attending Leon Brittan’s memorial service
Michael Mates
Mates set to make over £100,000 from Dolphin Square windfall
6 Sep 2012
https://www.channel4.com/news/by/michael-crick/blogs/mates-set-to-make-over-100000-from-dolphin-square-windfall
HRH Crafty Muvva @craftymuvva
1990: #Kincora: Yet more reasons for its inclusion in #CSAinquiry
ColinWallace MichaelMates
Ben Smith @brumsongsben
Michael Mates was leadership campaign manager for Michael Heseltine (shirt shop investor)
Michael Heseltine helps fund Harvey Proctor shirt shop
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/16/newsid_2524000/2524727.stm
Truthseeker @thewakeupcall09
Who did Michael Mates allegedly caught in flagrante years ago ?
HRH Crafty Muvva @craftymuvva
Are you referring to this from 1981?
Truthseeker @thewakeupcall09
Not that one, this two very well known male politicians together.
Dame Alun Roberts @ciabaudo:
From Freddie Mercury’s biography:
Limahl – Children’s charity NSPCC/Princess Margaret
The front cover of the programme for the ‘Children’s Royal Variety Show’ in aid of the ‘NSPCC’ (National Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Children)
http://limahl.com/finding-success/
justme @zante03
the singer LIMAHL mentioned regarding Gambachinni .. was he getting it on with the older men one wonders.. Adam Ant ‘s father = Alfred Leslie Goddard was in SAME gang as Lennie Smith too wasn’t he all same era innit
and he also starred in an Adam Ant promo video
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limahl
Adam Ant’s mother was an embroiderer or the Queen’s dressmaker Norman Hartnell. and worked at Paul McCartney’s house as a cleaner.
Like Sidney Cooke, Leslie Alfred Goddard was also a chauffeur to rich families.
link
Alfred Leslie Goddard had served in the Royal Air Force.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Ant
Ted Heath with Margaret Thatcher and Quintin Hogg
Adam Ant’s school governers were MPs. The MPs called Quintin Hogg and Margaret Thatcher (junior minister) and Adam Ant’s family were given Council accommodation.
justme@zante03
http://lightbluecar.com/nl/The%20Official%20Adam%20Ant%20Story%20%5Bv01%5D.pdf
Quintin Hogg, the Lord Chancellor
Bank job that opened the door on a royal sex scandal
The ex-gang member said he was terrified to discover one box belonged to the-then head of the judiciary.
He said: “It was owned by Quintin Hogg, the Lord Chancellor.
When we opened it we dropped it on the floor like it was a time bomb. We didn’t want to take anything that might give us extra trouble so we left it
And what was most disturbing was the child pornography we found.
We were disgusted and left it in their open boxes so police could trace the owners.”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bank-job-that-opened-the-door-on-a-royal-293740
1984 “Heath Picture” Case … found five erotic colour photographs showing the woman with two children and two men – Mr Heath and a police detective
@TailWaggingTheDog DogWaggedByTail
I can’t understand why, in the midst of his hissy fit, Harvey Proctor told anyone who was listening that he was being asked about Albert Leslie Goddard (Adam Ant’s father).
Adam Ant’s father dragged into VIP child abuse probe: Alfred Leslie Goddard was jailed for preying on runaway boys nearly 30 years ago
30 August 2015
Alfred Leslie Goddard was jailed for preying on boys nearly 30 years ago
His pop star son, Adam Ant, had a string of chart hits in the 1980s
Goddard has now been dragged into the Westminster child abuse probe
He was part of a gang that included notorious paedophile Sidney Cooke
Goddard’s links to the controversial Operation Midland were revealed by ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor last week in his furious denunciation of police for treating him as a suspect on the basis of claims made by a single, unnamed alleged victim.
Mr Proctor said he had been asked by officers if he knew Goddard during a lengthy police interview last Monday, in which he was also accused of taking part in sick child abuse alongside former Prime Minister Edward Heath.
‘I was asked if I knew a number of people including Leslie Goddard,’ the former politician said, adding that he did not know him.
One source said last night: ‘It’s an important angle and I don’t think many people know Goddard was part of a ring who were suspected of supplying boys to VIPs.’
Goddard, then 58, was jailed for two years in June 1987 after being convicted at the Old Bailey of sex offences against two boys.
He was one of 12 men told by a judge that they had ‘taken advantage’ of the youths ‘to gratify your sexual desires’. The court heard they had ‘procured’ boys who had run away from home or were in care, plied them with drink and drugs then ‘hawked them about’ to men across London.
At the time, Goddard lived in Eccleston Square, Pimlico, close to the exclusive apartments of Dolphin Square where the VIP child abuse ring is said to have been based.
It was later claimed that his father’s disgrace contributed to the depression and mental health problems later suffered by his son, born Stuart Leslie Goddard, who as Adam Ant enjoyed seven Top 10 singles.
Two years after Goddard was sentenced, his co-defendant Sidney Cooke was one of four jailed for the manslaughter of Jason Swift. The gang took tur