Downing Street Says » Alleged Abuse

» Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Alleged Abuse

Asked if the Army might not take a pro-active approach in discovering cases of abuse by its troops, or a further investigation of events at Camp "Breadbasket" the PMOS said that there was a danger in getting drawn into a reply on that since there could be an implicit assumption about the outcome of this particular case. That said whenever these allegations had emerged last year the army had specifically asked anyone with any knowledge of abuse to come forward and said that any allegations would be investigated. So the army had been pro-active in that regard. It had not just sat back and waited for newspapers or other third parties to publish pictures or allegations. It had actively encouraged people to come forward with allegations and there were now seven cases being investigated including the incident at Camp Breadbasket, which was not to prejudge the outcome of those investigations in any way. Asked when the Prime Minister first knew about the photographs and their content, the PMOS said that he was not aware that the Prime Minister saw the pictures before the rest of the world, and it would have been wrong for him to have done so since they were evidence before a court. Put to him that it had been alleged that this had been one of the things which had made the Prime Minister depressed in the autumn, the PMOS said that Downing Street had contacted the journalist who had made that allegation and made it clear that it was wrong.

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