Richmond paedophile records unlocked after madame's death

Our reporter gained access to files on John Stingemore, who abused a boy at Richmond Council’s Grafton Close children’s home, because he was mentioned at an inquest in 1990.

The inquest, held in Kingston in 1990, concerned the death of Carol Kasir, who ran a brothel called the Elm Guest House in Rocks Lane, Barnes.

Among the witnesses was Richmond Council’s then head of social services, who admitted in court that Stingemore was known to have abused a child at the Grafton Close home in Hounslow.

But the predator’s name was mistyped into the official inquest record as “Stringmoor”.

Carole Kasir

Carole Kasir was found dead in June 1990 from what a coroner decided was a deliberate, self-inflicted insulin overdose.

Police had raided the Elm Guest House eight years earlier. She was convicted of “running a disorderly house”.

The Elm Guest House was situated in Rocks Lane, Barnes. The national abuse inquiry IICSA found one boy had been sexually abused there, but claims of child trafficking were dismissed as a 'hoax' (Image: Google Streetview)

Among those present when police raided the property was a child who had suffered extensive sexual abuse.

Her inquest heard that in the months before her death, Kasir was convinced more children, from Grafton Close, had been trafficked to the guest house for abuse.

She hired a private investigator four months before she died, who testified that Kasir had been “frightened for her life” and he had witnessed things which persuaded him “she was in danger”.

Another witness – Christopher Fay, from the National Association of Young People in Care (NAYPIC) – said Kasir had approached NAYPIC with her concerns and had been “extremely frightened”.

“She said that she was getting phone calls and being followed about,” he testified.

The Bexhill Connection

Mr Fay testified that Kasir had named boys from Grafton Close and told NAYPIC she’d learned a man with a name like “John Stry----” was “connected in child pornography” in Bexhill.

The police files uncovered by this newspaper reveal that when Stingemore was arrested for abusing a Grafton boy, he was living in Bexhill-on-Sea.

Decades later, other Grafton boys came forward and accused him of taking indecent images of them – but he died weeks before his trial date.

Another witness called to Kasir’s 1990 inquest, Richmond’s then director of social services, admitted under oath that a man called “Stringmoor” had been “convicted on the evidence of a boy in 1983”.

The inquest records include one more apparent mistaken reference to Stingemore.

Mary Moss, from NAYPIC, testified that Kasir told her a man called “John Strangemen” had “supplied boys to the guest house without her knowledge".

Mr Stingemore's 1983 arrest record gave his address as Bexhill-on-Sea. Shortly before her death, Carole Kasir reportedly said she had learned of a man called John, linked to Grafton Close, who lived in Bexhill and was involved in child pornography (Image: Newsquest)

Catch up:

• Social worker abused teen, then used fake references to get another job with boys

A Hoax?

Claims of children being trafficked to Elm Guest House were dismissed by the establishment after the Jimmy Savile revelations.

Mr Fay’s credibility was called into question because, over two decades after he testified at Kasir’s inquest, he was convicted of involvement in an investment scam.

Then Carl Beach, who claimed he was abused at the guest house, turned out to be a paedophile himself and was jailed for falsely accusing VIPs of child abuse and murder.

The Wikipedia entry for the scandal was renamed “Elm Guest House hoax” in 2020.

The national Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) concluded that the Elm Guest House “was a tawdry establishment where child sexual abuse took place”, but there was only evidence of one child being abused there.

“The boy’s own account, together with a medical examination, provided evidence that the boy had been the subject of extensive sexual abuse,” IICSA heard.

But that boy was not trafficked from Grafton and “there was no evidence that any other children had been abused".

John Stingemore died in 2015, weeks before he was due to stand trial over historic abuse allegations linked to the Grafton Close children's home

The Files

The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) will not disclose deceased offenders’ police records unless there is already evidence in the public domain from an official source that the person was convicted.

Stingemore’s conviction being disclosed in the 1990 inquest allowed us to demand the files under the Freedom of Information Act.

Their contents not only revealed Stingemore’s 1983 conviction, but corroborated some details Mr Fay said Mrs Kasir had given him shortly before her death: that a man linked to Grafton, with a name resembling Stingemore’s, was based in Bexhill and involved in indecent images.

The NPCC refused to confirm or deny the existence of any further files, citing “national security”.

Richmond Council says it can find no records of Mr Stingemore's employment or termination.