Jimmy Savile, Cyril Smith, Stuart Hall and now Max Clifford. Four powerful men, big figures with high public profiles.
And all paedophiles who abused their positions to prey on vulnerable youngsters.
Savile and Smith were, certainly, protected by the establishment.
Political clout intimidated police who protected the villains and failed their victims.
Savile escaped justice by dying before we knew the vile depths of his reign of terror.
Maggie Thatcher’s favourite was considered off limits by the cops.
Rochdale Lib Dem MP Cyril Smith also largely cheated accounting for his offences.
It wasn’t until after his death that Labour MP Simon Danczuk was able to expose Smith’s sadism.
Hall was sheltered by BBC fame but is now deservedly behind bars.
Publicist Clifford will get his just deserts when sentenced on Friday.
Sex abuse victims I’ve spoken to were doubly tormented when nobody listened to them. Their complaints were dismissed, their testimony often rejected.
They were ignored. The result was abusers escaped punishment to continue abusing.
Which brings me to the case of the Tony Blair minister highlighted in yesterday’s Daily Mirror.
The allegation is this minister was involved in a London child sex ring in the 1980s. And a police inquiry was pulled in the 1990s when his name cropped up.
Hand on heart: I don’t know if he is guilty of a heinous crime or if his visits to a children’s home were misunderstood. But I do know there must be a thorough investigation.
Because the allegations are so serious they mustn’t be swept under the carpet.
There must not be another cover-up. We owe the truth to victims of abuse.
If I was the minister under suspicion and innocent, I’d be shouting loudest for an investigation to clear my name.
Over recent years so many people have come forward claiming they were abused by politicians there’s an argument for a wider inquiry.
Crusading MP Tom Watson spoke from a position of knowledge when he demanded an inquiry into a “powerful paedophile ring” linked to the Thatcher regime.
The names of those linked to the Elm Guest House in South West London, a hive of abuse with Cyril Smith among the visitors, will shock you if they ever become public.
Victims who were insulted by cover-ups in the past deserve the truth in the future.
We can’t right past wrongs but we owe it to those who endured unimaginable torment to learn from past mistakes.