WESTMINSTER institutions are guilty of major failings over child sexual abuse spanning decades, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has found.

Survivors, whistleblowers, politicians and police were amongst those to give evidence to the probe last March.

Yesterday its findings highlighted “significant” problems with deference towards public figures, with MPs like Cyril Smith and Sir Peter Morrison protected from prosecution in the 1970s and 80s.

Aristocrat Victor Montagu, the former MP for South Dorset and 10th Earl of Sandwich, was given only a caution after a 10-year-old boy alleged he had indecently assaulted him.

Montagu’s son Robert, who also suffered sexual abuse by his father for a five-year period, called that decision “entirely wrong and very indicative of the attitude towards people in public positions”.

The process also covered the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), which campaigned in the 1970s to lower the age of consent, as well as for public acceptance of paedophilia.

Sexual offences against children were committed by members including Sir Peter Hayman, a former High Commissioner to Canada.

The report concludes that PIE was given foolish and misguided support for several years by organisations who should have known better, such as the National Council for Civil Liberties and the Albany Trust.

The report also covers the more recent scandal of David Challenor, who was appointed as election agent by Green Party candidate Aimee Challenor in 2017 despite having been charged with heinous sexual offences against a child, including imprisonment and rape.

He has since been convicted and an internal inquiry by the Green Party of England and Wales has been held.

The report calls on the Cabinet Office to re-examine its policy on the posthumous forfeiture of honours.

Linda Jardine, of Scottish charity Children 1st, commented: “What is most damning is that there is nothing new in the shocking story of systemic failures to put children’s needs and safety first, told by today’s report.

“Yet again, individuals and institutions have failed to recognise child abuse, failed to listen to children and failed to stop children suffering. Yet again, they have put the reputations of the most powerful and wealthy before children’s right to safety and justice.

“The comprehensive letting down of our most precious and vulnerable children is intolerable.

“It is incumbent on us all to hold to account the institutions and individuals that have been found to have shielded the perpetrators of horrific abuse that have caused a lifetime of trauma for the children involved.”