North Wales abuse: Children's commissioner wants inquiry

Correction 10 November 2012: The BBC has apologised unreservedly for broadcasting a report on Newsnight on 2 November over allegations of child abuse which transpired to have involved a case of mistaken identity. As a result the video of the original report has been removed from the website. More details can be found here.

Keith Towler, the Children's Commissioner for Wales, will write to First Minister Carwyn Jones on Monday to call for a new inquiry into north Wales child abuse allegations.

Mr Towler told the Sunday Politics Wales he suspects a group of people were protected by each other's power, enabling the abuse to continue in the 1970s and 80s.

It follows criticism from Steve Messham, one of hundreds of children abused in a case centred around the Bryn Estyn care home in north Wales.

He says he was abused by a leading Thatcher-era Conservative politician.

Mr Towler said it appeared there was strong evidence that during the Waterhouse Inquiry into the case, Mr Messham and perhaps other victims were denied the opportunity to talk in full about what had happened to them.

Plaid Cymru AM Dafydd Elis-Thomas and Conservative AM Nick Ramsay both backed Mr Towler's call for a new inquiry.