6 November 2012 Last updated at 05:06 ET

Theresa May to announce Wales abuse probe plans

Home Secretary Theresa May will address MPs in the House of Commons later

Plans for a fresh inquiry into allegations of child abuse in north Wales are to be outlined to MPs later by Home Secretary Theresa May.

It comes after a man who claims he was abused by a senior Thatcher-era Conservative said an earlier inquiry did not fully investigate abuse claims.

Steve Messham said there was little point in "an inquiry into the inquiry" which did not examine the abuse claims.

Mrs May said it was vital to look fully at what had been done in the past.

William Hague ordered an inquiry into the abuse in 1996, when he was Welsh secretary. Over the course of three years, it heard from 650 people who had been in care from 1974.

A report was published in 2000 by Sir Ronald Waterhouse, who died in 2011.

Concerns have now been raised that the remit of the inquiry was too narrow, and that it failed to consider allegations about children being taken out of the homes to be made available to abusers.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mrs May said: "What we need to do is what the government is doing, which is saying - given the nature of these concerns, given the background, given the appalling nature of child abuse - we need to look very carefully to make sure that what was done in the past did indeed cover everything that it needed to do, and was done properly."

The home secretary, who is expected to address MPs around 1230 GMT, said she would be making a statement to the House of Commons about "how support will be able to be given to North Wales Police in terms of looking at the police investigation".

Mr Messham, who is set to meet Welsh Secretary David Jones later, has said that inquiry covered a fraction of the alleged assaults carried out at children's homes in North Wales during the 1970s and 1980s.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the allegations were "very concerning" and "dreadful".

He said: "We must get to the bottom of them as quickly as possible on behalf of the victims and that is why I have ordered this rapid investigation into the previous inquiry to find out if there was something wrong with it and to make sure the victims were properly listened to.

Welsh Assembly discussion

"Today the home secretary will be speaking to the House of Commons and making sure that the police have the capacity to deal with these allegations and making sure that no stone is left unturned in getting to the bottom of these appalling matters."

It comes the day after he said an independent figure would investigate the way the allegations were dealt with.

Downing Street is to hold talks with the Welsh government to establish the scope of the fresh investigation.

The issue is also expected to be discussed at first minister's questions in the Welsh Assembly.

Speaking ahead of his meeting with David Jones, Mr Messham told BBC News it was important that there was an investigation into how the police handled the original reports of abuse, but that should not be all that is investigated.

He said: "I welcome the announcement as long as it's an inquiry into the abuse that took place. There's no point in having an inquiry into the inquiry.

"I think we need that done by an outside police force, maybe the Met could come in and look at that."

'Shadowy figure'

He also said he believed the investigation into the way the Waterhouse inquiry was conducted should be headed by an expert, unlike the original inquiry. "I just hope that he does not appoint a judge," he said.

Allegations of abuse centring around the Bryn Estyn care home in north Wales, and involving almost 40 children's homes in Wales, began to emerge in the 1990s.

However, a report commissioned in March 1994 by Clwyd County Council was never published because of legal concerns.

A source close to Mr Hague - who is now foreign secretary - has told the BBC that no concerns were raised with him about the terms of the inquiry he established.

Keith Gregory, a Wrexham councillor, told the BBC he was sexually, physically and mentally abused at Bryn Estyn in the 1970s, by staff and others from the local community.

He said the abusers included MPs, solicitors, judges, factory directors, shopkeepers and serving police officers.

Counsel for the Waterhouse inquiry mentioned the existence of a "shadowy figure of high public standing", but said that there was no substantial evidence to support the allegations.

The inquiry identified 28 alleged perpetrators but they were never identified in public.

Source : bbc[dot]co[dot]uk