“I know what’s going on. I’m going to spill the beans soon,” council worker Bulic Forsythe told a colleague on a cold February day in 1993.
Just days later, the 42-year-old was found dead – in horrific, mysterious circumstances that have baffled investigators for decades.
Bulic Forsythe was brutally murdered in 1993, in a case that is unsolved to this dayMirrorpix MirrorpixKiddist Forsythe was born three months after Bulic’s murder[/caption] BBCPaedophile John Carroll was a manager at a children’s home run by Lambeth Council[/caption]Called to a fire raging in his small flat in Brixton, firemen found Bulic lying in his bed with a pillow over his head.
The father-to-be, described by colleagues as decent and hard-working, had been killed by repeated blows against his skull.
It was a chilling cold case, and to this day no one has been charged.
Police at the time looked into his personal life, suspecting he had lived a double life within the gay community, or that the motive was robbery.
What wasn’t investigated was his professional life at Lambeth Council.
And if they had, they might have found a much darker motive behind his brutal murder.
During the 80s and 90s, the council was mired in corruption, with allegations of financial malpractice and abuse of power.
But the most serious crimes did not become clear until decades later, when an unearthed internal investigation shed light on the horrific abuses of a paedophile ring operating primarily in the housing department where Bulic worked.
Often in the basement of council buildings themselves, the sickening network assaulted and even filmed the abuse of hundreds of children in care.
Horrific child abuse videos were thought to have been made and distributed by council staff, while other workers were reportedly intimidated, coerced, or even drugged before being assaulted themselves.
In all, it is now alleged that at least 700 children were sexually abused while under the council’s care, though the true number is believed to be even higher.
And shockingly, only a handful of the abusers – who included senior council workers – have ever been prosecuted, with investigators warning that many still walk UK streets to this day.
Now, a Channel 4 documentary from criminologist Professor David Wilson and Emilia Fox has unearthed new witness evidence that suggests they were prepared to go to any length – even murder – to silence potential whistleblowers like Bulic.
“I’ve got no doubt that if the police were to continue to look at the information which we have provided to them, there is every possibility that there could be arrests in relation to what happened to Bulic,” David told The Sun.
“In my career, I’ve seen cold cases reopened, reinvestigated, and successfully prosecuted on the basis of less evidence than what emerged during the investigation that took place for his documentary.”
Murder mystery
Born in Jamaica before moving to Britain, Bulic worked for the council’s housing department and lived alone, with his wife based in America.
But then, out of the blue, he didn’t show up for work.
His neighbour reported a commotion – the sound of heavy footsteps – then at 2am on February 26, they were awoken by the smell of burning before the fire brigade recovered his body.
Tragically, he died just three months before the birth of his daughter, Kiddist, who has since joined the campaign to find justice for her father.
The fire had destroyed any forensic evidence. Instead, police noted the fact Bulic had friends in the gay scene, wondering he had been secretly bisexual – a line of inquiry that led nowhere.
BBCBulic’s murder was reconstructed on an episode of Crimewatch in 1993[/caption] AlamyCorruption and a culture of fear within the council prevented the truth from coming out[/caption] Bulic’s wife, Dawn, would give birth to their child three months laterMirrorpixLater, a man was found in possession of some jewellery taken from his flat, but they were unable to place the suspect at the time of the murder – and no one was ever charged.
But what was ignored by police at the time was Bulic’s workplace, Lambeth Council.
“It was a very difficult time. Lambeth had been in the news as a disaster for many years by then – every year services were getting worse,” Stephen Whaley, council leader at the time, told the documentary.
“There was an endless barrage of accusations of corruption. You had a process of corrupt people corrupting others, to make sure it never came out.”
Somebody broke into my house, and poured petrol onto my bed… the coldness of the petrol woke me up and made me jump out of bed just as they were lighting it
LouiseLambeth became a byword for corruption and fraud – but a culture of fear made blowing the whistle difficult.
Nearly unearthed files even reveal that at one point, Bulic resigned from his position, with his manager noting he was “aware of the effort Bulic made because of the culture of the organisation.”
“It was an incredibly hard place to work. It would have been an even harder place to speak out,” said Clive Driscoll, a former Detective Chief Inspector for the Metropolitan Police.
“There was a councillor who told me that there was a man that would go round and give a knock on your door, basically saying that if you didn’t shut up, things could happen to you.”
Victims silenced
Yet as it emerged, the corruption went far deeper than just financial manipulation, with both children under the care of the council and staff members themselves subjected to horrific sexual assaults behind closed doors.
And whoever was carrying out this abuse had an extensive network able to threaten and intimidate people at will.
One person, Louise*, who worked at the council around the time of Bulic’s death, claims she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a senior official in the council, often where there were children.
The former staffer, who appears in the documentary speaking anonymously, says many of the assaults were captured on camera – she believes for money.
But even this was not as terrifying as what happened when she tried to speak publicly.
BBCJohn Carroll was eventually convicted for committing sexual offences[/caption] BBCFormer Met police officer Clive Driscoll recalls the culture of fear and intimidation at the council[/caption] Channel 4Professor David Wilson and Emilia Fox take on the unsolved case of Bulic Forsyth in their new Channel 4 documentary[/caption]“An investigation was set up. I was told a lot of people came forward – but they didn’t take any signed statements because people were terrified,” she said.
“Initially it was phone calls, telling me to back off, then I had a chemical thrown in my face.
“And then lastly, somebody broke into my house, and poured petrol on to my bed.
“The coldness of the petrol woke me up and made me jump out of bed just as they were lighting it.”
Louise’s attack has terrifying parallels with that against Bulic – and she has now moved away from London out of fear for what could happen to her.
After all these years, I’m even more convinced that he discovered the bad things that were going on
Anna TapsellWorking in the housing department, Bulic himself was only a few degrees of separation from the abuse that was going on.
People who knew him have recalled conversations in which he suggested that he was about to expose everything.
Bulic was determined to reveal the truth and told pals he was compiling a report that detailed names, locations and dates concerning the sexual abuse.
The document has never been found following the murder and arson attack at his property.
“He came to me briefly when I was in the council chamber. He just said, ‘I’m on to something’,” recalled Anna Tapsell, a councillor at the time who was also looking into the allegations of child abuse.
“My immediate assumption was that it was something to do with financial wrongdoing.
“I now know that he was probably looking at the same thing that I was.”
Industrial-scale abuse
Like Louise, when Anna started to speak out, she found her home burgled a number of times – but only the post would be stolen.
In the end, such were her fears that she arranged for her children to stay with different people until the threat blew over.
BBCMany who were close to Bulic believe he was killed because of what he was about to expose[/caption] shirleyoakssurvivorsassociation.co.ukWhistleblower and ex Lambeth councillor Anna Tapsell was approached by Bulic shortly before he died[/caption] BBCThe Crimewatch episode also noted that a witness saw some “men in suits” leave his flat with briefcases and files[/caption]“Everybody knew that [Bulic] was very fearful before he was killed,” Anna added.
“People told me that Bulic had actually found something about people making films with children.
“After all these years, I’m even more convinced that he discovered the bad things that were going on.”
It turned out that Bulic was right, with an unpublished internal investigation carried out by officers within Lambeth Council in the 1990s – which was uncovered a decade ago – laying bare the shocking extent of the abuse that went on.
Because of Bulic, people were really, really frightened
LouiseEven the basement of Lambeth’s housing headquarters was thought to have been used to carry out assaults, and one anonymous woman described being raped alongside children and animals by important figures within the council.
The abuse was so widespread that council leaders found themselves forced to shut down the children’s homes.
Some people were let go from their roles – but the internal report recommended a full criminal investigation, which never happened.
No justice
One of the locations in which Louise was subjected to abuse was the South Vale Children’s home, run by the council.
It’s one of five homes which, according to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, was infiltrated by abusers – both as staff and as “volunteers”.
One man, Leslie Paul, who was eventually convicted in 2016 for a string of child sex offences that took place at South Vale, was also a special constable within the Metropolitan Police at the time.
It is not outside the scope of possibility that corrupt police officers played a role in covering up the abuse and throwing investigators off the scent of Bulic’s murder.
“For his professional life not to have been pursued by police at the time seemed to me at best simply an oversight,” added David Wilson.
“At worst, it was a dereliction of duty.”
Social worker Leslie Paul abused four boys in his careCentral News AlamyBulic’s murder terrified those hoping to speak out[/caption] AFP - GettyJustice Lowell Goddard led a modern-day inquiry into the child sexual abuse in Lambeth[/caption]Another council worker corroborated that Bulic’s report was going to reveal who was behind the widespread abuse.
Like Louise, she chose to remain anonymous out of fears for her safety.
But before Bulic was able to release his findings, he was dead – and the report was never found.
“Because of Bulic, people were really, really frightened,” Louise added.
I have no doubt that there are people out there who were involved in the sexual abuse and in covering it up
Prof. David WilsonA Crimewatch report on the murder even noted that a group of men in suits were spotted leaving his house the day he went missing, carrying out briefcases of files.
To date, only six people have been prosecuted in relation to the abuse that happened under the watch of Lambeth Council.
Leslie Paul himself was convicted on three separate occasions for abusing for boys in his care during the 1980s.
Another, John Michael Carroll, was a children’s home manager for 10 years, from 1981 to 1991.
Shockingly, the council didn’t dismiss him when he disclosed that he’d previously received a conviction for child abuse.
In 1999, he was convicted of 35 offences including buggery of young boys and served five years in jail.
But the true number of perpetrators is likely to be even higher.
“At the time, there was a reluctance to actually say that children were being sexually abused on an industrial scale,” said David, who also noted that when making the documentary, people willing to speak on record about the abuse and corruption at the time were hard to come by.
“I have no doubt that there are people out there who were involved in the sexual abuse and in covering it up.”
In the Footsteps of Killers: The Murder of Bulic Forsythe airs tonight at 10pm on Channel 4
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