A victim of the Magic Circle paedophile ring has spoken for the first time about the damage caused to teenagers groomed to sell sex.
The man, in his fifties, was one of 11 underage youths discovered in a police probe named Operation Planet into high-level professionals in Edinburgh exploiting teen boys in the early 90s.
Ten of the abusers, including a lawyer, a senior journalist, a primary teacher, an engineering executive and a supermarket manager, faced 57 charges.
An adult sex worker who recruited the youths for his clients was jailed for four years but the powerful men who paid the boys for sex walked free – one after a not proven verdict while the others never faced trial.
Of the 11 underage sex workers – some had started selling sex at 15 and even 14 – five have died.
The youngest pair, 15 and 16 at the time charges were brought, died in their 20s, one by suicide and one overdosed on drugs. But one surviving victim claims the men accused “got away with it” and had caused untold damage.
Speaking on a BBC podcast, the victim said: “It was a really difficult time for me. I can see clear as day they were taking advantage.
“I can see grooming. I thought it was fine then but it really wasn’t.”
The Magic Circle Affair was named because high-profile sex crime investigations, including Planet, seemed to vanish from the justice system.
Lothian and Borders Police ordered a detective, Roger Orr, now retired, to look into the matter and he recommended a probe. The force hierarchy feared a political backlash and shredded the report but it was leaked to the media.
William Nimmo Smith QC investigated the matter and in 1993 gave the Scottish legal profession a clean bill of health, with the exception of one famous QC, Robert Henderson.
He claimed to have a list of prominent people in the law, including judges, who were secretly gay, implying he had the power to end their careers. Henderson’s nickname, Shiny Bob, hinted at a darker side that operated outside the law.
Ex-prosecutor John Watt QC, now 73, a friend of Henderson who had acted alongside him to defend some of the accused in Magic Circle cases, was jailed for historic child sex offences.
One of his victims, Henderson’s daughter Susie, 56, who has waived her right to anonymity, now believes her dad orchestrated the Magic Circle affair as a smokescreen to cover up a paedophile ring.
Susie has identified several senior lawyers among her dad’s friends who were allowed by him to sexually abuse her. He also raped her repeatedly during her childhood.
Her father and most of her abusers are dead but Susie reported her abuse in 2014 and a police operation followed which led to Watt’s extradition from the US. He was convicted and jailed for 10 years for raping Susie and a boy of 10, and abusing two other children.
Susie said last night: “Most of my abusers are dead but there is still one powerful man living and free, reputation intact.”
Shiny Bob: The Devil’s Advocate is on BBC Sounds.
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