Police start garden body dig

13 April 2012

Police have started digging for bodies in the garden of a house alleged to be at the centre of a paedophile ring, neighbours said.

The council house, 107 Walton Green, on the New Addington estate near Croydon, south London, is being searched by police after its occupiers received a letter alleging bodies were buried in the back garden more than 30 years ago.

Pensioner and convicted paedophile Leslie Ford-Thrussell, 72, used to live there, but was not resident at the time of the alleged crimes.

He is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence.

Neighbours said that digging began at around 3pm.

Police had spent the weekend erecting scaffolding in the back garden and wire mesh fencing. A marquee-type tent is now covering the garden.

The police search at 107 Walton Green began one year after the residents who received the letter contacted them. Police acted after identifying the author and gathering additional evidence.

The tip-off about the bodies is believed to have come from Paul Dedman, 41, the son of the late former resident Stephen Dedman, The Sun newspaper reported.

The newspaper reported that Mr Dedman lived at the property with his father, Stephen, and his mother, Shirley. The newspaper also alleged that Ford-Thrussell ran a paedophile ring from the house with two other men, said to be Stephen Dedman and a man who cannot be named.

After Dedman's death from cancer at the age of 50 in 1985, Ford-Thrussell moved into the house before he was jailed in 2004 for abusing children, it was reported.

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