Theresa May appoints National Crime Agency chief Keith Bristow to lead investigation into allegations a paedophile ring operated at care homes in North Wales A senior police officer was today appointed by Theresa May, the Home Secretary, to investigate allegations that a paedophile ring operated at care homes in North Wales for more than a decade. Keith Bristow, the director of the National Crime Agency, has been charged with investigating the child abuse allegations and has been told to publish his conclusions by next April. She also announced that Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary will examine whether police forces across the country failed to pursue evidence of abuse against Jimmy Savile. However, she refused to order a single over-arching inquiry into the extent of child abuse - a stance that led to one Labour MP accusing her of risking a "cover-up." Amid claims that several senior Tories from the Thatcher years were involved in child abuse, Ms May began a statement to MPs by warning them against using the parliamentary privilege to name alleged culprits. Mr Bristow will lead investigations into new claims about sex offences against youngsters in the 1970s and 1980s, and review how previous inquiries were carried out. The Home Secretary said the North Wales Police chief constable, Mark Polin, had asked Mr Bristow to "assess the allegations recently received, to review the historic police investigations and investigate any fresh allegations reported to police into the alleged historic abuse in North Wales care homes." Mrs May said Serious Organised Crime Agency and Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre experts would also take part in the review. She said Home Office funds were available if needed and added that Mr Bristow's report into the historic investigation and any fresh allegations would be complete by April. She echoed Prime Minister David Cameron's pledge yesterday that an urgent inquiry would take place to see if a late-1990s inquiry by Sir Ronald Waterhouse "was properly constituted and did its job." Mrs May said: "The report found no evidence of a paedophile ring beyond the care system which was the basis of the rumours that followed the original police investigation, and indeed one of the allegations that has been made in the last week. Last Friday, a victim of sexual abuse at one of the homes named in the report - Steve Messham - alleged that the inquiry did not look at abuse outside the care homes, and he renewed allegations against the police and several individuals. This Government is treating these allegations with the utmost seriousness. Child abuse is a hateful, abhorrent and disgusting crime, and we must not allow these allegations to go unanswered. She said victims who came forward would be supported, adding: "Those of us in positions of authority and responsibility will not shirk our duty to support you. We must do everything in our power to do everything we can to help you, and everything we can to get to the bottom of these terrible allegations. The shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, warned there could be confusion as a result of the number of different investigations into child abuse allegations including those into Savile's activities. Her call for a single overarching public inquiry was echoed by a number MPs from across the House. Ms Cooper said: "These are deeply disturbing allegations. Child abuse and sexual abuse of children and young people are among the most sinful of crimes. When adults who should be trusted to care for children abuse their power and position of trust, committing violent crimes that can haunt those young people for the rest of their lives. That is of course made worse if society and the institutions charged with protecting children, including in the criminal justice system, fail to step in to provide greater protection or fail to hold perpetrators to account. She added: "We do now have a whole series of inquiries under way looking into similar problems in addition to the important police and criminal investigations. There are three BBC inquiries into what happened with Jimmy Savile, a Department of Health inquiry as well as several separate hospital inquiries, a CPS inquiry, a new North Wales inquiry and an HMIC inquiry into other forces who may have received allegations about Jimmy Savile. We have already raised concerns that the Savile investigations ought to be brought under a single inquiry and we remain concerned