Labour Party suspends ex-council chief after report says that he lied
From page 3 officials in education and in social services.”
The inquiry reveals that following the public hearings late last year, in February of this year it received a letter from Coun Farnell, outlining further reasons he was unaware of the scandal at the time.
The report finds that having seen both the former leader and his colleague Peter Joinson give evidence in person, the inquiry favours the latter’s evidence.
“We have no hesitation in preferring the evidence of Mr Joinson over that of Mr Farnell,” it says.
“Mr Joinson came across as mild-mannered and meek, whereas Mr Farnell, who has been described as a person who ‘bullied and browbeat people’ (denied by Mr Farnell himself), came across to us as bullish, self-opinionated and unyielding.”
The report also criticises Paul Rowen, the Liberal Democrat leader who took over from Coun Farnell in 1992. It finds he also bore ‘considerable responsibility’ for the school while in charge, adding: “As with Richard Farnell, he was prepared to blame others without acknowledging his own failures of leadership.
“At best, he was insufficiently inquisitive about Knowl View school, despite having knowledge of the serious problems that persisted at the school; at worst, as council leader, he turned a blind eye to these problems and chose to given them low priority.”
The inquiry does not make detailed findings on the implications on Rochdale council as an institution as a result of its report, because it wants to hear evidence from similar scandals at Nottinghamshire county council and Lambeth council before issuing them.
But it does find that the council ‘failed in its basic function to keep its children safe from harm, particularly sexual harm, both in and out of school.’
It finds ‘no deliberate cover-up’ at the time ‘but a careless and wholly inadequate response to the serious sexual abuse at Knowl View.’