Victims call for police probe as key child care f iles go missing
VICTIMS are demanding that police are called in to investigate the loss or destruction of vital records that could have helped to prove child abuse claims.
The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) has heard allegations that potential evidence has gone missing, which survivors fear could make it harder to get justice.
Campaigners have expressed concerns that some organisations could be trying to cover up the activities of paedophiles who preyed on children in care.
The Mail recently revealed that the SCAI had passed information to police to highlight the possibility of youngsters being put at risk by molesters who are still at large.
Alan Draper, of In Care Abuse Survivors (INCAS), said: ‘We think there should be a police investigation when evidence is presented that records were destroyed. The possibility of a criminal conspiracy to prevent abusers being brought to justice cannot be ignored.’
It emerged recently that records from a children’s home in Edinburgh were destroyed by a local authority, despite strict regulations which stipulate files must be retained for 100 years.
St Katharine’s secure unit was supposed to be a refuge for traumatised young girls but council carer Gordon Collins molested and raped teenagers between 1995 and 2006. It is understood that the council believes the destruction of the records for St Katharine’s was the result of ‘genuine human error’.
A City of Edinburgh Council spokesman apologised for the ‘administrative error’ and said it was ‘investigating’.
St Katharine’s is one of eight local authority establishments under investigation by the SCAI. It is also looking into eight institutions run by religious orders, six boarding schools and four charities including Barnardo’s and Quarriers.
At an SCAI hearing in June, Brother Michael Madigan of the Christian Brothers, which has apologised for abuse in its care, said logbooks had gone missing at St Ninian’s School in Falkland, Fife, a home where children were abused. The inquiry heard that logbooks for St Ninian’s from 1976 to 1983 were missing – which Brother Madigan called ‘mystifying’. There is no suggestion of deliberate destruction of these records.
It also emerged at an SCAI public hearing that only 10 per cent of historical records from the 1970s and 1980s had been retained by Barnardo’s for archiving, which would ‘limit the scope of a detailed response [by Barnardo’s to the inquiry].’
The number of locations where abuse has been reported has now risen to more than 100. If an organisation has deliberately destroyed records, it could lead to a charge of interference with the administration of justice.
An SCAI spokesman said: ‘The inquiry has been working closely with Police Scotland.
‘Any criminal investigations resulting from evidence presented to the inquiry are a matter for Police Scotland.’
A police spokesman said: ‘Police Scotland is not in receipt of any report in relation to the destruction of records. If there is a concern that records had been intentionally destroyed with criminal intent, then this is a matter which should be reported to the police.’
‘Possibility of a conspiracy’