Councils that let paedophiles run riot for 50 years
Report condemns local authorities’ officials for failing hundreds of victims
HUNDREDS of children in council care were sexually abused over five decades following repeated failings by local authorities and the police, an inquiry has found.
A report into historical abuse has concluded that vulnerable children were let down badly by those meant to be looking after them at Nottingham city council and Nottinghamshire county council.
It said youngsters who needed to be ‘nurtured, cared for and protected by adults they could trust’ were exposed to violence and sex abuse in many children’s homes and in foster care.
The abuse included rapes and other sexual assaults carried out by perpetrators including residential care staff, foster carers and their relatives.
The sexualised behaviour by predatory staff was ‘tolerated or overlooked’, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse said. It added that the councils also failed to learn from repeated mistakes. More than 350 people have come forward to describe abuse dating back to the Sixties, but the real figure is likely to be much higher, the report’s authors said. The inquiry – which has also been examining the sexual abuse of children in the Roman Catholic Church and at Lambeth council in London – began looking into the councils as allegations soared.
Presenting its report yesterday following 15 days of evidence at public hearings in October, it said the case included the largest number of specific allegations of sexual abuse in a single investigation considered by the inquiry.
Its chairman, Professor Alexis Jay, said: ‘For decades, children who were in the care of the Nottinghamshire councils suffered appalling sexual and physical abuse. Despite decades of evidence and many reviews showing what needed to change, neither of the councils learnt from their mistakes, meaning more children suffered unnecessarily.’
Some victims waived their right to anonymity to describe how the abuse had affected them.
Caroline Nolan, 55, said she was abused until she was seven or eight after being taken into care, adding: ‘I feel dirty and angry.’
Caroline Martin, 53, was ten when she went into a children’s home in Bulwell. She said she was physically and sexually abused regularly, but it wasn’t until she took an overdose in her mid-forties that she told a hospital nurse what had happened.
She said: ‘I have overwhelming feelings of bitterness and sadness. What makes it worse is the thought of being let down by the people who were supposed to protect you.’
One victim who was fostered at ten tried to take his own life after being abused by a foster carer.
He was only removed from care only after several complaints were made against his foster parent. He told the inquiry: ‘I am still full of fury. I don’t understand how someone with an allegation of underage sexual assault made against them can have been allowed to continue to foster children.’
Between the late Seventies and 2019, 16 residential staff were convicted of sexual abuse of children in residential care, while ten foster carers were convicted of sexual abuse of their foster children.
The offences in residential care took place at several children’s homes, including Beechwood House, which operated for 39 years from 1967 to 2006. The panel said it was not a safe environment for vulnerable children. Staff were threatening and violent, physical abuse was common and children were frightened, it said.
Sexualised behaviour by staff was also tolerated or overlooked.
Two men – care worker Barrie Pick and social worker Andris Logins – were jailed for abusing children at the home in Mapperley.
Looking at foster care from the Sixties, the inquiry found that when allegations of sexual abuse were made there was ‘too much willingness on the part of council staff’ to take the side of the foster carers and to disbelieve children.
In one ‘particularly shocking’ case in the Seventies, children were returned to a foster carer even after he pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of his two nieces.
The report also criticised Nottinghamshire police, saying it had ‘consistently shown a lack of urgency’.
David Mellen, leader of Nottingham city council, said it let victims down in ‘the worst possible way’.
Colin Pettigrew, corporate director for children’s services at Nottinghamshire county council, said: ‘We know apologies cannot take away the abuse people suffered.’
‘I am still full of fury’