Top St John Ambulance staff ‘ignored’ abuse cases

SOCIAL AFFAIRS EDITOR THE St John Ambulance service has apologised after it emerged that senior figures tried to distance themselves from dealing with allegations of abuse of young volunteers in the 1990s.

Legal papers from the case of one former cadet who was sexually abused by a leader in the north of England in the middle of the decade show how senior figures asked not to be involved in dealing with the fallout. One memo seen by

shows how officials openly discussed fears that any involvement by the organisation’s headquarters in handling media inquiries about the case might “insinuate” the organisation had a “serious problem”.

The leader in question, a local superintendent, was jailed in the late 1990s after admitting sex offences against two boys in his group.

But the papers reveal that senior staff knew at the time of the suspicions that there could have been up to 10 victims.

Details of their strategy emerged in legal papers disclosed to one of the two victims, now in his mid-30s, who was of primary school age when the abuse began. He has received an out-of-court settlement from the organisation for failing in its duty of care.

The current chief executive, Sue Killen, wrote a carefully worded apology for the handling of his case. She expressed “deep regret” about the abuse he had “reported suffering” and apologised “that you feel this was inappropriately dealt with”.

The man, who cannot be identified, described the apology as a “cop out” and a “face-saving exercise”.

His lawyer, Thomas Beale, a senior associate at AO Advocates, said: “Given that the primary function of St John Ambulance is to care for others it is alarming that they failed so egregiously to safeguard their own young cadets.”

A spokesman for St John Ambulance said: “We have expressed our sincere regret to the victim regarding the abuse that he suffered.

“We also regret that he feels we did not support him appropriately at the time and for that we can only apologise. Processes in the past did not always involve escalating issues to our national headquarters, as individual counties were run separately and autonomously by their own commanders.”