Council admits child abuse at care home was not properly investigated
Council said ‘children’s concerns were not fully heard’ A council has admitted failings at a care home where a worker sexually abused young boys.
Victims of Brian Newman came forward following the Jimmy Saville scandal and a report has revealed numerous problems at the Woodhead Road children’s unit in Coylton, where the abuse took place between 1990 and 1996.
The former care home worker was jailed in 2015 after being found guilty of a six-year campaign of indecency and sexual assault against six boys at the South Ayrshire home.
An investigation by the South Ayrshire chief officers’ group for public protection found although Newman’s abuse was reported and investigated, the children’s concerns “were not fully heard”.
Other residents at the care home said they did not report the exploitation at the time for fear they would not be believed. Newman, 58, from Kilmarnock, was convicted of ten charges of indecency and sexual assault against six boys at the home.
Kim Leslie, an abuse lawyer at Digby Brown Solicitors, said: “We respect the acknowledgement by South Ayrshire Council there were failings but it is arguably too little, too late for our clients.
“As the report found, incidents of abuse and concerns were reported years ago but were not investigated properly, if at all.
“We represent individuals whose lives have been irreversibly changed after suffering at the hands of Brian Newman. Personal injury actions for damages are now under way on the grounds that South Ayrshire Council is vicariously liable for the abuse carried out by their former caretaker which I hope provides the answers and closure his victims deserve.”
The review, carried out by the independent South Ayrshire child protection committee, found “there were missed opportunities to deal with reports of abuse made by a former resident in 2007”.
Although Newman’s behaviour was reported by children at the time, “any action taken did not recognise the significance of these concerns”, according to the report.