Ten
years of abuse - and girls were failed by everyone
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2058722005
Scotsman
- 8th October 2005
THREE girls
who were subjected to years of sexual, physical and emotional abuse
were failed repeatedly by the social workers whose job it was to
protect them, according to a damning report yesterday.
Over a
ten-year period, more than 200 separate reports noted concerns over
the girls and the systematic abuse they were suffering at the hands
of at least four adults, including their father.
Yet, social
workers failed to act, choosing instead to try to keep the family
together in their squalid home on the Isle of Lewis.
When the
girls were finally placed in foster care and their claims properly
investigated by police, they were failed again when the Crown Office
decided there was not enough evidence to pursue court action their
alleged abusers.
Nine people
were charged with serious sex offences involving the girls, aged
under 16, following statements from them and their mother, but prosecutors
decided not to proceed with the case.
Politicians
condemned the treatment of the girls and called for lessons to be
learned.
The 162-page
report on the case from the Social Work Inspection Agency charts
the abuse the girls endured over a decade, beginning when one of
them was just 14 months old.
"We
found evidence of physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect, as
well as symptoms and behaviour which are strongly suggestive of
sexual abuse. We believe that all three children were repeatedly
sexually abused," the report concluded.
It described
how they were forced to live without proper food, clothing or bedding.
One girl routinely slept in a cupboard and another was so hungry
she ate cat food, it is claimed.
The abuse
began in England, where "family A" came from, and continued
when they moved to the Western Isles in 1995.
Between
1990 and 2000, professionals north and south of the Border recorded
222 health concerns and allegations of sexual, physical and emotional
abuse and neglect towards the children. In that time, a total of
29 child protection case conferences were held. The children were
eventually placed with foster families in 1998 and 2001, but the
report said this should have happened much earlier.
The agency
said some of the decisions made were "seriously flawed".
It said that, mindful of previous child cases, such as that in Orkney,
workers had tried to keep the family together rather than focusing
on the needs of the children. It said professionals were too willing
to believe the accounts of adult family members rather than the
children's.
The report
said health workers had failed to spot child protection issues that
should have been flagged up by the children's health problems, while
the Western Isles NHS board did not have the procedures to support
staff in protecting the children.
The education
minister, Peter Peacock, demanded action from those responsible
for child protection in the Western Isles by 30 November. He said:
"This report writes yet another horrifying chapter in the continuing
exposure of child abuse in Scotland.
"In
this case, the professional agencies involved knew of, and recorded,
extensive concerns about the girls' welfare and wellbeing over a
number of years, but inspectors found they did not intervene early
enough."
Bill Howat,
the chief executive of Western Isles Council, said: "We accept
that there were serious shortcomings in our performance and that
is a matter of regret. Our aim is to provide the best possible children's
services in the Western Isles, and we must now see where improvements
can be made."
The suspected
abusers were picked up in dawn raids on Lewis and in Leicestershire,
West Yorkshire and Dorset in October 2003 as part of an investigation
codenamed Operation Haven. But the following July, the Crown Office
dropped its prosecution before the case got to trial.
Ian Latimer,
the Chief Constable of Northern Constabulary, said his force had
passed 222,000 pages of documents about the case to the Crown Office,
and added: "We had a sufficiency of evidence to charge a number
of people, and we did. As in all serious cases, the decision as
to whether a criminal prosecution should be undertaken is a matter
for the Crown counsel alone."
Alasdair
Morrison, the MSP for the Western Isles, said: "It is of deep
regret that this was not pursued through the courts and that should
alarm every right-thinking citizen. People who were identified were
not pursued and justice has not been done.
"Anyone
examining all this would be alarmed that there was such a substantial
body of evidence and the Crown Office decided not to take it further."
He said
he hoped the children would raise a private prosecution against
their abusers.
Mr Howat
said: "We put in enormous efforts in building up the case work
for this, and our staff ... found this harrowing and traumatic.
They are naturally very disappointed this did not proceed to prosecution."
The Crown
Office said: "Crown counsel concluded that the evidence available
did not reach the high standard required for a conviction of individual
accused persons before a criminal court."
Some of
the accused have always maintained their innocence. One, Peter Nelson,
said the claims had destroyed his life. "It's only when it
happens to you and you haven't done anything that you wonder how
many people are put in jail for crimes they did not commit,"
he said.
Penny Campbell,
wife of another accused, said they had been left angry and bitter.
"It has changed for ever the way we look at the authorities,"
she said.
One was
so hungry she ate cat food, one had no shoes, one slept in a cupboard
FILTHY
rooms. Starving children. Repeated sexual abuse. The horrific ordeal
endured by three young girls was laid out in chilling detail yesterday.
One girl was so hungry that she ate cat food and another had no
shoes to wear, while one slept in a cupboard, according to social
work inspectors.
Physical
neglect, which included beds soaked in urine and animals roaming
through the house, was compounded by violence and sexual abuse.
One girl had a burn thought to have been caused by a cigarette,
while another was sexually abused by her stepfather, Mr A, and other
men at the house in the Western Isles. A witness said she saw the
girls drink goat's milk, which they had strained through a pair
of dirty pants.
The report
states: "We believe that all three children were repeatedly
sexually abused, based on our analysis of all the material we have
seen."
The story
that has shocked the small island community of Lewis involves three
girls who cannot be named, but who were born in 1989, 1991, and
1993.
The older
girl was the daughter of Mrs A, who has a learning disability and
was herself a victim of physical and sexual abuse. In 1990, Mrs
A married Mr A, who was convicted in 1986 of indecent assault against
his nine-year-old daughter from a previous marriage. Together, they
had two more girls.
The oldest
girl was put on the child protection register in 1990 when she was
just one. Her half-sisters were also later put on the register as
being at risk of physical abuse.
The family
received almost constant support from social services in England
and moved to the Western Isles in 1995.
However,
it was found that after the family moved to the Western Isles not
all of their records were transferred at the same time. As a result,
while Mr A was considered a high risk in England, he was assessed
as a low risk in the Western Isles. This was later upgraded.
Investigators
believe that had all the records been available to social workers
in the Western Isles, an intervention may have come sooner and some
abuse could have been prevented.
Mrs A took
her oldest child to a GP when she was just 14 months old, worried
that she was being sexually abused by her husband. Between October
1990 and November 1991, the girls' nursery recorded 17 occasions
when she had a sore genital area or bodily bruising.
Concerns
about sexual abuse arose again in 1992, when Mrs A contacted the
police. The incidents continued when the family arrived in the Western
Isles. In 1996 the girl had a burn thought to have been caused by
a cigarette. In 1997, she claimed she was assaulted by her step-
father, who was charged, but the case was later dropped. One month
later, the girl alleged she was sexually abused.
As a result,
the girl was moved to foster parents, where she put on weight and
grew by two inches. She returned home later that year, but two months
later she again claimed she had been assaulted by her stepfather.
In March 1998, she was returned to the foster family, where she
remains. Between 1990 and 1998, professionals recorded 46 cases
of concern regarding the girl.
The report
says concerns about the middle girl increased from 1994 until she,
too, was removed from her parents' house. During 1994, she was found
to have multiple bruises to her ears, face and shoulder. Over the
next few years, social workers reported bruises, weals and burn-like
marks on her arm. Burns were also reported in 1997 and 1998.
A home-carer
in the Western Isles noted that a number of adults known to Mr and
Mrs A visited their home and she said: "To me, it was as if
the girls were an exhibition. I just don't like the girls running
around half-naked with him [the stepfather] in the house."
One adult is said to have admitted to police that he had on a number
of occasions touched at least one of the children in an intimate
and inappropriate manner.
Later,
the report says: "The physical abuse to which the children
were subjected may well have been aimed at preventing them from
telling about their sexual abuse. In their later disclosures and
statements to the police, both the children and their mother described
threats and intimidation to keep quiet."
The report
described the children's home in Lewis as of a poor standard, one
home-carer describing conditions as the worst she had ever seen.
In 1999, records show that Mr A was spending £10 a week on
a computer while the phone was disconnected for non-payment and
the youngest girl had no shoes to wear.
The inspectors
said: "We concluded that the children suffered emotional abuse
both as a result of the other abuse and neglect they suffered and
as a direct result of their parents' failure to consistently meet
their emotional needs."
Despite
the traumatic lives the girls led, their cries for help went unheeded
for some time; inspectors said that professionals, when confronted
with conflicting accounts of what happened by adults and children,
tended to believe the adults.
The major
investigation was sparked off in December 2002, when one of the
girls told her foster carer that she had been abused by adults who
had visited her parents' home. One girl told police officers of
being touched sexually by unrelated men who visited regularly.
Mrs A later
denied she knew of any abuse and Mr A, when interviewed by police,
denied any knowledge of the allegations.
After discussions
between social workers and police, a joint investigation began in
January, 2003 and continued until October. It culminated with raids
on 3 October at houses in the isles and in England, and initially
13 people were detained.
Nine were
later charged with a variety of offences, including rape, but in
July last year the Crown Office decided not to take any further
proceedings and the case remains closed. However, it is thought
the girls, who are receiving legal advice, may make the rare move
of using a private prosecution to try to bring the alleged abusers
to court.
How
the scandal developed
1990: Mr
and Mrs A married.
1990: Oldest
girl put on child protection register.
1990-1995:
English social services convene 12 child protection case conferences.
1995: Family
A move to the Western Isles.
1995-2001:
Western Isles social services department convenes 17 child protection
case conferences.
1997: Oldest
child first goes into foster care.
2001: Other
children in foster care.
November
2002: One girl makes allegations of abuse.
October
2003: Raids on homes in England and Western Isles - 13 detained,
nine later charged.
July 2004:
Crown Office drops case.
July 2004:
Western Isles Council invites social work inspectors to carry out
review of case.
