North Wales child abuse scandal


The North Wales child abuse scandal was the subject of a three-year, £13 million investigation into the physical and sexual abuse of children in care homes in the counties of Clwyd and Gwynedd, in North Wales, including the Bryn Estyn children's home at Wrexham, between 1974 and 1990. The report into the scandal, headed by retired High Court judge Sir Ronald Waterhouse QC, which was published in 2000, resulted in changes in policy in England and Wales into how authorities deal with children in care, and to the settling of 140 compensation claims on behalf of victims of child abuse.
In November 2012, new allegations led to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, announcing that a senior independent figure, later named as Mrs Justice Julia Macur, would examine the conduct and remit of the Waterhouse Inquiry. In addition, the Home Secretary, Theresa May, announced a new police inquiry into how the original allegations were dealt with, as well as an investigation of any new allegations. The broadcasting of false allegations on Newsnight on 2 November led to the resignation of the Director-General of the BBC, George Entwistle, eight days later.
The report of phase one of the police investigation, Operation Pallial, was published on 29 April 2013. It set out a total of 140 allegations of abuse at 18 children's homes in North Wales between 1963 and 1992. The police stated in November 2013 that, in the previous year, over 200 people had come forward to assist their enquiries.
In November 2014, the owner of several children's residential homes in the Wrexham area, John Allen, was convicted at Mold Crown Court on 33 counts of sexual abuse against 19 boys and one girl, aged between 7 and 15, during the 1960s and 1970s, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Macur review report was published in March 2016.

Background

In common with local government practice at the time, the two major councils in North Wales – Clwyd and Gwynedd – had a series of council-owned alongside privately owned and operated children's homes. These provided residential care for children in line with the guidelines provided by both the Welsh Office and the British government. Homes and facilities in the region included:
  • Clwyd
  • *Council owned: Bryn Estyn; Cartrefle; Little Acton Assessment Centre; Bersham Hall; Chevet Hey; Park House; Upper Downing; South Meadow; Ysgol Talfryn
  • *Privately owned: Bryn Alyn; Ystrad Hall School; Clwyd Hall School; Gatewen Hall; Tanllwyfan
  • Gwynedd
  • *Council owned: Queens Park ; Ty'r Felin; Ty Newydd; Cartref Bontnewydd
  • *Privately owned: Do'l Rhyd School and Ysgol Hengwrt
  • National Health Service facilities: Gwynfa Residential Unit

    Initial reports of abuse

From 1974 to 1990, a series of incidents of child abuse occurred within the North Wales children's homes. Initial reports which did not appear in public included:
  • 1979: Internal investigation of reports in 1979
  • September 1986: Residents of Ysgol Hengwrt, to the council. These reports eventually were brought to the Welsh Office's attention.
  • 1988: The then Spastics Society against the care regime of Hengwrt Hall, to the council

    Alison Taylor: allegations, dismissal and publication

In the mid-1980s Alison Taylor, a residential care worker and then manager of a children's home in Gwynedd, began hearing stories from children coming to her home from across Clwyd and Gwynedd about a series of child sexual and abuse incidents in various care homes. On investigation, she found that several reports of these incidents had been made by both care and social workers, but that no procedural or disciplinary action had so far been taken as a result.
Creating a file around cases involving six children, Taylor made a series of allegations against senior social care professionals working for the authority which she raised with her superiors at the council, but again no action was taken. Taylor then reported her allegations to North Wales Police in 1986. The council suspended Taylor in January 1987, alleging that there had been a "breakdown in communications" between Taylor and her colleagues.
On two subsequent occasions, the council offered Taylor a financial termination agreement, subject to her signing a confidentiality agreement. After refusing to sign the confidentiality agreement, Taylor was dismissed. With the help of her trade union, Taylor took the council to an industrial tribunal, which was quickly closed after the parties came to an out of court financial settlement. In September 1989, Taylor accepted the agreement, which did not include an associated confidentiality agreement.
At the later Inquiry, Sir Ronald Waterhouse publicly vindicated Taylor. He stated that without Taylor's campaigning, there would have been no inquiry. Taylor was awarded a Pride of Britain award in 2000, and since 1996 has worked as a novelist.

Initial public investigations

After agreement had been reached with the council, Taylor went to the local, Welsh and UK national media with her allegations. In these reports, Taylor made further allegations about Bryn Estyn care home in Wrexham, which had been run until its closure in 1984 by Clwyd County Council.
In 1990, an investigation was undertaken by Detective Inspector Cronin of North Wales Police into allegations of sexual abuse at Cartrefle. Later reports found that Cronin undertook a thorough investigation to the best of his abilities, but that the investigation was restricted by a lack of co-operation by Children's Services and Social Services. Cronin's report, which found insufficient evidence to undertake a successful prosecution, was subsequently submitted to the council and became known as the Cartrefle Report.
Taylor continued her media campaign, discovering that more than ten reports of child abuse had been made to both councils before she had raised her concerns. Approached by other former and current residents and care workers with additional allegations, in 1991 Taylor compiled a dossier of allegations from over 100 young people, from which she took evidence from 75 cases which she submitted to North Wales Police, and copied to the council and Welsh Office. Only the police took any action, but were again not given co-operation by the council's social services team.
Wider UK concerns about children in residential care led to the commissioning of 10 public enquiries between 1990 and 1996, including the Utting Report and the Warner Report, which exposed large-scale institutional abuse of children and young people. As a result, prompted by the Welsh Office and with the support of local politicians, the newly appointed Director of Social Services in Clwyd found several instances of previous allegations uncovered by previous council investigations, which had either not been properly investigated or where reports calling for action had been ignored.
The wider matter of child sexual abuse was then referred jointly by both councils to North Wales Police who undertook an inquiry in 1993, taking some 2,600 witness statements, and 300 cases were subsequently sent to the Crown Prosecution Service. As a result, seven people were prosecuted and convicted. Six residential social workers were prosecuted for abuse, three of whom had worked at Bryn Estyn. The former deputy head of Bryn Estyn, Peter Howarth, was jailed for 10 years in 1994 for sexually abusing teenage boys; he died in 1997.

Jillings Report

There were then allegations that members of the police force had themselves colluded in covering up allegations. In March 1994 Clwyd County Council commissioned a further inquiry, the Jillings Report, undertaken by a panel headed by John Jillings, a former director of social services with Derbyshire County Council. The panel of Jillings, Professor Jane Tunstall and Gerrilyn Smith met with considerable opposition:
  • The then newly appointed North Wales chief constable refused to meet them or help with access to the police major-incident database. This resulted in the need to collect 70 duplicate and additional witness statements, obtained by local councillors and MPs, who included Ann Clwyd the MP for Cynon Valley since 1984.
  • 130 boxes of material handed over by the council to the police were not made available to the panel.
  • The council did not allow the inquiry to place a notice in the local press seeking information. "This was considered to be unacceptable to the insurers", says the final report.
The Jillings Report stated that allegations involving famous names and paedophile rings were beyond its remit, and something best addressed at a potential later public inquiry. It found a child care system in which physical and sexual violence were common, from beatings and bullying, to indecent assault and rape. Children who complained of abuse were not believed, or were punished for making false allegations. The report stated that the number of children who were abused is not clear, but estimates range up to 200; in the early 1990s, around 150 had sought compensation. At least 12 former residents were found to have died from unnatural causes. The report states that some staff linked to abuse may have been allowed to resign or retire early. The report concludes that its panel members had considered quitting before publication, due to: "...the considerable constraints placed upon us." The final report's appendices included limited copies of the key witness statements taken by North Wales Police during their earlier investigation.
The final report was not published because of concerns over libel, and legal advice and concerns from the council's insurers, Municipal Mutual Insurance, which warned that the report would encourage court cases and compensation claims. The report also states that Municipal Mutual suggested that the then chair of the council's social services committee, Malcolm King, be sacked if he spoke out. In November 2012, King commented:
It was assumed until November 2012 that all publicly held copies of the Jillings Report had been destroyed, and hence it could not be published. In light of the re-emergence of the scandal that month, one of the few legally held remaining copies was sent to the Children's Commissioner for Wales, Keith Towler.
In November 2012, Anne Clwyd MP called for the legal archive copy of the report to be published, claiming that she was shown a copy in 1994: "I would say please get the Jillings report published because it shows... rape, bestiality, violent assaults and torture, and the effects on those young boys at that time cannot be under-estimated." BBC Wales subsequently spoke to Jillings about Ms Clwyd's claim of bestiality, but Jillings said his report did not unearth any such claims. Jillings also commented that public figures were not among names given by victims, and that: "The people the investigation focussed on, because these were the people that the children spoke to us about, were staff members." Jillings commented to other media:
In November 2012 Flintshire County Council uncovered a copy of the Jillings Report in their archive. The six north Wales councils took legal advice about whether it could be made available under Freedom of Information legislation.
A redacted version of the report was finally published in July 2013, after a request by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act. It said that: "Our investigations have led us to conclude that the abuse of children and young people in Clwyd residential units has been extensive, and has taken place over a substantial number of years.... It is clear that, in a significant number of cases, the lives of young people who have been through the care system in Clwyd have been severely disrupted and disturbed." It severely criticised North Wales Police, and stated that "the most striking fact to emerge is that five men who shared in common their employment as residential care workers at Bryn Estyn were convicted of serious offences involving at least 24 young people."
In June 2013, a redacted copy of the Jillings report was reportedly put up for auction on internet auction site eBay. After Wrexham Council threatened legal action, the item was removed from sale.