Jillings report into abuse in North Wales Homes suppressed for 17 years redacted and released

Abused children in North Wales have waited nearly 20  years  for the Report By Mr Jillings ex Derby Social Services to be released.  Pirate copies of the suppressed report  seen by only a few people were protected for years. Child Abuse Whistle Blower  and ex Duncroft girl Andrea Davison had a copy which was seized by the Derby and North Wales Police in January 2010.  Former Minister  Rod Richards MP said he had seen it and the report  named  the Conservative MP Peter Morrison as a child abuser.

 Now this report has finally been released but heavily redacted  and confirms  'extensive' abuse at north Wales children's homes   link to read  the actual Jillings report

 The report  expressed concern that there was no independent mechanism to investigate serving or former police officers implicated in abuse. And it said it had simply not been able to address some areas including the suggestion that public figures had been involved in abuse.

Time and time again the responses to indications that children may have been abused has been too little and too late. The criticisms apply not only to Clwyd county council but also to the Welsh Office and North Wales police."

The panel found that almost 4,000 statements were taken by police investigating abuse at children's homes during the period they looked at.

But the report said: "Of the many statements taken, it is unclear how many were forwarded to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration. It is also unclear how many other professionals, including police officers, were named in these statements as perpetrators of assaults." So it is hardly surprising that  Derby and North Wales  Police Seized the report from Andrea Davison  which  without redaction   actually names paedophiles  in the North Wales and Derby Police. 

The Heavily redacted version of 300-page report was finally published today after 17 years following freedom of information requests.  The  full report once kept  by Andrea Davison is still after 3 and half years in the hands of Mick Creedon  Chief constable of Derby Police. Mick Creedon is  now allegedly investigating corruption in the Metropolitan Police. Creedon is  tasked to investigate the  use of undercover officers to have  sex with activists and  Police use of  of dead babies passports to create false ID and get  credit cards.  One of the undercover officers he is investigating is Mark Kennedy used by corrupt Barrister Felicity Gerry  to set up the Radcliffe power station activists.  Felicity Gerry was also used by Mick Creedon set-up Andrea  Davison  and is responsible for Mick Creedon being able to suppress the whole of the Jillings report.

 Clwyd agreed to publish a heavily redacted version of the 300-page Jillings report.
It made clear that it was limited by a number of "constraining factors", including that it was unclear to what extent material held by North Wales police was available. It also said there was a lack of clarity about the accessibility of some social services files.   

Campaigners have warned that the authorities are still failing to tackle the epidemic of child abuse in Britain following the publication of a suppressed report into “bestial” cruelty carried out at children’s homes in North Wales in the 1970s and 80s.  

 

Survivors groups said valuable years had been lost following a decision by the now defunct Clwyd County Council to shelve the 1996 Jillings report which reveals how attempts to expose the scale of the scandal were constrained by police, social services and other agencies.

The two year inquiry uncovered an “appalling” and “extensive” history of child abuse – including buggery, assault, and cruelty - dating back two decades and culminating with a series of paedophile trials centring on the Bryn Estyn children's home in Wrexham.

But its conclusions were suppressed for the past 17 years after fears by insurers that it could open the floodgates to compensation and libel claims.

Although finally made public following Freedom of Information requests by The Independent and others, the 300-page report is heavily redacted to blank out the names of any individuals suspected of wrongdoing.

Peter Saunders of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood said:  “We hear from survivors that there are still perpetrators who are out there. They have been known about for a long time and they are still around.

“Abuse persists because of secrecy, fear, and failure to act or bring the truth out. Unless there is a very good reason, there is no excuse for the redaction of this report. It should be open and out there.”

Malcolm King, then chair of the council’s social services committee, said it was time for a Royal Commission to examine child abuse in Britain following this and other high profile cases including the Jimmy Savile affair.

“It is the same old, same old. It is the same lawyers and the same sort of everything that wants to suppress the truth.

“All sorts of legal reasons are made up for that but I don’t buy it. If we can’t tell the truth about what happened 30, 40 or 50 years ago then  what hope is there for telling the about today?” he said.
At least 12 young people are believed to have died as a result of the abuse they suffered whilst staying in the children’s homes.

Yet despite 10 previous internal inquiries the abuse continued.

Peter Wanless, NSPCC chief executive, said recent abuse scandals in Oxford and Rochdale showed lessons still needed to be learnt. "While some things have improved - particularly for those in care - there is a depressing realisation that in some areas nothing has moved on,” he said.

A council letter written to the Chief Constable of North Wales Police in 1991 included the names of eight convicted sex offenders and dozens of suspects.

The report said council employees and even serving police officers from the time could have been named as potential perpetrators of assaults by witnesses in 3,755 statements taken as part of what was described as the biggest police investigation into child abuse ever held in the UK.

At least 24 victims were identified. But the panel expressed concern that there was “no mechanism to ensure that independent investigations are conducted of allegations against former and serving police officers and that the police authorities handling of investigations can in some circumstances avoid public scrutiny.”

The authors said they considered abandoning their inquiry after being refused access to files and were obstructed by staff that declined to be interviewed. Documents were disordered, undated and unsigned. North Wales Police refused to hand over 130 boxes of files on the grounds they were sub-judice, it was claimed.

The report led by John Jillings, the former director of social services for Derbyshire, was carried out four years before the judicial inquiry ordered by the Welsh secretary William Hague – following revelations by The Independent - under Sir Ronald Waterhouse QC reached similar conclusions.
Mr Jillings said staff meted out severe punishments to disturbed youngsters. "The treatment of children was bestial really; they weren't treated like human beings, by some members of staff at any rate,” he said.

Demands to finally publish the original inquiry findings were made at the height of the row over the BBC Newsnight report which made false child abuse allegations against former Tory Treasurer Lord McAlpine.

A new police inquiry is underway after 140 people came forward alleging historic abuse as a result of publicity surrounding the case.
The report said it was unable to cast light on the enduring suggestion that well known public figures were part of a wider paedophile ring operating in North Wales.

Bryn Estyn children's home in Wrexham: the report was commissioned in 1994 to investigate allegations of abuse in the 1970s and 80s. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

A report into physical and sexual abuse at children's homes that was suppressed for almost 20 years concluded there was "extensive" mistreatment of young people over a "substantial" number of years.
The Jillings report into residential care units in north Wales, which has finally been released, said the lives of many children had been blighted by the abuse they suffered while living at the homes.
It said the panel that investigated the abuse had considered abandoning its inquiry as it was not sure it had all the material from agencies including police and social services that it needed to see the whole picture.
The report also expressed concern that there was no independent mechanism to investigate serving or former police officers implicated in abuse. And it said it had simply not been able to address some areas including the suggestion that public figures had been involved in abuse.
The now-defunct Clwyd county council commissioned John Jillings in 1994 to investigate allegations of abuse against residents of children's homes in the 1970s and 1980s.
His report was completed two years later but not published amid fears it could open up the authority to compensation claims.
Calls for it to be published resurfaced last year after the BBC Newsnight report that led to false child abuse allegations against the former Tory treasurer Lord McAlpine.
Following freedom of information requests by the Guardian and others, the successor councils to Clwyd agreed to publish a heavily redacted version of the 300-page Jillings report.
It made clear that it was limited by a number of "constraining factors", including that it was unclear to what extent material held by North Wales police was available. It also said there was a lack of clarity about the accessibility of some social services files.
But it concluded: "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's clear in a significant number of cases the lives of young people who have been through the care system in Clwyd have been severely disrupted. At least 12 young people are dead."
The report said the role of other agencies including North Wales police and the Welsh Office needed "careful and detailed scrutiny".
It expressed concern there was "no mechanism to ensure that independent investigations are conducted of allegations against former and serving police officers".
The report added: "Time and time again the responses to indications that children may have been abused has been too little and too late. The criticisms apply not only to Clwyd county council but also to the Welsh Office and North Wales police."
Complaints that there had been a cover-up over Jillings led to an inquiry headed by the late Sir Ronald Waterhouse, which concluded in 2000 that there had been appalling mistreatment at homes over a period of 20 years.
At the time of the McAlpine controversy last year some former victims and politicians came forward to claim that the Waterhouse inquiry had been flawed and demanded that the Jillings report be finally published.
A police investigation ordered by David Cameron at the height of the McAlpine scandal is under way. So far more than 140 people have told police they were victims of abuse at children's homes across north Wales between 1963 and 1992.
Explaining why the Jillings report had been released, the successor councils to Clwyd said: "The north Wales councils recognise that the release of the report may bring distress to those affected by historic abuse and they encourage anyone who is affected by its release to call … if they need support. All councils have and will continue to support anyone affected by abuse."
Peter Wanless, the NSPCC's chief executive, said: "This report comments on appalling child protection failures that took place nearly 40 years ago but could just so easily be commenting on dreadful events happening today.
"While some things have improved – particularly for those in care – there is a depressing realisation that in some areas nothing has moved on.
"Jillings comments that the interests of children were often sacrificed by the very professionals who should have been looking after them. And when the young victims tried to raise the alarm people turned a deaf ear to their pleas for help.
"The same mistakes have been highlighted in recent grooming cases where young girls were abused in sickening ways for many years while those who could and should have helped stood by, leaving them to their awful fate.
"While Jillings is concerned with what went on from 1974 to 1993, we have to ensure this kind of abuse does not cast its long shadow over children today. We can only prevent it by giving children confidence to speak out, paying attention when they tell us they need protection and moving swiftly to justice – so 40 years down the line we do not find ourselves in this invidious situation again."
There was also criticism that many passages in the published report had been redacted.
A legal expert in abuse in residential care, Alison Millar, from the law firm Leigh Day, said: "The refusal to publish this report in full is tragically short-sighted. We are in an Alice in Wonderland situation whereby an independent panel is commissioned to investigate what went wrong and why. The report remains unpublished for over 15 years and then, when it is finally published, the report is effectively gutted so that important sections dealing with the very issue of what the panel found did go wrong are specifically excluded.
"The whole truth must come out, for the sake of all those affected and so that this can never happen again."
The report spells out the dreadful treatment meted out to boys who lived at the Bryn Estyn home in Wrexham – described by one former resident as "the Colditz of residential care".
It outlined how some boys were put on the "flat list" by the deputy head, Peter Howarth, and made to visit him in his apartment in their pyjamas with no underwear. They were sexually abused by him and forced to perform sex acts on each other. He bribed them with cigarettes, money and privileges.
Howarth was convicted and jailed for abusing children at the home.
The report also told how other staff members physically abused boys. One tortured a boy during canoe practice by holding the craft upside down.
Another staff member ordered older boys to "discipline" younger ones by urinating or defecating on them.
The report said there had been a "disturbing number of deaths and suicides" among former residents of children's homes in north Wales. It revealed how some had died after abusing drugs, solvents or alcohol. Of the 12 deaths of former residents the panel knew about, four had lived at Bryn Estyn. Others had become repeat offenders and served a number of custodial sentences.
The panel found that almost 4,000 statements were taken by police investigating abuse at children's homes during the period they looked at.
But the report said: "Of the many statements taken, it is unclear how many were forwarded to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration. It is also unclear how many other professionals, including police officers, were named in these statements as perpetrators of assaults."
Though the report said the panel could not investigate suspicions that paedophile rings or famous people were involved in abuse of children, it did conclude: "It is clear that sex offenders can and do network."
It also carried a letter from a council officer to North Wales police noting concerns that a paedophile ring was operating in north Wales and pointing out that many names of possible suspects given to police had links to Bryn Estyn.
On the panel's struggle to get information from the police, the report said 130 boxes of files were passed on to detectives investigating child abuse from social services. The panel was not allowed to see these files as they were considered Sub judice (matter under consideration by a judge or court).
The report claimed the "interests" of the county council's insurers "played an important part in the events surrounding the investigation of child abuse in Clwyd", and added: "We know that this is not a situation that is unique to Clwyd."
A bitter irony, given that the report was suppressed for 17 years, was that some victims clearly relished the chance to tell their stories.
One told the panel: "This is the first time I have ever felt heard." The report's parting shot was: "We hope that all those who participated in our investigations will ultimately benefit from the experience of speaking out in the hope of being heard."

 Sadly  this was not the case  but  after much pressure from the Press and magazines like Scallywag  for whom Andrea Davison wrote  and concerned campaigners  finally the  Waterhouse Inquiry  was  set-up to investigate child abuse in North Wales childrens Homes and Approved Schools.   The Waterhouse  Inquiry is now under investigation by Mrs Justice Macur  for its many failures to  investigate the extent of the  child abuse and particularly the  involvement of the Police and Judiciary  in the abuse and  an elite paedophile ring  which included Jimmy Savile.  And in a strange twist of fate  Nic Parry  a BBC presenter and wrexham  solicitor represented  paedophiles at the Waterhouse Inquiry  against his opponent was Andrea Davison who represented the victims.  Nic Parry became Judge Niclas Parry who 15 odd years later would jail  ex Duncroft girl and child abuse whistle blower Andrea Davison for three  years  after she had been set-up by Felicty Gerry and Mick Creedon Chief Constable of the  Derby Police