A tragic tale of two brothers Keith and Tom Gregory From Wales on-line.
"Two brothers
brutalised in a notorious Welsh care home have opened up on the abuse they
endured.
Keith and Tony
Gregory, from Wrexham, ended up in the town’s Bryn Estyn home after playing
truant from school.
Keith, 55, now a
Wrexham councillor, says his problems began because he suffered deafness and
was an undiagnosed dyslexic who struggled to keep up in his infants and junior
schools.
He was first sent
to a Liverpool care home, where he says he experienced the kind of abuse that
would later define the three years he spent in Bryn Estyn between 1972 and
1975.
On the first day he
arrived at Bryn Estyn, Keith says he was left bloodied and battered by a master
with cane marks from his neck down to his legs after leaning against a wall
instead of standing to attention.
Tony, 50, who was
at Bryn Estyn for around 18 months between 1977 and 1978, said he became
aggressive and would threaten violence to successfully ward off the advances of
paedophile staff members and other boys.
He said: “I wasn’t
sexually abused because I managed to fight them off. It was that scary being in
there that I had to go around with a persona saying, ‘Don’t mess with me or
I’ll take your head off’, just to survive.”
Among former Bryn
Estyn staff convicted of offences was former house master Peter Howarth, locked
up for 10 years in 1994 for violating boys as young as 12. He died behind bars.
Steven Norris,
another senior member of staff at Bryn Estyn, pleaded guilty to three offences
of buggery, one of attempted buggery and three of indecent assault.
Tony said staff and
boys at Bryn Estyn were involved in grooming youngsters to recruit fresh
victims to the ranks of those abused by Howarth and Norris.
“I was up against
the paedophiles that were there and quite a lot of them would try to get me
into a situation or talking and interested in going in that direction.
Because he refused
to acquiesce, the then 15-year-old Tony was denied access to the education
Howarth reserved for those boys who complied with his sordid demands.
At first, his
requests to go to classes were approved by the school’s head, who was not
involved in abuse, before Howarth would deny them.
Tony, who admits
being involved in burglaries and thefts before he was sent to Bryn Estyn,
added: “I cottoned on that I was seen as a bit of a threat to the ring. I tried
to get education in school and it was denied because all the boys that were
being abused were all in one little clique in the school and all friends.
“Because I was seen
as a loose cannon, I was kept well away from them. I was made to work in the
gardens from when I was in there until the day I left.
“He (Howarth) was
one of the teachers in the school. They had school huts away from the main hall
building where kids went to be educated.”
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| Tony Gregory |
Tony, who maintains
he was punched, kicked and beaten up by staff in Bryn Estyn, said though some
of the boys didn’t resist their abusers, he still regards them as victims
because submitting to the paedophiles was the only way to survive.
He said those who escaped
were brought back and in the 1970s and 1980s police were often contemptuously
dismissive of boys in care who complained about abuse.
Tony, who was paid
£6,000 in compensation for the physical abuse, added: “You’ve got to bear in
mind that we were all in a system that was dark and an environment where people
couldn’t run away because if they were caught, they were brought back and got a
good hammering.
“If they involved
the police, the police would come in and say ‘There’s nothing to answer to,
you’re talking crap’.
“I would say all
the lads who were gay had probably gone in there straight. They were just
trying to survive like I was. We were all victims to some degree.”
As well as those
sent to Bryn Estyn for truanting or crime, highly vulnerable orphans also ended
up there, said Tony.
“There were people
who were sent there who had lost their parents and they had no choice.
“A lot of them were
in a really, really sad state and it was easy prey for them (the paedophiles).
If you were vulnerable, young and little, there wasn’t much you could do about
it.”
Tony, who has
suffered with depression all his adult life and has struggled to hold down a
job, says his experiences left him with a deep mistrust of authority figures
like police and social workers and even gay people.
Keith has backed
fellow former Bryn Estyn resident Steve Messham’s claims that children were
taken out of Bryn Estyn to be abused in Wrexham’s Crest Hotel.
Keith says up to 13
victims have committed suicide since the 1970s, some of whom might now be alive
had their complaints and allegations been listened to.
The Gregory
brothers suggest the abuse went much wider than the Waterhouse Inquiry, which
published its report Lost in Care in 2000, found.
In line with its
remit, this £13m inquiry focused on abuse in care homes in the former North
Wales counties of Clwyd and Gwynedd.
The report dealt
with more than 650 cases of child abuse in 40 care homes over a 20-year period.
Keith has said two
MPs were involved in the abuse, plus judges and serving police officers.
Channel 4 News has
reported an eye witness account that former Chester MP Sir Peter Morrison, who
died in 1995, visited the home five times.
Sir Peter was
former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s parliamentary private secretary and
was at the heart of the Tory establishment in the 1980s.
Keith said: “We
used to go to bed and they would drag people out of bed in open dormitories.
There was a door that led to the main corridor into the dormitories.
“They used to come
and pick people and you used to pray to God that they wouldn’t get you.”
Earlier at the care
home in Liverpool, he recalls being electrocuted, stripped naked and having his
genitalia fondled by staff.
Keith, who as well
as being beaten says he was sexually molested at Bryn Estyn, said: “There was a
thing called the Borstal showers that was horrendous.
“It was a circle of
showers where all boys had to shower while being watched.
“They would run you
through them so you’d be frozen, scolded, frozen, scolded and you’d do this for
an hour.
“They’d stand there
whipping you and they’d touch you with a stick.”
Keith, who was 12
when he went to Bryn Estyn after playing truant and committing petty thefts,
believes his disabilities were the underlying reason he ended up in care.
“I was born deaf
and I had dyslexia and in those days, they didn’t know what dyslexia was.
“I struggled all
through my junior and infants schools, but managed to get through.
“Then when we went
to high school, I just couldn’t cope and the teachers were giving me hidings
because they thought I wouldn’t do the work.
“In the end, I just
had to play truant because I couldn’t do the work.”
Like his brother,
once in Bryn Estyn he never went to school again, but was given a series of
menial tasks to keep him occupied.
Keith, who received
£3,000 in compensation for the abuse he suffered, says it impacted on the rest
of his life.
A divorced
father-of-four, he has had several long-term relationships but says he found it
impossible to trust his partners and has previously told Wales on Sunday’s
sister paper the Western Mail he was violent towards them.
Prime Minister
David Cameron ordered an urgent investigation into whether the Waterhouse
inquiry “properly did its job” after the allegations of abuse at Bryn Estyn
re-emerged.
Home Secretary
Theresa May ordered the separate police inquiry led by the National Crime
Agency into claims of abuse.
