A report by Kate Foster, Chief Reporter of Scotland on Sunday says that a senior social worker has claimed two teachers jailed for abusing children are innocent and has accused former pupils of lying to make money. The reports says:
Matthew George and John Muldoon were jailed earlier this month for assault and sexual offences against children at Kerelaw residential school in Ayrshire following accusations dating back to the 1970s.
>
But a former colleague, Andrew Walker, now a social work team leader, has openly accused the Kerelaw youngsters of making up stories to cash in on compensation worth millions of pounds.
Walker, who was an assistant headteacher at Kerelaw, said he worked with George and Muldoon at the school for eight years and insisted they would not have abused children.
But last night, former pupils who gave evidence against the two men reacted angrily to Walker's claims, accusing him of trying to protect his friends and his own reputation.
The bitter dispute follows revelations last week that another 11 members of staff at the school are facing charges following a police investigation.
Kerelaw was at one time Scotland's biggest residential school for troubled and vulnerable youngsters, housing pupils with behavioural problems and criminal convictions, including murder and attempted murder.
George, an art teacher, and Muldoon, a care worker, were jailed for a total of 12 years.
Walker, who is employed by Western Isles Council, told Scotland on Sunday: "The youngsters are not telling the truth, they are lying. I think it was fabricated for financial motive."
He added: "I think these men are innocent. I worked with them for eight years and it is not my experience that they would behave in such a way towards young people.
"If I was in the school when this was going on, I really do not understand why it did not come to our attention at the time. It would immediately go outside the school to be investigated and the police would be involved if necessary."
George, a 57-year-old former art teacher from Largs, was sentenced to 10 years for sexually or physically abusing several boys and a girl. Muldoon, a 53-year-old care worker from Irvine, was sentenced to 30 months on indecency charges involving three girls.
Former students told the nine-week trial that George practised martial arts on pupils and threw golf balls at them. Both men are understood to be preparing appeals.
Walker, who became a team leader in children's services in Benbecula and Barra after being made redundant from the school, said many of the pupils were simply "disturbed".
And he accused them of a campaign of revenge on teachers who were simply trying to do a difficult job caring for violent and disruptive children amid serious staff shortages.
He said: "It was the young people who often took it out on the staff who were putting themselves out most to help those young people. Matt and John were the type to set boundaries and children respond to that."
He added: "When staff numbers are low and youngsters are acting up, you really have to try to resume some degree of order. Staff regularly had to be involved in physical confrontations but children would not be abused or ill-treated.
"No one is opposed to children's rights, but people fail to take into account that children have responsibilities as well. Sometimes people have an axe to grind about residential schools. But some of these youngsters are in for murder, attempted murder and serious sex offences. Disturbed children make disturbed adults.
"It all seems to be about these poor kids that were being abused. But that's not the case. There were very committed staff who would go out of their way to help these youngsters who had no one else to care for them."
Walker, and the convicted men's families, believe the fact that the case against them was based on the 'Moorov doctrine' - when the evidence of one alleged victim is used to corroborate that of another - means their convictions are unsafe.
But former pupil Catherine Glen, one of Muldoon and George's victims, said she was furious about Walker's allegations and revealed she still suffers flashbacks and nightmares following her three years at the school.
Glen, now 29, was sent to Kerelaw in the early 1990s for truancy and behavioural problems.
She said: "I am really angry about what Andrew Walker is saying. I think he is just trying to protect his friends and protect himself because he was in a position of authority. I was put through hell in Kerelaw and I still suffer today."
Kerelaw, which housed up to 90 youngsters at a time, was run by Glasgow City Council but was closed three months ago in the wake of the allegations.
Compensation lawyer Cameron Fyfe, who represents 20 former pupils, said: "In many cases, the victims have been abused by two men who have been convicted so it would be very difficult now to try and argue that the abuse did not take place. The jury has reached a conclusion beyond all reasonable doubt."
But Muldoon's lawyer, Philip Cohen, said: "The problem that we faced as a defence was that because the allegations were from the 1970s to the 1990s they were almost impossible to defend.
"We did not have any concrete evidence to go with and the allegations themselves were pretty general in that there was nothing to say when they happened.
"This makes it hard to prove to the contrary because who knows where they were at any one point 20 years ago?"
Full story
Another protest in support of the falsely accused is to be held outside the
Royal Courts of Justice at The Strand, London and you are invited to attend. The police have approved the event.
The protest is due to be held on Tuesday 18th July 2006 between 12 noon and 3pm.
If you are interested in coming along and offering your support, please eMail
donbampi@btinternet.com or ring (01278) 450328.
Toilets for men and women are available on site. Coffee & tea is available across the road, although you may prefer to bring your own rather than pay London prices! There are a number of very good pubs close-by too.
According to a report on WiscNews Poynette School District officials and the Poynette Police Department are being sued for defamation of character and negligence in the course of an investigation that led to the firing of former Poynette physical education teacher Dennis Bravick ...
... Bravick accuses the 22 Poynette students who accused him of entering the girls' locker room at Poynette High School of defaming his character by acting "with knowledge that their statements were false, and in reckless disregard for the truth, and further acted with malice, ill-will, spite, hatred and revenge" toward Bravick during their interviews with authorities.
Bravick, 46, allegedly entered the girls' locker room multiple times in March 2005, according to criminal charges filed against him last year. Bravick maintained his innocence throughout the case, and most of the charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement. One count was dropped prior to the plea agreement because Bravick wasn't in school on the day of an alleged offense ....
... In the civil lawsuit, Bravick and Strother make a number of allegations in five claims. In one, Bravick alleges character defamation at the hands of Poynette Elementary/Middle School principal Jim Carelli, assistant principals Dana Breed and George Kintzner, student services director Allan Chittick and Poynette Officer Gary Napralla, who all "disregarded credible evidence showing that (Bravick) had not engaged in the alleged misconduct, and accepted as true and accurate palpably incredible evidence of the allegations of misconduct against (Bravick), all in reckless disregard for the truth ..."
... "I've been informed that one or more of the students retracted statements that had been made earlier and indicated that they provided false or incorrect information to police officers. And we believe that police officers ignored information that would have suggested or indicated Mr. Bravick's innocence," instead "just looking at information which they somehow thought was consistent with their theory of guilt," Strother said.
Bravick's suit uses similar language in seeking damages from his accusers, who are individually named with their parents as defendants. "This is certainly a somewhat unusual situation. There's no denying that," Strother said when asked about the unorthodox step of suing children accusers. Nonetheless, Strother said the law allows children to be liable for intentional torts or wrongdoing against another. Parents can legally be held liable for up to $5,000 in damages for torts committed by their child, he added.
"I can assure you that we didn't do this lightly. ... But after careful deliberation and recognizing that what happened was certainly injurious to Dennis Bravick's reputation in the community and his ability to practice his chosen profession, teaching, that we really felt we were justified if not compelled to do this," Strother said. .... Full Story
The
Scottish Sunday Mail has exclusively reported that former residents of Kerelaw are to battle for £8M compensation. The report by Norman Silvester and Marion Scott states:
Children abused at scandal-hit Kerelaw residential school could get up to £8million compensation, the Sunday Mail can reveal. Glasgow City Council, who ran the school until March, have been hit by a flood of claims following the convictions of art teacher Matthew George, 57, and care worker John Muldoon, 53.
Around 160 abuse victims are expected to claim and it is believed the average payout could be around £50,000.
All 38 victims who gave evidence at George and Muldoon's trial last month are expected to sue along with a further 120 who were interviewed by the police but not called to court ...
.... George, of Largs, Ayrshire, was jailed for 10 years after being convicted of 18 charges of abuse at Kerelaw, Stevenston
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: "Eight people have filed claims for compensation. Each case will be considered on its merits and the money for any compensation payment or legal costs will come from existing budgets." The council also face compensation claims from around 20 former Kerelaw staff who were sacked or suspended as a result of the abuse inquiry and feel they were wrongfully accused. One stumbling block could be that many victims' claims are technically time-barred as under Scots Law, a compensation claim must be filed within three years of the incident taking place. Some of the Kerelaw cases date back to the late 1970s. Solicitor Cameron Fyfe is launching a joint action for 20 Kerelaw victims. He said: "It's clear that many lives have been devastated by decades of abuse at this school and any compensation award must reflect this."
Full Story
A report on the BBC website says that Education Secretary Alan Johnson has rejected claims by a top police officer that policy on paedophiles is being driven by a tabloid newspaper campaign. Dyfed-Powys Chief Constable Terry Grange said he was extremely concerned the Home Office had "surrendered" power over policy to the News of the World.The paper says parents have a right to know where paedophiles are living.
Mr Grange, the child protection spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers, told BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight that the Home Office was "slowly but surely acceding to" the paper's requests "and it is wrong to do so". As part of the Megan's Law system, a number of states list offenders' details on the internet, allowing parents to enter their zip code (post code) or a name, to check if anyone on the register has moved in nearby. But Mr Grange told BBC News that this year alone in the US five people had been murdered "by people who have accessed the sex offenders register, gone to their houses and killed them." He accused the Home Office of responding to pressure from the News of the World, allowing the newspaper to dictate a shift in government policy. "This government has accepted the principle that they are prepared to be blackmailed," he said. Johnson says ministers do not react to tabloid campaigns
A News of the World spokesman said: "A newspaper's role is to represent readers and that is precisely what News of the World is doing with Sarah's Law, and will continue to do so."
Full story
For those of you who have been following our thread on Family Courts there is an interestring article in todays Guardian by John Sweeney who reports on the parents who are caught up in the web of secrecy, and the Government's plans to open up the opaque family courts system. (full story here)
We have been asked to provide further details of the relevant Court cases concerning the Shelburne Youth Centre's staff claim for compenstation for being falsey accused of child abuse.
Butler v. Southam Inc 2001 NSCA 121
Court of Appeal (2001-09-07)
Nova Scotia (Minister of Community Services) v. D.J.M., 2002 NSCA 103 Court of Appeal (2002-08-16)
Smith v. (Nova Scotia) Attorney General 2003 NSSC 126
Supreme Court (2003-06-06)
Nova Scotia (Attorney General) v. Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company of Canada, 2003 NSSC 226
Supreme Court (2003-11-04)
Davison v. Nova Scotia Government Employees Union (NSGEU) 2004 NSSC 29
Supreme Court (2004-02-03)
Smith v. Nova Scotia (Attorney General) 2004 NSCA 106
Court of Appeal (2004-09-15)
Connolly v. Nova Scotia (Attorney General) 2004 NSCA 107
Court of Appeal (2004-09-15)
Davison v. Nova Scotia Government Employees Union (NSGEU) 2005 NSCA 51 Court of Appeal (2005-03-24)
You can also access the latest Court Judgement here (pdf)
The Halifax Regional Municipality (Canada) is considering whistle-blower protection to help city hall officials guard the public purse, a municipal staff report says.
The proposal, among changes to be made to the municipality’s ethics policy, would ensure municipal employees, members of municipal boards, agencies and commissions, and regional councillors are backed up by city legislation should they be hesitant about going public with any allegations of wrongdoing.
"No member of council or an employee of the . . . municipality (or group member affiliated) with the HRM council . . . shall intimidate, harass or coerce another employee because the employee has acted in accordance with . . . this policy," the proposal says.
It also says anyone found to have misled the authorities by making a false allegation is subject to discipline, up to and including dismissal. (more)
There is another excellent article in the Times (17th June 2006) by Cammilla Cavendish on secrecy in the Family Courts called Guilty Until Proved Innocent: the grotesque reality of family courts.
it begins:-
There is something I wanted to write about today. But I cannot. I cannot even tell you that I cannot tell you, because to do so might be to imply what it was I wanted to write about. And that might lead you to infer that I was referring to a situation that I should not refer to. Get it? No? (more)
We are delighted to announce that John Siddal and Ian Brooke have been acquitted by the Court of Appeal of allegations that they sexually abused children in their care. The case was referred back to the Court of Appeal by the
Criminal Cases Review Commission. A full report appears in the Yorkshire Post (
here)
The following press announcement has been released by F.A.C.T.
Press Release
F.A.C.T. (Falsey Accused Carers and Teachers) welcomes the news that John Siddall and Ian Brooke have both been cleared in the Court of Appeal of allegations of sexual abuse which were said to have been committed when they worked at care homes in West Yorkshire some ten years ago.
What the judgement shows is that both men did not receive a fair trial in that documents which might have established their innocence were not put before the jury, and that the complainants evidence could no longer be relied upon.
A F.A.C.T. spokesmen said that cases of this sort are becoming increasingly common and that new arrangements are needed for dealing with historical allegations of child abuse. Far too often there is a presumption of guilt and documents which might demonstrate a person innocence are either impossible to find or withheld.
In July 2002 of the Home Affairs Select Committee Report (Cmmd HC 836-1) concluded that “a new genre of miscarriage of justice” has arisen as a result of abuse allegations in children’s homes. They said many people who had worked in children's homes were likey to be innocent and wrongly convicted. Yet the Government have done nothing to address this problem. This is scandalous. Everyone has a right to justice.
Carers and teachers fully understand that every allegation of child abuse has to be investigated. However they are entitled to expect the child protection agencies, the police, and the prosecution authorities carry out a thorough investigation in the first place. This did not happen in this case and two men were needlessly sent to prison.
This case also demonstrates how easy it is to give credible and convincing accounts of events which did not take place. It is time the general public realised how vulnerable carers and teachers are to exaggerated, false or indeed malicious allegations of child abuse. The pendulum has swung too far.
We urgently need a Royal Commission to look into investigative practice in cases of alleged child abuse so that no more innocent teachers or carers are sent to prison. We call on the Government to take immediate action to protect those who work with children from false allegations and faked crime.
End
This judgement is is also useful in that the Appeal Court judges were also critical of Criminal Cases Review Commission for the delay in submitting the cases and for its sloppy approach in presenting the paper work.
According to a report on
This Is Hertfordshire by
Rachel Sharp the police are concerned about the incidence of reports of faked crime
REPORTING your mobile as stolen instead of lost, just to claim on your insurance, could lead to jail.
This is the warning from police as they crack down on false reporting of mobile phone thefts in Hillingdon.
Detective Superintendent Geoff Ervine from Hillingdon police told the Hillingdon Times: "False robbery and theft reports involving mobile telephones occurs for various reasons.
"Many telephones are merely lost or misplaced and youngsters, fearing the reaction of their parents for losing what can be an expensive item, do make a false allegation of crime.
"People also try to make false claims for insurance purposes. What these people need to know is that improved investigating techniques, whether involving widespread CCTV in public places or on public transport, liaison with the mobile telephone companies and covert police observations, are identifying such false claims."
He added: "The result being those persons making false claims can end up in court and receive a criminal conviction. A simple message is: do not try to make false crime allegations on Hillingdon Borough."
The national mobile phone crime unit, mobile phone network operators and major insurance companies regularly share information in a database to identify false reports so that they can be thoroughly investigated and offenders prosecuted.
Detective Inspector Kevin Gibson, based at Uxbridge police station, explained the penalties. He said: "False reports can be many and varied, it would depend on what the offender did or intended to do with the information.
"A straightforward false report would be dealt with by way of wasting police time' under the Criminal Law Act and carries a penalty of six months imprisonment and, or, a fine this could be by way of a fixed penalty notice of £80 for over 16s and £40 for 14 to 16 year-olds.
"Using the detail for an insurance claim would involve a fraud and carries on indictment at the Crown Court of up to seven years imprisonment.
"If it was a more drawn out and complex enquiry where, say, someone was arrested as a result of the false report then it might amount to an offence of attempting to pervert the course of justice' which on indictment is a common law offence that carries a penalty of imprisonment up to, and including, life."
A F.A.C.T. spokesman said F.A.C.T. welcome the acknowledgment that some people are motivated to report faked crimes either to secure some financial benefit, or to appease their parents. It has always been F.A.C.T's case that many of the allegations of child abuse made against carers and teachers are motivated for similar reasons. F.A.C.T. very much hopes that the police will be alert to this possibility more in the future, than they have been in the past.
Canada
Posted by News Editor
Monday, June 12, 2006
We have been asked to supply further information about the landmark compensation payout to falsey accused youth workers in Novia Scotia, Canada.
Youth workers win compensation deal
The following has been reported in the Canadian Press
The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia has approved a $7.5-million settlement for youth jail workers wrongly accused of abusing children in their care.
The settlement ends a lawsuit filed by former workers at the Shelburne Youth Centre in Shelburne, N.S., and the Nova Scotia School for Girls in Truro, N.S.
Earlier reports put the settlement amount at $8.5-million, but a spokeswoman for the Public Service Commission says that total was wrong.
Michelle Lucas said Tuesday that the settlement includes $5.5-million in general damages and $200,000 in special damages.
About $1 million will cover the cost of the employees' legal fees and about $525,000 in pensions.
The allegations of abuse at the two institutions stem back to the 1960s and '70s.
A compensation scheme for former inmates at the youth jails was created in the mid-1990s that eventually cost the government about $60-million in compensation, counselling and legal fees.
Former workers at the centre lost their jobs, reputations were destroyed and several of the former employees committed suicide.
Former youth worker Lee Keating said he spent the past four years fighting the legal battle, and the settlement shows the province believes he did nothing wrong.
“It tells me what I knew right from the beginning, that the allegations were false,” Mr. Keating told CTV on Monday.
Mr. Keating led the original lawsuit in 2002, suing the province for emotional and financial losses on behalf of himself and other employees who received an apology and settlement offers.
The province filed its defence in November, 2003.
The settlement isn't the first indication the compensation process was abused.
The Progressive Conservative government commissioned retired Quebec judge Fred Kaufman to probe the institutional compensation program begun by the Liberals.
Judge Kaufman's review said the provincial compensation program was flawed from the start, tarnishing both true survivors and blameless youth centre workers.
About a month after the Kaufman report was issued, former Tory Justice Minister Michael Baker issued a statement saying the government accepted his findings, and on Oct. 30, 2002, the province issued a series of apologies to maligned youth centre workers.
News Source
Claire Curtis-Thomas asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how decisions for parole are reached for individuals convicted of sex offences who maintain their innocence and do not participate in the Sex Offender Treatment Programme; and if he will make a statement.
Gerry Sutcliffe (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office) replied Parole Board decisions on whether or not to award parole focus primarily on the risk to the public of an offence being committed at a time when the offender would otherwise be in prison. In assessing whether the safety of the public will be placed unacceptably at risk, the board is directed to take into account that the risk of violent or sexual offending is more serious than a risk of other types of offending. This must be balanced against the benefit, both to the public and the offender, of early release back into the community under a degree of supervision which might help rehabilitation and so lessen the risk of re-offending in the future.
The Parole Board considers many factors including the nature and circumstances of the offence of which the offender was convicted, any previous convictions, the offender's attitude and response in prison, what, if any, offence-related work has been completed, reports from the Prison and Probation Service and any representations from the offender himself. On the strength of the available information it makes a judgment on the likely benefit both to the offender and society in allowing the offender to serve part of the sentence in the community.
There is no requirement for an offender to admit guilt prior to making an application for parole, nor is denial of guilt or failure to attend a sex offender programme a bar to release on parole licence.
Hansard Ref
Acknowledgement
According to a report in the Hudderfield Daily Examiner two men jailed over alleged child abuse in Kirklees care homes dating back two decades have begun an Appeal Court bid to overturn their convictions.
John Stephen Siddall, 46, of Dewsbury, was jailed for four years after he was convicted of three counts of indecent assault and one of indecency with a child after trial at Leeds Crown Court in July 1999.
Ian Brooke, 47, of Batley, was jailed for 10 years after standing trial at Leeds Crown Court the following year. He was convicted of three counts of rape, indecent assault and a further serious sexual offence.
Both men's cases reached the Appeal Court yesterday as lawyers mounted an attack on the safety of their convictions, with the hearing scheduled to last four days.
Their challenges were referred to the Appeal Court by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the body that investigates possible miscarriages of justice.
Siddall's QC, Vincent Coughlin, led the attack by raising question marks over the evidence given by a key Crown witness - named only as R - who claimed she was indecently assaulted by Siddall while at Rivendell Children's Home, in Dewsbury.
New evidence disclosed that R had made a separate rape allegation over an attack in Salford in November 1986, which the authorities considered to be a "complete fabrication".
Mr Coughlin said there were clear inconsistencies between the trial evidence given by the woman - aged 13 at the time she was allegedly abused - and the subsequent account she gave