The September edition of SAFARI has just been published. You can download it
here
ANDREW DENHOLM, Education Correspondent of the Glasgow Herald has written an interesting article following sevberal cases in Scotland of teachers being cleared of accusations of assault. His article says:
Teachers' leaders last night called for new guidance to be published on the amount of physical force that can be used to control unruly pupils. The demand came from Scotland's largest teaching union after a deputy head was cleared of assaulting a primary pupil by dragging him across the floor of the school dining hall.
Simon Simpson, 42, was alleged to have injured the 11-year-old boy following the incident at a primary school in Glasgow's east end, last November. However, yesterday he was found not guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court after a sheriff ruled that he had tried to move the boy - who had a history of disruptive behaviour - for his own safety.
The case follows a growing number in recent years taken against teachers following false allegations of assault.
In June last year, a male supply teacher was cleared of head-butting a 13-year-old pupil at a Borders school. Just a few months earlier, Lorraine Stirling, 50, was found not guilty of assaulting seven pupils at a school in Central Scotland after a court heard a gang had made up stories about her hitting them.
Following the latest verdict, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) called for new guidance from the Scottish Executive setting out how far teachers could go to tackle unruly pupils, many of whom had become "untouchable".
Ronnie Smith, the union's general secretary, said: "As the law stands, and in the current climate when even trivial and groundless complaints often end up in court, the only safe approach is for teachers to avoid even touching a pupil. That cannot be in anyone's best interests, least of all the children who have become society's untouchables."
However, the executive dismissed the need for additional guidance, saying the position had been set out clearly in the 2005 Safe and Well handbook for teachers. As a general principal physical contact should be minimised. Staff should not do it unless restraint is needed to protect the child from harm," said a spokeswoman.
"That should only be attempted as a last resort and when it can be achieved without causing harm to the child and the member of staff involved." Mr Smith said the careers, family life and professional standing of teachers were being blighted by local authorities "running scared" whenever a complaint, however trivial, was raised. "This is undermining teachers in maintaining the good order in our schools that society expects."
His comments were backed by Bill McGregor, general secretary of the Headteachers' Association of Scotland, who added: "There are circumstances where you cannot walk away from this sort of confrontation and we need firmer guidelines from the executive on what can be done." Mr Smith also called for teachers to be given anonymity until a case was proven against them.
Mr Simpson was cleared of assault following evidence that the pupil, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had a history of disruption and had been suspended six times from the school - once for punching the deputy head.
The deputy head - who was suspended from his £40,000-a-year post until the beginning of this term, claimed he was trying to get the "aggressive" boy out of the canteen and away from other pupils after he lost control shortly after assaulting an asylum seeker in the playground.
Mr Simpson, who is now back in the school, said he was pleased the sheriff had "believed the truth".
A spokeswoman for Glasgow City Council said: "We carried out our own detailed internal review and following the findings the employee has been back at the school since the beginning of term. The outcome of the court case today vindicates this decision."
Full Story
Kathy's Story Saga
Posted by News Editor
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
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Those of you
following the
Kathy's Story Aaga
might be interested
in reading this article
which appeared in the
The Irish Family |
The following article by Peter Dufffy appeared in the Canadian ChronicleHerald in respect of staff falsey accused of child abuse in Nova Scotia
False Allegations Are Not Easy To Forget
He hands me a thick sheaf of documents.
"We called this the meat chart," Glen Townsend says dryly.
Leafing though it, my eyes begin to blur. Each page contains dozens upon dozens of names, each with an amount next to it ranging from $1,500 to a staggering $120,000.
Say hello to one of the most shameful chronicles in the history of Nova Scotia.
Here are the names of 1,500 young people who claimed to have been physically and sexually abused at institutions like the former Shelburne School for Boys and the Nova Scotia School for Girls in Truro. These are the people who, without any substantiation and with the province’s encouragement, pointed the finger at hundreds of staff workers and convinced the rest of us that there was an epidemic of pedophilia happening in our midst.
Before the insanity ceased, the province had thrown almost $30 million in compensation at these young people, a figure that doesn’t even include millions more in fees for their lawyers.
Glen, 70, was one of those accused. Before his retirement, he was a senior supervisor at the Shelburne school and faced 115 accusations of physical and sexual abuse.
He puts the pages back in his file and sighs. "One kid, he was a little kid, we protected him," he tells me. "He put in for $90,000 and got $96,000!"
Glen and the other staffers have never had their day in court. Instead, they endured a dozen years under a cloud of public suspicion before the allegations were discredited and dropped. Subsequently, the province has officially apologized, offering compensation to many of the wrongfully accused.
Glen wrote to me, expressing how he felt about the hell he’s still going through.
"If they gave me $100 million," he said in his letter, "it would not help. I know I am damaged for life."
As someone who had been willing to believe the worst of him and his peers, that hit me hard. So hard, in fact, that I invited myself down to his home at Welshtown Lake, near Shelburne, to hear of his torture first-hand.
Glen shows me letters of commendation he received over the years, written by various senior government officials and even a premier. He points to photos of himself coaching young inmates in hockey and baseball.
I stare at all the smiling young faces. "How are those kids doing now?" I ask.
He shrugs. "Most of the ones I knew are in prison," he replies. "Some are dead."
Glen is still incredulous that so many allegations of abuse were believed by the rest of us.
"If it was all true," he reasons, "all the staff would’ve been sex offenders!"
He refers me back to the meat chart. How could so much alleged abuse have been kept quiet for so long?
"The superintendents I know wouldn’t stand for it," he assures me.
He says he never beat or kicked a child, never even so much as swore at them or called them names.
"I treated them as good as I could," he says. "I was fair with them and honest with them."
It didn’t matter. Once fingers were pointed, he and his peers found their lives shattered. In Glen’s case, the trauma was so insidious, he wouldn’t even allow his granddaughter onto his lap because he felt so uneasy.
He cut back on unnecessary outings and avoided friends. It’s still that way today.
"It’s been a tough 12 years," he allows, "and the sad part is, what would closure mean?"
Would it put an end to the sleepless nights, the cold sweats and bad dreams? Would it make up for the fact he’s on antidepressants, suffers from high blood pressure and mood swings?
And what about those thoughts he’s had of suicide?
Glen tells me he loved working at the Shelburne school. If it was still open, he’d go back in a heartbeat.
"You’re kidding!" I exclaim. "After what those monsters have put you through, you’d go back?"
"I don’t blame the kids," he retorts. "Some of those kids, I thought the world of. Still do."
Glen feels the youngsters simply jumped on a lucrative bandwagon that came their way.
He blames the system itself and he’s still very, very angry about the process by which provincial officials handled things. "They went in secret, behind our backs, and it exploded on them."
He’s frustrated by the fact those responsible will never be named and shamed because, with all charges dropped, there won’t be any criminal court cases.
Glen and I spend a long, difficult morning together. As we’re making our goodbyes, he looks me in the eye.
"Do you believe me?" he asks quietly.
I shake his hand. "I do," I reply.
What I don’t tell him is just how bad I feel for taking this long to stand up and say it.
According to reports on Guardian Online Professor David Southall, a leading paediatrician is under investigation by police in South Wales, that he left a child brain damaged as a result of a controversial breathing experiment 15 years ago
The report by Sandra Laville goes to say:-
Detectives have stepped up an investigation into claims that the leading paediatrician David Southall left a child brain damaged as a result of a controversial breathing experiment 15 years ago, the Guardian has learned.
South Wales police have broadened their inquiry into an allegation that Professor Southall assaulted the boy by carrying out the test and are asking dozens of parents whose children may have come into contact with the paediatrician over the years to come forward if their child suffered any injuries as a result of his treatment. Professor Southall has denied that his treatment has harmed any child.
In a letter to parents last week, Detective Inspector Chris Mullane, of the force's child protection unit, said further inquiries could be opened as a result of the responses from parents. The letter says police are investigating an allegation of assault on a boy that may have occurred while he was undergoing treatment by Prof Southall at the University Hospital of Wales. It asks parents: "Has your child been treated directly or indirectly by Professor Southall ... Did your child suffer any injuries or adverse effects from that treatment ... Have you reported this matter to the police or any other body?"
The investigation began after the parents of Ben McLean alleged that he had been left brain damaged by Prof Southall's experiments at the University Hospital of Wales in 1991.
The child's mother, Davina McLean, believes that without their informed consent, her five-year-old son was given carbon dioxide to breathe and his airway was occluded during a sleep study. She claims that she and her husband were forced to take part in the study after Prof Southall said they were suffering from Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, and warned that unless they allowed Ben to take part he would be taken into care. Prof Southall has also denied these claims.
When Ben left hospital he was placed in foster care, but a year later a court found the McLeans had not harmed their child. Ben, now 20, lives with his parents and has severe speech and learning difficulties. Mrs McLean told the Guardian: "We are pleased that other parents out there who may have concerns are being contacted. All we want is justice for our son."
Prof Southall has attracted praise and controversy during his long career. Last year he was found guilty of serious professional misconduct and banned from child protection work for three years after wrongly accusing the husband of Sally Clark of killing their baby sons.
Other parents have made allegations against Prof Southall, who is one of the leading proponents of the diagnosis of Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, in which a parent or carer is said to harm a child to attract attention. He is due to face another disciplinary hearing before the General Medical Council later this year.
Many of Prof Southall's peers defend his work, and say a witchhunt is being carried out against him. They say paediatricians involved in child protection are being subjected to a campaign by groups defending parents accused of abuse.
Margaret Taylor, Prof Southall's solicitor, said he was not commenting on the police inquiry or on other aspects of Mrs McLean's allegations
A F.A.C.T spokesman said whatever Professor Southall failings may have been in the past it cannot support police trawling in any circumstances.
Let Our Voices Emerge charity (L.O.V.E.) have launshed an international campaign to get the book 'Kathy's Story' removed from sales until the publishers Mainstream can verify how they've authenticated the serious allegations of abuse made against the Irish medical profession, the authors father and a religious congregation. A Press statement by L.O.V.E. says:
An International campaign has been launched by the Let Our Voices Emerge charity (L.O.V.E.) to get the book 'Kathy's Story' removed from sales until the publishers Mainstream can verify how they've authenticated the serious allegations of abuse made against the Irish medical profession, the authors father and a religious congregation.
Most of us who run this charity were in the Irish industrial schools, we will not allow money to be made from our experiences, Ms O’Beirne is not one of us, and Mainstream publishing will not get away unscratched from this fight. Some of Ms O’Beirnes family will also interview to state they were not approached by the publishers – even tho’ she claims their father abused all of them.
The L.O.V.E. charity maintain it was impossible for them to do so - as Kathy empathically was not in a Magdalene laundry. She was however in a childrens home in Kilmacud, Dublin for 6 weeks only. She was also an inpatient in a psychiatric unit, and spent some time in Mountjoy prison. These are the only institutions she can possibly have documentary proof of. She also seems strangely reluctant to either be able to describe any of the sisters who abused her so horrifically, or indeed, provide a death or birth cert for her daughter 'Annie'.
This book has caused irreparable damage to the reputation of Ms O'Beirne's father (who has passed away and so can't defend his good name), the Irish psychiatric services, and the religious congregation she claims abused her so horrifically. Kathy's siblings, who defend their father, state they were not approached by the publishers on the allegations of abuse against him.
In the name of all genuinely abused children, both from Irish society as well as the institutions, and all who have suffered false allegations of child abuse, we are asking that the book be withdrawn from sales pending a full investigation.
Ms O'Beirne has issued threats to the founder of the L.O.V.E. charity to picket outside the family home unless this campaign is stopped. This has caused considerable distress to the children, this is highly inappropriate, but will not succeed as a bullying tactic.
If Ms O'Beirne would just provide the documentation she continually states she has to prove she was in a Magdalene laundry to the many journalists who ask her for it, the matter would be solved.
See the following link for the letter to the publishers and list of support groups and individuals (will be updated on an ongoing basis).
Florence Horsman Hogan
Further information
The Criminal Cases Review Commission issued the following Press release on 14th August.
COMMISSION REFERS SENTENCE FOR SEX OFFENCES OF ANDREW LAY TO THE COURT OF APPEAL
The Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred the sentence of Mr Andrew Lay, for a series of sexual and indecency offences, to the Court of Appeal.
Mr Lay pleaded guilty to a series of sexual and indecency offences on 21 February 2003 at Guilford Crown Court. He was sentenced to a total of six years in prison with an extended licence period of five years.
Mr Lay appealed against sentence in September 2003. The Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal. Mr Lay applied to the Commission on 9 December 2005.
Having considered the development of the law in relation to extended licence periods, the Commission has decided to refer the case back to the Court of Appeal.
The Commission is the independent public body set up by Parliament in 1997 to investigate possible miscarriages of justice in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to decide if they should be referred to the appeal courts.
Mr Lay is represented by Mr Mark Newby, Jordans Solcitors, 4 Priory Place, Doncaster, DN1 1 BP Tel: 01302 365374.
This press release was issued by Boris Worrall, Head of Communication, Criminal Cases Review Commission on 0121 633 1806 or 07947 355231.
There is as an excellent review by David Belcher in the Scottish Herald of the powerful BBC documentary concerning the way in which social workers investigated allegations of satanic abuse in the Orkneys in the earlier 1990's.
Legacy of an island nightmare
DAVID BELCHER
"Accused" BBC2, 9pm 21st August 2006
Various things were clear by the time Accused concluded what was, for the most part, a thorough examination of the infamous case in which social workers and police removed nine Orkney children from their homes on the morning of February 27, 1991.
Principally, the programme substantiated the findings of a subsequent legal inquiry which established that the original social work investigation was deeply flawed in its conduct. None of the nine young residents of South Ronaldsay had suffered ritual sexual abuse from a satanic paedophile ring led by their parents which met at an island pond, led by the local minister in his flowing robes.
It was also evident, Accused explained, that the whole sorry event had proceeded from a false allegation which social workers had prompted from a genuine abuse victim from an entirely different household.
These social workers, led with myopic doggedness by Liz McLean – who the programme was unable to track down – were operating in apparent thrall to a then-fashionable quasi-feminist American theory of child-sex abuse which saw satanist perverts at every turn.
Another thing to emerge from Accused was that whenever you come up against official interference in your life, things will go much better for you if, like the four sets of Orkney parents whose children were removed, you're, broadly-speaking, middle-class, articulate and media-aware. As one social worker involved in the Orkney case ruefully told the programme, organisations such as his are always better at imposing their will on the inarticulate poor who can't rally near-instant support from newspapers and TV stations.
In times of travail, South Ronaldsay councillor Cyril Annal is a vital fellow to have in your corner, too. As we saw on Accused, Cyril is a decent, canny man whose judgments of people can't often have been wrong.
It would have been far easier in 1991 for the majority of local South Ronaldsay folk to have turned their backs on at least two of the families whose children were taken from them on the grounds that they were fiscal immigrants. Cyril's righteous performance – filmed for posterity by TV cameras at a public meeting staged two days after the children were taken from South Ronaldsay – must have done more to rally native support to their cause than anything else.
"I am absolutely shaking with rage," Cyril had stood up and said in response to the children's sudden removal from the island, his white beard a-quiver. A moment or two later, he sat down again. Never can so few words have had such resonance.
What Accused also stressed – although not quite so forcibly as its central declaration of the Orkney parents' innocence – was that the sexual abuse of children is something that does happen, occasionally requiring what can seem draconian measures: dawn raids, policemen, family break-ups.
Sadly, the programme may serve to reinforce the stereotype of the imperious social worker, a constant menace to innocent folk, forever whisking away children for no reason at all.
More alarmingly, perhaps, Accused revealed that at least two of the social workers involved in the case still believe the truth of its allegations. One, whose reliability was undermined by an unfortunate resemblance to Blackadder's dotty Nursey, hadn't read Catch-22: anyone who denies child sex abuse is obviously guilty of it, she said, because guilty folk always deny their guilt.
Glasgow-based Phil Greene was also seen expressing palpable pain and sorrow at having let the nine children down by returning them to their parents, further alleging that on their flight back to Orkney he had heard them employ sexually inappropriate language common to victims of abuse.
Accused should have asked him more about that – and the children. Above all, Accused should have found and questioned Liz McLean, a woman who made the thankless job of her fellow social work professionals even more impossible.
Acknowledgement
According to a report in todays Times thousands of children are ending up in Court because teachers and care home workers are afraid to discipline them for bad behaviour, the head of the Government’s youth justice quango says today.
The police are increasingly being called in to deal with behaviour that only a few years ago would have been handled by staff in schools or residential care homes.
Speaking to The Times, Rod Morgan, chairman of the Youth Justice Board, says that it is time to confront the political correctness in schools that prevents teachers from disciplining pupils in the way that they used to — in part because they fear that parents will challenge them and even take legal action.
Mr Morgan goes on to give warning that the consequences of lone-parent families and the absence of male role models are increasing the number of young children who no longer know how to behave.
“What many young children lack are any sort of boundaries being set to their behaviour so that literally they don’t know how to behave properly. There has not been a role model to explain things and to set boundaries. Most children we know like a reasonably structured existence and many don’t have it,” he said.
Mr Morgan, a former professor of criminology, is urging the Government and local authorities to take action to give teachers and care home workers the confidence to deal with bad behaviour and minor acts of criminal damage themselves rather than calling in the police.
He said that, without change, increasing numbers of young people would be drawn into the formal criminal justice system, a trend that has accelerated since Labour came to power. Between 35,000 and 40,000 young people are today being prosecuted in front of magistrates. Ten years ago many would have been punished informally outside the courts.
“What magistrates are telling us is that many young people are coming before the youth courts who, in their judgment, don’t need to be [there].
“In children’s care homes what we are finding is that many children who are committing minor acts in residential accommodation, minor acts of criminal damage or have thrown a punch at a fellow child or member of staff — the police are more and more being used as a disciplinary back-up force for ill-supported and ill-trained residential staff.”
Mr Morgan’s comments come as official documents show that the care home linked to the murder of Damilola Taylor had a record of violence and absconding. Daniel Preddie, then aged 12, was staying at the Abbey Street home in Bermondsey, East London, when he escaped and, with his brother Ricky, 13, went on to kill Damilola. Reports by the inspectors of Southwark Council, shown to The Sunday Telegraph, gave warning that children regularly absconded from the home, “knowing that staff were not allowed to use force to stop them”.
Mr Morgan blames changes in demographics and the rise in the proportion of lone-parent families, particularly those headed by a woman, for the problems.
“We know that the proportion of families where young parents — often mothers bringing up a child alone without the presence of a male role model and a father present on the scene, and without the support of an extended family — are having to cope with more and more challenging child behaviour in fairly deprived areas.”
He said that some children were being raised in homes without even the most basic discipline being imposed, such as instructions about what time they should be up or back indoors. That behaviour presented serious problems in schools, where teachers’ confidence was undermined by the threat of being taken to court or by parents who have no regard for authority.
“I think teachers, for example, are increasingly concerned about litigation, about the fact that more and more parents are less deferential to the teacher or authority. They are reluctant to use traditional disciplinary methods. As a result police are increasingly being called in.
“This has to be confronted. Teachers have to be supported to explain the need for boundaries, to enforce boundaries, but to do it in a manner which remains inclusive and to do it in a more assertive manner for those parents who may collude with their own children’s bad behaviour or not fully comprehend the consequences of their children’s behaviour.”
Young offenders
The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales was set up by Jack Straw when Labour came to power with the job of overseeing the justice system for juveniles in England and Wales
- It works to prevent offending and reoffending by children and young people under the age of 18, and to ensure their safe custody. Its budget in 2005 was £377,000
- The board has been chaired by Rod Morgan since 2004. It advises the Home Secretary on the operation and standards of the youth justice system. It also purchases custody and remand places for children and young people
- Mr Morgan, a father of three, was Reader and Professor of Criminal Justice at Bristol University between 1989 and 2001 before becoming Chief Inspector of Probation in England and Wales and then chairman of the YJB
See Times Leader
Acknowledgement
The following report by Richard Ford appears in todays TIMES
The decline in the number of male primary school teachers is aggravating the problem posed by the growing proportion of children who have no father figure to influence them at home, Rod Morgan told The Times.
The percentage of male teachers in primary schools in England and Wales fell from 25 per cent in 1970 to 15.7 per cent in 2004.
Mr Morgan said: “I think this is tricky territory and I have not come to any conclusion, but if an increasing proportion of young children are growing up in a single- parent household where there is an absence of a father figure, and if they are going to schools where there is a sing-ular absence of male figures, that does strike me as being a rather ill-balanced framework.
“One of the things that magistrates complain to me about is that if children and young people come before the youth court it is rare to see a father present.”
Acknowledgement
Our attention has been drawn to an interesting case which was heard in the Scottish Court of Session in June 2005 concerning a claim by made former residents of Nazareth House. The case is particularly interesting in that it raises legal questions about compensation cases being time barred, and about recovered memories. It also significant because it connects cases in Scotland, Australia, North Wales and England.
The case is known as A S or B (AP) and D M J P or W Sister Bernard Mary Murray and Others [2005]CSOH 70
The case concludes with these remarks:
For the reasons stated above I will exercise my discretion under section 19A in favour of the defenders and refuse to allow the pursuers to bring the present actions. I reach this conclusion without hesitation. It seems to me that the two principal reasons for my decision, the length of time that has elapsed since the events complained of and the actual prejudice that has been demonstrated by the defenders, are both extremely powerful. I would regard either of those reasons by itself as sufficient to refuse to allow the actions to proceed. In addition, it was clear during their evidence that the raising of these actions has caused considerable distress to all three pursuers. That is entirely understandable; it is clearly most upsetting for anyone to have to think in detail about unhappy memories of childhood. I cannot think that it is genuinely in the pursuers' interests to rake over those memories, especially where the individual nuns that are said to have been responsible are either dead or elderly. The care of children has moved on in the last 25 years, and institutions such as Nazareth House no longer exist. To that extent the pursuers' complaints have been vindicated. That may give them some comfort.
A prostitute who made a false claim that she had been raped by a police officer in a cell has been jailed for four months.
Martina Longbottom made a detailed 10-page statement about the alleged rape in a cell at Bethel Street Police Station.
At first her complaint was investigated as a matter of urgency and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) was called in.
But the police station's CCTV footage soon revealed that no officer matching Longbottom's description had been in the station at the relevant time.
Longbottom, 45, of Easthills, New Costessey admitted wasting police time by making a false report of a crime on April 21.
Jailing her for four months, district judge Philip Browning told her: “It is difficult to think of a more serious false allegation to make than that you were raped by a police officer while in custody.
“I consider I would be failing in my duty were I not to reflect the seriousness of the offence by imposing a custodial sentence.” (
more)
The controversy over the much heralded book Cathy's Story continues. In it the author claims she was she mistreated and abused by Nuns, and made to do menial work in the laundry
Let Our Voices Emerge (L.O.V.E.) are 100% sure that Kathy O'Beirne was not in Magdalene laundry, and will help any journalist or investigative team who want to follow up the Sunday Mirror article with what we know.We are determined that this book will be proven in Ireland and the U.K as being a work of fiction.
In the Irish Sunday Mirror yesterday [20th August], the family of Kathy O'Beirne have vehemently counteracted many of her claims in the book 'Kathy's Story'. She has lashed back saying 'I have never lied before - and I'm not going to start now'.
Let Our Voices Emerge (L.O.V.E.) are 100% sure that Kathy O'Beirne was not in Magdalene laundry. Let Our Voices Emerge will help any journalist or investigative team who want to follow up the Sunday Mirror article with what they know and are determined that this book will be proven in Ireland and the U.K as being a work of fiction.
A press release issues by L.O.V.E states
Today in the Sunday Mirror exclusive,
'Kathy's Story', a book now on the bestselling lists both in Ireland and in the U.K , detailing horrific abuse by nuns and priests has today been exposed as a cruel hoax by the writers family.
Let Our Voices Emerge (L.O.V.E) are outraged that such a story could become so successful with so little proof. Yet our warnings that the writer could produce little or no evidence were ignored as we ironically enough couldn't produce evidence to back our claims.
Florence Horsman Hogan states :
'Many people have suffered terribly, their lives and their reputations ruined because of Ms O'Beirnes