Last updated at 00:59 08 September 2007

has adoption become,

a council allowed

these gay paedophiles

to foster young boys —

even, as one mother

reveals here, turning

a blind eye when

presented with

evidence of their

horrifying abuse

While the events unfolding in

her living room were tense and

awkward, the young mother

did not believe that her unease

augured anything more

inauspicious or alarming.

With the benefit of hindsight, of course, she

has now had ample time to reflect on how that

gnawing anxiety was justified.

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Miss X, as she must be known, had placed her

eight-year-old twin boys into foster care in 2004

after finding herself unable to cope with life as a

single parent of four boisterous youngsters.

That they had been placed with a gay couple,

Craig Faunch and Ian Wathey — the first

homosexual couple in Yorkshire to be approved by the

authorities as foster parents — was, she told

friends, incidental: she was just happy that

someone was taking good care of them.

That sentiment changed, however, when she

was shown a compromising naked photograph

of her son while they were on one of their regular

visits home.

The photo — featuring her son urinating — was

unsettling enough for Miss X to complain to the

social services department of her local council in

Wakefield, Yorkshire.

It is the sort of serious

incident that might, you imagine, herald the start of

a strict set of investigative procedures.

Instead, the matter was resolved — if that is

the correct word — over an uncomfortable

meeting in Miss X's living room in May 2004,

during which, she recalls, 32-year-old Faunch

declared that he had taken the photograph to

embarrass her son into closing the door when

he went to the toilet.

The dubious explanation was enough to satisfy

the social services managers present, who

brought the inquiry to a swift conclusion (as

well as apparently losing the incriminating

photograph in the process).

It was to be another

eight months before another

boy in their care was to raise

the alarm.

Eighteen months later, in

June last year, both Faunch

and Wathey were jailed for a

total of 11 years after being

convicted of a dozen offences

relating to four of the boys in

their care.

The pair had looked after 18

children in only 15 months after

being approved by the council,

but under the guise of caring

men offering a helping hand to

disadvantaged youngsters, had

sexually abused vulnerable

children for their own gratification.

Neither man, Leeds Crown

Court was told last year, had

shown any empathy or remorse.

Both are now serving prison

sentences for their despicable

crimes.

Nonetheless, the

repercussions have continued to

rumble, and in a scathing independentlyauthored report

issued this week, Wakefield

Metropolitan District Council

found itself the subject of

robust condemnation.

They had, the report

concluded, left the couple free

to sexually abuse youngsters in

their care because of fears of

discrimination if they launched

an investigation.

By virtue of their sexuality,

the report suggested, the men

were "trophy carers" who were

not subject to the same

rigorous assessment as others.

At a time when gay couples

can legally adopt children for

the first time, the criticism

raises serious questions about

vetting procedures, as well as

fears that the crimes of two

men could have repercussions

for genuine gay foster parents.

For Miss X, of course, the

issue is a far more simple one: a

shocking betrayal of trust.

As she says: "I was so angry

when I found out that the

council hadn't taken their

investigation further and, at

least, contacted the police

about it.

"I am horrified that

they let more children go into

that house — it's sick.

"Now, so many more people

have also had their lives turned

upside down.

"Like others, I

trusted them 100per cent and

they let me down."

It is a sentiment echoed by the

mothers of Faunch and Wathey's

two other young victims, not to

mention others who have found

themselves at the sharp end of

council mismanagement.

For it is not the first time that

Wakefield council has found its

provision of care for disadvantaged

young people in the spotlight for

all the wrong reasons.

Last month, six care workers

formerly employed by the

council won a compensation

payout estimated to be in the

region of £1million in an out-ofcourtsettlement after blowing

the whistle on standards of

care in the children's homes

where they worked.

All of them had been sacked

after revealing a shocking

catalogue of mismanagement, a

raft of failings which included

allowing children as young as

12 to engage in sexual

relationships, a child worker buying

and smoking drugs with

children in his care and failures in

staff criminal record checks.

Such a depressing litany of

failures would seem to have had

no bearing on sending the boys

to stay with the two men in

Sides Road, Pontefract, from

the summer of 2003.

Faunch and Wathey had

settled in the three-bedroom

semidetached house on a pleasant

cul-de-sac five years earlier

and, like so many paedophiles,

appeared to be perfectly

respectable members of society.

This strikingly odd couple —

40-year-old Wathey, 6ft tall and

thick set was regarded as a

quiet, "Gentle Giant" while

Faunch is a slim 5ft 6in and

nicknamed "Tweetie Pie" at

school because of his voice and

stature — both grew up near

Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

The men were living at home

with their divorced mothers

when they met ten years ago,

quickly coming out to their

respective friends and families

before, in 1998, they decided to

move in together.

Money, according to friends,

was often in short supply, with

both men undertaking a

number of distinctly mundane jobs

over the years, including

working for a local frozen food firm

and a mail order home

shopping catalogue company.

They seemed, neighbours

recall, unlikely trailblazers for

gay rights, although in fact

Faunch in particular was

outspoken on the subject.

And whether or not it was at

his behest, five years ago, the

couple applied to Wakefield

council to become professional

foster parents.

When, in July 2003, they

received permission, Faunch

and Wathey became among the

first homosexual couples in

England to be approved, and

the first in Yorkshire.

The milestone passed quietly

enough.

Faunch and Wathey

were treated no differently to

any other foster parents by

social services, passing the

same training courses and

undergoing the same standard

vetting procedures.

Routine checks revealed they

did not have a criminal record

and had never been in trouble

with police, and, with a

desperate shortage of foster parents

in the Yorkshire area, began

their new role in the summer of

2003 as soon as the social

services fostering panel formally

approved their applications.

The couple's request only to

look after boys in the five to 12

age bracket apparently passed

unremarked, with managers

accepting Faunch and Wathey's explanation that they

didn't feel "equipped" to care for

girls.

Perhaps social services should

have talked to members of the

local community, many of

whom had a strong sense that

it was not pure altruism that

had persuaded the gay couple

to bring young boys into their

home.

As local gossip would

have it, it was the money.

Neither man went out to work

and appeared to be living off

funds from Wakefield's social

services department.

Cash was used, according to

one neighbour, to fund

weekends away with the boys at the

nearby seaside resorts of

Cleethorpes and Skegness in

the motorhome they owned.

Of course, we now know that

the couple's motivation was

even more sinister: both men

were paedophiles.

And less than a year after

they had first been approved,

Miss X was moved to flag up

her concerns to social services.

During one of her regular visits

with the twins, a grinning

Faunch had shown her the

picture of her son urinating during

a visit to Butlin's holiday camp

in Skegness.

A similar snap had also been

taken of the other twin.

Deeply disturbed, the 34-yearold single mother refused to let

the twins return to the foster

home and lodged an official

complaint with the council.

But while a social worker took

the offending photograph and

promised a full investigation

the result, as we have seen, was

merely that awkward living

room meeting.

After that, Miss X was told

nothing of what happened

next, left instead to assume

that the council had

thoroughly investigated the matter.

In fact, far from taking any

further action, the council had

sent Faunch and Wathey more

youngsters, including some

with more serious problems,

even providing extra bunk beds

and a Ford Galaxy people

carrier to assist with any

transportation problems.

"Moving

up in the world," one neighbour

ruefully remarked.

Behind the scenes, however, it

was the couple's deviancy that

had moved on to another level.

Among the new "recruits" to

their foster army was a 14-year

old-boy with Asperger's

syndrome, a form of autism, who

spent the weekends with the

men to afford his mother some

respite care.

With a mental age

of seven and learning

difficulties, the boy's 36-year- old

mother found it hard to juggle

her son's special needs

alongside those of her other two children-and had turned to Wakefield-social services for help.

"I was at breaking point when

Craig and Ian came along," she

recalls.

"At the time, it was the

answer to my prayers.

"I looked after my son myself during the

week and at weekends could

recharge my batteries and

spend time with the other kids."

How could she have guessed

that her son was being sexually

abused by the foster carers in

the privacy of their home —

knowing that he was unlikely to

say anything because of his

condition?

In harrowing evidence given

to Leeds Crown Court last year,

the boy recalled how Wathey

had made him watch gay

pornography while he touched

himself and, on nine other

other occasions, had also

subjected the boy to an explicit sex

act as he lay in bed, telling him

he must not tell his mother.

He had also, the boy also told

the court, been fondled on

several occasions by Faunch as

they sat on the living room sofa.

"I don't like them anymore," he

told the court.

"I want them to go to prison."

Who knows how long this

catalogue of abuse may have

continued?

In fact, it was only after

a fourth child, also aged 14,

reported to an adult friend that

he had been inappropriately

touched that the police

became involved.

After one of the incidents, he

told the court, he had used a

full bottle of shower gel in the

shower in a bid to scrub away

the memory of the event. "It

hurt," he said.

The police were finally

informed, and launched an

investigation, during which

they discovered an indecent

video of the fostered twins

taking a shower which had been

filmed just days after their

naked photo had been taken.

Police also uncovered a

hardcore gay pornographic film in

the recorder of Faunch and

Wathey's bedroom.

The film, A Young Man's World, features

the exploits of a group of older

men lusting after and

performing sex acts with young males.

In June last year, Faunch was

convicted of five sexual

offences of sexual activity with

a 14-year-old and two offences

of taking indecent photos.

Wathey was found guilty of

four offences of sexual activity

with another 14-year-old boy

and a charge of encouraging a

child to watch a gay porn

movie.

Neither showed any

remorse.

Indeed, it perhaps suggests

something of the couple's

attitude towards the legal

proceedings that just weeks

before they stood trial in June

last year, the men chose to

formalise their relationship in a

civil partnership ceremony in

Pontefract.

Little wonder that, when

sentencing Faunch and Wathey

at Leeds Crown Court last

summer, Judge Susan Cahill

said it was "quite incredible"

that the police had not been

called in after concerns were

initially raised by the mother of

the twin boys.

It is a sentiment echoed by the

authors of this week's report, who

also made 41 recommendations

for overhauling the council's

fostering process.

Only time will tell, of course,

whether these

recommendations will be implemented.

In the meantime, the mothers of

the boys concerned are left to

deal with the emotional

consequences behind the

bureaucratic machine.

As the mother of the 14-year

old with Asperger's put it. "I

just do not know the long-term

damage this may have done to

my son.

"If social workers had

done their job and taken the

twins more seriously in the first

place, my son would never have

gone there."

This week, a spokeswoman

for Wakefield council declined

to comment, declaring it would

be "inappropriate" to do so until

after a meeting of all council

members is held on Wednesday.

"Inappropriate", of course,

being rather a key word

throughout this sorry saga —

and one that should have been

used far earlier.

Additional reporting by Chris

Brooke.