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The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) report published this week highlighted the number of people who have been convicted of abusing children in care in Nottinghamshire.

It said that from 1975 to the present day, 16 residential staff were convicted of sexual abuse of children in residential care; and that 10 foster carers were convicted of sexual abuse of their foster children.

But one common theme running through many of the cases is the number of missed opportunities that there were to bring the offenders to justice years before they actually came to court.

Allegations were swept under the carpet; disciplinary proceedings backed the abuser rather than the victim; the CPS decided not to prosecute. Whatever the reason, victims were left dismayed by the choices and decisions that were made.

We have looked at the history of allegations made against seven of the people who ended up being convicted of offences relating to abuse of children in council care.

And we have found that the total time between allegations about them first being investigated or concerns being raised, and the date they were finally convicted, is a shocking 154 years.

That’s an average of 22 years per offender - more than two decades each where they could have been locked up instead of being out in society and, in most cases, continuing to work. Here are the details of how they slipped through the net.

Michael Robinson

Offences: Five indecent assaults

Sentence: 8 years

Date of offences: Early 1980s

Date allegations first investigated: 1984

Date convicted: 2019

Time between allegation and conviction: 35 years

(Image: Nottinghamshire Police)

Robinson’s offences were carried out when he was officer-in-charge at Hazelwood boys’ home in Forest Fields. But even while he was in charge, from 1980 to 1984, there were concerns about him.

A suitcase containing naked photos of boys who had previously been at Hazelwood was found in his flat at the home, and police investigated but no further action was taken. He was still due to face a council disciplinary hearing, but resigned in January 1984 before the hearing took place.

After he left Nottingham, he continued to work for social services elsewhere in the country.

Then in 2000, a former Hazelwood resident came forward to make allegations of sexual abuse by Robinson. He denied the allegations when interviewed by the police, and there was no further action taken.

(Image: NOTTINGHAM POST/ Marie Wilson)

The resident did not give up, making a further complaint about Robinson six years later. The complaint was looked at by the county council, but no action was taken because it had already been investigated by police.

It wasn’t until 2015 that the first of four other complainants came forward, enabling police to revisit the investigation, and Robinson was eventually convicted of offences against two of them.

Myriam Bamkin

Offence: Indecent assault

Sentence: 2½ years

Date of offences: Mid-1980s

Date concerns first raised: c1984

Date convicted: 2018

Time between allegation and conviction: 34 years

(Image: Nottinghamshire Police)

Bamkin, a social worker at Amberdale Children's Home in Stapleford, effectively groomed a teenager at the home and had sex with him when he was underage.

When he was over 16, she was overheard having sexual activity with him in a tent on a camping trip. Concerns about this were reported at the home by a staff member but "the head of the unit appeared to have told that member of staff to keep it to himself and it was swept under the carpet," Nottingham Crown Court was told.

Bamkin continued to work for Nottinghamshire County Council - becoming a team manager in fostering - until 2016 when the victim came forward to make a complaint and she was suspended.

She took early retirement before she was convicted of the crime, and as a result has been able to continue claiming her pension.

No disciplinary investigation was carried out either before her resignation or after her conviction.

Dean Gathercole

Offences: Three rapes, six indecent assaults

Sentence: 17 years (reduced from 19 years on appeal)

Date of offences: Mid-1980s

Date allegations first investigated: 1987

Date convicted: 2018

Time between allegation and conviction: 31 years

(Image: Nottinghamshire Police)

Way back in 1987, allegations were made against Gathercole, and in 1988 he actually appeared before the Crown Court in connection with sexual abuse of girls at Amberdale in Stapleford.

But no evidence was offered by the prosecution, and Gathercole was discharged. A council disciplinary hearing also found that the allegations against him were unfounded.

(Image: Ian Hodgkinson / Picture It)

Twelve years later, one of his victims came forward and he was arrested, but the CPS decided not to prosecute.

It was only when another victim spoke to police in 2014 that he was finally charged with offences against both girls, and later convicted.

Andris Logins

Offences: Four rapes, 12 indecent assaults, cruelty to a child

Sentence: 20 years

Date of offences: 1981 to 1985

Date allegations investigated: 1990

Date convicted: 2016

Time between allegation and conviction: 26 years

Nottinghamshire County Council employed Logins as a residential care worker at Beechwood (where he committed the offences he was eventually jailed for) until the late 1980s.

In 1990, when he was working at a different children's home, Sycamore House, he was subject to an internal disciplinary investigation following allegations of sexual assault by two female residents at that home. This was followed up by the police and the CPS, and the county solicitor and deputy chief executive were also involved.

(Image: Alex Britton/PA Wire)

But the police investigation was discontinued, and no further action was taken in the disciplinary investigation. He was reinstated in October 1991 without any assessment of whether he posed a risk to children.

In 2010, further allegations were made against Andris Logins, this time in relation to his time at Beechwood. He was arrested in 2013, and eventually stood trial and was convicted in 2016, after still more allegations were made against him.

David Gallop

Offences: Two indecent assaults

Sentence: 21 months

Date of offences: 1960s

Date allegations first investigated: 2000

Date convicted: 2018

Time between allegation and conviction: 18 years

Social worker Gallop spent 40 years evading justice for abusing a teenage boy from Hazelwood children's home. But that time could have been almost halved if his victim’s allegations had been taken further when he came forward and spoke to police in 2000.

At the time of those allegations Gallop, who was living in Cyprus, was neither arrested nor questioned. The Crown Prosecution Service felt there was not enough evidence - leaving the victim "devastated" by the decision.

Only when Gallop was jailed in 2017 for the abuse of a 12-year-old boy elsewhere in the country in the 1960s, was that decision revisited, and he admitted the charges and was sentenced in October 2018.

Patrick Gallagher

Offences: 55 offences involving 16 boys, including rape, indecency with a child, indecent assault, sexual activity with a child

Sentence: Life with a minimum of 28 years

Date of offences: 1998 to 2010

Date concerns first raised: 2006

Date convicted: 2011

Time between allegation and conviction: 5 years

As a foster carer, swimming coach and youth club volunteer, Gallagher had plenty of opportunity to abuse young people. And although he was eventually convicted of offences against 16 boys, it’s thought there could have been more victims.

Gallagher, from Mansfield, was actually struck off as a foster carer in 2007, after allowing a foster child to watch pornography the previous year. But no cases of abuse came to light until after the death of his wife in 2010.

A serious case review carried out by the Notts Safeguarding Children Board found that, although police should have been more involved with the inquiries at that time, there was no previous opportunity to know about Gallagher’s criminal abuse.

After his conviction, further allegations were made, but the CPS decided to caution him for these, rather than prosecute him.

Norman Campbell

Offences: Three indecent assaults, four serious sexual offences

Sentence: 6 years

Date of offences: 1984 to 1987

Date concerns first raised: 1986

Date convicted: 1991

Time between allegation and conviction: 5 years

Some allegations were actually made against social worker Campbell as far back as 1982 and 1983 (and at least the second of these was ‘apparently dismissed’, according to a later report).

In terms of offences he was eventually convicted of, concerns were raised in 1986. He faced a disciplinary hearing in 1988, which cleared him of sexual assault, although he was formally warned about his behaviour.

But he wasn’t convicted until 1991. The following year, an internal inquiry was critical of the 1988 disciplinary hearing, saying that concerns of members of staff about Campbell’s behaviour and relationships with children had been dismissed.

It also suggested that lessons could be learned by a second, external, enquiry reviewing the County’s management of its staff working with children in care - but this did not take place.

The IICSA report said that: "His abuse of children might have been prevented had processes been followed."

What the survivors' group said:

David Hollas, advocate for the Nottinghamshire Child Sexual Abuse Survivors Group, said: “Whilst victims and survivors welcome the eventual prosecution of these people who were supposed to look after them, sadly this is only the tip of an iceberg of missed opportunity, as we heard in the inquiry.

“Over the years many children’s home workers were brought before disciplinary panels, supported by their unions, only for the local councillors to dismiss the allegations and reverse the recommendation for them to be sacked, and sent back to work with children.

“We also heard that when the scale of abuse began to be known, Nottingham City Council conducted a review of past allegations against existing staff and many were quietly released.

“Children must be heard. Turning a deaf ear or looking the other way can never be allowed to happen again, and those that did, bear as much responsibility for the rape and abuse of children as those who committed the act.”

What the police said:

Chief Superintendent Rob Griffin from Nottinghamshire Police said: “It’s now obvious that systems were not in place, across many institutions, to protect children from that abuse. And we learnt, further, that there were obvious barriers to disclosure, and that even when disclosures were made that they weren’t always dealt with appropriately.

“The police investigation has been reviewed many times over, by many different people - including me - so I can say first-hand that there were no opportunities missed.

“An SIO (Senior Investigating Officer) should have been dedicated earlier. I made that clear in the review that I did, as did others.

“Had there been a dedicated SIO, and had different resourcing decisions been made, then I do believe that we might have made better progress earlier. But in terms of whether more charges, prosecutions and convictions would have been brought, my honest opinion is ‘no'.

"We have investigated each allegation as they have been reported and Operation Equinox, our dedicated policing operation targeting all non-recent child sexual abuse, has now become a mainstream team who are specialists in investigating reports of this nature.

"That approach has allowed us to embed that learning, professionalise our approach and continue to improve how we approach each case over time."

What the Crown Prosecution Service said:

A CPS spokesperson said: "Non-recent sexual abuse cases can be complex to investigate and prosecute. Every case must be considered on its specific facts, and thoroughly investigated.

"In some cases related to the Nottingham care homes, evidence not previously available allowed a prosecution to be brought many years after an initial complaint was made.

“Our approach to prosecuting such cases has changed significantly in recent years, and victims should have confidence that any case where our legal tests are met will be prosecuted.”