About 350 people told child abuse inquiry of alleged incidents from the 1960s to 90s

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Hundreds of children in council care in Nottinghamshire were exposed to sexual abuse by predatory foster carers and residential care staff for decades due to repeated failures to learn from mistakes, an inquiry has found.

In one of the largest inquiries into child sexual abuse to date, both Nottingham city council and Nottinghamshire county council were found to have repeatedly exposed vulnerable children to sexual and physical abuse, a report said.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) found sexualised behaviour by staff was often “tolerated or overlooked”.

Around 350 people alleged they were abused while in residential or foster care in the county from the 1960s onwards, but the IICSA said the true scale was likely to be higher.

Children suffered abuse, including repeated rapes, sexual assaults and voyeurism, at many council homes as well as in foster care during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

The inquiry heard that one child who was abused while in foster care was later placed in a children’s home, where they were visited by their abuser.

In another home inspected in the early 1990s “all children resident over a 12-month period were found to have been exposed to harmful sexual behaviour”.

The panel, presenting its report on Wednesday after listening to 15 days of evidence, said it was the largest number of specific allegations of sexual abuse in a single investigation that the inquiry has considered to date.

In a damning assessment of the councils’ failures, the report said: “For more than five decades, the councils failed in their statutory duty to protect children in their care from sexual abuse.

“These were children who were being looked after away from their family homes because of adverse childhood experiences and their own pre-existing vulnerabilities.

“They needed to be nurtured, cared for and protected by adults they could trust. Instead, the councils exposed them to the risk, and reality, of sexual abuse perpetrated primarily by predatory residential staff and foster carers.”

Between the late 1970s and 2019, the report said 16 residential staff were convicted of sexual abuse of children in residential care. Ten foster carers were convicted of sexual abuse of their foster children.

The panel said it was also aware of 12 convictions relating to the harmful sexual behaviour of children against other children in care.

The inquiry heard from former residents of Beechwood Care Home, who described being routinely sexually abused by members of staff and being too afraid to report it.

Meanwhile, some foster carers were allowed to carry on looking after vulnerable children even when they were “known perpetrators”, including some who “then went on to abuse children again”.

The report said there was “too much willingness on the part of council staff to take the side of the foster carers and to disbelieve the child”.

County councillors were also criticised. They inquiry found they “did not question the scale of sexual abuse or what action was being taken”, which it said was a “serious failure of scrutiny and governance”.

The inquiry also found that Nottinghamshire Constabulary’s initial investigation into allegations was “not adequately resourced” and complaints were not dealt with “sufficient seriousness”.

Mandy Coupland, co-founder of Nottingham Child Sexual Abuse Survivors Group, told the inquiry the city council had lost the trust of victims and said its apology was “fickle”.

“There need to be some resignations in Nottingham,” she said.

The current city council leader, David Mellen, who gave evidence to the inquiry, said the council accepted it had “let survivors down in the worst possible way” and said the authority should have closed down the Beechwood residential home sooner

“We accept that the council made mistakes and should have done more to protect children from harm while they were in our care,” he added.

One victim who gave evidence to the inquiry said the authority was not acting “from the point of sincerity or empathy, it’s purely reputation management”.

The IICSA panel said comments by then city council leader Jon Collins – who was quoted as saying in a meeting last year that the authority “will apologise when there is something to apologise for” – were “crass and caused avoidable upset”.

Nottinghamshire county council made a public apology to victims in January last year, with Nottingham city council doing the same a fortnight before the inquiry opened.

The inquiry chairwoman, Prof Alexis Jay, said: “For decades, children who were in the care of the Nottinghamshire councils suffered appalling sexual and physical abuse, inflicted by those who should have nurtured and protected them.

“Those responsible for overseeing the care of children failed to question the extent of sexual abuse or what action was being taken. Despite decades of evidence and many reviews showing what needed to change, neither of the councils learned from their mistakes, meaning that more children suffered unnecessarily.

“We hope this report and recommendations can help ensure it never happens again.”