Knowl View Report & Council cover up reinforces the need for Mandatory Reporting Law

Knowl View, Rochdale

I was speaking this morning on Radio Manchester about the recently revealed scandal into a report done by an inspector who went to the Knowl View children's home in 1991 and was told that boys were being used as prostitutes and were also being abused forcibly at the home.

Bearing in mind that there is not only a police investigation but also an independent enquiry being commissioned by the Council at the moment by Queens Counsel, this leaked information must be of some importance because otherwise it would simply have featured in the report when published.

As we at QualitySolicitors Abney Garsden act for a victim of the abuse, I do know that the abuse spans the 1960's, 70's, and 80s. The inspection in this case took place in 1991 - which was only a few years before the home closed in 1995. The question would be did any abuse take place after the report, and how long before the report, was the abuse happening with either the actual knowledge, or constructive knowledge of the home?

The points I made on the radio were:-

1. I have been dealing with Children's Home abuse cases for 20 years and have never come across a report mentioning that abuse had actually taken place, then being covered up. Usually one only comes across evidence of a blind eye being turned to signs that children were not behaving normally or maybe a child who tried to disclose but did not quite manage to get everything out. 
2. This shows that the abuse was taking place quite openly at the home rather than happening in secret as usually occurs. 
3. This report will make the victims very angry that their complaints at the time were not responded to in the proper manner and that those in authority were engaged in a cover up. 
4. On the one hand it will make them angry because it will bring it all to the surface again. On the other hand it will please them that albeit many years later they have some chance of getting some justice. 
5. It reinforces the campaign for mandatory reporting, because if it had been possible to complain to an outside body rather than the report being internalised at Rochdale Council, there is a chance that something could have been done at the time, and the scandal uncovered. 
6. There is no criminal offence of failing to report suspicions of abuse and there should be. Those who buried the report should be held accountable for orchestrating a cover up. 
7. The police will only be able to prosecute the abusers if they are still alive rather than those who buried the complaints, who the victims often feel were more to blame.

For more detail on our mandatory reporting campaign see my separate blog on the subject here.

Is it any surprise that more suspects have arisen in the Knowl View Rochdale Cyril Smith scandal?

Cyril Smith

Yesterday it was announced by the police Operation Jaguar, who are investigating the allegations of abuse against Cyril Smith and his connections with the residential home Knowl View in Rochdale that more victims have come forward thus widening the investigation to 21 alleged abusers at the home.

Apparently 7 men have made allegations to the police which will be investigated.

Police said the men claimed they were abused by Smith at Knowl View in Rochdale in the 1970s and 1980s.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said there were now 21 suspects, 14 of whom it had identified, including Smith.

Police said three new alleged victims of abuse at Knowl View have come forward bringing the total to ten. Seven of the 10 allege abuse by Smith.

Here at QualitySolicitors Abney Garsden, we act for one victim of severe sexual abuse at Knowl View. We are anxious to speak to anyone who can help us in any way with what went on there. In particular we would like to speak to other victims of abuse there, so that we can build our case and make it stronger. As the abuse happened many years we need as much corroborative evidence as we can find.

I appeared on BBC News North West to give my opinion. I was asked if it surprised me that more allegations had arisen. My reply was a little melodramatic that paedophiles hunt in packs. It is true, however that at most of the homes we have looked at from the 60's, 70's, and 80's, where abuse took place, there were more than one sex offender care worker operating at the home, at one time. Whether or not they all knew what other was doing is not proven but likely. Some have attempted to trace links in the past.

As Detective Inspector Terry Oates, from Warrington Police said to me in 1996 when was investigating Greytone Heath, a home infested with sex offenders, "I like golf so I go to a golf club to play. Paedophiles like children, so go somewhere they can find them. They don't have to operate sophisticated rings because the children are all there for them to abuse whenever they like."

At one time 41 out of 43 police forces in this country back in the late 1990's had a major children's home investigation in the area. Manchester investigated 66 homes, and Merseyside 89 homes to quote just two counties.

Here at QualitySolicitors Abney Garsden, we are not only looking at Knowl View, but Foxholes in Rochdale where abuse also took place. There are other issues with Rochdale which have captured the media. Whether or not there is something sinister about the town is difficult to prove.

One simply hopes that the victims get the justice they truly deserve after being fobbed off for so many years.