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Vocabulary > Violence > Child abuse > UK
Shannon's mother sobs as she denies
involvement in kidnap conspiracy
• 'Violent' partner and allies accused of
frame-up
• Defendant says she was told to take blame for plot
Martin Wainwright
The Guardian pp. 16-17
Friday 28 November 2008
http://digital.guardian.co.uk/guardian/2008/11/28/pdfs/gdn_081128_ber_16_21324941.pdf
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/nov/28/karen-matthews-shannon-kidnapping-trial
child abuse
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/15/vanessa-george-child-abuse-sentencing
abuse
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/26/cornwall-paedophile-ring-men-jailed
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1973838,00.html
abuse
abuse >
Baby P 2007-2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/baby-p
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/22/baby-p-jail-mother-stepfather
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/nov/18/childprotection-ukcrime
abuser
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/17/child-trafficking-uk-rise
abuser > paedophile
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/publicservices/story/0,11032,1688093,00.html
http://society.guardian.co.uk/children/story/0,1074,1503389,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/child/story/0,7369,1097912,00.html
abuse images
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jun/11/vanessa-george-plymouth-court-children
paedophilia
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_wilson/2007/08/when_is_paedophilia_not_paedop.html
paedophile ring
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/26/cornwall-paedophile-ring-men-jailed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/10/colin-blanchard-sexually-abused
physical and mental abuse
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2038817,00.html
child abuse scandals
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/03/childprotection
child abuse > mothers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/06/mothers-child-protection
child abuse >
Jersey child abuse investigation / Jersey 'punishment room'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4434012.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/25/hautdelagarenne.jersey.childabuse
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/10/ukcrime.childprotection
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/10/ukcrime.childprotection1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/interactive/2008/feb/27/childprotection.ukcrime1
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3483714.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3478072.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3476811.ece
abuse / neglect > harmed children
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/nov/15/baby-p-child-abuse
child sex abuse
http://www.guardian.co.uk/child/story/0,7369,1645438,00.html
the killing of Baby P
2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/nov/15/child-protection-social-care-babyp
Shannon Matthews kidnap
2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/shannon-matthews-kidnap
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/14/2
sex vetting flaws
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/publicservices/story/0,11032,1688080,00.html
sexual abuse
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/nov/25/child-sexual-abuse-speaking-out
http://www.guardian.co.uk/child/story/0,7369,1646304,00.html
cruelty
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/may/22/baby-p-sentencing
child protection
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/childprotection
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/nov/15/baby-p-child-abuse
http://www.guardian.co.uk/child/0,7368,350542,00.html
vanished children
http://www.guardian.co.uk/child/story/0,7369,1483935,00.html
child sex trafficking
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/17/child-trafficking-uk-rise
groom
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/17/child-trafficking-uk-rise
grooming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/09/investigation-grooming-teenage-girls
self-harm
http://society.guardian.co.uk/children/story/0,1074,1297567,00.html
cut
child abuse > Roman Catholic church
child abuse > Catholic church > Leeds
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1973838,00.html
child abuse scandals > Roman Catholic church in
Ireland
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/05/25/world/AP-EU-Ireland-Catholic-Abuse.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/may/21/catholic-abuse-ireland-ryan
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/world/europe/21ireland.html?hp
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/world/2009/CICA-ExecutiveSummary.pdf
http://www.childabusecommission.ie/rpt/pdfs/
http://www.childabusecommission.ie/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ireland/5356587/Church-failed-to-act-on-child-sex-abuse---report.html
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/05/20/world/international-us-ireland-church-abuse.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/thousands-were-raped-in-irish-reform-schools-1687907.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/timeline-of-irelands-catholic-abuse-scandals-1688363.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/may/20/ireland-catholic-schools-abuse-report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/20/irish-catholic-schools-child-abuse-claims
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/20/irish-catholic-church-child-abuse1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/20/irish-catholic-church-child-abuse
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/may/20/catholic-abuse-ireland
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6328015.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6326754.ece
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-10-28-pope_x.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1726691,00.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3279349.ece
Australia > abuse > paedophile priests
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4348976.ece
USA > abuse
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-04-17-pope-visit_N.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-04-16-pope_N.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-04-15-pope-visit_N.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-07-15-church-abuse_N.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-20-diocese-foley_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-09-16-priest-abuse_x.htm
abuser
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-20-diocese-foley_x.htm
Child sex trafficking in UK on the rise
with even younger
victims targeted
White, black and Asian children at risk with abusers using mobiles
and web to
groom victims, say Barnardo's
Monday 17 January 2011
The Guardian
Alexandra Topping
This article appeared on p3 of the Main section section of the Guardian on
Monday 17 January 2011.
It was published on guardian.co.uk at 00.01 GMT on Monday 17 January 2011.
It was last modified at 01.08 GMT on Monday 17 January 2011.
The trafficking of British children around UK cities for sexual exploitation
is on the increase with some as young as 10 being groomed by predatory abusers,
a report reveals today.
The average age of victims of such abuse has fallen from 15 to about 13 in five
years, according to the report by Barnardo's, the UK's biggest children's
charity.
But victims continue to be missed as telltale signs are overlooked "from the
frontline of children's services to the corridors of Whitehall," said Anne Marie
Carrie, the charity's new chief executive.
"Wherever we have looked for exploitation, we have found it. But the real
tragedy is we believe this is just the tip of the iceberg," she said.
Calling for a minister to be put in charge of the government's response, she
said: "Without a minister with overall responsibility the government response is
likely to remain inadequate."
The main findings from the report, called Puppet on a String, include:
• Trafficking becoming more common and sexual exploitation more organised.
• Grooming methods becoming more sophisticated as abusers use a range of
technology – mobile phones, including texts and picture messages, Bluetooth
technology, and the internet – to control and abuse children.
The charity dealt with 1,098 children who had been groomed for sex last year, a
4% increase on the previous year.
A recent focus on the ethnicity of abusers risks putting more children in
danger, said Carrie. "I am not going to say that ethnicity is not an issue in
some geographical areas, it clearly is. But to think of it as the only
determining factor is misleading and dangerous."
The issue has come under the spotlight after cases in Derby, where ringleaders
of a gang of Asian men were jailed for grooming girls as young as 12 for sex,
and in Rochdale, where nine mainly Asian men were arrested on Tuesday last week
on suspicion of grooming a group of white teenage girls.
Carrie warned of the risk of the issue becoming dangerously simplified after
comments from the former home secretary Jack Straw, who said some Pakistani men
saw white girls as "easy meat".
The charity dealt with white, black and Asian victims, she said – whose voices
were being lost. "Profiling and stereotyping is dangerous – we are scared that
victims will say: 'I don't fit into that pattern, so I'm not being abused'."
The report identifies many different patterns of abuse, ranging from
inappropriate relationships to organised networks of child trafficking.
Of Barnardo's 22 specialist services surveyed for the report, 21 had seen
evidence of the trafficking of children through organised networks for sex,
often with multiple men.
Among the cases highlighted is Emma, who met her first "boyfriend" when she was
14. In his 30s, he bought her presents, said he loved her, then forced her to
have sex with his friends. She was shipped around the country and raped by
countless men. "I got taken to flats, I don't know where they were and men would
be brought to me. I was never given any names, and I don't remember their
faces," she said.
The "inappropriate relationship" usually involved an older abuser with control
over a child. Such cases included Sophie, who was 13 when she met her "gorgeous"
18-year-old boyfriend at a cousin's 21st birthday party. After initially
treating her well, he isolated her from her family and became violent. When
police rescued her, they told her the man was 34, with a criminal record for
child abuse. "I said they were lying. I thought I was in love, I thought it was
normal," she said.
The "boyfriend" model, sees girls groomed, often by a younger man, who passes
her on to older men. In one case an Asian teenager from the north-west described
being dragged out of a car by her hair by her "boyfriend", who took her to a
hotel room "to have his friends over and do what they wanted to me".
Boys are also vulnerable: a 14-year-old, Tim, was groomed by one man then
expected to have sex with many more. "After a while there would be three or four
guys all at once. It was horrible and very scary," he said.
Abusers are increasingly using the internet and mobile phone technology to
control victims. Teens are being coerced into sending, or posing for, sexually
explicit photos which are then used to blackmail and control them, said Carrie.
"The abuser then sells the images, and threatens to send the pictures to the
girl's parents or school if she does not do x, y and z."
Often abusers target the most vulnerable: children in care, foster homes or from
chaotic backgrounds. But children of all backgrounds are at risk, said Carrie.
Penny Nicholls, director of children and young people at The Children's Society,
said the Barnardo's findings echoed their experiences. "We join Barnardo's in
calling on the government to take urgent action, ensuring a minister has special
responsibility for overseeing a countrywide response to combat sexual
exploitation."
A Department for Education spokeswoman said: "This is a complex problem and we
are determined to tackle it effectively by working collaboratively right across
government and with national and local agencies."
Child sex trafficking in
UK on the rise with even younger victims targeted, G, 17.1.2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/17/child-trafficking-uk-rise
Jersey:
Haut de la Garenne children's home abuse scandal
ends with one last conviction
Three-year probe ends in jail sentences for 'bullying' couple
Friday 7
January 2011
The Guardian
Ian Cobain
This article appeared on p14 of the Main section section of the Guardian on
Friday 7 January 2011.
It was published on guardian.co.uk at 08.34 GMT on Friday 7 January 2011. It was
last modified at 12.48 GMT on Friday 7 January 2011.
A
long-running child abuse investigation that brought turmoil to the island of
Jersey has finally ended with the conviction of two former children's home
workers.
Morag Jordan and her husband Anthony were jailed for a series of assaults they
inflicted on children at the Haut de la Garenne home over a period of more than
10 years in the 1970s and 80s. Five others - not all of them connected to the
home - had previously been convicted of a number of sexual assaults as a result
of the investigation, and received sentences of up to 15 years in jail.
Police say their three-year investigation, Operation Rectangle, has now ended.
The inquiry faced a series of criticisms, both from leading political figures on
the island and from senior officers flown in from the mainland to review its
progress. At one point, police said they believed they had recovered the remains
of a child from the cellar of the home, only to later admit what they had
thought to be a fragment of skull was a piece of coconut shell.
Despite the criticism, evidence of widespread abuse at the home was discovered:
as well as the seven people convicted, police gathered evidence that could have
led to the prosecution of a further 30 people who died before they could be
brought before the courts.
Jordan and her husband, both 62, from Kirriemuir, Angus, were found guilty in
November of eight separate charges.
During the two-week trial at the Royal Court of Jersey, they were accused of
inflicting "casual and routine violence" while working as houseparents at Haut
de la Garenne. Prosecutors said they acted like "intimidating bullies" and had
carried out "frequent and callous" assaults on vulnerable residents.
Jordan was jailed for nine months and her husband for six months. Some of their
victims sat in the court's public gallery to hear the sentences.
Morag Jordan was employed as a housemother between 1970 and 1984. She was
convicted of charges relating to assaults on four children. Her husband was
found guilty of common assault against two children. Morag Jordan was acquitted
of a further 28 counts and her husband four.
Others convicted as a result of the abuse inquiry were:
• Gordon Claude Wateridge, found guilty of assault on three girls while working
as a houseparent between 1969 and 1979
• Claude James Donnelly, jailed in 2009 for 15 years for rape and indecent
assault
• Michael Aubin, given two years probation for sexual offences at Haut de la
Garenne between 1977 and 1980
• Ronald George Thorne, convicted of gross indecency between 1983 and 1984,
spent 12 months in prison
• Leonard Miles Vandenborn, jailed for 12 years for the rape and indecent
assault of two young girls in the 1970s and 80s.
Last month, Jersey's chief minister, Senator Terry Le Sueur, apologised to all
the children who suffered abuse at Haut de la Garenne. He told the island's
parliament, the States of Jersey: "On behalf of the island's government, I
acknowledge that the care system that operated historically in the island of
Jersey failed some children in the States' residential care in a serious way. To
all those who suffered abuse, whether confirmed by criminal conviction or not,
the island's government offers its unreserved apology."
A number of victims are now bringing civil proceedings against the island's
government.
Last July, a report commissioned from Wiltshire police levelled 19 criticisms at
the investigation. It concluded that senior officers lacked leadership skills
and worked ineffectively with the media, pointing out that the £7.5m cost of the
investigation included more than £1m spent on travel, meals, hotels and
entertainment.
At one point the island's chief police officer, Graham Power, was suspended,
although disciplinary action was later abandoned. Power always denied any
wrongdoing.
Haut de la Garenne was opened in 1867 as an industrial school for "young people
of the lower classes of society and neglected children". During the second world
war, occupying German forces used it as a signal station, and in 1945 it became
a children's home again. There had been rumours for decades that children were
suffering sexual and physical abuse – suspicions that the island's authorities
appeared reluctant to investigate.
Senior police officers opened their inquiry in September 2007 and took 1,776
statements from 192 former child residents who identified around 150 people as
abusers. A number of former residents went public to tell of their ordeal. Peter
Hannaford, one of Jersey's leading trade union officials, who was sent to the
home as an orphaned child, waived his right to anonymity to tell the Jersey
Evening Post how his earliest memories were of abuse.
"Boys and girls were raped when I was there," he said. "The abuse was anything
from rape and torture. It happened every night. And it happened to everyone."
• This
article was amended on 7 January 2011 to clarify that not all of the five people
mentioned as previously convicted of sexual assaults were connected to the Haut
de la Garenne home.
Jersey: Haut de la Garenne children's home abuse scandal
ends with one last conviction,
G, 7.1.2011,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/06/jersey-childrens-home-scandal-ends
Baby P abuse
could and should have been stopped, finds
report
• Agencies were 'lacking urgency', 'lacking thoroughness'
• Staff should be 'deeply sceptical' of parents' excuses
Friday 22 May 2009
11.07 BST
Guardian.co.uk
James Sturcke and agencies
The "horrifying" abuse and killing of Baby P "could and should
have been prevented", according to the second serious case review, parts of
which were published today.
Doctors, lawyers, police and social workers should have been able to stop the
situation "in its tracks at the first serious incident", the executive summary
of the report said.
Even after the boy, who was named Peter, was put under a child protection plan,
his case was regarded as routine "with injuries expected as a matter of course".
Agencies were "lacking urgency", "lacking thoroughness" and "insufficiently
challenging to the parent".
The review, carried out by the Haringey local safeguarding children board, found
that agencies "did not exercise a strong enough sense of challenge" when dealing
with Peter's mother and their outlook was "completely inadequate" to meet the
challenges of the case.
The review was commissioned by the children's secretary, Ed Balls, because of
concerns over the conclusions of the first review.
Today's report concluded that Peter "deserved better from the services that were
there to protect him". It found that agencies would only have been willing to
move him if the injuries he suffered were found to be "non-accidental beyond all
reasonable doubt".
"When such injuries did come they were catastrophic, and he died of them," the
review found. "The panel deeply regrets the responses of the services were not
sufficiently effective in protecting him."
Graham Badman, the chairman of the safeguarding children board, said: "I believe
the most important lesson arising from this case is that professionals charged
with ensuring child safety must be deeply sceptical of any explanations,
justifications or excuses they may hear in connection with the apparent
maltreatment of children. If they have any doubt about the cause of physical
injuries or what appears to be maltreatment, they should act swiftly and
decisively."
He said every member of staff in the agencies involved with the case had been
"appropriately qualified, well motivated and wanted to do their best to
safeguard him … but his horrifying death could and should have been prevented.
"The serious case review says that if doctors, lawyers, police officers and
social workers had adopted a more urgent, thorough and challenging approach, the
case would have been stopped in its tracks at the first serious incident. It's a
dreadful tragedy that he did not receive better protection."
The findings come after documents revealed that council lawyers at the centre of
the case have privately admitted there was probably sufficient evidence to
justify taking Peter into care days before he was killed.
The admission contradicts the legal advice given to social workers a week before
the toddler died that proceedings to remove him from his family could not go
ahead because the risk "threshold" to trigger an application to take him into
care had not been crossed.
Baby P abuse could
and should have been stopped, finds report, G, 22.5.2009,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/22/baby-p-second-review
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