Here he attempted to divert and deflect criticism of Jersey by saying at once that Jersey has been appalled by the child abuse scandals in England. That's like commenting on Paisnel, "The Beast of Jersey", for example, by saying that "well, we've had him, but you had the Yorkshire Ripper", as if that somehow makes it fine!
It is an example of the logical fallacy known as Tue Quoque (or "you too")
- A makes criticism P.
- A is also guilty of P.
- Therefore, P is dismissed.
- A is also guilty of P.
In this case, P is incidence of child abuse, and failure to deal with it.
My book of logic states: "Tu Quoque is a very common fallacy in which one attempts to defend oneself or another from criticism by turning the critique back against the accuser. This is a classic Red Herring since whether the accuser is guilty of the same, or a similar, wrong is irrelevant to the truth of the original charge. However, as a diversionary tactic, Tu Quoque can be very effective, since the accuser is put on the defensive, and frequently feels compelled to defend against the accusation."
In this case, however, the interviewer refused to be deflected!
In fact, he had mentioned UK cases as an example of what had gone wrong elsewhere, and it is interesting that if you trawl back at these cases - for example, a particularly bad one in Wales, which has some similarities with reports of victims from Haut de La Garrenne, especially with regard to some of those in charge.
Other matters the report on the Wales case relate have particular relevance to the "culture of concealment" in Jersey, and suggest positive steps to remedy this.
I have highlighted the relevant proposals by the report, as it will be interesting to see if Andrew Williamson's report (surely overdue now?) comes in with the same kind of recommendations or avoids them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2000/feb/16/audreygillan/print
Refuges that turned into purgatory
Report condemns oversights and inadequacies of a system that allowed children to be abused for 10 years
This article appeared in the Guardian on Wednesday February 16 2000 . It was last updated at 22:12 on February 15 2000.
On the outside it looked like a somewhat forbidding Elizabethan manor house set in ample grounds, but the children who lived in the Bryn Estyn home, near Wrexham, north Wales, were in purgatory, according to the report published today into the biggest child sex scandal Britain has known.
Between 1974 and 1984, Bryn Estyn, became "the worst centre of child abuse in north Wales over a period of 10 years, undetected by outsiders".
After a three-year tribunal of inquiry into abuse in children's homes and foster homes across north Wales, chaired by Sir Ronald Waterhouse, the report, Lost In Care, says: "The evidence before us has disclosed that for many children who were consigned to Bryn Estyn, in the 10 or so years of its existence as a community home, it was a form of purgatory or worse from which they emerged more damaged than when they had entered and for whom the future had become even more bleak."
After registering 259 complaints and listening to the painful testimony of 129 people, the tribunal concluded that widespread sexual abuse of boys occurred in children's residential establishments in the now-defunct region of Clwyd between 1974 and 1990. It also found that there were incidents of sexual abuse of girl residents, though they were comparatively rare. Physical and sexual abuse of young residents in the neighbouring county of Gwynedd also occurred.
Local authority homes in Clwyd most affected were Bryn Estyn, where two senior officers, Peter Howarth and Stephen Norris, sexually assaulted and buggered boys over a 10-year period and Cartrefle, where Norris continued to abuse boys from 1984 until his arrest in June 1990. The tribunal also found evidence of sexual abuse at Little Acton assessment centre, Bersham Hall, Chevet Hey and Upper Downing. And there was widespread sexual abuse of boys in private residential establishments in the Clwyd area and abuse of children in five foster homes.
The report also found physical abuse and the unacceptable use of force in six local authority community homes in Clwyd. Once again, Bryn Estyn was the worst offender. It had "a harsh institutional regime in which, for many, there was a heavy atmosphere of fear".
'Grossly poisoned'
About 140 former residents of Bryn Estyn between 1974 and 1984 made allegations of physical or sexual abuse and the inquiry listened to the evidence of 48 of them. The overwhelming majority of complaints were made against Peter Howarth, assistant then deputy principal at the home.
The report found: "The lives of these already disturbed children were grossly poisoned by a leading authority figure in whom they should have been able to place their trust. They felt soiled, guilty and embarrassed and some of them were led to question their own sexual orientation. Most of them have experienced difficulties in their sexual relationships and their relationships with children ever since and many have continued to rebel against authority. Even more seriously, their self-respect and ability to look forward to the future have been shattered."
Howarth invented a regime at the home where he would post a flat list which named boys who were invited to his flat for recreation. Staff did not remark on its inappropriateness, leading the inquiry to conclude that there was a conspiracy of silence.
"It was Howarth's daily practice to invite resident boys, usually from the main building, to his flat in the late evening for drinks (including some alcohol) and light food for the privilege of watching television and for other recreation such as playing cards, board games etc ... Attendance was part of the agreed programme of activities available to boys in the evening and the names of those attending would be entered into the activities log. The sessions would begin at about 8.30pm and the boys attending, usually five or six or even more at a time, were required to dress in their pyjamas without any underwear. If they were wearing underpants under their pyjamas, they were ordered to remove them."
The inquiry discovered that Howarth had a number of favourites, known as "bum boys" and it was they who were the main victims of his sexual assaults. The report says: "They would be detained on some pretext when others were leaving, at which point, buggery or some indecency would occur. Quite often, however, similar conduct would occur in the kitchen of the flat, for example, whilst others were still present in another room watching television."
Howarth was convicted in July 1994 of one offence of buggery and seven indecent assaults and received a total of 10 years in prison. He died in April 1997. Stephen Norris's offences at Bryn Estyn and other homes were of similar nature to Howarth's but his method of operation was different. The report found he was "a coarse man of poor general education who should never have been placed in charge of a unit providing for the needs of immature and disturbed boys".
Norris pleaded guilty in November 1993 to three offences of buggery, an attempted buggery and three indecent assaults involving three former Bryn Estyn boys and received seven years in prison. He had already served 3 years in prison imposed in October 1990 for sexual offences committed at Cartrefle.
The report concludes that for two senior members of staff to be habitually engaged in major sexual abuse of many of the young residents without detection was "truly appalling".
Applauding the bravery of those who gave testimony to the inquiry, the tribunal lays the blame for the failure to detect the abusers at the doors of a number of agencies. Staff at the homes were criticised for their failure to blow the whistle on their colleagues. It found there were few complaints of abuse from the children in the homes because they were discouraged from doing so. There were no procedures in any of the establishments to enable members of staff to voice concerns.
The inquiry also found that social services failed to provide at the most senior level effective and positive leadership to ensure that the first consideration was the welfare of the child. Senior management was subject to frequent changes and was confused and defective.
There were no coherent arrangements by Clwyd social services for the management, support and monitoring of their care homes which allowed Bryn Estyn, in particular, to be run without any guidance.
The Welsh office comes in for a great deal of blame, with the report saying it "cannot absolve itself of ultimate responsibility for the fate of children in care by referring to legislation that successive governments themselves initiated from time to time, whether or not with expert advice". It discovered that "lack of leadership" in the Welsh office meant "forward planning was allowed to wither and die".
The tribunal also concluded that central government must bear responsibility for what happened. It said that for more than half the period under review children's services were given insufficient priority, including a failure to take action before the children act 1989 to regulate private children's homes and a failure to take steps to ensure that adequate facilities were made available for the training of residential child care workers.
The tribunal found that the police investigation of child abuse in Clwyd from 1991 was carried out "thoroughly" and "sensitively".
The report, however, criticises investigations into complaints about Gwynedd made by care home head Alison Taylor. The police work, it says, was "sluggish and shallow" and "seriously defective". The role played by Det Supt Gwynne Owen was inappropriate and the size of the investigating team inadequate. There was no liaison with social services and relevant documents were not seized.
The inquiry found no evidence of a paedophile ring in north Wales which was said to have involved high-profile public figures but said it had very little documentary evidence to go on. It had no evidence "to establish that there was a wide-ranging conspiracy involving prominent persons and others with the objective of sexual activity with children in care".
There was nothing to suggest there was a paedophile ring operating recruitment at Bryn Estyn. But there was a paedophile ring in the Wrexham and Chester areas "in the sense that there were a number of male persons, many of them known to each other, who were engaged in paedophile activities and were targeting young males in their middle teens".
Recommendations
The report makes 72 recommendations. An independent commissioner for Wales should be appointed to ensure children's rights through the monitoring and oversight of the operation of complaints and whistleblowing procedures and the arrangements for children's advocacy.
Every social services authority should be required to appoint an appropriately qualified or experienced children's complaints officer to act in the best interests of the child.
- An abused child should not be transferred to another placement unless it is in the child's best interests.
- Every local authority should promote awareness by children and staff of its complaints procedures for looked-after children and the importance of applying them without any threat or fear of reprisals.
- There should be the establishment and implementation of conscientiously clear whistleblowing procedures. And consideration should be given to making failure to report actual or suspected abuse an explicit disciplinary offence.
- A field social worker should be assigned to every looked-after child while in care and for an appropriate period of time afterwards and should visit them not less than once every eight weeks.
The tribunal found that the provision for appropriate management training is required and says the problem of recruitment of suitable residential care staff for children needs to be addressed urgently.
It says that positive action to encourage whistleblowing is needed. There should be increased vigilance among teachers, members of the medical profession and police officers.
There should be an inter-agency review of the procedures followed and personnel employed in all investigations of this nature with a view to issuing practical procedural guidance for the future. Social service and police files should be preserved and police should be allowed access to social service files. It also recommends the sharing of information generally for criminal investigation and child protection purposes.
Social services departments should be reminded periodically that they must exercise vigilance in the recruitment and management of their staff with similar vigilance being applied to all applications for approval as foster parents.
There should also be appropriate and timely induction training. Senior staff of children's homes must be qualified social workers.
Main points
•An independent children's commissioner for Wales should be appointed to oversee complaints and whistleblowing procedures
•Every social services authority should be required to appoint a complaints officer to interview children alleging abuse
•An independent regulatory body should be set up to inspect all children's homes, foster homes and other child services
•Social workers should be required to visit every child in their charge and in care at least every eight weeks
•Local authorities should have clear procedures to encourage staff whistleblowing
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