Children's Social Services - Will we ever get it right?

[Neil Down]

8 minutes ago, WTF said:

me too, not sure i could have changed things for them but it is very sad to learn what they were living through.

To our shame, it wasn’t “the done thing” to stand up for them.

[Roger Mexico]

22 hours ago, Non-Believer said:

Makes one wonder if any of the great and the good might have been involved.

There's an interesting comment in Kerry Sharpe's testimony (line 1463 on):

Quote

 

I would like to know that there has been a thorough investigation into whether there was a paedophile ring in operation on the Isle of Man during the 1970s. Clearly the manager of the  children’s home was sexually abusing the children. We now know that the vicar of St Ninian’s, who the children went to on a Sunday from the children’s home, has been convicted for child abuse. We saw in the Isle of Man newspapers recently that a headmaster at Murray’s Road School … I cannot remember the details, but the newspaper article I read connected the headmaster of Murray’s Road School with child sexual abuse and the children at the Children’s Centre were sent to Murray’s Road School. So you have got a vicar, you have got a manager of a children’s home and you have got a headmaster: how many other people were involved with abusing children during the 1970s?

We know – well, I know from having spoken to interviewees who were at the children’s home in the 1970s – that children were abused when they went on holiday to the UK under  Mr Marshall, so did this extend out into a UK-wide ring?

 

If you read some of the report, it's clear that the 'ring' existed and may have also involved abusers from outside the UK as well.  And indeed that the holidays were set up for the purpose of the abuse.

But even if the great and good were merely ignorant, it's clear that most of them bought into the general cover-up - no doubt to 'protect the reputation of the Island' and all sort of other self-justifying nonsense to cover the cruelty of doing nothing.  And that has continued to this day - remember that CoMin tried to amend the Tynwald motion to prevent this enquiry taking place (see section 36 of the Report onwards) and only LegCo voting against meant that this failed (was that one reason why the members were discouraged from standing again?).

[quilp]

There were murmurings, Gladys. I remember them at school as kids too. It's a shame that only a few interested parties will read that report, the gravity and criminal extent of the whole affair needs to be conveyed. The trips away, and the allegations of abuse at the hands of others (the football team/goalkeeper in one case. "Strangers" in another): there doesn’t seem any room for coincidence that the abuse carried-on on these trips: it was organised abuse, and trafficking (imo), possibly amongst some of those who eventually saw justice after Operation Cleopatra broke that paedophile ring in the North-west of England and beyond...

Who can imagine how those kids must have felt? Finally finding the strength, after living in abject fear every day and enduring the worst possible abuse, to reach out and inform, on pain of a beating, intimidation and/or worse, if they told. And then not being believed by the collective authorities, called out as deviant, lying little troublemakers! Worst of all, they then find themselves returned to that house of horror, to see hear and feel those threats carried out. Who knows how those many lives have panned-out.

When the case reopened, in the nineties, after further allegations were made against him, it was either in Marshall's own statement, or perhaps one of the investigating officer's statements that it was revealed that [Marshall] estimated he'd offended probably on "hundreds" of occasions. Difficult to know whether that's a collective figure, or single victims. Some of those victims who came forward in the 90's with further allegations were to be told it would not be in the public interest to prosecute Marshall, given his ill-health, they feel unrecognised: the crimes committed against them unacknowledged by the justice system. More than one victim alleges that they felt the support offered by MH was inadequate, unprofessional, alleging one psychiatrist/counsellor lacked empathy and was coaching them, implying that it might prove unwise to open the door and dig it all up again. To play it down, to discourage, take the money and run, almost. That's not 'closure.' Not good, little wonder there are cries of "cover up."

Well, there was, in reality.

Anyway, it's (nearly) all there in the report. There's those still out there, even after all the years, who ought to hang their heads in shame and 'significant others' who should see justice.

Edited October 15, 2018 by quilp
Spit and polish. Great post Roger...

[thebees]

Well said Q  

[Roger Mexico]

I meant to put the link up to yesterday's Sunday Politics programme and forgot.  It's here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bmdvsb/sunday-politics-north-west-14102018

from 5:00.  Its about five minutes long, so not in any great depth, but worth watching and should be available for a month or so.