Private Eye (Rotten Boroughs column) Page 17, 16th March 2024
Survivors Short-Changed
Author: islingtonsn
Islington Council: Concerns over abuse scheme appeal panel
Islington Gazette, 5th March 2024
Exclusive by Charles Thomson, Investigations Reporter
Women who say they were sexually abused in Islington Council’s care have had their case files forwarded to a mysterious panel who will decide whether they are entitled to payouts.
Alleged victims previously turned down were last week given ten days to decide whether or not to argue their cases before an appeal panel, without being told who will be on it.
In the meantime, their personal information has already been shared with the unnamed strangers.
Applicants to Islington’s ‘Support Payment Scheme’ are automatically referred to the panel if lawyers initially turn them down.
But expert Dr Liz Davies said the council had so far refused to say who is on the appeal panel or give survivors any opportunity to vet them.
“In Lambeth, survivors and their representatives had the chance to review the list of panel members and do their own due diligence,” said Dr Davies, of the Islington Survivors Network (ISN).
“As it turned out, it was a very good list and they were happy. But they at least had the opportunity to review it.”
In 2017, Islington Council apologised for decades of violent, sexual and emotional abuse in its former children’s homes.
Allegations from hundreds of former looked-after children include staff assaulting children; giving them booze, drugs and cigarettes; facilitating paedophile parties; and forcing teens to abort babies.
The council gave a special apology in 2017 to Dr Davies, a whistleblowing former Islington social worker who had spent decades campaigning for justice for the victims.
In consultation with her organisation ISN, it then created the Support Payment Scheme, offering £10,000 pay-outs to survivors of abuse.
The council insists the sums are referred to as support payments, not compensation, and says payment under the scheme is not an admission of liability.
So far more than 300 applications have been received, of which 270 have resulted in payouts.
But Dr Davies said that in recent months there had been a spate of rejections, most of which are not reasonable in her opinion.
The Gazette has reported on people being rejected even though witnesses and photos place them in the homes, and others have been paid out after alleging similar abuse by the same staff.
Seven people were rejected in one day in early October, said Dr Davies. Each received an email saying the council would be in touch with further information “shortly”.
But they received no further communication until last week, after the Gazette asked why they had been left waiting for over four months.
“Last week, 10 people whose applications were automatically referred to the independent appeals panel were contacted by email and provided with further details about their individual appeal hearings,” a spokesperson said.
The council confirmed that the appeal panel had now been appointed but did not say who was on it or whether survivors would have the chance to vet them.
It said the appointees “all have relevant backgrounds and experience”.
But Dr Davies said ISN had been frozen out of the selection process.
“We were led to believe that we would be interviewing people for the panel,” she alleged.
“That was what we were told when we were planning it. We were also told there would be someone from a survivors’ group.”
The council said its appointees’ relevant experience included having been in care themselves; social work experience; legal backgrounds; and prior experience on panels considering historic abuse claims.
“One word that is missing there is ‘survivors’,” said Dr Davies.
“People who have been in care are completely different to survivors of abuse in care.”
Islington Council said the appeal process was “entirely voluntary”, with applicants able to decide whether to attend, whether to provide further evidence or argument and whether to “bring someone along for support”.
But, said Dr Davies: “They still haven’t told us if we can advocate, as opposed to support. Can we advocate in someone’s absence, which is really important? One woman is in hospital, for example.”
A council spokesperson said the panel was “independent”, with council staff prevented from applying to sit on it.
“The council has no influence or control over the decisions it makes,” it said.
Islington: Man says he was abused in Northampton Park home
Islington Gazette, 23rd February 2024
Exclusive by Charles Thomson, Investigations Reporter
A man calling for support after he was left addicted to drugs after years of abuse in children’s homes found his care records had been lost.
Max – not his real name – says he was placed in two Islington Council children’s homes in the 1990s, where children and staff used drugs and he lived in fear of sexual assault.
But when he applied for his care records to support his bid for a £10,000 payout, the council could not find them.
“This is potentially very serious,” said Dr Liz Davies, of the Islington Survivors Network (ISN).
Councils are supposed to keep the records of looked after children for 75 years.
Dr Davies said she had referred several people with missing or incomplete files to a lawyer to see whether a legal action could be brought.
Islington Council would not comment on Max’s case, but said applicants to the support scheme did not necessarily need their care records.
However, Dr Davies said other applicants whose records were missing or incomplete had been turned down.
‘Children smoked crack’
Max said he was taken into care in 1993 and placed in the former Northampton Park children’s home, near Canonbury station.
He said some staff there openly smoked cannabis and permitted children in their care to smoke cigarettes and other substances.
He was given hashish, he alleged, and witnessed other children using crack cocaine.
He was neglected, he claimed, with nobody noticing conditions he was later diagnosed with disorders like dyslexia and ADHD, which impacted his education. He left school with no qualifications.
The home was also rife with rumours of sexual abuse, he said.
“Other kids told me something bad was happening in the home,” said Max. “They said to keep away from certain people.”
At night, he claims, he would put furniture against his door and was frightened to go to sleep.
Heroin addiction
Max said he was later moved to another children’s home and got no help finding accommodation after turning 18.
His adulthood has been marred by heroin addition, which sabotaged his career in IT, and failed relationships. At one point, he lived in a hostel.
Only now he is clean and sober has he joined the dots between his childhood trauma and his destructive drug use.
“I was trying to forget,” he said.
He now has constant pain in the left side of his body, which he believes is linked to his past heroin use.
He also has depression – not helped, he said, by living in a rented studio flat so dilapidated that he can’t use his own bathroom. He has to visit a relative daily to use theirs.
He is on the council’s bidding list for a one-bedroom flat, but several thousand places from the top.
Missing file
After admitting and apologising for decades of abuse in its former children’s homes, Islington Council set up the Support Payment Scheme, offering £10,000 to survivors.
Dr Davies helps survivors obtain their care records and file applications.
The Arrangements for Placement of Children Regulations 1991 say case files should be kept until the looked-after child’s 75th birthday – but Max’s cannot be found.
“It’s important to note that we do not require a care file to be supplied as part of an application for the support payment scheme,” a council spokesperson said.
“We don’t want potential applicants to be dissuaded from applying.”
But Dr Davies said some previous applicants have been rejected under similar circumstances.
In January, the Gazette reported on Zara, also not her real name, who was rejected after receiving an incomplete care file.
Like Zara, Dr Davies said Max’s memories – the names of staff and children at Northampton Park, and his descriptions of what happened there – are corroborated by other survivors.
But Zara was still turned down and told to apply to an appeal panel if she wanted to pursue payment.
The same happened to another applicant, Tony Darke, even with a care file.
Max’s Dream
If Max received the £10,000, he said, he would first book some private therapy – something he started once before but could not really afford.
“If you want it on the NHS you have to wait forever and you might die before you ever get treated,” he said.
He says he would then invest in some IT training to try to get his career back on track.
“I think the main thing I need is to find a nine-to-five job,” he said.
“The payment would definitely improve some things in my life. It’s not something that would go to waste.”
Once he is back on his feet, he said, he would like to help other recovering addicts get their lives back on track.
The payment scheme is open to applications until May. Visit www.islingtonsupportpayment.co.uk.
Islington Survivors Network can be reached at 0300 302 0930 or islingtonsn@gmail.com.
Islington Council child abuse scheme faces fresh criticism
Islington Gazette, 15th February 2024
Exclusive by Charles Thomson, Investigations Reporter
A man forced to recount years of painful and humiliating abuse says he feels “kicked in the teeth” after his account was not believed.
Tony Darke has been rejected by Islington Council’s support scheme for abuse victims, despite his account being corroborated by others.
The 55-year-old lived in three children’s homes in the early 1980s, where he says he suffered neglect and “very violent” abuse.
But he says he has been refused financial help on grounds that there is insufficient evidence.
“You spill your guts out, remembering all this stuff you don’t want to remember, revealing all these intimate details, and it’s like you get kicked in the teeth in return,” he said.
Initial applications to the Islington Support Payment Scheme are done in writing – but Tony must now face an appeal panel.
“Now I’ve got to relive the whole thing again, but this time to a load of strangers,” he added.
The council told him months ago that it contact him soon with details – but he said he had heard nothing since.
It is the second time this year that the Islington Gazette has reported on applicants being rejected despite what the Islington Survivors Network (ISN) says is compelling corroboration.
Islington Council said it would not comment on individual cases.
‘A knee in the back’
Tony was placed in care, aged 13, when his mother was deemed not to be coping.
He lived in homes in Conewood Street and Highbury Crescent, then Gisburn House in Hertfordshire.
The violent abuse started at Conewood, he alleged, with what he called “pin-downs”.
“It could be anything that triggered it,” he said. “They didn’t really need a reason. You might just swear, or say something they didn’t agree with.
“Everyone plays up sometimes – we were kids! It might be something like, it’s bedtime and you don’t want to go to bed.
“Two or three of them would basically jump you, wrestle you to the ground and hold you down by your legs, your shoulders, so you literally couldn’t move. It hurt. You’d have a knee in your back or chest. It was a lot of pressure.
“They only let you up when they decided. They lifted you up with your arms behind your back and took you off to your room.”
Sometimes, said Tony, he was grabbed by the throat.
Others were treated even worse, he claimed. He recalled one child who staff taunted constantly, then attacked if they reacted.
Self-harm
At Gisburne House, Tony alleged, staff gave cigarettes to children as a means of control.
“Most of the kids in there smoked,” he said.
He said some staff at Gisburne were cruel.
“If you misbehaved you would go without dinner, or get a cold dinner. Or they banned you from going home at weekends to your family,” he claimed.
Staff drove children into the woods in the middle of the night in a Transit van and dumped them there, he said. They were split up and told to find their own way home in the dark.
Files show that by the end of Tony’s time in care, he was “beset by anxiety”, with “no confidence and low self-esteem”, and was self-harming.
One a camping trip, files record that he stuck his feet in the campfire. He bit his fingers until they bled, punched walls and scratched his arms.
He was deemed a potential suicide risk and described as very thin. He was caught shoplifting items to sell so he could buy food.
“Ridiculous”
After admitting and apologising for decades of abuse in children’s homes, Islington Council’s Support Payment Scheme opened in 2022, offering £10,000 pay-outs to victims.
Tony applied last spring but received a letter on October 12 – his 55th birthday – saying he would receive no payment due to insufficient evidence. It said he could appeal.
The networl’s Dr Liz Davies described the decision as “ridiculous” and “inconsistent”.
“Tony has no less evidence than others who’ve received payments,” she said.
“Others have described the same sorts of abuse in the same homes, naming the same staff. Lots from Gisburn, for example, describe the night runs in the woods.
“Files prove Tony was in the homes. He names other children who were in the homes with him, some of whom I know have already successfully applied.”
Islington Council said all applications were “treated equally and carefully assessed”, adding: “We do not regard an application as having been ‘rejected’ when in fact it has been referred to the independent appeals panel for further consideration.”
The payment scheme is open to applications until May. Visit www.islingtonsupportpayment.co.uk.
Islington Survivors Network can be reached at 0300 302 0930 or islingtonsn@gmail.com.
Islington Council refuses claim under abuse payment scheme
Islington Gazette, 22nd January 2024
Exclusive by Charles Thomson, Investigations Reporter
Islington Council has refused to pay an alleged abuse survivor, claiming there is no evidence she was in one of its children’s homes – even though she has photos and witnesses.
The woman, now in her 50s, says she was neglected in two Islington children’s homes in the 1980s, where children smoked, drank and used drugs with staff members’ knowledge.
When she fell pregnant on their watch, she says the staff then tried to force her to get an abortion.
But when she applied to the Islington Support Payment Scheme, set up to help survivors of widespread abuse in the borough’s children’s homes, the council said there was insufficient evidence Zara – not her real name – had been in their care
Dr Liz Davies, a whistleblowing former Islington social worker whose decades of campaigning led to the fund’s creation, blasted the “ridiculous” decision.
Dr Davies, founder of the Islington Survivors Network (ISN), said she help Zara compile and submit her application, which included photos of her inside one children’s home with staff and other residents.
A witness has also told the Islington Gazette that she was Zara’s roommate in one of the children’s homes and had already informed the scheme of this before Zara was rejected.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Annabelle, whose name has also been changed. “She was there. I mentioned her on two different occasions. I mentioned in my application the things we would get up to and how Zara would protect me.
“It’s just crazy. There are other people who know her and know she was there too.”
Annabelle said she was with Zara in two children’s homes: 11-12 Highbury Crescent, then 80 Highbury New Park.
Islington Council would not comment on Zara’s case.
“We are having to spill out all our traumas, only for them to reject us,” said Zara.
“I had a panic attack and hyperventilated when I found out. It’s traumatising to be subjected to all this – to go back over what’s happened to you, only for them to slap you in the face and still keep insulting you time and time again. It’s upsetting.
“All of this has brought back memories for me. It’s very emotionally draining. I’m waiting for a doctor’s appointment because I’m not sleeping properly. Sometimes I’m sitting in my house and I get very tearful because it’s all resurfacing.
“The most hurtful part is that the proof is all in there. I included photos. They’ve clearly not even looked at my application.”
Dr Davies helped Zara apply for her council records before applying to the scheme, but when they were supplied, said Zara, the contents were “almost completely missing”.
“I was in the homes for four years and my file was about four pages,” she said.
“There was no mention of her being in the children’s homes in her file,” said Dr Davies. “So I knew I really had to prove it.
“I attached photos of her in her room, with the manager, nursing her newborn baby with other residents and even standing outside the front door with the number 80 on it.”
But in December, Zara was told her application had been rejected.
“I wrote to the lawyers straight away and said, ‘There must be a mistake here, I sent you all the photographs’,” said Dr Davies.
“Then I remembered another survivor had mentioned Zara in her own statement and already been paid out.
“So this is a failure on their part, in my view. But instead of pulling back and apologising, they said, ‘We know it’s disappointing but she will soon hear from the appeal panel’.”
“It’s not about the money,” said Zara. “It’s about getting justice for things that people feel like they’ve gotten away with.”
Zara, who was in the homes in the 1980s, said she was still dealing with the consequences.
“It was mainly neglect,” she alleged. “We were left on our own. When you were in a predicament, there was no one there for you.
“Kids would be smoking, drinking, taking drugs. I was afraid of taking drugs so I didn’t do it, but used to drink alcohol. The staff would see us and do nothing. They’d even take us to the pub.
“At the time it seemed great, but it wasn’t. I’m grown now but I still have issues in my life because I didn’t get the guidance I needed when I was young.”
Left to her own devices by the staff, said Zara, she fell pregnant as a teenager.
“They tried to force me to have a termination,” she claimed. “I wanted to have my child but they keep taking me to a clinic in Euston, even though I didn’t want to go.
“I think maybe they wanted me to have a termination because I fell pregnant in their care. It was evidence of their neglect.”
Zara said she would fight against Islington Council’s decision for herself and others (Image: Charles Thomson)
Zara said she would fight against her rejection to inspire others to do the same.
“It’s not right and it’s not fair,” she said. “I don’t see why they should get away with it..
“I’ve always been the one that’s quiet and just expected to take everything on the chin, but I’m not doing that. This life has taught me to be strong.
“There are other people out there far worse off than me and if this is how they’re going to treat them too, it’s not right.”
Islington Council sent a lengthy statement but it did not address Zara’s case. It reiterated the council’s apology for past abuse in its children’s homes and said its support scheme remained open to applications.
Contact: Islingtonsn@gmail.com for assistance in claiming the Support Payment: Call voicemail 0300 302 0930 @theIslingtonSN
‘Night run’ care home abuse survivors encouraged to help with investigation
Trips involved children being taken to various forests
Islington Tribune, 23rd July 2023
By Izzy Rowley
AN appeal for abuse survivors who remember “night runs” has been launched.
The Islington Survivors Network (ISN) has called for any survivors of the borough’s care home abuse scandal who remember “night runs”, which took place during the 1970s and 80s, to come forward.
These trips involved children being taken from their care homes and brought to various forests.
The exact purpose of these trips is unclear, but survivors are certain that the night runs were not recreational or fun, with one reporting to ISN that they were “touched inappropriately and sexually by staff who came with us” while being taken horse riding in Epping Forest.
One man, who does not wish to be named, recalled being “frightened and petrified” on a night run when he was about five years old.
He told the Tribune: “To give you a picture, there was a lot of abuse going on in the home – physical, mental, psychological abuse.
“I remember about three trips altogether. We were taken in a van to Epping Forest. I don’t think the people that took us worked in the care home, but whoever they were, they must have had the authority to take us.
“It was daylight when we left, but it was dark when we arrived there. I recently spoke to someone else who was in the same care home and he said he remembered holding my hand the whole time, he wouldn’t let go of it. There were lots of posh cars lined up – it all seemed very organised.”
He added: “I remember being told to shut up and say nothing on the return to the home.”
He said that an investigation into these runs would be a step towards justice for him and other survivors like him. “I would definitely encourage as many people as possible [to come forward]. I think the more that come forward, the more likely it is that it’s going to make any kind of investigation into it that bit easier,” he said.
Survivors from care homes in Highbury Crescent, Grosvenor Avenue, Conewood Street, Elwood Street, Gisburne House, and Copthorne have reported experiencing these runs.
Different forests were visited including Epping Forest, Cassiobury Park, Thetford Forest and the Norfolk Broads.
According to ISN, many of these children were abandoned in the middle of the forest and left to make their own way back to a campsite or a vehicle they were transported there in. Some survivors report fewer children coming back from these runs than went out on them.
Dr Liz Davies, founder of Islington Survivors Network, said: “This is so serious and we hope there will be an investigation from the police and Islington Council.
“This needs to be investigated because it’s a recurring theme from so many survivors from so many different homes.”
An Islington Council spokesperson said: “We strongly support prosecution of any people involved in abuse, and it’s vital for anyone with new information about non-recent abuse to contact police, so allegations or evidence of abuse can be fully investigated.”
After being contacted on Wednesday the Metropolitan Police did not respond in time to give a comment.
• Anyone who has experienced abuse of this kind can report it directly to the police by calling 101 or visiting www.met.police.uk/ro/ocr/how-to-report-a-crime or contact Islington Survivors Network at islingtonsn@gmail.com who will facilitate a report.
Paedophile Met Police officer Paul Lamb dies in prison
Islington Gazette, 19th July 2023
A woman who was sexually abused by an Islington policeman says a series of failures robbed his victims of true justice.
Paedophile Paul Lamb got away with his crimes for decades after his fellow officers dismissed the girl as an “attention-seeker” in the 1970s, she claimed.
Their inaction left him free to abuse more children.
He was only brought to book decades later, in 2021 – but a report has now revealed that he served just one year before dying of pneumonia and cancer.
The report, by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, uncovered “disappointing” shortcomings in Lamb’s medical care.
“I feel cheated,” said Christine (not her real name).
“He didn’t deserve a death sentence. I don’t believe in revenge or capital punishment. But I believe in justice – and he didn’t really serve much time at all for what he did to us.”
As a teenager, Christine was placed in the council’s Sheringham Road children’s home.
That was where she met Lamb, who lived a ten-minute walk away in police accommodation near Pentonville prison.
“He was always in the children’s home,” she said.
After Lamb began abusing her at the age of 13 or 14, she said, she reported him at Caledonian Road police station.
“I was totally ignored,” she claimed. “They said, ‘Get out of here, you’re just being an attention-seeker’.
“I was in a children’s home. We were all seen as scallywags. We were never going to be believed.”
The Met Police Service said it could not comment on this claim “given the time that has passed”.
It added that while Lamb was a Met officer, he was “not on duty” when he met and abused Christine.
Prosecution
Lamb moved to Yorkshire in the 1980s, where he continued abusing children.
Decades later, Christine approached the Islington Survivors Network (ISN), which helped her report her abuse to the Met again.
Officers discovered Humberside Police were already investigating Lamb over other allegations. The cases were joined.
In May 2021, Lamb, aged 73, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for 19 sex offences, including abusing Christine.
He was sent to HMP Hull.
Christine said the authorities never told her he had died a year later.
Shortcomings
Lamb’s partner raised concerns with the Ombudsman that his treatment was “lacking” and there was “damp in his cell”.
It found his care had been “of a variable standard”.
Lamb arrived at prison with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and osteoarthritis, but there was “no evidence” he was offered appointments to monitor those conditions.
He was diagnosed with breast cancer three months later and underwent surgery.
He complained of pain in his chest in early March 2022 and admitted he had not been taking his medication.
He was not sent to hospital until late April, by which time he had shortness of breath and fatigue.
His cancer had returned and spread, but there was “no evidence” the prison held necessary meetings about his care.
He died on May 27, 2022.
Reaction
The ombudsman did not comment on whether better treatment might have prolonged Lamb’s life.
But it said it had already issued advice to HMP Hull in June 2021 about its management of long-term conditions and use of care plans, following a previous death.
“It is therefore disappointing that these issues are evident in this report,” it wrote.
“For survivors, it was a short sentence for the horrors of what they went through,” said Dr Liz Davies, from ISN.
She said further intelligence about Lamb, from another Islington survivor, had never been criminally investigated.
Christine added: “I don’t want anyone to die – just to serve their time and go home. He should have got that a long time ago, but instead he basically got away with it. I think it’s quite shocking, really.”
City Health Care Partnership (CHCP), which provided health services for HMP Hull, said Lamb’s inquest in April 2023 concluded he had died from natural causes.
“CHCP was not an interested party in this case as we were released from the coroner,” it said.
It is no longer HMP Hull’s health provider.
A prison service spokesperson said: “HMP Hull has accepted and implemented the ombudsman’s recommendations, including improving training for healthcare staff.”
*ISN can be reached on 0300 302 0930 or islingtonsn@gmail.com.
Time running out for child abuse payments
Islington Tribune
Survivors of care homes scandal can apply for £10,000 support sum
Friday, 2nd June — By Anna Lamche
SURVIVORS of Islington’s child abuse scandal only have one year left to apply for a £10,000 support payment, amid warnings the Town Hall could be doing more to widen access to the scheme.
The support payment scheme, which opened in May last year, offers £10,000 to every Islington child who suffered abuse while in care homes during the “worst chapter” of Islington’s history.
As of this week, applicants only have one year left to submit their statements to the scheme before it closes.
According to a council press release published to mark the one-year anniversary of the opening of the scheme, the Town Hall has so far made 155 payments to survivors, totalling £1.535million.
Anyone who was abused in care between 1966 and 1995 can apply. The Town Hall has said it “particularly welcomes more applications from people from black and Asian communities”.
But Islington Survivor’s Network (ISN), an independent group that has long campaigned for justice for the victims of the child abuse scandal, is asking why the council hasn’t done more to advertise the scheme.
Dr Liz Davies, founder of ISN, is calling on the council to do more to advertise the scheme outside of Islington, in places like Bournemouth, Hertfordshire, Stevenage and Harlow, where many Islington children were sent, and survivors are known to have settled.
Dr Davies would also like to see the council working “more collaboratively” with ISN going forward.
“We were supposed to have regular review meetings. I think we’ve only had one proper review, which came quite late in the day. They’re not involving us on an ongoing basis,” she said.
ISN has worked with survivors over many years, gathering information on the crimes committed, including precise information on the people involved in the abuse, and the care homes in which the abuse took place.
Dr Davies warned resources are being wasted because the council and ISN often duplicate work, with both services taking statements from survivors. “We’ve met these people, we know their stories,” she said. “We could do it between us.”
According to Dr Davies, ISN has so far worked with 190 survivors to help them submit their applications to the scheme, including help with accessing their case files, filling in forms and supporting them through trauma.
Of those 190 ISN has worked with, some 143 have received support payments so far. But Dr Davies has warned time is running out for some: “We’ve had a few with life-limiting illness… we’ve lost a few people along the way,” she said.
“It’s not what I thought it would be,” Dr Davies said of the scheme.
A spokesperson for Islington Council said it had advertised the scheme in health services, GPs, and housing providers among other places and had featured an article on the scheme in the council magazine.
“There will be further communications promoting the scheme to more communities, both inside and outside Islington, in the coming months,” they said.
https://www.islingtontribune.co.uk/article/time-running-out-for-child-abuse-payments
No way to report historic Islington child abuse to Met Police
EXCLUSIVE Islington Gazette: 2nd March 2023
Exclusive by Charles Thomson Investigations Reporter
No way to report historic Islington child abuse to Met Police
Dr Liz Davies, from the Islington Survivors Network (ISN), said victims victims were struggling to report their abuse to the Met Police (Image: Ken Mears)
The Met Police’s failure to investigate historic child abuse in Islington could lead to vigilante attacks on abusers, a former council whistleblower has warned.
A support group for survivors has received intelligence on paedophiles who are still alive and may pose a continuing risk, but says it is struggling to report the information to police.
Dr Liz Davies founded the Islington Survivors Network (ISN) and has helped compile more than 130 applications to a council “support payment scheme”.
READ MORE:
But she said those trying to report their abuse wanted to see the culprits face justice but were being obstructed by bureaucracy.
“It will get to a point where if nobody does anything, there are a lot of ex-prisoners in ISN who would stop at nothing,” she said.
“I don’t want that to happen. That’s not how it should be.”
No police liaison
Dr Davies blew the whistle on widespread abuse in Islington’s children’s homes in the early 1990s, while working as a social worker.
Now an emeritus professor at the London Metropolitan University, she uses her office to help people apply to the council’s payment scheme for victims.
The Gazette reported last week that intelligence was “pouring out”, with multiple complainants describing similar abuse by the same perpetrators.
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But, said Dr Davies, her repeated calls for a designated liaison officer to act on the intelligence have gone unheeded.
She is supported by Islington Council.
“We strongly support the Met having a single point of contact for abuse allegations relating to Islington’s children’s homes and we are writing to the borough commander in support of this,” a spokesperson said.
“We strongly expect the Metropolitan Police to fully investigate any new allegations of abuse and to allocate appropriate resources to investigate.”
Trouble reporting
“We currently have no police to be in contact with on this at all,” said Dr Davies.
“Since ISN started, we’ve been put with five different police teams and they’ve all folded up. We were tossed around.”
She said the latest advice from police had been to call 101 or go to a police station.
But, she claimed, “I tested 101 with some referrals and it was hopeless.
“One went to Islington police station and got the same response – that they didn’t have anybody to take a statement.
“He was devastated as he had taken ages to get the courage to report this crime.
“He then rang the Islington child protection team. He phoned from my room here and I heard it.”
Dr Davies said the officer simply replied by expressing his annoyance that he had been contacted directly and asked where the complainant had got his details.
“We had been given his name by the former team that had just closed down,” said Dr Davies.
But in light of the officer’s response, the complainant decided not to engage with the police any further.
Abusers are still alive
“When the payment scheme started, I was well aware that everybody’s statements would be naming abusers, because that’s part of the scheme,” said Dr Davies.
The 16-page form applicants are asked to fill out includes a section asking for the names of any abusers.
Dr Davies said her own research had shown some of the abusers being named were still alive and traceable.
“We need a liaison officer to have strategy meetings on current risk to children that may be posed,” she said. “It’s basic child protection procedure.”
The Met did not respond to Dr Davies and Islington Council’s request for a dedicated liaison officer.
It said complainants should call 101 or report their abuse online.
“Your information will be passed to a specialist team who will work with you and support you” the force said.
“You will then receive a single point of contact throughout the investigation.
“We take all reports of abuse, recent or non-recent, extremely seriously.
“Specially trained officers will support victim-survivors and we will work to seek justice for them wherever possible.”
- ISN can be reached on 0300 302 0930 or by emailing islingtonsn@gmail.com.
Please help to promote the Council Support Payment Scheme and inform survivors about how to apply. Help distribute our leaflet.
Contact Islington Survivors Network if you want leaflets to distribute. We especially want to cover Islington but also Hertfordshire, Essex and Enfield where some of the 41 children’s homes were. We can post them to you or arrange for you to collect them from our office in Holloway Road.
As yet the council has hardly promoted the scheme at all. We had agreed a plan with the Council Communications Team but this has not been implemented. Please put the leaflets on noticeboards – GP surgeries, hospitals, libraries, supermarkets, cafes, shops, foodbanks, voluntary organisations – wherever you think survivors of abuse will see them. THANK YOU!!! We depend on you to help spread the news of this Scheme. We have already assisted over 180 survivors to make an application and 130 have received the payment. None have been refused. The Scheme will only be in place until May 2024 and the process can take 3-6 months so please help to let survivors know about this as soon as you can. If you have any questions about this please call us 0300 302 0930. This is a voicemail service linked to our email and we will get back to you.
Islington Survivors Network 