Address: Crockenhill Road, St Mary Cray, Orpington, Kent BR5 4ES was an ILEA (Inner London Education Authority) Boarding School. It took boys from across London to provide for boys with specific educational and behavioural needs. It closed in 1990 and the management of the school transferred to the London Borough of Hackney which ran it as a special community school until it closed in September 1997. After closure it became a health and care resource and in 2024 it was returned to educational use as a new school named Aspris Woodview .
6 former pupils from Shawcroft school have come forward to Islington Survivors Network. They were sent by Islington Council but also Hackney, Southwark and Lambeth between the 70s and 80s.
The ongoing struggle to gain a police response
11.04.18 Report to 101
ISN sent a report on 101 on 11.04.18 at 11.21. Ref ED7NG3YD2N.
| About the Incident |
| Description |
| I coordinate a community interest company Islington Survivors Network. Survivors of abuse at Shawcroft Boarding school in Orpington Kent (St Mary Cray) have come forward to me. They were sent by Islington council but also by Hackney and other authorities which are outside our remit as a charity. The offences were during the 70s and 80s and include sexual and very extreme physical abuse. Two of the survivors were sent by Islington and I have spoken to one from Hackney but they know others. Please advise as to the way forward |
| Address type |
| Other address |
| Location of the Incident 1 |
| Address Line 1 |
| Shawcroft School |
| Address Line 2 |
| Crockenhill Rd |
| City |
| St Mary Cray |
| County |
| Kent |
| Location Description |
| Shawcroft School Crockenhill Road, St Mary Cray, Kent |
| Date of the Incident 1 |
| From |
| 01/09/1978 |
| To |
| 01/09/1987 |
23.04.18. ISN report to Operation Winter Key
A report was then sent by ISN to Operation Winter Key on 23.04.2018. Survivors later told ISN that there was to be no further investigation of their allegations relating to Shawcroft school because they were informed that Operation Winter Key’s focus was sexual crime and they were told that, because physical punishment was allowed in schools at that time, there was no possibility of a criminal prosecution.
12.06.18 ISN email to Operation Winter Key
ISN coordinator Liz Davies wrote to Winter Key to inform them that survivors found it traumatic to deal with the fact that only sexual abuse allegations were being heard by Operation Winter Key. ‘Perhaps I should have realised earlier and made sure everything the survivors discuss would lead to proper police investigation not only one aspect. .. If they had known of this limited remit they may not have come forward so readily‘. ‘ Liz Davies informed them that she had met with DCI Wallis at Holborn and explained some of her concerns about the fragmentation of police response in relation to Islington survivors and all the forms of abuse they experienced.
12.06.18 Response email from Operation Winter Key
On 12.06.18, Winter Key informed Liz Davies that they needed to assess which investigation unit would deal with Shawcroft allegations. ‘I am led to believe the Shawcroft allegations are sexual and or physical abuse. We have dealt with survivors appropriately and no-one has expressed any issues to us. We have signposted them to agencies and most awa aware of the implementation of counselling’ .
11.07.18 ISN responds
ISN replied to Winter Key on 11.07.18 to ask that the schoolmasters accused by the survivors should be reported to the LADO in their respective authorities to enable an assessment of risk to children currently from these men.
16.4.18. ISN coordinator , Liz Davies had already notified the Islington LADO, Laura Eden, but had not had any feedback. ‘I have received 5 reports from survivors of Shawcroft school which was in Orpington, Kent. 2 are ISN, 2 Hackney and 1 Lambeth. We have traced some information about a particularly abusive teacher called XX who is living in XX.
I have heard 2 accounts of extreme beatings using a piece of wood (description of XX provided). I have asked Winter Key to investigate Shawcroft and they are waiting for me to refer the survivors to them. There were a number of abusive teachers one of whom used electric shocks on boys… As XX may still work with children the survivors would like him to be referred to XX where he now lives. …
13.07.18 Response from Operation Winter Key
On 13.07.18 the Winter Key officer replied that the allegations of crime had been recorded and sent to the relevant police child protection team to investigate and she did not know if referrals had been made to the LADOs. She sent to ISN the names of two metropolitan police officers now allocated to this case.
2021. Report to ISN from another survivor
In 2021, a survivor told ISN that police had told him the case was not taken to court because it was not in the public interest and that corporal punishment was not banned from schools until 1989.
What the survivors reported
The allegations referred to extreme physical violence by staff to the boys using implements of all kinds. There was no way that the torture experienced was within the realm of ‘normal’ physical punishment within a school. The allegations included use of electric shock, wooden planks, baseball bats, ball bearings and extreme violence and terror tactics. There were also allegations of sexualised behaviour towards some boys.
‘ Mr H swung round at me and hit me and my eye was cut on a cupboard and I needed 15 stitches.’
‘I was beaten by Mr W when I was just 14. I was punched, kicked, thrown and I had to fight back’.
‘Mr P kneed me in the chest’.
‘Two of us were made to strip naked in the gym’.
‘There was physical and mental abuse. We were punched in the stomach and 2 staff held each arm and the third punched me’.
‘I saw a boy with blood all over his face after a beating. They caned everyone.’
‘Mr J hit us with a baseball bat and threw ball bearings at us. He also gave us electric shocks in science lessons – he got the boys to hold hands and the boy on the end held the wire and he turned the machine on. AARRRRRGHH!’
‘That school made me suicidal’.
‘If we ran away we would be caught and beaten. The woodwork teacher got a 2×2 and beat me so bad from my buttocks to my knees I was all black and blue’.
‘One boy made a complaint and no one took notice so he threw a brick and smashed a window. The council took him to court . The case was dropped and he was sent back’.
‘There was a lot of racism at that school
‘One teacher punched me in the face’.
‘This school practises torture, physical and mental’.
‘We were fired at with pellet guns. Hit with their fists and kicked’.
‘It was an unrelenting horror story’.
‘They used to play ‘war games’ and teachers would try to find the children to inflict as much damage on the child as they could. Once I stayed in a swamp hiding and breathing out of a bamboo shoot for a whole day so as not to be caught’.
‘I was physically and mentally abused at Shawcroft boarding school in the late 80s by some staff. I remember it as if it was yesterday. Most of the staff were good but a few liked to dish out violence and mental and physical torture’.
Summary
One survivor commented;
‘Despite my reports to police nothing has been done. I named all the abusers and the original police records have been lost as have hospital records of injuries’.
In spite of the survivors from various authorities coming forward to police and making statements and naming the alleged abusers, nothing has happened in 9 years of ISN trying repeatedly to get police to listen and take the survivors seriously. ISN also tried to get the LADO to make checks to see if the alleged abusers remained within the children’s workforce but had no response so the police and social services child protection responsibilities may not have been carried out either.
Coming forward to report the horrifying crimes of assault survivors repeatedly said they experienced in Shawcroft school, was always going to be difficult but ISN did not think that entire professional response would be one of avoidance and denial. There has been no justice for these survivors but not for want of trying.
Islington Survivors Network 