Tag: Islington child abuse

What was the Islington Children’s Homes Abuse Scandal?

Islington Gazette 25th February 2023

By Charles Thomson Investigations Reporter

What was the Islington Children’s Homes Abuse Scandal?

Liz Davies fought for more than 30 years for children she knew were being abused in Islington Council’s care.

The former social worker’s efforts eventually secured an apology and a support scheme, which has already paid out almost £1m.

Here is a timeline of how the scandal unfolded. 

1990 

Liz, a social worker, raises concerns about exploitation of children in homes. 

1991 

Islington’s Area Child Protection Committee rejects her concerns. 

1992 

Liz goes to Scotland Yard but no substantial investigation occurs. 

The Evening Standard newspaper publishes a series of reports suggesting Islington’s children’s homes have been “infiltrated by paedophiles”. 

Whistleblowing staff and children describe drug-dealing, sex trafficking and violence. 

Dr Liz Davies first blew the whistle on abuse in Islington’s care homes in 1990. She is still fighting for the survivors today (Image: Ken Mears)

1995 

A report by Ian White, former president of the Association of Directors of Social Services, and Kate Hart, a former senior manager at Hampshire and Oxfordshire councils, finds Islington Council did not properly investigate allegations against workers.

Claims include: “sexual assaults on other staff, encouraging boys to be rent boys, sexual misconduct with residents, sale of drugs, poor child care, involvement in paedophile rings and child pornography”. 

More than a third of accused staff were not investigated. Others left on health grounds before disciplinary proceedings could progress. 

The report warns that abusers may therefore now be working with children elsewhere with clean records. 

Council bosses, including leader Margaret Hodge, resign. 

The White Report is forwarded to the Metropolitan Police, but no investigation occurs.  

1999 

Islington Council chases up the Met, asking whether the White Report’s findings merit investigation. 

Detective Superintendent Sue Akers says there is “insufficient tangible evidence on which to base an holistic enquiry on the scale that would be necessary”. 

The former Grosvenor Avenue children’s home in Highbury is one of many where abuse reportedly occurred (Image: Ken Mears)

2001 

An internal Met Police report says that since the White Report, the force has investigated “at least five former council employees” over “serious sexual abuse in care homes”. 

“With the exception of [one],” it says “none of these suspects were identified previously, despite being prolific offenders during the period under review. 

“I suggest this tends to cast serious doubts about the thoroughness of the council enquiry.” 

To date, 12 complainants have alleged sexual abuse at Gisburn House, in Watford. 

Multiple staff have been accused from another home (Conewood Street/Park Place, N5). 

Since allegations were made about a third home (1 Elwood Street, Highbury), the report adds, “two suspects have fled the country”. 

There is “a high probability” that a “properly resourced cold case review” would identify new victims and offenders, it concludes. 

2003 

Another internal report questions the Met’s continuing inaction, saying it gives the council “a solid security policy against criticism, in that they have asked police to investigate and police have, thus far at least, declined to do so.” 

“Why did the police make this decision at all?” it asks. “Why was the CPS apparently not involved?” 

Still no major investigation occurs. 

READ MORE:

2016 

Dr Davies, now a professor of social work, launches the Islington Survivors’ Network, prompting many new complainants to come forward. 

Two police officers meet Dr Davies and create a list of 26 alleged abusers. But the investigation is closed down and the Met will not say why. 

The Islington Gazette revealed that Sandy Marks, who oversaw the response to the abuse allegations in the early 1990s, had once been linked to a pro-paedophile activist group (Image: Newsquest)

2017 

The Islington Gazette reports that ex-councillor Sandy Marks, chair of Islington’s Social Services committee when the abuse was unearthed in the early 1990s, was once linked to radical pro-paedophile campaign group “Fallen Angels”.  

She initially admits this, saying she was manipulated, then changes her story, denying the link. 

Lawyers advise the council to consider whether this undermines the White Report. 

READ MORE:

The story is part of a series by the Gazette on survivors’ stories. 

Islington finally admits that, “Children placed in our care were subjected to terrible physical and mental abuse.” 

“It is no exaggeration to say that this was the darkest chapter in the council’s history,” says leader Richard Watts.  

“We are deeply sorry for the council’s past failure to protect vulnerable children.” 

He also apologises to Dr Davies for the way her own concerns were handled and commends the Gazette’s reporting. 

2018 

An inquiry by Sarah Morgan QC finds Mrs Marks was affiliated with Fallen Angels, but there is “no evidence” it “affected [her] later role overseeing children’s services at Islington”. 

The White Report is not critically undermined, she finds. 

Islington Council leader Kaya Comer-Schwartz said the authority could not ‘make amends’, but could take responsibility (Image: Islington Council)

2021 

Islington Council announces the Support Payment Scheme, offering £10,000 payments to survivors. 

Council leader Kaya Comer-Schwartz says: “We know that nothing can make amends for the trauma caused, but it is our responsibility as a council to try to address past failings.” 

The Metropolitan Police would not comment on why it had never fully investigated the Islington scandal, but encouraged anyone wishing to report non-recent abuse to do so by dialling 101 or visiting www.met.police.uk/ro/ocr/how-to-report-a-crime/

Intelligence ‘pours in’ on Islington Council child abusers

EXCLUSIVE

HISTORICAL CHILD ABUSE

Islington Gazette: 25th February 2023

Exclusive by Charles Thomson: Investigations Reporter

Intelligence ‘pours in’ on Islington Council child abusers

Islington Council has paid out almost £1 million in the past ten months to victims of historic abuse in its children’s homes. 

More than 180 complainants have come forward since last May, yielding a wealth of new intelligence about paedophiles who infiltrated the borough’s care system.

The support scheme was launched last year, more than three decades after whistleblowers first reported that Islington’s care system had been “infiltrated by paedophiles”.

“They are pouring it out,” said Dr Liz Davies, who has worked on many of the applications. 

“They’ve been naming abusers. Serious assaults. Sexual assaults. Physical assaults. Crimes.” 

In some cases, Dr Davies said, multiple complainants have named the same alleged abusers. 

READ MORE:

“I’ve done a collation of all the children’s homes,” she explained. 

“So if the police contact me and say somebody’s come forward making allegations about Mr So-and-so, I can say, ‘Ten other people have named him’.  

“Then I can contact all those survivors and say, ‘This officer in this police station is investigating Mr So-and-so’, to see if they would like to speak to them.” 

Survivors 

Dr Davies, an emeritus professor of social work at the London Metropolitan University, first raised the alarm about widespread abuse in the homes in 1990, whilst working as a social worker. 

No large-scale police investigation has ever been mounted. 

The Met Police would not comment for this article as to why.

Dr Davies now co-ordinates the Islington Survivors Network (ISN), a non-profit launched in 2016 to help victims access support, and “collate and publish the history of the Islington child abuse scandal”. 

ISN also aims to help the authorities bring abusers to justice. 

Since launching, it has been contacted by more than 600 complainants, as well as ex-staff offering witness testimony. 

In 2017, the council finally admitted and apologised for the abuse. In 2021, it announced the Islington Support Payment Scheme. 

Support Payments 

The scheme, which opened in May 2022 and closes in May 2024, offers £10,000 payments to anyone abused in any of 42 children’s homes between 1966 and 1995. 

“Abuse may be sexual, physical, emotional or neglect,” according to the 16-page form that applicants must complete. 

The scheme covers 12 homes in Islington, plus other Islington-run homes in London, Essex and Hertfordshire.  

It has received 181 applications. To date, 95 have been approved and paid out. 

“No applications have been rejected,” the council said.  

A number of successful claims will also be taken forward as individual civil suits, said Dr Davies. 

“If they win, the £10,000 will come off the damages,” she explained. 

Excluded 

Three-quarters of all applications so far have been made through ISN, which was instrumental in getting the scheme set up. 

Dr Davies said she had lost some battles, with those abused in foster care excluded from the scheme, as well as those abused in children’s homes before Islington became a London borough in 1965. 

“So there were things that were not just,” she said. 

“But in the end, because of time, we thought, we’ve got to run with what we’ve got now, to get people getting paid – because they’re dying. We’re losing them and they’re not getting the money.” 

Dr Davies said the main issue she was experiencing now was waits of “up to six months” for claimants’ care files to be disclosed, then discovering that they are missing or incomplete. 

The Rules 

“Applicants do not need their childhood care records to apply for the scheme,” the council told the Gazette. 

But the scheme does require “credible information and/or material” supporting a claim. 

In some cases, said Dr Davies, missing files have been overcome by ex-staff providing witness statements confirming that they remember the applicants being in the homes. 

The council confirmed that those still waiting for their care records when the scheme closes will not be excluded, as long as they have already applied for the scheme. 

“All applications submitted before the scheme ends in May 2024 will be processed,” it said. 

The Department for Work and Pensions has agreed that payments under the scheme will not be considered when calculating eligibility for benefits. 

ISN can be reached at http://www.islingtonsurvivors.co.uk: Islingtonsn@gmail.com : 0300 302 0930 They will assist survivors with applying to this Scheme.

The Met Police said anyone wishing to report non-recent abuse should do so by calling 101 or visiting http://www.met.police.uk/ro/ocr/how-to-report-a-crime/

“Your information will be passed to a specialist team who will work with you and support you,” it said. 

Met Police officer on abuse at Islington children’s home

EXCLUSIVE

Islington Gazette 9th March

Met Police officer on abuse at Islington children’s home

Exclusive by Charles Thomson : Investigations Reporter

A police officer has detailed how abuse and neglect at an Islington children’s home left him at the mercy of a paedophile.

Aaron – not his real name – returned to the former Highbury Crescent home with the Islington Gazette last week, to detail his ordeal.

The man is among many to have been abused at Islington children’s homes and is now speaking out, decades after whistleblowers drew attention to the scandal.

Now in his 40s, he has applied to Islington Council’s Support Payment Scheme, which offers £10,000 payments to victims of historic abuse in its homes.

He said he was speaking out to encourage others to come forward.

“Horrific”

Aaron was placed in Highbury Crescent several times because his mother, an alcoholic, struggled to look after him and his siblings, he said.

But at the home, he claimed: “I was subject to various levels of abuse. I was physically assaulted and dragged around.

“Quite often my mum would show up, drunk, trying to get us back. We would be dragged away, struck and thrown into a closet room and locked in from the outside. There was writing all over the walls and small holes knocked through.”

In addition to this physical abuse, said Aaron, children at Highbury Crescent were “neglected” – left unsupervised most of the time and often unfed.

CATCH-UP:

“It was quite a horrific place,” he said.

“The only person that looked out for us was an Irish lady in the kitchen who used to give us a bit of cake or something.

“We would often just be left to our own devices for hours on end, to run around in the park opposite.”

That was where he and others encountered a paedophile called Roger Moody.

Aaron described the treatment of children at the Highbury Crescent home as ‘horrific’, including assaults and neglect (Image: Charles Thomson)

Groomed

“Whenever we used to play in the park opposite, he used to be there,” said Aaron.

“Perhaps he knew that was where he could find vulnerable children. He used to have a little black dog, Sadie.”

Gradually, Moody manipulated his way into Aaron’s life. At the time, Moody volunteered at an adventure playground near Pentonville Road, said Aaron, and told the kids he was a former youth worker.

He got to know Aaron’s family and began taking him on outings with other children, to parks and a swimming pool.

“He was very hands-on and playful with the children,” said Aaron. “We all got changed together and would all be thrown around the pool – hands-on, touching.”

Aaron’s mother accepted Moody’s offer to let Aaron stay at his house over weekends, to give her a break.

“My mother believed he was a trustworthy person,” said Aaron.

Aaron said it was in the park opposite the children’s home that he and other children encountered a paedophile called Roger Moody (Image: Charles Thomson)

Abuse

The house, in Liverpool Road, was filled “with lots of other local children that he knew and associated with, mainly of Asian descent.”

“The place was covered with cigar ash and dirt and dust,” Aaron recalled. “There was a piano with stuff piled on top of it. There were photocopiers in his house.”

Moody was a left-wing activist. He would take the boys to meetings and have them hand out the pamphlets he was producing at home.

Eventually, said Aaron, Moody’s true motive for befriending him became apparent.

Aaron described “unwanted sexual touching” by Moody, but did not want to go into detail.

“I won’t want to bring back the old demons,” he said. “I must have been about 11 or 12. No older than that. I was inappropriately touched on numerous occasions.”

Aaron is still plagued by “recurring nightmares”, he said, and sometimes situations he encounters during his work as a police officer trigger flashbacks.

Aaron never reported his abuse to the police, despite being an officer himself, but did report it several years ago to the Islington Survivors Network (ISN) (Image: Charles Thomson)

Speaking Out

Aaron never reported his abuse, even after joining the force.

“I know of historic cases that never go anywhere,” he said. “It was my word against his. I wasn’t willing to put myself through that.”

But in 2020, he contacted the Islington Survivors Network (ISN) and disclosed his abuse.

Two years later, Moody died.

Islington Council said: “We’re deeply sorry for the council’s past failure to protect vulnerable children in its children’s homes, which was the worst chapter in this council’s history.”

Since May 2022, the authority has paid more than £1 million in support payments to victims of abuse.

Next week: The Gazette investigates Roger Moody, the teflon paedophile who kept finding ways to work with children.

ISN can be reached on 0300 302 0930 or by emailing islingtonsn@gmail.com.

Roger Moody

North London: Youth worker Roger Moody was a proud paedophile

Islington Gazette 28th March 2023

By Charles Thomson Investigations Reporter

A proud paedophile managed to continue working with children even after authoring books, articles and pamphlets advocating sex between men and children.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, youth worker Roger Moody called for the age of consent to be abolished, even writing a book bemoaning “simplistic and bigoted” attitudes towards paedophiles.

But press cuttings from the late 1980s and early 1990s show he was still managing to get jobs working with children.  

Earlier this month, the Islington Gazette interviewed a Met Police officer who said he was abused by Moody in the 1990s and recalled him being a volunteer at an Islington adventure playground.

In 2020, that officer was one of two people to approach the Islington Survivors Network (ISN) and report historic abuse by Moody.

Others made allegations decades earlier, but Moody was acquitted at trial.

Moody died in 2022.

The Gazette interviewed a Met Police officer who said he encountered Roger Moody as a direct result of neglect at the former Highbury Crescent children’s home.

‘Boy lover’

Roger Moody was a left-wing activist, campaigning against human rights abuses in the developing world.

In 1971, he even wrote for the Islington Gazette from Bangladesh, where he was delivering aid.

He lived in Caledonian Road at the time and was a “youth worker” in the Bemerton Adventure Playground in Copenhagen Street, Barnsbury.

But in 1975, when Moody outed himself as a paedophile, that should surely have spelled the end of his work with children.

He outed himself in a letter to Peace News, later calling it “the first confessional article by a boy-lover to appear in the British radical press”.

In a follow-up, he claimed sex only occurred between children and paedophiles “because the kids really want it”.

Alarmingly, the address he gave in those letters – in Dartmouth Park Hill, Kentish Town – was also the exact address of a “children’s community centre”.

Trial

In 1978, Moody was charged with child sex offences.

He was acquitted in 1979 at the Old Bailey after the judge banned the jury from seeing his pro-paedophile articles.

In one, he had called on paedophiles to adopt “revolutionary” tactics against their “repression”.

“Specifically, this means we don’t work to lower the age of consent, but to abolish it,” it said.

Ten days after his acquittal, he was arrested again after being seen hand-in-hand with a ten-year-old boy.

No charges followed.

Roger Moody rote a book titled ‘Indecent Assault’, described on the jacket as ‘a defence of paedophilia’ (Image: Charles Thomson)

“Indecent Assault”

In 1980, Moody wrote a book called Indecent Assault, described on its jacket as “a defence of paedophilia”.

“I defend the rights of children to make mutual physical relationships with people of any age,” he wrote, describing young boys as “provocateurs”.

He even dedicated the book to “the boys”, writing: “By the time they are full grown, I trust that most of what this work describes will have become redundant ritual”.

In 1986, he wrote a chapter for another pro-paedophile book – “The Betrayal of Youth” by Warren Middleton, a former vice-chairman of the Paedophile Information Exchange.

He called his chapter: “Ends and Means: How to Make Paedophilia Acceptable”.

“The Dodger”

Despite his pro-paedophile advocacy, Moody continued finding work with kids.

In 1989, the Chelsea News and General Advertiser reported that he had just quit his job as a “youth worker” with the North Kensington Amenity Trust.

Now known as the Westway Trust, it was set up in partnership with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

“All employment matters would have been handled by the charity, not the local authority,” said Westway.

Roger Moody wrote to the Islington Gazette in 1991, saying he had recently been working in schools (Image: Newsquest)

A 1991 letter from Moody to the Islington Gazette, bemoaning “falling standards” in schools, revealed another job with children.

“As a youth worker who until recently worked in a school-based youth project, I was very disturbed to read your report,” he wrote, giving his address as Liverpool Road.

It was at around this time that the Met Police officer interviewed by the Gazette recalled Moody also volunteering in an Islington play park.

Islington Council said it had found no records of Moody being a past employee.

Moody’s death last year provoked tributes from academics and human rights campaigners, seemingly unaware of his murky past.

Among those who wrote eulogies was Thomas O’Carroll, former chairman of Paedophile Information Exchange.

He titled his: “Rodger the Dodger, who beat the rap”.

The Islington Survivors Network can be reached on 0300 302 0930 or by emailing islingtonsn@gmail.com.

Police close child sexual abuse team Operation Winter Key without informing ISN

Survivors in the dark as abuse probe is ended. Despair as Met’s care homes investigation is wound down. Islington Tribune 08.04.22

Survivors in the dark as abuse probe is ended

‘Despair’ as Met’s care homes investigation is wound down

Friday, 8th April — By Anna Lamche

Dr Liz Davies

Dr Liz Davies: ‘At the very least, police should set up a small team to make sure children now are protected, which is the main concern for survivors’

A MET investigation into historic child abuse in Islington’s care homes has been wound down without a survivors’ group being told.

It has emerged that Operation Farmack, a dedicated police operation looking at the case, was brought to a stop in November.

Dr Liz Davies, from the Islington Survivors Network (ISN), said nobody had told them of this development and that she was in “complete despair” that nobody had been prosecuted by the Met in relation to the scandal since 2014.

She works closely with 300 survivors of abuse carried out in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s. The total number of those who suffered as children is even greater. The ISN refers allegations and evidence to the police, with many suspected perpetrators still alive.

The Met Police has said it thoroughly investigates the ISN’s referrals but will not update the organisation on the progress of the case.

Dr Davies, however, has said “we absolutely would be aware of any prosecutions – we work closely with survivors, do our own research, collate evidence and witnesses” – and she was not aware of any.

In 2017, the Met Police established Operation Farmack, a dedicated police operation set up to investigate all allegations of non-recent child sex abuse in Islington care homes, which ran in two iterations until 2021.

Now Dr Davies has learned it was wound down before Christmas and cases will instead go to local police.

“It’s shocking. In eight years, we’re not aware of a single prosecution [by the Met Police],” she said.

The only person known to be prosecuted in connection with the scandal is Paul Lamb, a former police officer who had worked in Islington.

Last year, he was found guilty of 19 sex offences. This investigation was led by Yorkshire Police – not the Met – in relation to a care home Lamb ran in York in the 1980s.

Another specialist inquiry into historic child abuse across all of London by the police – Operation Winter Key – was closed earlier this year.

Dr Davies said: “We’ve got absolutely nowhere: we’re back to square one.”

Islington survivors wishing to report their allegations are now being told to call 101, submit information online, or visit the front desk of a police station.

Dr Davies has said this is likely to deter survivors from reporting their allegations. “It’s a totally insensitive, disgraceful response,” she said.

“At the very least, police should set up a small team to make sure children now are protected, which is the main concern for survivors.

They want justice, but mainly they want to know that this person is not still out there hurting children like they were hurt.”

She added that it is vital any perpetrators are brought to justice immediately, as they may still pose a risk to children.

“Paedophiles don’t change their behaviour,” she said.

Islington Council apologised for the scandal and has set up a support payment scheme which is set to go live this spring.

“There must be back-up police teams for allegations of criminal offences that come to light as a result of the scheme,” Dr Davies said.

“That’s what we asked to be set up in readiness for the scheme.”

Dr Davies, who was an original whistleblower on the child abuse scandal, said: “When I worked [for the council] in the ’90s, I got one conviction. And I thought: people believe me now. If somebody had shown me a picture of me aged 73 still trying [to get justice], I would have fainted.”

A spokesperson for the Met Police said: “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. Victim-survivors who have reported non-recent abuse will be directly updated with regards to their investigation. If a third party refers information relating to allegations, then we have and will follow these up directly with the individuals concerned.”

An Islington Council spokesperson said: “Abuse of children in Islington’s care homes was the worst chapter in the council’s history, and we’re deeply sorry for the council’s past failure to protect vulnerable children. We are talking with the Metropolitan Police about the best ways survivors can be supported to report allegations or evidence of abuse.

“Islington Council today is a very different organisation from in the past, and today protecting children from harm is our top priority.”