Last Updated: Friday, 23 June 2006, 13:21 GMT 14:21 UK
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Foster carers jailed over abuse
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Ian Wathey, 41, was jailed for five years and his partner, Craig Faunch, 32, for six years after being found guilty of sex offences last month. After sentencing the pair, from Pontefract, West Yorkshire, a judge criticised Wakefield social services. She said it was "quite incredible" police were not involved at an earlier stage and demanded an explanation. Wathey and Faunch were found guilty following a two-week trial at Leeds Crown Court of abusing four boys aged between eight and 14. During the trial, the court was told the couple had taken a photo of a boy in their care while he was urinating. It was sent to Wakefield Council's social services department by the youngster's mother.
Social workers decided the men had been "naive and silly" for taking the photo after hearing their explanation that they had used the picture to embarrass the boys into closing the toilet door, which they kept failing to do. Judge Sally Cahill QC said if the council had involved police at that time it may have prevented further abuse taking place. She said to Wathey and Faunch: "Once you realised social services would not take any action and believed your ridiculous story about why you had taken it, you went on to abuse others in your care, believing yourself safe from the authorities." The men were using the boys for sexual gratification within months of being approved as carers in July 2003, the court heard. The judge said neither of the men had shown any "empathy, remorse or any responsibility for their actions". Indecent photos Referring to Faunch's abuse of a 14-year-old boy, she said: "You, Craig Faunch, chose to victimise and abuse that boy, showing the very depths in my view of what you are prepared to do. "You saw him as the ideal victim. You are presented as a couple but this is not about homosexuality, it is about abuse of trust." Faunch was convicted of two charges of making indecent photos of a child. The court was told that he used a camcorder to film two naked eight-year-old boys in the shower. He was also found guilty of five counts of sexual activity with a 14-year-old boy. Wathey was found guilty of four charges of sexual activity with a 14-year-old boy and encouraging a child to watch sexual activity. He was cleared of two charges of sexual activity with a child. The court was told neither had been in trouble with the police before and were approved as foster carers after checks and training. Council inquiry When the pair are released they will be on licence for three years and have to attend a sex offenders' programme. They are also banned for life from working with children. After the men were convicted three weeks ago, Wakefield Council commissioned a full independent inquiry. The council's Service Director for Children in Need, Kitty Ferris, said it would respond to the judge's comments once the results of the inquiry were known. She said the inquiry will look at whether the council correctly followed policies and procedures and whether its level of intervention was appropriate. Ms Ferris added: "The allegations made against Mr Faunch and Mr Wathey were referred to the police as quickly as possible and were subject to a joint investigation by the police and social services under the safeguarding procedures. This investigation led to the prosecution of the couple. "The council has offered support, where appropriate, to children who have been affected by this case." | |||
The Daily Mail
November 23, 2006 by Ben Clerkin
A DEVASTATED couple had a child taken away by social workers as their 20-month-old son lay dying in hospital. Tyler Black, who had fallen into the family pond 24 hours earlier, died the day after the other youngster was removed. Yesterday, a coroner ruled that the toddler's death was an accident. Now his parents, Caren and Adrian Black, are pleading to be reunited with the child who they can see only twice a week. http://www.fassit.co.uk/tyler_black.htm
The Sunday Mail
November 5, 2006
Baby Brandon allowed home with parents Nicky and Mark - THE family snapshots pinned to the walls of baby Brandon Webster's room have come down and his mother Nicky has double-checked that there will be enough bottle feed for the short drive. If she and husband Mark seem anxious, it is little wonder. For they are taking five-month-old Brandon home tomorrow for the first time - and the journey so far has been monumental.
http://www.fassit.co.uk/nickymarkbaby_sundaymail.htm
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Copyright © 2005
COURTNEY is yanking her big sister Zara's ponytail because she won't share her crisps, their brother Ieuan is bawling and parents Tim and Gina Williams can barely be heard above the din in the living room.
But until last week the house was silent, save for Gina's occasional fits of weeping, as the family lived through a waking nightmare. Two years ago both were wrongly accused of child sex abuse and their three children were taken away.
Only last week were they cleared and the children allowed home.
Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, Tim says: "We love the noise, mess and chaos now they're home - this house has been horribly quiet without them."
Being snatched from the warmth of the family fold and into care has clearly scarred the children. Ever since she bounded back into the family's terraced house in Newport, South Wales, Zara, 12, can hardly bear to let her mum and dad out of her sight.
Ieuan, nine, makes Tim and Gina solemnly swear that they will be there after school to pick him up each day because he's petrified he'll be taken away again. And seven-year-old Courtney, whom the family call Buffy, tiptoes in to her parents' room in the dead of the night to make sure she really is back home and isn't dreaming.
The family's horror story began in May 2004. An 11-year-old boy was invited to play with the children in the paddling pool and he and Buffy were sent to change out of their swimming gear and into their bed clothes.
But when Tim went upstairs, he found the boy, minus his pyjama bottoms, on top of his five-year-old daughter whose nightie was lifted above her waist.
"I was so furious I called the police," says Tim, who does not work because he has a heart condition. The cops were followed by social services. And there began the chain of events that ripped the family to pieces.
After weeks of private social services interviews with the children, Gina sat with Buffy in hospital while she endured an internal examination.
Gina and Tim, both 37 and married now for 12 years, reeled from the results. Buffy, said the doctor, had been a victim of chronic sexual abuse by an adult. Tim immediately became a suspect.
And because the report said Buffy could have been abused with an implement, Gina also came under suspicion. Shortly afterwards social workers arrived at the house asking to take the children in to care.
"They said if we didn't hand them over they'd get a court order to take them from us," says Tim. "Three days later, after sleepless nights and endless hours of talking, we felt forced to agree to their demands."
BANNED from telling their children any details about the investigation, Tim and Gina drove to the social services office and told Zara, Ieuan and Buffy that they were going away for a little holiday.
The instant they arrived, staff whisked the children though office doors and out of sight.
"We couldn't even say goodbye," says Gina, breaking down. "I felt so empty, so sick. We could still hear them screaming 'mummy! daddy!' after we left the building. All my life I'll never forget that."
Zara, Ieuan and Buffy were placed in a foster home together and imagined even worse reasons why they were there. "They thought we didn't love or want them any more," sighs Tim. "Each one thought it was their fault for being naughty."
Back home, the house was bereft of joy. Gina says: "It was so quiet, as if there had been a death. Tim and I couldn't stand the silence, the tidiness, the fact that packets of biscuits remained uneaten when they used to go in a flash.
"I'd stand in the middle of their bedrooms and cry my eyes out. We couldn't stand being at home so began driving around all day, having cups of tea in faraway places to get away from everyone."
The case dragged on with Tim and Gina allowed to see their children for two 90-minute supervised sessions each week.
"Each time we sat with the kids, two social workers watched and noted our every word, every move," says Tim. I felt awkward hugging my own kids, and it was so hard not to cry in front of them when they begged us to take them home."
THEY couldn't even see them on their birthdays if they fell outside the Tuesday and Friday contact days. But missing two Christmases hurt most.
"We were told we could give them their presents in McDonald's on Christmas Eve," says Tim. "We didn't celebrate it those years, there was no point."
Last month, on September 22, it felt as if all Tim and Gina's Christmases had come at once. At Cardiff High Court, American child abuse expert Dr Astrid Heppenstall-Hegar testified, after reexamining her notes, that Buffy showed no signs of sexual abuse.
On Tuesday, judge Crispin Masterman cleared Tim and Gina of any wrongdoing and praised their dignity.
He said: "No one who has listened to the evidence in this case could possibly avoid feeling the utmost sympathy for what this family has gone through."
The afternoon of the final hearing, Zara, Ieuan and Buffy bounded back into the home they hadn't seen for two years.
"They were like little whirlwinds," smiles Gina. "They scampered up to their rooms and chased Tess, our jack russell, for cuddles. And they kept running back to us for big group hugs.
"But Ieuan kept crying. He said, 'I thought I was never coming home.'
"We've had to get to know them again. Ieuan's grown more boisterous and likes pizza now although he didn't used to. Buffy's more clingy and Zara's got a new cheeky side."
Tim's solicitor, Jessica Good, believes the family's story will set a precedent. She says: "This case shows there is a problem with how sexual abuse is diagnosed in this country.
'This happened to a perfectly ordinary family. It could have happened to any of us."
Tim, but not yet Gina, has received a public apology from Newport Council, which has launched an investigation into its procedures. But nothing will bring back the two years, and many milestones, that he and Gina have missed from their young children's lives.
"Buffy learning to ride her bike without stabilisers, her first day at school, taking Ieuan to get new glasses, and Zara's first day at high school. We should have been there," says Tim. "We should have been there to take them to the doctor's when they had flu, help them with their homework and wait for the tooth fairy.
"But we were cheated out of those privileges. Thankfully our ordeal is behind us and we can be there with them from now on.
"Our children have a lot of questions and when the time is right we'll sit them down and tell them everything. But for now we just want to enjoy living as a proper family again - that's all we ever wanted."
YOUR RIGHTS
IF SOCIAL services arrive on your doorstep and want to take away your children, phone a solicitor straight away.
No one can remove your children from their home unless they possess relevant court documents.
Never agree to give your children away voluntarily as this allows the local authority to drag its heels in arranging court dates to release them.
If they have an emergency protection order, they
are forced to go to court straight
away.
For more information visit www.nspcc.org.uk or www.e-parents.org or www.parentlineplus.org.uk
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12.45pm GMC wins court fight over expert immunity ruling
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A WOMAN accused of trying to murder her baby son will discover tomorrow whether she has won a 12-year legal fight for justice.
Regarded as a test case in Scots law, the landmark legal action challenges the controversial theory of Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP), which she believes has resulted in thousands of parents being wrongly accused of child abuse.
"My son was only six months old. I'll never forget the day they took him away," said "Judith".
"I wrapped him in a blanket, gave him a kiss and handed him over to the social worker. He was three years old by the time we got him back."
She was accused of attempted murder, her two children were taken into care and she launched what was to become a long court battle.
Her nightmare began in September 1993, when her son stopped breathing and was rushed to Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Sick Children. Over the next few months, he suffered from vomiting and interrupted breathing. She said he was a victim not of violence, but of problems relating to Cisapride, a drug that has since been withdrawn in the UK.
After her children were placed with foster carers, a family court ruled that "on the balance of probabilities" she was responsible for the attacks. However, no criminal charges were brought and after two years both her son and daughter were returned home.
Judith took legal action against the Scottish Children's Reporters Administration (SCRA), the body responsible for placing the children in care. Lawyers for the 42-year-old claim that fresh evidence, not available at the original hearing, will prove that she is innocent.
After more than 100 days of evidence and an estimated £1 million of public money, a sheriff will rule tomorrow whether or not Judith is the victim of a miscarriage of justice. A spokeswoman for SCRA refused to comment.
The mother-of-four was linked with the now infamous condition, MSBP - a theory which suggests some parents deliberately harm their children to draw attention to themselves. She says she was labelled with MSBP following the intervention of a number of doctors, including the controversial paediatrician Professor Sir Roy Meadow.
He was involved in the prosecution of Sally Clark, who was jailed for murdering her two sons. He said the chances of two children dying of cot death were one in 73 million. She was cleared on appeal. Scotland's leading child-abuse expert, Professor John Stephenson, who is also a proponent of MSBP, is central to Judith's case and gave evidence in the original hearing more than a decade ago. He was called back to give evidence in this latest legal challenge at Glasgow Sheriff Court. He declined to comment on the case yesterday.
Massimo Franchi, the woman's solicitor, said MSBP had left a damaging legacy. "If my client wins, every other case of MSBP could be called into question. There are 30 years of accusations to come out."
• Names have been changed to protect the identity of the children.
A DOZEN Scottish mothers whose children were taken into care are eagerly awaiting the outcome of tomorrow's landmark abuse case.
An investigation by The Scotsman in 2004 revealed that 12 parents in Scotland had been accused of having the controversial condition Munchausen's syndrome by proxy (MSBP), resulting in 19 children being placed in care.
The new judgment, due to be heard at Glasgow Sheriff Court tomorrow, might pave the way for other mothers who claim that they were wrongly accused of harming their children to take legal action.
One of the mothers, whose two daughters were adopted following allegations of abuse, said she would never give up hope of having her girls returned to her.
"These allegations have ripped families apart. This case will have massive implications for all of us," she said.
"If this woman wins, it will allow other mothers to sue the doctors and social workers who took our children away from us.
"It may be the first such case in Scotland, but it will not be the last."
Eric Scott, an Edinburgh-based solicitor, is representing two women whose lives were blighted following allegations of child abuse.
He believes that the Scottish children's panel system has failed youngsters. "I would like to see all these cases independently reviewed," he said. "With anything involving Munchausen, they should open up the files.
"We will be watching this case very closely to see if any legal action can be taken."
As many as 5,000 children in England and Wales are said to have been taken into local authority care during the past 15 years in cases linked to MSBP.
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Once
you realised social services would not take any action and believed
your ridiculous story, you went on to abuse others in your care,
believing yourself safe from the authorities
is caused, in
part, by a genetic disorder. 