Nottinghamshire
County Council
Revised Joint Enquiry Report
(Part 1 of 5)
PREFACE
The original Joint Enquiry Report consisted of five
volumes totalling over 600 pages. The first volume of 42
pages contained an introduction, a survey of the Team's
work, conclusions, the reasons for these, a section
covering the effects of the Broxtowe case on the Social
Services Department, a section on Police/Social Service
relationships and finally the Recommendations. This
volume was in effect a brief summary of our approach and
findings and no personnel were identified. All the
evidence for our findings was contained in a further 4
volumes of Appendices labelled Factual Investigations,
Children's Disclosures and Research. The Factual
Investigation volume contained reports on interviews and
contacts with over 70 persons.
The original report was written on the understanding
that it was a personal report for the Director of Social
Services and the Chief Constable and included material
that was given to us in the strictest confidence that
this would be the case. There was no attempt to preserve
confidentiality and the appendices identify children and
suspected perpetrators of Satanic abuse.
With the need to make the report more widely available
and usable it has been re-written in a shortened version
so that it can stand on its own without the appendices.
The team have, therefore, extracted the most important
information which influenced their conclusions and
recommendations and have incorporated it into a one
volume report. Our findings, conclusions and
recommendations have not been altered but we have taken
the opportunity to clarify some of the statements made in
the original report. We have also added some additional
material on the significance of our findings and have
made use of further relevant information which has become
available in the last few months. This report is still a
Joint Report and has the approval of the remaining
members of both agencies.
7th June 1990 Signed.
Contents
INTRODUCTION
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENQUIRY
Stage 1 Preliminary Investigation into Background
Material
Stage 2 Interviews with Senior Personnel in the
Respective Departments
Stage 3 Places and People Investigated
Stage 4 Analysis of the Children's
Disclosures
(i) Analysis of the Children's Disclosures
(ii) Research into Satanism and Witchcraft
(iii) Research into the International Scene
(USA, Canada and Holland) and the literature from the
USA
(iv) Interviews with Experts
previously used by Social Services
Stage 5 The later disclosures of [Mary] and the
other 'satellite' cases
RESEARCH INTO OTHER CASES IN THE UK
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS OF WORK DONE BY THE TEAM
(Stage 1 - 5)
CONCLUSIONS
IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS
- The effect of the Broxtowe Case on the Social
Services Department
- Police - Social Services Relationships
RECOMMENDATIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION
In October 1987 seven children of an extended family
in Nottinghamshire were removed from home on suspicion
that they had been sexually abused by their parents and
relatives. In February 1989 10 adults, both male and
female, appeared at Nottingham Crown Court charged with
53 offences of incest, indecent assault and cruelty
against 21 of the children of their extended family and
extensive terms of imprisonment were imposed. It is
generally agreed that this was the most serious case of
multi-generational sexual abuse within an extended family
known in Britain. The successful prosecution was the
culmination of enquiries made by both Police and Social
Services personnel co-operating together into what became
known as the Broxtowe Case, Nottingham. It resulted in
considerable praise from the media, local councillors and
even the Prime Minister for the efforts of the police and
social workers after the Crown Court Judge made named
commendations in respect of the involved personnel.
The children had been made Wards of Court before the
criminal proceedings commenced and the Judge gave
permission for the children to be interviewed by
psychiatrists instructed by the parties. Any further
interviews by social workers or the police would have
required the Court's further permission. This was a
sensitive time as the furore over Cleveland had erupted
three months previously. The children's foster parents
were asked to keep diaries of anything they said or did
that might be relevant to their future welfare. These
diaries formed part of the evidence provided to the
Wardship Court which resulted in all the children being
committed to the care of the Local Authority. The
disclosures made in these diaries indicated very
extensive sexual abuse. They also appeared to suggest
that the children had been subjected to something more
than sexual abuse as the children talked about witch
parties, the murder of babies, the killing of animals,
the involvement of strangers and of being taken elsewhere
to be abused. Nothing like the content of these diaries
had ever been seen before and they eventually gave rise
to the suspicion that the children might have been
involved in some form of organised ritualistic Satanic
abuse or witchcraft cult. Adult members of the extended
family were interviewed by social workers and appeared to
support this view.
The Police set up a separate unilateral investigation
into these further revelations after a Senior Social
Worker made a statement. The social workers were not
invited or encouraged to take part in this investigation
which was called "Gollom". The social workers
have stated that they had little idea as to what, if
anything, was actually being investigated. When the
Police reported in their findings that they did not
consider Satanic abuse or witchcraft was involved or that
there were any other perpetrators, this was not accepted
by Social Services staff. It would appear that the social
work staff had formed a view that the Police had
deliberately set out to discredit the corroborating
adults. In their view the Police were trying to disprove
and close down the investigation. They further considered
that the Police did not have sufficient knowledge of this
type of abuse and were not prepared to acquire it. In
short the Social Services Department, having not been
involved were not satisfied that the Police had
undertaken a thorough investigation and additional
information the social workers acquired about tunnels at
Wollaton Hall and a swimming pool at an identified house
appeared to strengthen this opinion.
The Police were concerned that the information
contained in the children's diaries would be on their
prosecution files and, therefore, available to the
Defence in the Criminal Prosecution. They considered that
there was a possibility that as potential witnesses the
children and young adults would be discredited. Because
of this the Police requested that no further diaries
should be kept but this ran counter to the requirements
of the Wardship Hearing and the need to understand the
children's experience if they were to be helped. By June
1988 the Police refused to accept any more of the
children's diaries. They indicated that they would no
longer be prepared to investigate disclosures of this
nature.
The only exception to this was an interview conducted
with children who alleged that murders had taken place on
a boat. Once again the social workers considered that the
police had set out to discredit the children.
Various meetings by senior officers of both
departments were held to try and find a way out of this
impasse but no satisfactory resolution appeared to be
reached and the children continued to make disclosures
identifying locations and additional perpetrators. It is
indisputable that a profound mistrust had developed and
the awareness of this was not helped by the knowledge
that the Cook Programme would be including Nottingham in
its presentation of a programme on the Satanic abuse of
children.
In April 1989 a Joint Memorandum outlining the Social
Services' perspective of the disclosures and enquiry work
was submitted by the Principal Solicitor and Assistant
Director of Children's Services to the Chief Executive.
The memorandum did not express a view as to whether
Satanic abuse was a reality but it did express grave
concern that further children could be at risk and that
it was no longer possible to investigate this. The
memorandum made the point that if a child was abused as a
consequence of the lack of investigation then it would be
very damaging for the Local Authority. The memorandum
was, therefore, written to draw attention to this and
compel further action.
The Joint Enquiry Team
The Chief Constable, Mr. R. Hadfield and the Director
of Social Services, Mr. D. White, recognised that massive
differences of opinion had developed between officers of
their respective departments and positive action was
needed to progress further. Their decision was that a
Joint Unit staffed by Police Officers and Social Workers
who had no involvement with the evidence gathering, file
preparation and trial of the extended T. Family should be
set up. The staffing for the Joint Unit was decided by
the respective Chief Officers and the following personnel
were selected on a full-time basis:-
Detective Sergeant George THORPE (West Bridgford CID)
Detective Constable Wendy GLENN (West Bridgford CID)
David LONG, Senior Social Worker (Radford Social
Services Office)
Margaret GREGORY, Senior Social Worker (Kings Mill
Hospital, Mansfield)
For operational purposes the Unit was jointly managed
by Detective Superintendent Bob DAVY, (Deputy Head -
Nottinghamshire CID), and John GWATKIN, (Area Director,
Nottinghamshire Social Services - Newark), who retained
the responsibility for their respective posts. The Joint
Unit worked from accommodation at West Bridgford Police
Station, Nottingham, and had access for advice and
guidance to Chief Officer level, in the case of the
Police - Mr. E. GRIFFITH, Assistant Chief Constable
(Operations), and in the case of Social Services - Mr. B.
NEWELL, Deputy Director of Social Services.
The Terms of Reference for the Joint Unit were
outlined as follows:-
- Enquiries into the T. Family in Broxtowe which
culminated in a trial at Crown Court, has
resulted in Wardship cases for many of the
children victimised.
- Some statements taken at the time and subsequent
disclosures made by the children and other
parties involved suggestion that there may be a
possibility of serious offences being committed
against young persons either in the future or
have been committed in the past.
- In the constant need for care and comfort for the
victim of the cases at the Crown Court, those
charged with caring for their comfort and welfare
need to be able to refer to someone any
information which they feel is relevant to the
investigations of abuse, past, present, or in the
future.
d) You are asked to explore these items and seek to
resolve them.
A Joint Memorandum to the staff seconded to the Unit
was issued by the Director of Social Services and the
Chief Constable, and brief information giving details of
the Joint Unit was circulated within the two Departments.
The Team's Work
The team commenced work on the 10th July 1989 and
immediately arranged a meeting with the social workers
responsible for the children of the extended T. family.
At this meeting it was emphasised that the purpose of the
Enquiry was the protection of known or unknown children
from abuse and that it was not an Enquiry into the
conduct of staff. We have tried to keep to the spirit of
this and no individuals of the respective departments are
named in this report. We have not interviewed any staff
or obtained any information with the purpose or intention
of making judgements on staff although inevitably views
may be formed from our findings.
It must be emphasised that these original conditions
imposed upon the Enquiry Team prevented us from
interviewing the relevant staff with regard to their work
with particular children. We have come to some of our
conclusions based upon the records and additional
interviews with children who were not part of the
original enquiry. Inevitably this report cannot give a
complete picture but hopefully will point the way to
further work.
During the course of an enquiry which lasted five
months the following areas of work were covered by the
Team:-
- Investigating places and premises disclosed by
the children and adults.
- Interviewing persons relating to these locations.
- Interviewing convicted members of the extended
family.
- Interviewing other members of the extended
family.
- Interviewing alleged perpetrators.
- Interviewing some senior staff of the Police,
Clerks and Social Services Department who had
been previously involved.
- Interviewing experts previously used by the
Social Services Department (and recommended to
us).
- Advice from consultants selected by the Team.
- Interviewing members of the media.
- Interviewing some of the children's foster
parents.
- Interviewing or contacting Police Officers at the
British Embassy, Washington USA, New Scotland
Yard, Humberside, Suffolk, Derbyshire, Cheshire,
North Wales and Cumbria, the NSPCC Unit,
Nottingham, NSPCC Headquarters and Social
Services staff at two local authorities.
- Some miscellaneous interviews.
- Involvement with the interviewing of twelve
children disclosing ritualistic abuse during the
course of the Enquiry. We have termed these
'satellite cases'. The children concerned were:-
[Mary]
[Amy]
[Lily] and [Alice]
[Neil]
[Reggie] and [Melissa]
[Colin] and [Florence]
[Clara]
[Donna] and [Teresa]
14. Attendance at presentations in respect of
Satanic/ritualistic child abuse at Reading and Mapperley
(Child Line). A representative was sent to the Area
Directors' and BASPCAN presentations.
15. Research into Satanism/Witchcraft and the
international experience (a bibliography is attached).
The Enquiry proved to be extremely complex and led in
unexpected directions.
After re-reading the original report which was
unnecessarily repetitious we have decided on the
following format:-
The Development of the Enquiry
STAGE 1 Preliminary investigation into background
material.
STAGE 2 Interviews with Senior Personnel in the
respective departments.
STAGE 3 Places and People investigated.
STAGE 4 Analysis of the Children's disclosures
Research into Satanism and Witchcraft.
Research into the International scene and the
literature from the USA.
Interviews with the experts used by Social
Services
STAGE 5 The disclosures of [Mary] and the other
satellite cases.
Research into other cases in the UK.
Summary of Findings
Conclusions
Implications of the Findings:-
- The effect of the Broxtowe Case on the Social
Services Department.
- Police - Social Service relationships.
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