Former care staff sought after abuse report

A hunt was on last night to find 24 former workers in north Wales children's homes after they were named as proven or suspected…

A hunt was on last night to find 24 former workers in north Wales children's homes after they were named as proven or suspected abusers or unsuitable to work with young people in the long-awaited public inquiry report into the 20-year care scandal in the former Welsh counties of Clwyd and Gwynedd.

Local and health authorities across Britain are being given 48 hours to check their staff lists and report to the government on whether any of the individuals have jobs where they might have access to children.

The move followed publication of the report by a team led by Sir Ronald Waterhouse, a former high court judge, setting out how thousands of young people supposedly in the public care were abandoned to regimes of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse.

The 937-page report names about 200 people under the privilege accorded the inquiry. Some have previously been identified in court cases, but others have merely been subject of complaints assessed by the team. Still others have been named because they held responsible positions, or because the team felt it necessary to do so to address rumours about them.

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One person named is Mr Huw Meurig Jones, former deputy head of the Little Acton assessment centre in Wrexham, who gave evidence to the inquiry denying three witnesses' allegations of physical and sexual abuse.

Mr Jones resigned in 1981 but is known to have since worked at a private school and sought employment as head of a children's home. While making clear it could not substantiate the allegations, the team says: "In our judgment it would be impossible for the public, with knowledge of the facts, to have the degree of confidence in his judgment and probity that is essential for employment in social work involving the care of children."

The 24 people being urgently traced, including three teachers, are being added to the lists held by the health and education departments of people who have given cause for concern regarding children.

There will inevitably be questions about why such action was authorised only yesterday if the inquiry team has harboured doubts about the individuals for some time. The team completed taking evidence in April 1998.

The inquiry, which cost over £15 million, found evidence of widespread sexual abuse of boys in children's homes in Clwyd and some evidence of such abuse of girls. One of the most notorious abusers was Peter Howarth, former deputy head of the Bryn Estyn home (the home at the heart of the inquiry), who was jailed for 10 years in 1994 but died in 1997.

The report finds no case for the rumoured existence of a paedophile ring in high circles, but does confirm that some male abusers in the Chester and Wrexham areas operated as a group, preying on teenage boys in care and the community at large.

The team's 72 recommendations, applying technically to Wales alone but certain to have a broader impact, include a full review of what it would cost to bring children's services up to an acceptable level of performance. The team also calls for the appointment of a children's commissioner.