UNBELIEVABLE ARROGANCE OF SOCIAL WORKERS: LACK OF EVIDENCE DOESN'T BOTHER THEM

They just KNOW people are guilty even though a police investigation that cost a hundred thousand pounds could find no evidence that could justify putting anybody before a court, let alone win the resultant case. It is the social workers who should be in the dock for the suffering they caused to both the children and their parents

"A critical report into the collapse of a major child abuse inquiry has highlighted failures of health and social work staff to protect the youngsters involved in the case. Social work inspectors launched an investigation after the 2003 case against nine people in the Western Isles was dropped. They had been charged with serious sex offences involving three girls aged under 16 following a police investigation codenamed Operation Haven.

The Social Work Inspection Agency, which was called in to review the handling of the case, concluded that the three children had experienced "severe and prolonged abuse". Social work practitioners should also have acted sooner to protect children, the report said, adding that some of the decisions that were made were "seriously flawed". The report also concluded that health professionals failed to respond appropriately to the potential child protection issues raised by the children's health problem and distress. And it said the Western Isles NHS board did not have the systems in place to support health professionals in protecting the children.

The suspects were picked up in dawn raids on the Isle of Lewis and in Leicestershire, West Yorkshire and Dorset in October 2003. But the following July the Crown Office dropped its prosecution before the case got to trial. [Because of lack of evidence!]

The report said the three children at the centre of the investigation had been neglected and abused over many years. The social work inspectors concluded: "We found evidence of physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect, as well as symptoms and behaviour which are strongly suggestive of sexual abuse. We believe that all three children were repeatedly sexually abused.""

Report here

Background from July 2004

The expert who helped discredit infamous claims of satanic abuse in Orkney has branded the failed investigation into similar allegations on Lewis an even bigger disgrace.

Dr Bill Thompson said police and social workers had completely failed to learn the lessons of the 1991 Orkney case, in which nine children were taken into care amid allegations of ritual abuse which were later thrown out of court.

Thompson, the criminologist whose work for Orkney families helped lead to the dropping of the case , said: “The Lewis case is worse than Orkney. Orkney preceded this case but the investigating authorities didn’t learn from the earlier mistakes.”

The Lewis investigation cost more than £100,000 and saw eight people charged with sexual offences against children in October 2003. The charges were dropped at the beginning of July.

Thompson says that the Lewis accusations – involving animal sacrifices, snuff movies, devil worship and the rape of children – were “classic textbook satanic allegations which have been disproved everywhere”.

Thompson says police and social workers should release transcripts of interviews with the children who made the allegations to prove whether or not investigators asked leading questions which encouraged the children to fabricate their stories.

Thompson says that only the release of the transcripts can clear the names of the people who were wrongly accused of satanic sex crimes against children. “People want to kill them,” he said. “They will suffer stigma forever. They need a chance to clear their names.

More here. Additional background here




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