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Alison Taylor's further representations and her dismissal

  2.16  Meanwhile, Alison Taylor had become increasingly dissatisfied with the response to her complaints and had written to the Chief Executive on 1 July 1986 making a further complaint about Dodd's behaviour the previous day. Her letter concluded "We are instructed by the Social Services Department that Mr Dodd is the only person with whom we are permitted to discuss the management of Ty Newydd" (of which Taylor was Officer-in-Charge) "and its children, and to whom all written communications must be sent. His actions place me in a completely untenable position, and I must request your urgent intervention in this matter".

  2.17  It is astonishing that Bowen Rees did not learn immediately of the police investigation as a result of this letter. He does not appear to have replied to it. Some matters were raised by the Assistant Director (Children) with Taylor on 10 July 1986 and she was seen at Ty Newydd on 2 October 1986 by the Chairman of the Social Services Committee, by which time plans were evolving for the closure of Ty Newydd. The Chairman, Councillor Eric Davies, had not met Taylor previously but he formed a very unfavourable view of her at this meeting, describing her thus in a memorandum dated 5 October 1986:

"Finally, having interviewed this person, at length, I am of the opinion that she is a most unfit person to be in charge of a children's home, and that she is a blatant trouble maker, with a most devious personality, and one in my estimation who is very much involved with the anonymous letters which have been circulating. I would very humbly suggest that Ty Newydd be closed as soon as possible, and that this lady's services be dispensed with at the earliest possible time."

  2.18  The result was that Taylor was informed by a letter from the Director of Social Services dated 1 December 1986 that she was suspended from duty until further notice, pending investigation, on the ground that "the spirit of professional trust and co-operation between you and your colleagues in the residential child care sector, which is so necessary for the efficient running of that service, has broken down". On 13 January 1987, Lucille Hughes, who had met Taylor on 16 December 1986 in the course of the investigation, told her in a further letter that the enquiry had been completed and that Hughes' conclusion was that "the breakdown in professional relationships is a real one, and is the direct result of your work performance and attitudes over a considerable period". Taylor's suspension on full pay was confirmed and disciplinary proceedings were to ensue.

  2.19  A list of matters allegedly illustrating Taylor's failings was sent to her union representative in a letter dated 4 February 1987 and the Council's Disciplinary Panel ultimately met on 2 November 1987 in her absence to consider the case against her. The relevant part of the County Personnel Officer's letter, dated 5 November 1987, informing Taylor of the Panel's decision read as follows:

"The Panel was most concerned at your unexplained absence from the hearing, but bearing in mind the inordinate delays that have dogged this matter from the beginning, partly caused by your non-attendance at two previous meetings with your Director, and your refusal to attend medical interviews arranged by the Council, and noting the explicit terms of the County Secretary's letter to you dated 9th October 1987, as well as the terms of your letter dated 28th October 1987, it was decided to proceed with the hearing. . .

Before coming to a decision the Panel adjourned overnight in order to read and consider your letter dated 28th October 1987 addressed to the County Secretary and the papers enclosed with that letter. The Panel was satisfied that there had been a breach in the professional relationships between yourself and other staff of the children's section; that this breach was most detrimental to the interests of children in the Council's care and that this breach was the direct result of your work performance and attitude over a period of time. The members of the Panel were of the unanimous opinion that this amounted to gross misconduct on your part and they decided that you be dismissed from the service of the Council as from 3rd November 1987."

  2.20  Taylor consulted solicitors and notified an internal appeal to the Council's Appeals Committee. A claim of unfair dismissal was also submitted to the Industrial Tribunal. The proceedings dragged on, however, and an attempt was eventually made to fix the internal appeal for hearing in May or June 1989 but a compromise was then negotiated under which Taylor agreed on 25 August 1989 to accept voluntary redundancy from her post as Officer-in-Charge of Ty Newydd Children's Home with effect from 30 November 1987 and receive financial compensation and costs in full and final settlement of her claim.

  2.21  Meanwhile, Alison Taylor had pursued an energetic campaign to draw attention to her allegations against Nefyn Dodd and her criticisms of Gwynedd County Council's Social Services Department. She addressed letters to the Prime Minister, the Welsh Office, the Secretary of State for Health and the Local Government Ombudsman amongst others and, in 1989, she was approached by Yorkshire Television through the Children's Legal Centre. Over this period she became aware of many more complaints, a significant number of which involved children's homes in the Wrexham area, namely, Bryn Estyn, a Clwyd County Council home designated as part of the regional plan for Wales[14] and Bryn Alyn Community homes, which were private homes, owned by the Community of that name, which had been founded by John Allen[15]. These were homes to which a number of Gwynedd children in care had been sent from time to time and Alison Taylor herself had been attached to Bryn Estyn for three months as part of her training course for the CQSW[16] between 1980 and 1982 at the North East Wales Institute at Cartrefle, Wrexham.

  2.22  In the end Taylor compiled a voluminous document that she called "GCC Analysis"[17], in which she gave details of all the complaints of which she had heard relating to children in care and the staff responsible for them, including many rumours and a great deal of hearsay. It seems that the document was revised from time to time: the 129 page edition put before the Tribunal is dated 1991 and refers to events that occurred as late as December 1991. It was with most of this information that Taylor met at her home in Bangor, Councillor Dennis Parry, the newly elected leader of Clwyd County Council and a member of the North Wales Police Authority, on 10 June 1991. This meeting took place almost exactly a year after Stephen Norris had pleaded guilty to serious sexual offences committed at Cartrefle children's home in Clwyd and shortly before the trial of Frederick Rutter for serious sexual offences against young women in his care. Councillor Parry was, therefore, particularly perturbed by Taylor's allegations of further offences against children who had been in care in Clwyd. At a subsequent meeting that he held with the new Chairman of Clwyd's Social Services Committee, Councillor Malcolm King, the newly appointed Director of Social Services, John Jevons, and the Assistant County Secretary (Legal), Andrew Loveridge, it was decided that the North Wales Police Authority should be requested to carry out an investigation.

The setting up of the 1991/1993 police investigation

  2.23  The letter to the Chief Constable of the North Wales Police requesting an investigation was dated 17 July 1991 and signed by the County Secretary, Roger Davies. It gave a comprehensive account of the Council's concerns following the investigations into Norris, Gillison and Rutter and included the following passage:

"From the lists that I have enclosed you will observe that there is, in my view, an unusually high level of convictions and admissions and the level of suspicion and query is such that the County Council cannot but be gravely concerned as to any possible explanation for those suspicions and queries. I understand that when your officers investigated the case against Mr Rutter they were, at one stage, concerned as to the question of the existence of a paedophile ring in North Wales.

This question exercises my mind greatly and I believe it will be a matter of equal concern to you. A perusal of the contents of the list of individuals will immediately demonstrate that there are an overwhelming number of links back to the former approved school, later residential care home at Bryn Estyn which has now closed. It may, of course, be nothing more than coincidence but if it is coincidence then it appears to be an extremely high level of coincidence."

  2.24  The Chief Constable agreed to carry out the proposed investigation and it was then extended to cover the Gwynedd children's homes by the end of 1991. The history was that, following her earlier contact with Yorkshire Television, Taylor was able to interest HTV in allegations of child abuse in Gwynedd with the result that, on 26 September 1991, HTV's "Wales this Week" programme broadcast allegations by four former residents at Ty'r Felin, of physical abuse, mainly by Nefyn Dodd, and allegations by two others of abuse at Queen's Park children's home, Holyhead, Gwynfa residential clinic, Colwyn Bay and Ysgol Talfryn residential school near Holywell. This led immediately to a request by Lucille Hughes, Gwynedd's Director of Social Services, by letter dated 30 September 1991, to the Chief Constable for the Ty'r Felin allegations to be investigated. Then, on 1 December 1991, the Independent on Sunday published, as its lead story, a long article, under the heading "New child abuse scandal", in which allegations of widespread abuse in North Wales children's homes were made and the police investigations that have been referred to were severely criticised. Thus, between 2 and 4 December 1991 decisions were taken to amalgamate the police investigations in the two counties and on 9 December 1991 Taylor supplied Detective Superintendent Peter Ackerley of the North Wales Police, the senior investigating officer heading them, with a copy of her "GCC" analysis.

The article in the Independent on Sunday

  2.25  The Independent on Sunday article had been written by a free-lance journalist, Dean Nelson, assisted by two others. Nelson had previously written an article in May 1991 about allegations of abuse at Ty Mawr children's home, Abergavenny, and he went to North Wales at the suggestion of an Independent on Sunday staff member. In the course of his visit he saw Taylor, Councillor Dennis Parry, various former residents of North Wales children's homes, three former members of staff at Bryn Estyn and Clwyd's Director of Social Services. The article itself contained criticisms of the earlier police investigations and references to allegations by Councillor Parry of a police cover up to conceal the failure of senior police officers and social services' executives to reveal the extent of abuse in the children's homes. The article contained also allegations of sexual abuse by the deputy headmaster of Bryn Estyn and reference to allegations of physical assaults by Dodd against "dozens of children" at Ty'r Felin. In a separate report by the same authors on another page, more specific details were given of these allegations. It concluded:

"Clwyd County Council will look sympathetically on claims for compensation from those who suffered abuse but the council leader, Dennis Parry, said no amount of money could make good the damage caused.

Lives have been ruined by this. God help us how many young people with drugs and sexual problems have come from those kinds of establishments? It's frightening because it's a microcosm of what's going on around the country."

  2.26  The article on the front page of the Independent on Sunday of 1 December 1991 also contained the following reference to former Police Superintendent Gordon Anglesea[18]:

"According to former residents at Bryn Estyn, Gordon Anglesea, a former senior North Wales police officer, was a regular visitor there. He recently retired suddenly without explanation. Another serving officer has been accused of assaulting a child at Ty'r Felin."

  Anglesea consulted solicitors immediately and they wrote to the newspaper describing the passage quoted as the grossest libel on Anglesea and demanded publication of an equally prominent agreed statement of rebuttal and apology in the next edition of the newspaper together with damages and costs.

Other published allegations against Gordon Anglesea

2.27  No apology was forthcoming, however, and on 13 September 1992 the Observer newspaper wrote:

"A former police chief has been named as a prime suspect in the North Wales child sexual abuse scandal, police sources in the region confirmed last night. . . The ex-police chief is due to be questioned this week as evidence emerges that staff in some children's homes 'lent' children to convicted paedophiles for week-ends."

  Similar references followed in the next two issues of the Observer and on 17 September 1992 HTV's "Wales this Week" again broadcast allegations of sexual abuse on the part of Anglesea against two former residents of Bryn Estyn, both of whom appeared in the broadcast.

  2.28  Finally, on 27 January 1993, Private Eye magazine published an article about the North Wales investigations criticising what it regarded as the apparent reluctance of the North Wales Police to prosecute "no fewer than 12 serving and former colleagues" for sexual offences involving young boys who had been in care over a 20 year period. The article continued:

"The reluctance has nothing to do with the involvement of a number of the local great and good as members of a paedophile ring, which regularly used homes, like the now-closed Bryn Estyn near Wrexham, to supply boys for sex to local celebrities.

In the late 1970s, Superintendent Anglesea of the North Wales Police was appointed to investigate an allegation of buggery made by X against the son of a then member of the North Wales police authority. The Superintendent found there was no case to answer. Coincidentally the police authority member and Superintendent Anglesea were prominent masons."

Gordon Anglesea's libel actions

  2.29  Anglesea brought proceedings for libel in respect of each of these publications and his actions against Newspaper Publishing plc (the publisher of the Independent on Sunday), The Observer Ltd, HTV Ltd and Pressdram Ltd (the publisher of Private Eye) were then consolidated into one action, which was heard in London before the Honourable Mr Justice Drake, a senior judge of the Queen's Bench Division, who was in charge of the civil jury list, and a jury between 14 November and 7 December 1994. Each of the defendants had pleaded justification, namely, that the words complained of by Anglesea were true in substance and in fact.

  2.30  At the trial Anglesea gave evidence and three members of his family, namely, his second wife, a son and a step-son were called as witnesses on his behalf. In addition, Gladys Green, who had been secretary to the headmaster of Bryn Estyn and a senior administrator at the school for nearly 12 years, gave evidence for Anglesea. The defendants relied upon the evidence of three former Bryn Estyn residents, two of whom alleged that Anglesea had both indecently assaulted and buggered them and the third of whom, who had not emerged as a potential witness until shortly before the trial, gave evidence of a joint indecent assault by Anglesea and Howarth. Two other witnesses, a housemother at Bryn Estyn, who was also a policeman's wife, and a probation officer who had been attached to the staff of the home for three months whilst on a training course gave evidence of having seen Anglesea there. Dean Nelson, the author of the first article in the Independent on Sunday, was not called as a witness but it was reasonably clear from the evidence that he had not been in possession of any actual evidence of child abuse by Anglesea at the time when his article appeared.

  2.31  It is clear from the trial judge's summing up that the central issue that the jury had to decide was "Have the Defendants satisfied you that Mr Anglesea was guilty of very serious sexual misconduct at Bryn Estyn?" The Defendants had to prove the main "sting" of the charge, that is, that Gordon Anglesea did commit some serious offence at Bryn Estyn against the boys who were there, although they did not have to prove every detail alleged. Moreover, the judge told the jury "Because in this case the charges made by the Defendants are so very grave, the Defendants must prove them to a high standard so that you, the jury become satisfied that the Plaintiff did commit these serious assaults". Having spoken of the balance of probabilities test in civil cases and the tilting of the scales, he concluded:

"The more serious the charge, the further down the scales have to go. So in this case, where the charge against Gordon Anglesea is just about as serious as you could consider, the evidence required to prove the Defendants' case must be that much stronger."

  2.32  In the event, on 6 December 1994, the jury found in favour of Anglesea by a majority of 10 to 2, after a retirement of about nine hours. The following day it was agreed between the parties that he should receive total damages of £375,000 by way of compensation, together with appropriate undertakings about non-repetition of the libels and payment of his legal costs.

The course of the 1991/1993 police investigation

  2.33  Meanwhile, the major investigation by the North Wales Police had proceeded a long way with the full co-operation of senior officers of both County Councils. The waters had been muddied to an uncertain and indeterminable extent by the intervention of Nelson because he had returned to North Wales to seek evidence against Anglesea in support of the Independent on Sunday's defence to the libel action. He was in North Wales in February, May, June, August and September 1992 before leaving the UK in December 1992 for Hong Kong to re-launch a news magazine. In the course of his 1992 visits he sought out two former children in care, who both eventually alleged that they had been sexually abused by Gordon Anglesea, but other potential witnesses approached by him denied that Anglesea had abused them. He did, however, obtain statements from some witnesses in support of the assertion that there had been a period when Anglesea had been a frequent visitor to Bryn Estyn.

  2.34  By September 1993, when the main part of the police investigation was nearing completion, the police had taken about 3,500 statements from about 2,500 potential witnesses, of whom not less than 500 who had been in residential establishments, complained that they had suffered sexual or physical abuse. The number of those who complained of sexual abuse was about 150. The Crown Prosecution Service had assigned a special case work lawyer from an early stage to consider all the files submitted by the North Wales Police in the course of the investigation and John Lord performed this task throughout. The upshot was that by the end of 1993 the North Wales Police had recommended that 20 suspects should be prosecuted, of whom 19 were alleged abusers; but between 1993 and 1995 criminal proceedings were taken against only eight individuals, of whom six were ultimately convicted. One of the two acquitted had not been one of the 20 recommended by the police for prosecution.

Criminal proceedings following the 1991/1993 police investigation

  2.35  The relevant proceedings[19] were as follows:

(1)  1 July 1993, Mold Crown Court

Norman Brade Roberts was convicted of an assault occasioning actual body harm on his foster child. He was acquitted of cruelty to the same child and he received a conditional discharge for a period of two years in respect of the assault. Norman Roberts' son, Ian Malcolm Roberts received the same order for a common assault on the same foster child. Both offences had been committed between 1980 and 1985. Evelyn May Roberts, Norman's wife, was acquitted of a charge of cruelty towards the child[20].

(2)   11 November 1993, Knutsford Crown Court

Stephen Roderick Norris, who had been released at the end of his 1990 sentences[21] on 2 February 1993 to a bail hostel at Warrington on various conditions, pleaded guilty to three offences of buggery, one of attempted buggery and three of indecent assault committed between 1980 and 1984 against six boys, each of whom had been resident at Bryn Estyn at the time of the offence. All these offences had occurred when Norris was the Housemaster of Clwyd House at Bryn Estyn[22]. Two other counts of buggery, seven of indecent assault and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm were ordered to remain on the Court file, as was another indictment alleging six further offences of buggery. All 16 counts left on the file referred to offences alleged to have been committed at Bryn Estyn against other boys in the same period. The total sentence imposed on Norris was 7 years' imprisonment.

(3)  8 July 1994, Chester Crown Court

Peter Norman Howarth, a former Deputy Principal at Bryn Estyn, was convicted of an offence of buggery and seven offences of indecent assault committed between 1974 and 1984 against seven boys who were resident at Bryn Estyn at the time[23]. One of the victims of indecent assault took his own life on 21 May 1995 by hanging himself from a tree. Howarth was acquitted of two other counts of buggery and two of indecent assault involving three other Bryn Estyn residents. He was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in all for the eight offences of which he was convicted but he died of a heart attack in Pinderfield Hospital, to which he had been moved from Wakefield Prison, on 24 April 1997, Paul Bicker Wilson, a former Residential Child Care Officer at Bryn Estyn, was acquitted in the same trial of three alleged offences of indecent assault involving two Bryn Estyn boys, one of which offences was alleged to have been committed jointly with Howarth. Wilson faced a second trial, however, in November 1994[24].

(4)  28 November 1994, Knutsford Crown Court

Paul Bicker Wilson pleaded guilty to three offences of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one of common assault committed between July 1980 and March 1984 on young male residents at Bryn Estyn, for which he received a total sentence of 15 months' imprisonment, suspended for two years. A not guilty verdict was entered in respect of another count because the complainant in respect of that alleged common assault in 1984, Y, had committed suicide on 6 January 1994, when he had been found hanging from a door at his home. One other count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two alleging cruelty to a child, involving three other Bryn Estyn boys, were ordered to lie on the Court file[25].

(5)  12 January 1995, Knutsford Crown Court

David Gwyn Birch, another former Residential Child Care Officer for six years at Bryn Estyn and subsequently for four years at Chevet Hey, was acquitted of an alleged offence of buggery against a complainant X and of an alleged indecent assault against another boy[26]. X's evidence against Howarth of indecent assault on him by the latter alone had been accepted by a different jury but had not been accepted by that jury in respect of a joint charge of indecent assault on him by Howarth and Wilson and a separate charge of indecent assault on him by Wilson alone. In the light of the jury's verdicts in respect of Birch, the prosecution decided not to offer any evidence against him in respect of another count of buggery on X, alleged to have been committed in the same period between 1981 and 1982, four counts of alleged cruelty to children and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, two of which involved Y, who had died a year earlier[27].

(6)  9 February 1995, Chester Crown Court

John Ernest Allen, the founder of the Bryn Alyn Community residential schools[28], was convicted of six offences of indecent assault against six young male residents at the schools between 1972 and 1983. He was acquitted of four other counts of indecent assault involving four different residents. Allen received a total sentence of six years' imprisonment.

Further events leading to the Jillings inquiry

  2.36  Whilst these investigations and prosecutions were taking place there was continuing public interest in the subject and Alison Taylor pursued her campaign for a public inquiry. Questions were asked in the House of Commons on a number of occasions. An Assistant Chief Constable of the North Wales Police, Mr Richard Heseltine, appeared in a television programme calling, on behalf of the police, for a public inquiry. This call was subsequently reiterated by the Chief Constable himself. On 7 September 1992, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Welsh Office, Gwilym R Jones, announced that a public inquiry into allegations of abuse in North Wales would take place when the North Wales Police had completed their enquiries. He did not indicate, however, the form that the inquiry would or might take and it was clear that the police investigation would continue for a substantial period because new allegations of abuse were continuing to be made.

  2.37  It was against this background that in January 1994 Clwyd County Council set in train the private inquiry by an independent panel under John Jillings[29]. There was continuing discussion within the Welsh Office meanwhile about the form any public inquiry might take, if there was still need for one, and it was on these points that Nicola Davies QC was asked to advise in 1995[30]. Ultimately, the existence of the unpublished Jillings report led to further allegations of a cover up and widespread speculation, fanning public disquiet, with the result that the Government decided that the present Public Inquiry under the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921 was necessary to deal with the situation.

Footnotes:

2   See paras 2.01 to 2.05.

3   See paras 4.10, 4.11, 21.48 and 21.49.

4   See paras 12.10, 12.25 and 12.26.

5   See paras 22.10 to 22.14.

6   See paras 52.30, 52.34 to 52.51 and 52.59 to 52.70.

7   See paras 21.50 and 21.51.

8   See paras 14.32 to 14.45.

9   See paras 14.38 to 14.43.

10   See Chapter 15.

11   See paras 8.23 to 8.34.

12   See paras 8.41, 8.42 and 10.151 to 10.156.

13   See Chapter 26.

14   See para 7.10.

15   See paras 4.10, 4.11 and 4.22 to 4.27.

16   Certificate of Qualification in Social Work.

17   Gwynedd County Council Analysis.

18   See Chapter 9: The case of Gordon Anglesea.

19   The list does not include the conviction of Malcolm Ian Scrugham, a foster father, on 23 April 1993, which is particularised in para 42.09 because it did not arise from the major police investigation. Back

20   See Chapter 41.

21   See para 2.07(7).

22   See paras 8.29 to 8.34.

23   See paras 8.04 to 8.10.

24   See paras 8.39 and 8.40.

25   See paras 10.09 to 10.12, 10.26 and 10.27.

26  See paras 8.37 and 8.38

27   See para 2.35(4)

28   See paras 21.24 to 21.44, 21.59 and 21.60

29   See paras 2.02 and 2.03.

30  See para 2.04.