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23.01  This residential school for children with behavioural and emotional problems at Llanychan, near Ruthin, was founded in 1958 by William Carman and his wife Edith, who were the joint Headteachers until they retired in or about January 1972. William Carman had previously been the head of a Liverpool school for the maladjusted and Edith Carman had been head of a school for the delicate in the same city. A company called Clwyd Hall for Child Welfare Limited was formed to own and run the school but the effective proprietors were the Carmans.

23.02  It appears that the school occupied a notable site because it was described in fulsome terms in an SI's[327] report in December 1977, as follows:

"The main residential house is a delightful building of historical interest, aesthetically pleasing both inside and out, set in about 18 acres of grounds, including adequate hard-surfaced areas and playing pitches for football and net ball. The setting with lovely old trees, lawns and flower beds all meticulously cared for is a joy to the eye, and the views are breath-taking. Such a setting can do nothing but good to the children."

  Boys were housed in the main building, in which there was a teaching wing with three classrooms. Girls lived in a separate house in the grounds partly occupied by the Carmans. There were also workshop facilities nearby with teaching space for older children above.

  23.03  Carman appointed Barry Wademan, then 42 years old, to succeed him as Headteacher from January 1972, and Wademan's wife was appointed Matron from July 1972. They were both salaried but they invested £2,500 in the company and were allocated 25 per cent of the issued shares. All financial aspects of the business continued to be dealt with by the Carmans, who lived in the separate house just referred to, comprising converted outbuildings within the estate. From this part of the estate a daughter of the Carmans ran an equestrian centre, later known as the Claremont Equestrian Centre. Wademan ran the educational system of the school with his wife. He had been most recently Headteacher of an observation and assessment centre for boys in Hampshire (he was national secretary of the association of those centres at the time) and had 20 years experience of working for the Home Office in approved schools and remand homes.

  23.04  The school was recognised as efficient under the former education legislation until that status ended in April 1978 and Wademan said that it was in fact a special needs school for maladjusted children. When Wademan became Headteacher there were about 24 resident pupils but by January 1975 there were 48 (39 boys and nine girls), aged between seven and 16 years. The school was listed in the Department of Education's Independent Schools Directory and the majority of pupils were referred to it by local authorities in the north west, although some came from as far as Gateshead and Folkestone. Some of these children were in care. We have no information as to the placement at the school of any children from Clwyd or Gwynedd or anywhere else in Wales.

  23.05  The Wademans remained at Clwyd Hall School only until 1976 because they considered that the Carmans had reneged on an oral promise to them that they would have sole control of the school. The new Headteacher was Colin Fleming Williams, aged 53 years, who had been Deputy Head for two years or so and in charge of the leavers' class. He had taught at various schools and had worked latterly with the psychological service for schools in the Chester area before moving to Clwyd Hall School as Deputy Head. Williams continued as Headteacher until 1982 and, during this period, pupil numbers fluctuated between about 36 and 46.

  23.06  In or about July 1982 Carman made a new agreement, in effect taking in three new "partners" to run the school. These were David Neil Edge, who was then working for Trafford Social Services Department in the child care field, another Trafford social worker, Brian Chatburn, and Richard Francis Groome, who was Officer-in-Charge of Tanllwyfan until 11 November 1982[328]. It is unnecessary to go into great detail about the various changes that occurred in the succeeding two years because the school closed finally on 27 July 1984 but a summary will complete the picture.

  23.07  Until the agreement referred to in the preceding paragraph, Carman had remained Principal of Clwyd Hall School but Edge then became Principal from 13 October 1982 to 26 February 1983, when he left to become Operations Manager, responsible for all child care matters at Do®l Rhyd and Hengwrt schools in Dolgellau[329]. Groome, who had been Head of Care, then succeeded him as Principal and with Chatburn took a lease of the school. A new Headteacher was appointed from September 1983. Substantial further improvements were needed at the school, however, and the required finance could not be obtained. Groome left, therefore, in or about April 1984 to found a therapeutic community for young people at Ludlow and Chatburn later joined Edge in Dolgellau (Chatburn died on 10 August 1986).

Welsh Office inspections

  23.08  The first recorded visit by inspectors during the period under review by this Tribunal took place on 30 November 1977, on only 24 hours notice, following a complaint by a senior teacher, who had left after only a few days, to a Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science. The senior teacher had been critical of his own accommodation and classroom stock and had said "Not one single member of staff had undergone any training in connection with maladjusted children and no system of secondment existed for this purpose". He complained also that there was "not one single trained member of the House staff" at the school, questioning whether the school still met with the requirements for being recognised.

  23.09  The inspectors found that there were 44 resident pupils (32 boys, 12 girls). In addition to the Headteacher, there were four teachers (and a riding instructor at week-ends). The post of Deputy Head was vacant and difficulty was being experienced in finding a suitable replacement. None of the staff had a special education extra qualification although two had some previous relevant experience and one had taken a special education option in her initial course. There were five care staff in addition to a housekeeper and about six domestic staff. The five care staff were resident but only one of them had a child care qualification (another had been accepted for a course starting in January 1978).

  23.10  Despite the limited training of the staff, the inspectors were complimentary about what they saw. The teachers were seen to handle the children firmly but tolerantly and work seen was said to be "purposeful, varied, well presented"; and relationships between Headteacher, staff and children appeared to be easy, relaxed and pleasant. The care arrangements were also thought to be of a high standard and the inspectors concluded:

"We can only say that we saw or heard nothing which would make us anyway uneasy, or which indicated any kind of emergency situation, which might endanger either recognition or registration."

  23.11  It is not clear from the documents before the Tribunal whether Clwyd Hall School was ever granted final registration after April 1978. It is clear, however, that it did not receive general SEN approval and it may have remained provisionally registered only, although Edge referred to it as "recognised by the Department of Education and Science" in a letter written in September 1982[330]. The school was visited by two HMIs in May 1982, who considered it to be far from satisfactory. Their findings were that the fabric of the building and furnishings had been allowed to deteriorate; the dormitory accommodation was unsatisfactory; schemes of work and educational programmes were limited; staffing was inadequate, both for care and teaching purposes; and the school generally seemed to be low in morale and deprived of resources. In these circumstances the inspectors thought that it might be necessary for HMI to recommend to the Welsh Office that it was no longer a school for which exceptional (SEN) admissions could be approved.

  23.12  This adverse report was part of the background to Carman's negotiations to sell the school or at least to re-finance it by agreement with new "partners". A further Welsh Office inspection was deferred whilst these negotiations took place and then to give an opportunity for re-organisation. It was not, therefore, until October 1983 that a further visit to the school was made by three HMIs. The purpose of the visit was two-fold: to co-ordinate standards of approval of independent schools for statemented children with HMI in England and to assess whether Clwyd Hall School had developed sufficiently under new management to justify an approval inspection.

  23.13  The inspectors found that the conditions generally had improved. A good deal of re-decoration and refurbishment had been carried out; the dormitory arrangements were more satisfactory; good educational programmes and care practices were being developed. Staffing standards had also been improved. But the new financial arrangements did not appear to cater for further necessary developments; Edge had already withdrawn and left; and the future remained uncertain.

  23.14  It was envisaged by the reporting inspector, in a consolidating minute in May 1984, that a further visit to the school would be necessary as part of a project "to clear approval of all independent schools" then operating in Wales but written notice confirming the closure of the school was received before this could be arranged.

Complaints of abuse

  23.15  One parent wrote to the Department of Education and Science in July 1978 complaining about the placement of his son at Clwyd Hall School by Stockport Education Authority. The son was said to be of above average intelligence but had made no progress in two years at the school. The parent complained about the teaching and the quality of care and of his son being beaten about the head and back with a wooden stick by a teacher who lost her temper, causing the boy to run away and become lost on a November night. The letter concluded "I must state that until the matter has been considered and a firm decision made I fully intend to keep (my son) at home and not to send him back to Clwyd Hall School next term, even if it means educating him myself".

  23.16  The Welsh Office, to whom this complaint was referred, did not apparently think it necessary to investigate this complaint with the school. The response of the Department of Education and Science to the parent, dated 24 August 1978, was as follows:

"You made reference in your letter to conditions at Clwyd Hall andI have consulted colleagues in the Welsh Office Education Department about this school. I understand that it is considered a well-run, caring establishment by Her Majesty's Inspectors who make periodic visits to the school. I hope you will feel reassured by this and encourage (your son) to resume his studies at Clwyd Hall as soon as possible."

  23.17  We are aware of 13 former residents of Clwyd Hall School, all male, who have complained of abuse whilst they were there and all 13 of them named Noel Ryan as an abuser. Of these complainants, 12 alleged serious sexual abuse by Ryan and not less than four alleged physical abuse.

  23.18  It was neither appropriate nor necessary for the Tribunal to investigate these allegations fully because they were being investigated by the North Wales Police concurrently. In the event Ryan appeared before the Crown Court at Chester on 4 July 1997, during the Tribunal's sittings, when he pleaded guilty to 14 of 22 counts alleging sexual offences against ten male residents of Clwyd Hall School under the age of 16 years committed between 1 January 1970 and 30 June 1981 (three offences of buggery, one attempted buggery and ten indecent assaults). Ryan asked the Court to take into consideration also when sentencing him seven similar (specimen) offences of indecent assault committed within the same period, which he admitted. Thus, he confessed to serious offences against a total of 17 boys over a period of about ten years. His Honour Judge Morgan Hughes then sentenced Ryan to a total of 12 years' imprisonment and ordered that the eight counts to which he had pleaded not guilty should lie on the Court file on the usual terms[331]. The Judge ordered also that Ryan should register with his local police within 14 days of his release in accordance with the new requirements of the Sex Offenders Act 1997.

  23.19  Ryan, who was 66 years old when he was sentenced, was employed at Clwyd Hall School as a houseparent from about 1968 until he resigned in 1981, occupying a bed sitting room above the staff room at the top of the main building. He was not called to give evidence to the Tribunal and we have not seen any staff file relating to him so that we know little of his background. It appears from what was said on his behalf at his trial that he was "untrained, unskilled and untutored" when he went to Clwyd Hall School at the age of 37 years: he was a naive individual, who himself had been the victim of abuse as a child, and he had no other sexual experience.

  23.20  It is clear from the evidence relied upon by the prosecution that there was a pattern of conduct by Ryan for most of the period of his employment at Clwyd Hall School. He was attracted to some of the boy residents and would groom them for subsequent sexual misconduct. They would be shown favours and later touched intimately in the bathroom or showers. Ryan was able to take advantage both of his quasi-parental status and the location of his bed sitting room, near to the boys' dormitories. Touching the boys progressed quickly to masturbation, and with some boys to oral sex and simulated buggery. Ryan pleaded guilty also to three counts of buggery with one boy as well as an indecent assault upon him and to attempted buggery and indecent assault in respect of another boy as well as eight other indecent assaults on different boys.

  23.21  We received evidence from four of the complainants against Ryan, including oral evidence from the victim of the three offences of buggery that he admitted. This witness, A, from Merseyside, was at Clwyd Hall School for about eight years from the age of seven years in 1969 and said that Ryan befriended him and treated him as a favourite from an early stage: Ryan seemed to be in love with him at times and would hug him. Ryan played on his naiveté and he woke up on one occasion to find that Ryan was masturbating him manually. Masturbation, oral sex and buggery on four occasions followed, mainly when he was away from Clwyd Hall with Ryan on trips of various kinds. The pattern of conduct continued until he went on a trip to Blackpool with Ryan, when he was ten or 11 years old: he told Ryan then that he would not put up with it anymore. He alleged also that Ryan physically abused him on other occasions, by, for example, rubbing soap in his mouth and whipping him with wet towels, and Ryan would also instruct older boys to bully him.

  23.22  A was a talented footballer who played soccer for North Wales and who had hoped to make a career in soccer. He spent his last two years at Clwyd Hall playing soccer but he could not spell his own name when he left. He said that there was no real teacher there and he never saw a social worker. When he left eventually he was only told that he was leaving that same day, half an hour before he left, and he had to make his own way by walking to Wrexham and then hitchhiking to Liverpool.

  23.23  The other oral witness, B, was also named in a count in the indictment to which Ryan pleaded guilty. B was at Clwyd Hall School for about five years from the age of eight or nine years in or about 1971. He said that he slept in a dormitory and was singled out by Ryan, who gave him a hug and kiss and told him that he would be all right, within a week of his arrival there. Sexual assaults by Ryan began with touching B's penis; masturbation, including mutual masturbation followed; and on occasions Ryan put two fingers into the boy's anus. But B was not subjected to oral sex or to buggery. Ryan threatened B that, if B told anyone about the abuse, he would not be allowed to go home on leave at all but, about a year before he left Clwyd Hall, the sexual assaults ended because B "stood up to" Ryan and threatened to tell B's mother and step-father. After Clwyd Hall this witness went to another school of a similar type called Rhyd-y-Gors, Carmarthen, where "the staff were marvellous and the Headmaster absolutely brilliant", and then served in the Army for five years but he suffered three breakdowns later and had tried to take his own life, all of which he attributed to Ryan's sexual abuse of him.

  23.24  B complained also of persistent physical abuse by Ryan. The latter would punish B by making him stand on one leg with both his arms held aloft. When he failed to maintain this posture, Ryan would cane him on his legs and arms and B said that this happened every week, up to four times a week. He had tried to get to the Headteacher to complain but Ryan was always about when he was close.

  23.25  The two complainants whose evidence was read to the Tribunal were not named in the indictment against Ryan but we do not know whether they were named in the list of seven offences taken into consideration when he was sentenced. C, from the Bebington area of the Wirral, was in care when he went to Clwyd Hall in 1980 and he remained there about 18 months. He alleged that he was indecently assaulted by Ryan on only two occasions; on both, C was "wound up" and Ryan restrained him and squeezed his genitals in the process. This witness alleged, however, that he was persistently masturbated, and on one occasion subjected to oral sex, by another named member of the care staff.

  23.26  Witness D, however, alleged that he was buggered by Ryan in a narrow room down a corridor from D's dormitory on about 40 occasions. D was also in care when he was placed at Clwyd Hall School by Bolton Social Services Department at the age of ten years in or about 1976 and he remained there until he was about 13 years old. Ryan began his indecent conduct by going to D's bed in a dormitory frequently and masturbating him; this led to Ryan later taking D to the narrow room just referred to where D was made to perform oral sex on Ryan. Subsequently, mutual oral sex and buggery occurred on frequent occasions there. D said that he had found it extremely difficult to cope with adult life as a result of the way in which he had been treated as a child. He had at times been sexually confused and even today felt more comfortable in the company of gay men. He said also that nearly all the staff at Clwyd Hall School treated the children without respect or any care and alleged "their way of maintaining discipline was to put you in fear of being punched or slapped and if you stepped out of line they would punch or slap. They hit any part of the body they could get away with".

  23.27  It seems that in April 1981 the Headteacher, Williams, received a complaint from a parent about Ryan hugging her son and from a boy about Ryan holding his hand. This was at least part of the background to Ryan's resignation, which was handed by the Headteacher to Carman on 27 May 1981, following which Ryan took employment with a friend in a restaurant.

  23.28  Apart from Ryan, only four other members of the staff were named in complaints by former residents and none were named by more than two complainants. The only staff member other than Ryan alleged to have committed sexual abuse was the care worker referred to by witness C.

  23.29  The Tribunal did not receive any complaints against Richard Francis Groome but his activities were being investigated at the time of our hearings. He now awaits trial for various alleged sexual offences against boys, as explained in paragraph 50.31(7) of this report, and four of the alleged victims named in the indictment were resident at Clwyd Hall School when the alleged offences occurred.

Conclusions

  23.30  Clwyd Hall School was yet another residential establishment for children poisoned by the activities of at least one persistent sexual abuser on its staff. Yet again that abuser had no previous convictions and was not suspected of abuse, as far as we are aware, by colleagues for ten years or more. The result is that the lives of at least a score of children, already emotionally and behaviourally disturbed, have been seriously and permanently disfigured.

  23.31  Other criticisms of the school pale in comparison with this central failure to provide a safe home for the children. The allegations of other physical abuse presented to us have been few and do not justify a finding against any specific member of the staff, other than Ryan, who did not give evidence to us and who was not legally represented before the trial. The short history of the school within our period of review does, however, again underline the need for frequent and effective independent inspection. The visits by inspectors that we have recorded were not full inspections and were much too infrequent to provide effective monitoring of the school's performance, bearing in mind how short is the span of the pupil's school life and the extent of the deterioration in the school that was noted five years after the inspector's visit in 1977. We are also dismayed by the Welsh Office's response to the parent's complaint referred to in paragraph 23.15, without (apparently) any investigation of it with the school.

327   Senior HMI (Staff Inspector).

328   See paras 18.06 and 50.31(7).

329   See para 39.26.

330   See Appendix 6, paras 37 to 39.

331   Not to be proceeded without leave of the Crown Court or the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division.