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Background

26.01  Frederick Rutter has already figured in this report as a temporary RCCO at Bryn Estyn from 5 July 1982 to 19 November 1983[352] and at Park House, initially on a temporary basis but then as a permanent RCCO, between October 1984 and 28 August 1988[353], after a period of ten months in between as a care assistant at a hostel for the mentally handicapped; and his general history has been summarised in paragraph 8.41. On 28 August 1988 Rutter began employment with Clwyd Housing Association Ltd as Warden of their Pen-y-Llan hostel for young people in Connah's Quay and he remained in that employment until he was suspended from duty on 18 May 1990 and then resigned on 12 June 1990.

26.02  On 3 April 1990 an 18 years old woman resident at the hostel complained to the police that Rutter had behaved improperly towards her there. In the course of the ensuing enquiries by the police she and other young women residents of the hostel made more serious sexual complaints against him, as did two girls who were living with Rutter and his wife at the time of the offences against them. Rutter was arrested on 22 October 1990 and, when interviewed, he denied all the allegations.

  26.03  In July 1991 Rutter was tried in the Crown Court at Chester[354] on an indictment alleging five offences of rape, one of buggery and three indecent assaults involving five residents at the hostel and the two girls who had lived with the Rutters. On 30 July 1991 he was found guilty of raping both these girls. He was convicted also of two rapes and two indecent assaults involving three of the hostel residents but he was acquitted of alleged offences against the two other complainant residents. Concurrent sentences of 12 years' imprisonment were imposed for each of the four offences of rape and of 12 months' imprisonment for the two indecent assaults.

  26.04  In view of our terms of reference we deal in this chapter with the Rutters' fostering history and Frederick Rutter's offences against the two girls living with them. As far as we are aware the proved victims from the hostel were not in care when they were resident there and all but one of them stayed for only a short period.

The Rutters' fostering history

  26.05  The Rutters' first application to foster was made to Clwyd County Council on 28 December 1984, very shortly after Frederick Rutter had moved to Park House[355]. This was in respect of a boy who was a resident at Park House.This boy had already spent week-ends with the Rutters and part of the Christmas holiday; and there was some tension between the Rutters and the boy's social worker, who wished to build up his relationship with his mother. The application to foster was discontinued by agreement in March 1985 because of the planned rehabilitation.

  26.06  On 28 February 1986 the Director of Social Services approved the Rutters' home as lodgings for another boy in residential care, who had already spent many week-ends and the Christmas period there. The Director acted under delegated powers and the approval was endorsed by the Adoption Case and Foster Care Sub-Committee on 21 March 1986, after the police had confirmed that nothing to the detriment of the Rutters was known. The application had been handled by Robert Jones[356], a former colleague of Frederick Rutter at Bryn Estyn, who recommended approval. However, it seems that the placement had broken down by September 1986.

  26.07  In 1987 the Rutters moved from their home in Flint to a five bedroomed house in Connah's Quay and they applied again on 8 January 1988 to become foster parents. This application was in respect of girl A, who was one of the two girls subsequently raped at the house by Rutter, and it was recommended for approval by South Clwyd Adoption and Foster Care Panel on 21 March 1988. Roger Saint attended as a member of the panel that day but no sinister significance can be attached to his presence. The actual approval was given by the Adoption Case and Foster Care Sub-Committee on 12 May 1988.

  26.08  A was another resident at Park House, where Rutter was still employed, and there was already a close relationship between her and the Rutter family. The Rutters had two daughters and A was said to have been the "best friend" of the younger daughter when they attended the same school. A was 15 years old at the time of the application. Her mother had died when she was eight years old, after which she had lived with her father and his woman partner until she had been received into care in January 1988 and placed at Park House. Contact with the Rutter family had then resumed and A had begun to stay with them at week-ends. She wished to be fostered by the Rutters rather than to remain at Park House.

  26.09  From the documents before the Tribunal, it appears that the correct assessment procedure was complied with, save that the senior officer's final report disclosed that he had not visited the Rutters' home for a number of reasons, including sickness there and the officer's leave arrangements. The latter did have personal knowledge of Rutter for a number of years and we do not regard the omission as material in the context of our inquiry. Appropriate references were provided and an enquiry of the police revealed that Rutter had been convicted of a drink/driving offence, resulting in 12 months' disqualification from driving, since the previous enquiry in March 1986.

  26.10  It seems that two boys were already living at the Rutters' home as approved lodgings when the application to foster A was approved. One of these was the boy in respect of whom the earlier application to foster had been begun in December 1984. He had kept in touch with the Rutters and Wirral Social Services Department decided on 22 January 1988 (when he was 16Ö years old) at a Child Care Review that he should move from Parkside Children's Home in the Wirral to lodge with the Rutters prior to his discharge from care. The two Rutter daughters, aged 17 and 14Ö years respectively, were also living at their home.

  26.11  A's evidence was read to the Tribunal. In it she described how she had been raped by Rutter when she was 16 years old (ie in or about 1989). The offence had occurred in the living room when the rest of the household had gone to bed. She had been watching a film, dressed in a night-dress and dressing gown, when he had forced himself upon her, eventually ejaculating on the floor. He had then switched off the television and told her to go to bed. She had been too embarrassed to tell anyone, except a close friend and her brother-in-law, before the police visited her unexpectedly. She had also been worried about being thrown out and having nowhere to live. Rutter had never had sex with her again and she had made sure that she was never on her own with him. She left the Rutters in 1989 when she had become pregnant by her boyfriend. Joan Rutter did not want her to remain after that and the Social Services Department found her a flat in Connah's Quay.

  26.12  Girl B was also resident at Park House before she went to live with the Rutters. She was born in April 1971 and she said that she moved to the home of the Rutters as approved lodgings when she was 17 years old. She had been taken into care when she was 14 years old on the ground that she was beyond her mother's control and had then lived successively at Bersham Hall, with her father and at Park House, to which she had moved when she was 16 years old. According to her written statement, she was only at Park House for about a month before moving out to live with her sister. She had not wanted then to go to live with the Rutters because Frederick Rutter, whom she had known at Park House, gave her "the creeps", but she was told by the Social Services Department that she had to move to approved lodgings.

  26.13  We have not seen the documents relating to these placements but a report on them was presented by the Director of Social Services, John Jevons, to the Clwyd Children and Families Sub-Committee on 21 October 1992 after Rutter's trial. This report was based upon an internal investigation carried out by an Assistant Director, Geoffrey Wyatt, in the course of which such matters as the provision of a reference for Rutter by Jeffrey Douglas, the conduct of a social worker responsible for supervising one of the girls in the hostel, the approval of the Rutters as foster parents and as providers of approved lodgings and the supervision of A and B when placed with the Rutters were all considered.

  26.14  Part of this investigation was carried out by Elena Fowler, Clwyd's Child and Family Social Work Manager. She criticised the fact that approval of the Rutters' home as lodgings had been transferred to their new house without completion of a fresh assessment but she said that it was difficult to assess any deficiency in the role played by Clwyd because of the "extreme disorganisation" of the two relevant files. It is similarly difficult for the Tribunal to make any pertinent criticism. However, Elena Fowler did say that the Boarding Out Regulations had been complied with in relation to the approval procedures and that the supervision had been adequate. She commented that Clwyd may have adopted a "more relaxed approach" to the Rutters' applications because Rutter was already in the employ of the Social Services Department in a responsible position with children and may have been influenced by the fact that the Rutter family had known A as a young child.

  26.15  In her written evidence before the Tribunal B said that she remained with the Rutters for only a "couple of months" before she ran away because she could not take any more of him. She alleged that Rutter had sexual intercourse with her against her will about five times within one month and had oral sex also with her. These rapes and sexual assaults had all occurred in the television room or her bedroom when no one else was around and Rutter had begun making improper approaches to her the very night that she moved in.

Other allegations against Frederick Rutter

  26.16  As we have said earlier in this chapter, Rutter was convicted of two offences of rape and two indecent assaults in respect of three young women who had been resident at the time at Pen-y-Llan Hostel. It is unnecessary for the purposes of this report to go into the details of these offences, save to say that they were committed between February 1989 and April 1990 and that the victims were in the age range of 17 to 21 years.

  26.17  The complaints by D of rape by Rutter, which were not the subject of a prosecution are discussed in paragraphs 17.70 to 17.72 of this report.

Conclusions

  26.18  The very serious offences against A and B would only have been avoided if the Rutters had not been approved as foster parents and their home had not been approved as lodgings. We do not think that Clwyd can be realistically criticised, however, for granting the approvals on the basis of the information about Frederick Rutter available at the time. With a degree of hindsight it can be said that if a full record had been kept (and entered in his personal file) of all the matters involving Rutter during his employment by Clwyd, a less favourable picture of him would have been available to senior officials and this might have led to the Rutters' applications being refused.

  26.19  This history provides yet another example of the dangers that arise when children in residential care are permitted to visit and stay with care staff in the latter's homes, even when the proposed arrangement has been vetted by other professional staff. The same high standard of vigilance has to be applied to the vetting of residential staff as to other applicants who seek to provide a home for vulnerable children. The possibility of staff selecting children whose particular vulnerability is known to them has to be guarded against. Moreover, employees of Social Services Departments should not be assessed by social workers who have worked closely with them.

Footnotes:

352   See paras 8.41, 8.42 and 10.151 to 10.156.

353   See paras 17.68 to 17.79.

354   See para 2.07(8).

355   See para 17.69.

356   See para 10.66.