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33.32  Comparatively few of the complaints of which we know relate to the earliest part of Nefyn Dodd's reign as Officer-in-Charge and there is evidence that he established a good image for himself and Ty'r Felin in the locality at that time. There was some favourable publicity in the local press. Bangor Round Table, for example, took an interest in the community home and presented it with a video recorder and Anglesey Aluminium Employees Charity Committee gave a large television set in July 1980, following earlier generous gifts. The Salvation Army and a group called Community Action were also actively involved with the home. Residents attended the Salvation Army service each Sunday and Community Action organised, amongst other things, a joint visit with staff and residents to Liverpool in December 1981 to see a pantomime. It is clear also that Nefyn Dodd impressed D A Parry, the Deputy Director of Social Services, with responsibility then for children's services, who was a regular visitor to Ty'r Felin, and Laurence (Larry) King, who was Senior Officer (Children) from 1 August 1975 and Principal Officer (Children) from 1 June 1979 to 14 May 1988.

  33.33  A Welsh Office Inspector, SWSO Copleston, visited Ty'r Felin on 7 November 1978, shortly after Nefyn Dodd had begun to carry out his first additional duties elsewhere. The Inspector's report was favourable, although only seven children were in residence at the time. She recorded that corporal punishment in line with that permitted under the Children's Homes Regulations 1951 (sic) was allowed in Gwynedd community homes and that a cane was on display in Nefyn Dodd's office "as required by the Authority" but that he did not permit corporal punishment. Punishments recorded in the Punishment Book (five only from January to November 1978) seemed to the Inspector to be reasonable.

  33.34  Of Nefyn Dodd himself, the Inspector wrote:

"I found it difficult to assess Mr Dodd and I know that senior staff in the department are uncertain what to make of him but I finally concluded that he was a sincere person doing his best to provide a sound service and largely succeeding in doing so. Brought up in a small Welsh speaking community near Wrexham, it seems to have been important to him to overcome the variously potentially handicapping circumstances of his earlier years and achievement of all kinds is still very important to him . . . Mr Dodd has certainly introduced a number of new procedures and to use his own words again "generally tightened things up" but he appeared to have taken his staff along with him in the changes he had made, there seems to be a warm relationship between him and the children and his approach seems in no way authoritarian."

  33.35  SWSO Copleston's report also highlighted a problem about Ty'r Felin's role, which was to persist. She said that the word "assessment" had been used very loosely for some time. Of the 27 admissions during the first half of 1978 only ten were listed as assessment/remand and 13 for short stay, ranging from a few days to seven months. The Inspector followed up the position in the five months following her visit and noted in April 1979 that there was a suggestion that Ty'r Felin should cease to operate as an Observation and Assessment Centre and become an ordinary community home for children from the Arfon area.

  33.36  A very different view of Ty'r Felin under Nefyn Dodd was given by Dewi Evans, the present Director of Social Services for Carmarthen (and formerly for Dyfed), who gave oral evidence to the Tribunal about his visit to Ty'r Felin in August 1981. Evans (then Deputy Director for Dyfed) and two other members of the staff of Dyfed County Council were commissioned in 1981 (following a request to the Chief Executive of Dyfed) to investigate complaints made by current and former members of the staff of Gwynedd County Council into the running of Y Gwyngyll community home. In the course of that investigation the inquiry team visited the other community homes in Gwynedd, including Ty'r Felin. In their report they were critical of the appointment of Nefyn Dodd to a supervisory role in respect of Y Gwyngyll, which they regarded as an error of judgment.

  33.37  Of Ty'r Felin itself, they said:

"Ty'r Felin is clearly the Establishment in the best state of physical repair and maintenance. We were interested to note the use of school uniforms and hope that this does not impair the integration of the children and the Establishment into the community. We consider that it would be wrong for the Authority to suppose that the management style adopted at Ty'r Felin is appropriate to any or all of the other Children's Establishments within Gwynedd."

  33.38  The reference to "school uniforms" was to the requirement by Nefyn Dodd that all child residents at Ty'r Felin should wear the uniform that he had prescribed (blazer, pullover, badge, shirt, tie and trousers for boys in the photographs that we have seen and similar uniform for girls). Whilst this made the children presentable in appearance to older eyes, it marked them out from their peers as residents of Ty'r Felin when, for example, they were attending local schools or visiting Bangor.

  33.39  Dewi Evans was more outspoken in his evidence to the Tribunal. He said that the inquiry team had been told that they should see Ty'r Felin as a model of good practice and they spent three to four hours there. They were concerned about Nefyn Dodd's style of management. Ty'r Felin had the atmosphere of an army camp for small soldiers: the kerbstones were all painted white, the youngsters were in uniform and were required to wear a tie with Ty'r Felin written on it, and every time they went to the shop for sweets they had to bring back a receipt. Dewi Evans referred also to an atmosphere of fear and compared the children to mice, "scurrying here and there when we visited"; and he added in cross-examination, when questioned about the atmosphere of fear:

"Yes, I stand by that. The children were so well controlled. There wasn't a relaxed homely atmosphere, which I would have thought would have been one of the main objectives of the home--children coming into care--it's difficult enough to be subjected to this, regimentation rather than fear is possibly a better description."

  Moreover, Dodd was in the team's shadow throughout their visit.

  33.40  Evidence in support of Nefyn Dodd and his regime at Ty'r Felin from four main sources was put before the Tribunal. It came, firstly, from senior officers of Gwynedd Social Services Department to whom he was responsible from time to time, such as D A Parry, Lucille Hughes[472] and Larry King, who each visited Ty'r Felin but with varying frequency. Secondly, there were neighbours and other interested persons in the locality, such as Salvation Army officers and local councillors. Thirdly, there were some former members of staff and, finally, some former residents.

  33.41  We have no reason to doubt the sincerity of the witnesses in the first two categories, who formed a high opinion of Nefyn Dodd. He was undoubtedly effective in presenting himself and was determined that Ty'r Felin should be seen by outsiders as a well conducted, disciplined home, in which residents did not answer back and did not cause trouble with the home's neighbours. He was anxious also that the physical appearance of the home should convey a similar impression. We have received persuasive evidence that, in his first years as Officer-in-Charge, Nefyn Dodd did effect improvements to the appearance of Ty'r Felin and involved himself with the children to the extent, for example, of eating with them. To many of the children, however, and at least some of the staff he was an intimidating figure and a bully. He was a large man with a powerful presence who frequently raised his voice to impose himself. Moreover, he was dictatorial to those under him, brooking no disagreement; and his approach to residential child care was no doubt influenced by his early experience at Bryn Estyn and Bersham Hall.

  33.42  It may well be that in his first two years or so at Ty'r Felin the balance of achievement was in Nefyn Dodd's favour in the sense that, although he imposed an inappropriately repressive and regimented pattern of life upon residents, he did show interest in them and did provide a degree of security for children placed there. It can be said also that good order and discipline was of particular importance for most of the children, who were not intended to stay at Ty'r Felin for more than 12 weeks. As time passed, however, Nefyn Dodd's external duties grew as did his powers; he became more remote from the residents of Ty'r Felin, having little daily contact with them; and he became a more awesome figure, to whom June Dodd would report for punishment misdemeanours that had occurred during the day.

  33.43  Nefyn Dodd's attitude to the staff of Ty'r Felin was highly authoritarian from the beginning. An unusual facet of this was that he would address numerous homilies and directions to them in a log book kept for the purpose of recording relevant matters for staff purposes. We have seen entries covering the period from 2 January 1978 to 29 March 1980 and some later entries but four citations will be sufficient to convey the general flavour of Nefyn Dodd's own comments:

  3 July 1978

"This morning at 8.55 a.m. whilst in the boot room with DBH and the children, I was amazed to find an unofficial tea break going on. Mrs. Hughes, Mrs. Williams, Mrs Berthelemy were all in possession of tea. Why? I understand this has been going on for some time. As DOIC please ensure this does not happen again, if people don't like it send them to me. I don't mind staff taking up to 15 minutes to read the daily log. Unofficial breaks are not on. I know that ad lib smoking goes on but to push the boat out this far is bordering on anarchy."

3 February 1979 (extract)

"If I was responsible for a long term therapeutic unit then there would certainly be a different philosophy implemented. Due to the fact that this is an Assessment Centre and that I through necessity adhere to boundaries and constants which are clearly defined I expect a certain ADULT MATURE response from staff and do not expect people to encourage children to complain, rebel, vote with their feet and abscond, all to no avail. All that this irresponsible level of working proves to me as an experienced ASSESSMENT officer is that certain adults are totally irresponsible, immature and have far more personal conflicts than our clients?"

20 November 1979

"With reference to AGT's comments regarding X, which once again confirms my opinions, on no account is this young baby to be permitted to use the portable T.V. or given any perk more in keeping with his chronological age; treat at the stage of his present behaviour, still in nappies."

  (X was aged 16 at the time that this was written)

  14 January 1980

"There is a true saying 'To be continually admonished, is to be continually discouraged' so for God's sake and the children's give me an opportunity to express satisfaction of your work."

  33.44  The log entries give an accurate picture of Nefyn Dodd's attitude to members of the staff and the child residents. All members of the staff, except June Dodd, were subjected to criticism, although Alison Taylor fared rather better than the others as Deputy Officer-in-Charge. There was an early passage of arms with her because of an allegation that she had claimed to have been offered the post of Officer-in-Charge before Nefyn Dodd was appointed but that dispute subsided quite quickly. The penultimate entry, on 29 March 1980, concluded:

"AGT has responded by doing that bit 'EXTRA' which separates the professional from the wage earner, I am sure she will be missed when she goes on C.Q.S.W, as JD [June Dodd] is in her capacity whilst undertaking C.S.S."

  33.45  As for the children, it is clear from the log entries that, in Nefyn Dodd's view, every waking hour was to be organised. Even unsupervised football in the back garden, using a low goal provided by Nefyn Dodd, was discouraged, as were unsupervised visits to town. The withdrawal of "perks", such as use of a portable television, and deductions from pocket money (to be redeemed by extra work) were regular features of children's lives. Complaints were discouraged and dealt with by Nefyn Dodd alone; and visits by outsiders were treated rather like military inspections.

  33.46  The evidence of two of the former members of the staff who gave oral evidence covered almost the full period of Nefyn Dodd's tenure as Officer-in-Charge after August 1980. Peter Michael Jones was at Ty'r Felin for just over a year to September 1981 as an unqualified RCCO. He described Nefyn Dodd as a martinet who ruled with a rod of iron. Early on, Nefyn Dodd was absent ill for six to eight weeks (probably when his diabetes was first diagnosed). On his return there was a honeymoon period whilst he eased himself back but slowly the atmosphere changed completely. According to this witness, the children were "absolutely" petrified: Nefyn Dodd had a loud voice and a large presence, he was manipulative and he made people dance to his tune. It was Dodd's view that familiarity with children bred contempt in them. Sometimes he would not be seen for days and June Dodd, who was quite good with children in comparison with him, would try to run the home in his absence, but would report every little thing, including anything said, to Nefyn Dodd. She came across as "a nice person" but the staff regarded her as the "poisoned arm" of Nefyn Dodd.

  33.47  The second oral witness referred to was Peter Jones' successor, Mari Thomas (formerly Roberts Jones), who was employed as a RCCO at Ty'r Felin from 7 June 1981, after graduating that year at the University College of North Wales (Normal College) in Administration, until 1988. She did not have any professional qualification as a social worker at that time but she was promoted to Senior RCCO in 1984 and has since obtained the Diploma in Social Work at Bangor, after a full time two years course, and she was, at the time of giving evidence to us, Team Manager at Cartref Bontnewydd.

  33.48  Mari Thomas described Nefyn Dodd as very autocratic. He imposed a very tight routine: every day was the same and you did not question what went on. She was very inexperienced when she went to Ty'r Felin and for a time she honestly thought that that was how things were done. The main emphasis was on keeping children quiet and ensuring that there was no running around. The children were not permitted any space or privacy and there was no one to one work with them. To this witness, Nefyn Dodd appeared to be modelling himself on Arnold of Bryn Estyn. There were newspaper cuttings in his office that supported this view. He was verbally aggressive and his loud voice could be heard telling people off from one office to the other at the opposite end of the building. Mari Thomas said that the staff were quite unhappy in their work, although they were supportive of each other. Many found it difficult to accept what Nefyn Dodd said to them and the messages that he put in the log book: there was a high turnover of staff and she was amazed how many young and inexperienced staff came to Ty'r Felin. Her compensation was that she enjoyed working with children but she agreed that both staff and children were frightened.

  33.49  We heard oral evidence from six other members of the staff during the period 1978 to 1988, including June Dodd, Alison Taylor and the teacher from 1979 to 1985, John Roberts; and we received the written evidence of five other members of the staff, including a cook who was at Ty'r Felin between 1977 and 1980 and a houseparent, who was there during the same period but stayed until 1981. Having reviewed all the evidence, we are satisfied that the two witnesses whose evidence we have summarised in the preceding two paragraphs have given us a broadly accurate general picture of relationships between Nefyn Dodd and the staff and children and the role played by June Dodd.

  33.50  When considering the general history of Ty'r Felin it is important to have in mind that it was early in 1986 that Alison Taylor's complaints against Nefyn Dodd first came to a head when she met Councillor Marshall and Detective Chief Superintendent Gwynne Owen at the former's home[473]. This meeting set in train a criminal investigation that lasted until May 1988, although the first decision not to prosecute Nefyn Dodd was taken as early as October 1986. Alison Taylor's complaints were wide ranging and included allegations of physical abuse by Nefyn Dodd at Ty'r Felin. It is a reasonable inference, therefore, that Nefyn Dodd's behaviour at Ty'r Felin was more circumspect from 1986 onwards[474]. He had become Principal Officer (Residential Care - Children) from 1 October 1985 and he ceased to live at Ty'r Felin in 1988, although he remained Officer-in-Charge until 1 December 1989, by which time his health had deteriorated severely.

  33.51  One other factor of some importance in considering the general history of Ty'r Felin is that its role was ill-defined in the 1980s. The log entries indicate the importance that Nefyn Dodd attached to the function of Ty'r Felin as an Observation and Assessment Centre and a community home accommodating children for short stays in shaping the regime that he imposed. As early as 1980, however, he was saying that it was to be an Assessment Centre and Family Unit and that it would deal with disturbed families.

  33.52  As far as we are aware this change of function was never formally recognised in Nefyn Dodd's time but it seems that the actual role of Ty'r Felin became indistinguishable from that of the small number of other community homes in Gwynedd. In the autumn of 1988 two representatives of the Social Work Service of the Welsh Office undertook an examination of the current care and care career of 12 children in residential care in Gwynedd on 19 September 1988, eight of whom were at Ty'r Felin and four at Queens Park, Holyhead. By that time Ty'r Felin's accommodation had been increased to 14 beds because the two flats were no longer being used as accommodation for staff living on the premises. The report by the Welsh Office representatives extended to 41 pages, with annexes totalling 26 pages, so that it cannot sensibly be summarised here.

  33.53  We will revert to the subject of this report when we discuss the responsibility of higher management in Gwynedd in Chapter 46. Meanwhile, it is to be noted that, apart from the Dodds, the care establishment of Ty'r Felin was six RCCOs, of whom two were senior RCCOs. None of them had a recognised professional social work qualification. One of the care staff had worked for four years at Ty'r Felin but had been on sick leave for four months and all the others had begun work there in 1988. The accommodation and regimes in both homes were described favourably but a comment made was that "Some of the few rules which did exist, especially in Ty'r Felin, were quite institutional and perhaps inconsistent".

  33.54  Major criticisms in the report were of the assessment role of Ty'r Felin and the provision of education. The authors pointed to the staff's lack of appropriate qualifications and experience to carry out assessments. There was a lack of coherence about the purposes of assessment even in discussion and the authors were left in grave doubt as to whether the residential staff undertaking assessments were given clear guidance about what they were supposed to be assessing. They stressed the dangers of admitting children into open-ended care: children tended to stay in no-man's land between rehabilitation and permanence; at least six of the 12 children were in that situation and two were moving into it. Most revealingly, the authors pointed out that whereas the use of Ty'r Felin was described as "for assessment and remand" and that of Queens Park as "for continuing care and rehabilitation", the children actually in the two homes were "interchangeable with reference to their ages and the kinds of problems they presented". The stated objective of "assessment" in Ty'r Felin had little meaning without reference to purpose.

  33.55  As for the education provision at Ty'r Felin, it was described as "basic in the extreme". Ty'r Felin itself merely provided a classroom and teaching staff were provided by the Education Department on secondment. The scale of the service provided depended on the number of children receiving education on the premises and was at the rate of two hours per child per week (three were receiving this at the time of the inspection). The education component of a child's care at Ty'r Felin was not formally integrated with any other part of it. The report continued:

"A short discussion with the teacher revealed that he was on supply and not permanently on the staff of any teaching unit in the county. He appeared to have received no brief as to his role at Ty'r Felin either from the education department or the social services department and had not received supervision or professional support during the few weeks he had been at Ty'r Felin. His locus in relation to the head of the home had not been explained nor had he been given an understanding of the sort of support he may expect from that quarter."

Allegations of sexual abuse

  33.56  Complaints of sexual abuse at Ty'r Felin did not figure prominently in statements made to the police or in evidence received by the Tribunal; and we are not aware of any suggestion that there was a persistent sexual aggressor on the staff of Ty'r Felin. Of the 84 complainants of whom we are aware, covering the full period of nearly 22 years when the community home was open, 12 alleged that they had been abused sexually and each of these made that allegation against only one member of the staff. We have already dealt with the allegations of one of these complainants[475]. The allegations by the others implicated five members of the staff, of whom David Bayley Hughes was not one.

  33.57  In the event we heard evidence from four witnesses who alleged sexual abuse whilst they were at Ty'r Felin but the evidence of one of them, alleging abuse of a lesser kind within the possible scale of such an offence, was very unreliable. We are satisfied that the other potential witnesses, some of whom alleged only minor isolated incidents, would not have added anything substantial to the general picture before us.

  33.58  It is necessary to mention Nefyn Dodd in this context because he was the subject of the largest number of complaints under this head. We are aware of five complainants (three female, two male) who alleged sexual abuse by him to the police and we heard oral evidence from three of them (two female, one male), who were the major complainants because the other two referred only to single incidents. However, there was no discernible pattern to the allegations by the five complainants (or to those of the three who gave evidence to us) about events said to have occurred between 1979 and 1985 ; none of the allegations were corroborated; there was no documentary record of the one alleged contemporary complaint, by a complainant's mother; and all the allegations have been vehemently denied by Nefyn Dodd throughout, with such limited support from his wife as she has been able to give.

  33.59  In these circumstances we are unable to find that any sexual abuse has been proved to have occurred at Ty'r Felin. Without casting any reflection upon any particular individual we are bound to say that, in the nature of things, some incidents may have occurred; but we have not received any adequate evidence to justify a finding against any identified member of the staff.

Allegations of physical abuse against Nefyn Dodd

  33.60  We received evidence from 17 former residents of Ty'r Felin alleging physical assaults of varying gravity by Nefyn Dodd whilst they were resident there. One witness who gave oral evidence seems to have been mistaken about the identity of her attacker. According to the documents before us, she was not admitted to Ty'r Felin until 21 November 1991, over a year after Nefyn Dodd's final retirement and two years after he became disabled from working: and her description of her attacker did not fit Nefyn Dodd at that time.

  33.61  Another witness who gave oral evidence to us presented similar problems because most of his period in residential care was spent with the Bryn Alyn Community rather than in local authority community homes. According to social services records, he was at Ty'r Felin for only nine days in October 1976, over a year before Nefyn Dodd arrived there. He was at Ty Newydd later for 14 months between February 1981 and April 1982, that is, from just after his 16th birthday, but he said of his stay there that it was "like Butlins compared with other homes". Whilst he was at Ty Newydd he attended a catering course at an hotel in Bangor and he was also required by Nefyn Dodd to work at Ty'r Felin from time to time as cook and/or dishwasher; but the witness said that Nefyn Dodd was not capable then of physical violence against him, bearing in mind his age. It seems that this witness' memory was affected, at least for a period, by a breakdown later; and he told the Tribunal that he did not recover it until it flooded back at the age of 20/21 years when he was in the Army. This may account for some confusion on the witness' part but, in the light of the social services documents, we are not able to attach any weight to his allegations against Nefyn Dodd, such as they were.

  33.62  The other 15 witnesses (eight of whom gave oral evidence to the Tribunal) were all at Ty'r Felin for varying lengths of time between 1978 and 1988, mainly in the earlier part of that period. Six of them were at Ty'r Felin for short stays not exceeding three months (one was there for two such periods) but the rest were there for appreciably longer periods ranging from six months to just over two years.

  33.63  Ten of these witnesses complained of substantial assaults and threats by Nefyn Dodd. Witness A, for example, who was at Ty'r Felin for two and a half months from September 1982 and a similar period in 1983, referred to Nefyn Dodd as a bully and described being head-butted by him in his office for no apparent reason. A was told by Dodd not to tell anyone but no explanation was given for the assault. Witness B, who also gave oral evidence and was only at Ty'r Felin for just over a fortnight in 1980, said that Nefyn Dodd warned him that he would be thrashed if he did not behave. B avoided Dodd as much as he could but he used to get slapped by Dodd for smoking and was told that he was not fit to speak to the Dodds' daughter. On one occasion B had been fighting with witness C in the living room and had got the better of the exchange, whereupon Dodd dragged B into the hallway and put him against the wall. Dodd then told B that he had been waiting for this; referring to C as a "sheep shagger", Dodd said that, if C did it again, B was to slap him and then to report to Dodd.

  33.64  Witness C was at Ty'r Felin for seven and a half months from 1 May 1980 and, like the fourth oral witness, claimed to have been caned by Nefyn Dodd. He described the latter as "a large fat bully". C's complaints were that Dodd had beaten him with a cane, punched and kicked him, made him lick Dodd's boots (or attempted to do so) and forced him to eat carbolic soap. The caning had been on his bare buttocks and it had occurred on three or four occasions in Dodd's office. He added that Alison Taylor had been present at the caning a couple of times. One of the canings was for allegedly stealing a gold necklace when he had bought it for a girl in the home with his own pocket money. Another was for losing a football match. C described also being struck from behind at the breakfast table by Dodd as a punishment for having run away (he had been returned the night before in Dodd's absence). As a result of the blow he fell to the floor and Dodd kicked him. He was made by Dodd to eat green carbolic soap at a wash basin as punishment for swearing and it caused ulcers and blisters in his mouth, for which he received no medical help. The licking of Dodd's boots was, in C's view, a "power trip": C was made to do it at least half a dozen times and Dodd made most of the children do it.

  33.65  Alison Taylor did not confirm that she had been present when C was caned by Nefyn Dodd. She left Ty'r Felin in July 1980 so that she was only there for two to three months at the beginning of C's stay. In her evidence to the Tribunal she suggested that C, whom she remembered, might have confused her with Alison Bradshaw, her successor as Deputy Officer-in-Charge. Alison Taylor said that she did witness one assault on witness C, after he had absconded one week-end when his promised home leave had been stopped by Nefyn Dodd, but that was not the occasion when he alleges that he was struck by Nefyn Dodd at the breakfast table[476].

  33.66  Taylor was cross-examined about an entry made by her in a Ty'r Felin log book on 3 May 1980, two days after C's arrival, which read:

"C appears to me to be a very spoilt boy, used to having whatever he wants and giving people a hard time if he does not have it. Harsh though it may sound I think that unless he has a hard time here he is going to continue to find that offences have no nasty consequences for him."

  The following day C absconded and was returned to Ty'r Felin by Taylor and Bradshaw, according to the log book. It would appear possible, therefore, that the alleged breakfast table incident occurred on 5 May 1980 when Dodd returned to duty. Other entries in the log suggest that C had absconded on 4 May 1980 at night time because he had been sent to bed for smoking and not because of any refusal of home leave; and he had been recovered from his home by Taylor and Bradshaw the same night. It is relevant also (as will become apparent) that 5 May 1980 was a Bank Holiday when the teacher, John Roberts, would not have been present at Ty'r Felin.

  33.67  On 5 May 1980, Nefyn Dodd wrote in C's personal file:

"This child is a classic case of over indulgence, and it would appear that he thinks that he can get away with almost anything. I think our advice should have been adhered to, and that he should have experienced a salutary imposition[477]. We are on a loser with this kid, because his Social Worker has also been conned by him. I am pleased that the old system of putting kids in absconding gear[478] has been again put into force. I want the pressure kept on this boy, as he seems to think he can do anything he wishes. THIS IS NARROW COLOQUIAL (sic) PAROCHIALISM AT ITS WORST, we have a responsibility to put the score right."

  33.68  To complete the picture, Alison Taylor herself wrote in the log on 6 May 1980:

"Would advise all staff to be very circumspect in handling of C. He is apparently prone to making accusations of assault, so do not take any risks, ie make sure you are not in a position where he can allege assault--see file."

The corresponding entry by Taylor in C's personal file the previous day read:

"Informed by the other boys that C is saying either myself or CW hit him last night. As I have no intention of being alone with him, I have informed C that matters will be discussed on Thursday with Mr Dodd."

  33.69  Alison Taylor's own account of the assault by Dodd on C that she witnessed was that it occurred early on during C's stay at Ty'r Felin after he had absconded during the day because of Dodd's refusal of home leave that had been previously promised. On Dodd's return to duty on Monday morning he took C into his office, where John Roberts was present. Taylor thought that Peter Jones may also have witnessed what occurred but this is unlikely because he was on the staff of Ty Newydd at the time. In the office Dodd began a tirade of verbal abuse directed at C and ordered him to lick Dodd's shoes, which C refused to do. Dodd then lashed out at the boy, whilst Roberts pushed him within Dodd's reach. Taylor dragged C out of the room and told both Dodd and Roberts that she would report any subsequent assault that she might witness to the police.

  33.70  Witness D was a Holyhead boy who described himself as "difficult to handle" at the age when he was admitted to Ty'r Felin for assessment. The records are not clear but it seems that he went there for eight weeks assessment in or about December 1977. On 22 February 1978 he was made the subject of a care order[479] and, on completion of the assessment, he was transferred to Eryl Wen Community Home, where he remained for about 12 months before being discharged home. He was later in residential care for over three years from 23 July 1981, initially at Y Gwyngyll for about six weeks, then at Bryn Estyn for 21 months, where he was prominent, before returning to Y Gwyngyll for 15 months. From Y Gwyngyll he went to approved lodgings as a prelude to his discharge from care on 7 May 1985, three months before his 18th birthday. He presented a problem throughout because he was of above average ability and a natural athlete but his behaviour varied from apathetic and apparently conforming to highly disruptive and, at times, bullying; he was said to know how to work the system.

  33.71  D described Nefyn Dodd as a tyrant, over-disciplined, overpowering: he controlled everything, everybody. To D he appeared to be massive and his voice and actions inspired fear. D alleged that Nefyn Dodd used force on many occasions. When asked what sort of force Dodd used, D replied "As much as was necessary, which could be defined as anything, slapping, kicking, punching". D alleged also that he was caned by Dodd. According to D, the assaults frequently occurred in the boot room at Ty'r Felin and he recalled a specific incident in that room when he was punished by Dodd after a cleaner had reported him for having a cigarette stump and a match under his pillow. Dodd pushed and shoved him and then grabbed him by the ears, pulling his face into Dodd's stomach. D became breathless, lost his temper and kicked himself free but Dodd then charged him with his stomach with the result that D hit his head on a hanger and slid down the wall. The caning had been fierce and to his hands; it was inflicted because he had broken a window accidentally with a ball.

  33.72  We have referred to the evidence of C and D in some detail because their credibility was attacked by Counsel for Nefyn Dodd with particular severity on the grounds, amongst others, that they had been part of an alleged conspiracy with Alison Taylor to blacken Nefyn Dodd and that both had appeared on television to do so. It should be said for clarification, however, that Taylor did not recall D's stay at Ty'r Felin and he said that she was not there then. A log entry on 10 January 1978 refers to her being "off on course" and it appears to be common ground between her and Dodd that she was absent due to sickness for some weeks at the beginning of 1978. The recollection of both Taylor and D was that they met first at Bryn Estyn in 1983 when she was placed there in the course of her training for the CQSW.

  33.73  The other four "live" witnesses who gave evidence to the Tribunal of assaults upon them by Nefyn Dodd whilst they were at Ty'r Felin spoke in the main of lesser incidents. Witness E was there in October 1982 for only 11 days initially, when he was nearly 13 years old, but returned for four months in November 1983 and for two days on remand in May 1985 before being sent to a Detention Centre. He said that he was scared of Dodd, who would hit him across the face (he amended this to "pushed violently" when reminded of his statement to the police). He ran home out of fear and wept "loads of times" but Dodd would just shout more. In his view June Dodd was scared of Nefyn Dodd as well and he used to shout at her in front of others; but E got on well with the rest of the staff. A typed letter of dubious authenticity purporting to have been signed and sent by this witness to the Director of Social Services from H M Prison Risley in October 1991 in support of the Dodds was repudiated by him and we are unable to attach any weight to it for this and other reasons.

  33.74  The witness who was at Ty'r Felin for the longest period, witness F, was there for two years from 17 February 1984, whilst awaiting a further foster placement. He was in care because of family circumstances and was on medication to control his epilepsy. F said that he was happy at first and that the Dodds made him quite welcome but "then things started spiralling and going downhill". He was overweight because of his steroid medication and was bullied by older boys. F's complaint was that Nefyn Dodd would lose his temper and "go ballistic" very often, on a regular basis. He would throw people around; if someone said something to Dodd, he would throw that person on the floor and F had seen Dodd throw somebody from the dining room area through to a toilet area, whilst the staff just stood around. In F's view, Dodd did not have the right temperament to be in that type of work and was very paranoid. The place was more like a military prison than a place of safety where you would be cared for; and if you tried to run away, you would have a beating for it from Dodd. F complained also of inappropriate responses by the Dodds on occasions to his grand mal seizures, grabbing hold of him and shaking him as he recovered consciousness, apparently in exasperated attempts to speed his return to normality. On these occasions Nefyn Dodd, but not his wife, would sometimes even slap him around the face.

  33.75  One "live" witness complained of being pushed violently by Nefyn Dodd. Another woman former resident, who was at Ty'r Felin for seven months in 1985, when she was 12/13 years old, alleged that, although Dodd was nice to her at first, he later "picked on her" by slapping her with his hand or with a Hoover part across the back of her hand or her head, causing her to cry. She was also made to lick his shoes, even his bare feet some times, if she failed to carry out an errand properly.

  33.76  The evidence that we received in written statements by seven other witnesses mirrored these allegations. Two of them wrote of being caned by Dodd. One of the two had been caned after climbing a tree to escape Dodd, who threw wood, stones and bricks at him when he was in the tree. The other had been caned for smoking. He said that on another occasion he had been punched twice by Dodd in his bedroom; he had also seen Dodd punch two other boys; and this witness had also seen the "tree assault". Another witness said that he was kneed and thrown into a chair by Dodd for being cheeky in class but that this was the only assault on him by Dodd during his eight months stay in 1981/1982. Yet another described being punched by Dodd on the face from behind when the witness was misbehaving at the tea table. Finally, there were two separate allegations that Dodd had thrown a boy over the "goal posts" (crossbar) at the rear of Ty'r Felin, one by the alleged victim and one by a witness who said that the victim on that different occasion was his brother.

  33.77  These allegations of physical abuse have all been strenuously denied throughout by Nefyn Dodd, who has also denied ill-treatment of any child in his care. He said in his evidence to the Tribunal that he believed firmly that children learning to live away from home needed an ordered existence and that he had tried to provide a family home at Ty'r Felin that was a secure place for a child. He wanted the children to be proud of where they lived. His first impression had been that Ty'r Felin was run down, that there was quite a considerable amount of apathy about the establishment and that there was a lot of structural damage. In his view it looked pretty unkempt. Both staff and children had taken part in renovating the garden and painting, but not as a punishment; the reasoning behind this was that, if the children undertook the work themselves, they were more likely to look after it. He had been very much involved with the children daily and in the evenings, eating meals with them, until he had assumed additional responsibilities, which eventually required him to spend several days a week at other homes.

  33.78  On the question of punishment, Nefyn Dodd told the Tribunal that he detested corporal punishment and had been horrified to learn that canes were on display in every home in Gwynedd when he had first arrived there. He considered that he had been instrumental in getting rid of them and he had been fully aware of the policy of Gwynedd County Council following the prohibition of physical punishment, approved by the full Council on 8 February 1983[480]. Nefyn Dodd did say, however, that before the prohibition he had made the children aware of the presence of the cane as a sanction of last resort. He agreed that shouting at children had been part of his method of working and that it had had the effect of intimidating them sometimes; and he regretted using bad language from time to time. Most of the verbal abuse was to boys. He would say "You could not lick my boots" in jest.

  33.79  When interviewed by the police, Nefyn Dodd made only one admission about the use of physical force. He said then that he recalled grabbing one named resident (not a witness before the Tribunal) by the shoulders and pinning him against the wall, when telling him not to do something again. When asked by the police officer "Was that a regular thing?", he replied "Yes, I'm ashamed of it now but it happened". He added that it was permissible to restrain a child but that he did not think that violence achieved anything anyway. In answer to questions by Counsel to the Tribunal about this admission, he accepted that the effect of it was that he had agreed that he had "used force or violence against a child in circumstances where (he) should not have used it".

  33.80  June Dodd fully supported her husband in her evidence to the Tribunal, describing him as "strict but fair": the regime was far stricter in the early 1980s but it became much more relaxed towards the late 80s when she took over. In an aide-memoire she wrote "In total we accepted children for all manner of reasons irrespective of their needs because there was no alternative available at that point in time"; and she did not feel that she was either trained or sufficiently experienced to deal with such a broad mix of children. Nevertheless, the children were always well treated and well cared for and the atmosphere in the home was very relaxed. She had never physically abused a child, nor witnessed such abuse, and she would not have condoned it. She said also that Nefyn Dodd was very fair in his treatment of other staff at the home and very supportive of them; the staff were a very happy group over the years.

  33.81  On the subject of punishment, June Dodd said that she thought that in the beginning the Officer-in-Charge or the Deputy was permitted to slap a child with a bare hand but she did not see anyone do so, probably because the occasion never arose. Punishments were reduction of pocket money (with the chance to repay), deprivation or curtailment of outings (which caused difficulties, however for others), pyjamas or other night attire for persistent absconders, locking in a room for very short periods and domestic chores.

  33.82  The other ten former members of the staff of Ty'r Felin who gave oral evidence to the Tribunal or whose written evidence was admitted, excluding from this number Alison Taylor, were mostly (six) critical of the regime under Nefyn Dodd but only two of them said that they had witnessed physical abuse by him or circumstances pointing to it. Both these witnesses gave oral evidence. One of them was Peter Jones[481], who confirmed his earlier statement to the police that on one occasion, when he was in the general office, he heard noises from Dodd's office. He heard the raised voices of Dodd and John Roberts and he thinks that the door of Dodd's office was partly open because he could see inside partly when he walked past. What he saw was witness C on his hands and knees with his head parallel to the ground and Dodd facing him, with John Roberts on Dodd's right. Most of the words spoken were in Welsh, which the witness did not understand, and he did not allege that he saw any blow struck. He did add, however, that Roberts hated C and was being verbally abusive to C.

  33.83  The other former staff member said that he had seen one of the complainants whose evidence we received being struck by Nefyn Dodd with a ring binder when they were in the dining room and that a struggle between them had followed.

  33.84  Assessing the allegations of physical abuse made against Nefyn Dodd has been one of the more difficult tasks that we have had to face. We accept that some of his aspirations as Officer-in-Charge of Ty'r Felin were well meant. We are satisfied, however, that the regime that he imposed upon both children and staff was unduly oppressive and that many of his methods of working were inappropriate. Having gathered his experience mainly at Bryn Estyn, he ran Ty'r Felin in the manner that a harsh sergeant-major might run an army camp; and he was unduly preoccupied with both his own position and his ambitions, which involved demonstrating to the outside world that Ty'r Felin was (as he saw it) a model community home.

  33.85  In reaching a conclusion about the allegations against Nefyn Dodd we have had to take into account the overall picture that we have received of him in relation to other community homes as well as Ty'r Felin. We have had in mind the fact that corporal punishment was not prohibited in Gwynedd officially until February 1983 and that over the years Ty'r Felin had to accommodate a wide range of children, some of whom were very unruly at times. We accept also that, after a long lapse of time, there has been an element of exaggeration in some of the evidence before us. Nevertheless, we are satisfied that Dodd did frequently use excessive force to the children in his care. Such conduct was not, in our view, habitual but it did reflect frailties in his temperament and his determination to stamp upon behaviour that cast a reflection upon the home or appeared to challenge his authority in any way. Thus, he would inflict inappropriate physical punishment upon absconders and was prone to do so for illicit smoking or other breaches of his rules that he regarded as flagrant or impertinent. For the most part, however, he relied upon his build, his voice and his personality to dominate the home.

Other allegations of physical abuse

  33.86  The only other former members of the staff against whom many complaints of physical abuse have been made are June Dodd and the teacher, John Roberts.

  33.87  We are aware that about ten former residents made such complaints against June Dodd and we received evidence from four of them, although only one (D[482]) gave oral evidence to us. D's complaint was that, in 1978, June Dodd used to inflict "Chinese burns" as a method of punishment[483], mostly for boys, and that he suffered excruciating pain when she did this to him. It was a punishment for offences such as talking or giggling. The only witness to allege a serious assault by June Dodd said in his written statement that she kneed him in the groin when he was at Ty'r Felin for three months in the summer of 1991. Someone had "set light" to Nefyn Dodd's dog and a cleaner had told June Dodd that a friend of this witness had done it. When June Dodd confronted the friend in a corridor the witness butted in and told her that the friend could not have done it because he had been with the witness. She was very angry and kneed him in the groin, telling him to keep out of it and saying that she had flushed bigger things than him down the toilet. The witness was not bruised but was in pain for about ten minutes.

  33.88  Both the other witnesses were former girl residents of Ty'r Felin who complained of punishments imposed by June Dodd rather than physical attacks. One of them was a resident who was sent to Ty'r Felin on remand towards the end of 1986; she said that she had no real complaints except that "we were being constantly locked in our rooms". She recalled one occasion when she was locked in the kitchen pantry by June Dodd for about half an hour after she had run away from the home because she had not been let out on her father's birthday. She was also required to wear her night dress and dressing gown "for most of the time" if she had run away or attempted to do so. The second of these witnesses was at Ty'r Felin three years later for eight and a half months, having been found to be beyond the control of her mother. In her statements to the Tribunal (but not in a 1992 statement to the police) this witness alleged that she had been abused by June Dodd in the sense that the latter had frequently made her wear pyjamas and had locked her and others in a room overnight from about 6 pm to 8 am. On one of these occasions the witness had escaped through a window in her pyjamas, had found a pair of shoes in a skip and had then obtained a lift to her home, about 20 miles away, from a passing motorist.

  33.89  The main allegations were put to June Dodd when she gave her oral evidence but she denied them. She could not remember D being at Ty'r Felin. She recalled the dog incident, because the dog subsequently became incontinent and had to be put down, but she had not kneed anyone in the groin. As for punishments, she agreed that putting residents in nightwear and locking in a room for short periods were sanctions that were used, as we have already stated, but she denied locking girls in a room overnight. The only "physical incident" involving her that was recorded had occurred at Ty Newydd and had been the subject of a contemporary complaint by Alison Taylor, who had not been present when it happened.

  33.90  It is convenient to deal with that incident here because there is no other allegation of abuse by June Dodd at that home. It appears that Gethin Evans[484] was telephoned by a temporary RCCO at Ty Newydd during the evening of Sunday 2 February 1986. The RCCO alleged that she had a riot on her hands and was unable to cope; she was not willing to sleep in and was threatening to leave the home. Nefyn Dodd was unavailable and so June Dodd, who was about to go off duty at Ty'r Felin, was given authority to take any necessary action. In the event June Dodd had to go over to Ty Newydd in the early hours of the following morning because of continuing trouble there and an 11 year old boy alleged that June Dodd struck him ("thumped him on the shoulder") in the office at Ty Newydd with the result that he fell into a chair. The boy reported the matter the following day to Alison Taylor, the Officer-in-Charge at Ty Newydd, a police officer and another member of the care staff but he did not make a formal complaint: he mentioned the matter when refusing to go to school and there was no physical sign of the assault.

  33.91  June Dodd denied any assault upon or physical contact with the boy when interviewed. She admitted shouting at him because he was impolite and refused to apologise for his actions; he fell over into the chair in fright. Gethin Evans, who investigated Alison Taylor's complaint, wrote a report on the matter and concluded that, although there was a divergence of opinion as to whether June Dodd had touched the boy, it did not merit attention because, if she had done so, it would have been a reasonable reaction to the situation. The boy involved, who would now be in his mid-twenties, did not give evidence to the Tribunal and June Dodd said that she cannot now recall the details of what happened.

  33.92  In our judgment it would be quite inappropriate on this evidence to find that June Dodd was guilty of physically abusing children in her care either at Ty'r Felin or elsewhere. We have no doubt that her disciplinary approach, especially in the early years, was governed by Nefyn Dodd's attitudes but the balance of the evidence before us suggests that, in general, she adopted less harsh methods when she felt able to do so. Her position was inevitably difficult because she was employed as a care worker and then as Deputy in the community home of which her husband was Officer-in-Charge in contravention of generally approved good practice. One of the many adverse consequences of this was that she was distrusted by some as a spy for Nefyn Dodd; and nothing that we have heard in this inquiry has led us to doubt the soundness of the normal practice of not employing man and wife as residential care staff in the same community home or in any line management relationship.

  33.93  The number of complainants of physical abuse by John Roberts was similar to that in respect of June Dodd but they alleged much severer abuse. In the event we heard oral evidence from six of these former residents and we received written evidence from two others, both of whom had been resident at Ty Newydd whilst attending school at Ty'r Felin.

  33.94  John Roberts was 32 years old when he became teacher-in-charge at Ty'r Felin in September 1979. Up to that point his main experience had been of remedial teaching, after obtaining his teacher's certificate at the Normal College, Bangor, in 1968. He had been a remedial teacher at Llangefni Comprehensive School for four and a half years and had then served for a similar period as a peripatetic remedial teacher. Roberts' relocation to Ty'r Felin was stated to be temporary but he remained there for nearly six years until July 1985. He was then transferred to the special unit of a primary school from September 1985. During his Ty'r Felin period he was absent for the academic year 1981/1982 whilst attending a full time course at Chester Training College for an advanced diploma in the education of children with special needs.

  33.95  A principal critic of John Roberts was witness D[485], who described him as a "trainee Nefyn Dodd". D said Roberts had no self-control whatsoever. There were only three other pupils in the class at that time and, if D was to talk to one of them or giggle with them, Roberts would "lose it" and "go ballistic". Roberts would shake him by the head whilst slapping him violently; and five minutes later would give him a quick jab with a pencil in his ear or his back or his arm as a reminder that Roberts had not forgotten the earlier incident. D said also that, because he was only about four and a half feet tall, the revolving blackboard would connect with the top of his head as the bottom was swung upwards or downwards. He alleged that he and other pupils were deliberately struck in this way by the blackboard when Roberts revolved it and that on some occasions this was done as Nefyn Dodd watched through a window from the latter's office. D remembered also being caned by Roberts.

  33.96  The difficulty about the allegations of D against John Roberts is that the documentary evidence before the Tribunal suggests that D was only at Ty'r Felin for eight days during Roberts' period there. As we have said earlier, D's major stay at Ty'r Felin was for about eight weeks at the beginning of 1978[486], over 18 months before Roberts was posted there. D's only other admission to Ty'r Felin was for about eight days at the beginning of June 1981, said to have been at his mother's request; and it seems clear that D's allegations relate essentially to the earlier and longer period in 1978. D remained adamant in cross-examination that John Roberts assaulted him as described and he complained of being slapped by Roberts in the first of his statements to the police before us, made as long ago as 8 August 1991. However, he did not suggest that he attended the educational unit at Ty'r Felin when resident elsewhere (for example, in Y Gwyngyll for six weeks in 1981 and 15 months in 1983/1984). In these circumstances there must be considerable doubt about the veracity of his allegations against Roberts.

  33.97  The three other male former residents who gave oral evidence about physical abuse by John Roberts all alleged that they had been assaulted severely by him. Witness C[487], for example, said that he was always aggressive and nasty and that C learned nothing from him. C alleged that Roberts assaulted him three or four times: on one occasion Roberts hit him on the head with a snooker cue and on another threw a blackboard duster at him. C did not know of any resident who "got on" with Roberts. Witness A[488] also complained that he learned nothing: his recollection of class was of always watching stupid programmes on television. A alleged that, after he had made a silly remark, Roberts hit him in the face with the result that his nose exploded and bled. That was the only assault by Roberts upon him but, in his view, Roberts was a bad teacher and a "bully with the kids".

  33.98  Witness E[489] also was very critical of Roberts' teaching and his use of children's programmes on television. He said that, to keep discipline, Roberts would "hit (you) across the head with his hand or throw things at you or shout at you". E spoke of a specific incident, outside class, when he had had a fight at dinner time with another resident who had spilled orange juice over him. Roberts, on seeing what was happening, chased and pursued E until he knocked E to the floor in the hallway and then kicked and punched him in the face, with the result that his eye or face was swollen. This assault was witnessed by June Dodd, according to E, but she did nothing about it.

  33.99  The other complainant against Roberts to give oral evidence was at Ty'r Felin as a girl resident for seven months in 1985, in the course of which period Roberts left. Her recollection is that she was not taught by him for very long but she does remember that Roberts threw the blackboard duster at her a few times, although it only actually hit her once.

  33.100  One other former girl resident, who was at Ty'r Felin for three months in 1983, gave evidence of seeing boys struck by Roberts, whom she described as very aggressive. She said that one of them, who used to pull faces and generally act silly to cheer the others up, was beaten daily by Roberts (and by Dodd). She also saw Roberts strike that boy on the head with the revolving blackboard. Another boy was struck by Roberts frequently and there was physical abuse every day.

  33.101  The two witnesses who attended school at Ty'r Felin from Ty Newyddboth complained of serious assaults by John Roberts. The first wasthere in 1981/1982 and he, like others, complained of being hit by the blackboard duster when Roberts threw it at him: the duster hit him on hishead, which bled a little. Roberts, however, then walked up to him and slapped him across the head, knocking him to the floor or causing him to fall off his chair. Roberts then kicked him on his upper body as he lay on the floor. Roberts slapped him across the head on two further occasions without injuring him, and the witness saw Roberts hit several other boys (but not girls) during classes.

  33.102  Finally, the other witness alleged that he was assaulted by Roberts on 24 May 1984. The witness had walked over to another pupil who was having trouble with his work, whereupon Roberts went over to him and smacked him very hard on the side of his face. The witness said in his statement that his face became very swollen and that he reported the incident to Alison Taylor on his return to Ty Newydd. She took him to the local hospital for an X-ray but there was no bone injury. This witness alleged also that Roberts slammed a desk down on his hand on another occasion.

  33.103  The incident on 24 May 1984 was taken up by Alison Taylor. It appears from contemporary documents that it was reported to her late the following day by the victim and another boy, who had witnessed it. The victim was taken to the hospital on 26 May 1984. His account that day of the incident was that he had gone to witness A's desk to borrow a book. When Roberts hit him, his forehead knocked against the desk and he felt dizzy. Alison Taylor observed swelling and bruising and she thought that the victim seemed to be "rather lethargic since the incident". She wrote a memorandum on 26 May 1984 to the Director of Social Services, Lucille Hughes, with a copy to Gethin Evans[490], reporting the incident. She informed also the Area Officer and the victim's social worker. The response of the Director on 30 May 1984 was to request Alison Taylor to supply a completed insurance form, which she did, but Taylor is not aware of any other action that was taken. She received a telephone call from June Dodd, who said, in effect "How could you let us down?".

  33.104  John Roberts denied all these allegations of physical abuse by him. He said that discipline was not a problem at Ty'r Felin because of the small numbers, which usually varied between four and eight in the classroom. Roberts was the only teacher officially but there were three qualified teachers on the care staff, who helped from time to time with their own expertise. He was left by the Education Department to get on with the job and no one inspected the education unit at Ty'r Felin. The curriculum was devised by him and based on the needs of individuals. Pupils spent varying periods attending the unit, and from time to time pupils from Ty Newydd and Y Gwyngyll would attend, but it was not usual for any pupil to attend for a longer continuous period than two months at a time. Roberts estimated that about 100 children had passed through his hands whilst he was teaching at Ty'r Felin. An objective was that pupils should go on to attend local schools, if that was practicable.

  33.105  Dealing with the specific allegations made against him, Roberts accepted that he had shouted at some pupils. When he was at Ty'r Felin he had believed that there was a place for corporal punishment, if all else failed, but he had never used it. He had never thrown a blackboard duster after an incident in Cheshire very early in his teaching career. In relation to the other allegations, Roberts said that:

(i)  he had no recollection of D at Ty'r Felin;

(ii)  C had been struck by the blackboard accidentally as Roberts swung it upwards, whilst C was standing nearby, sharpening a pencil;

(iii)  A had been prone to suffer nose bleeds and had not been struck;

(iv)  he had intervened in the fight between E and another boy and had escorted E away but E had then become hysterical and had fallen to the floor whilst struggling: Roberts had merely restrained him and E had calmed down after about five minutes;

(v)  he had found that the best way of dealing with the joker had been to isolate him at the back of the class; on one occasion he did tap the boy on the side because he was pulling faces to amuse the class whilst having his book marked at Roberts' desk;

(vi)  his recollect

The quality of care generally

  33.115  There is little that we need to add here under this heading for two reasons. Firstly, the most significant aspects of the quality of care at Ty'r Felin have already been described in the section of this chapter dealing with the disciplinary climate under Nefyn Dodd[494]. Secondly, many of the other relevant aspects of the quality of care were common to the other local authority community homes in Gwynedd and can be dealt with more conveniently in a later chapter. It is necessary, however, to make some additional points about Ty'r Felin briefly.

  33.116  There was no complaints procedure until the late 1980s. A document entitled "Handbook for Children in Residential Care", drafted by Nefyn Dodd and approved by Gethin Evans was circulated to the heads of community homes in Gwynedd on or about 28 October 1988. This 15 page booklet contained useful information about being in care, the responsibility of social workers, the various statutory provisions governing committal to care, reviews, medicals, complaints, discipline, visits, leave, care planning and leaving care. According to the booklet, residents were free to complain and were invited to discuss their complaint with whoever was supervising them, which might be the area (field) or residential social worker. If they were unwilling or unable to do so, they were advised to contact the Director of Social Services, whose address and telephone number were given (together with the name of the person acting on behalf of the Director in services for young people and children). The evidence of Nefyn Dodd was that this booklet was subsequently handed to each child but contrary evidence from some members of staff suggests that it was more usually retained by the head of home and (at best) available in his office.

  33.117  The booklet made passing reference only to the residential key workers, without explaining who or what they were. The evidence before us is that a key worker system was introduced in or about 1985 but few of the witnesses referred to it and it does not appear to have had any significant impact upon the residents who were intended to benefit from it. The absence of any clear account of the role of a residential key worker in the booklet confirms our view that the system was not implemented in any detail and that it was of little practical benefit to residents during the period under review. Commenting upon it in relation to Ty'r Felin in the autumn of 1988, two Welsh Office inspectors said "The concept of key worker was an administrative method of nominal allocation rather than a social work method".

  33.118  Nefyn Dodd's evidence was that, before this booklet was circulated, residents of Ty'r Felin were told that they could complain: there was a list of relevant telephone numbers posted in both offices at Ty'r Felin and residents had access to the telephone. There was also a written grievance procedure for members of the staff. A practical difficulty for most of the period to December 1989 was that Nefyn Dodd was not only the dominant Officer-in-Charge but also the line manager for other heads of home. This was certainly the position from the time when he became responsible for all the community homes in 1982[495] and he himself emphasised this in several memoranda. Mari Thomas said that it was difficult or impossible for a child's complaint to go higher due to Dodd's position in the Department.

  33.119  Despite the difficulties a few complaints were made by residents. We have recounted in paragraphs 33.102 and 33.103 what happened when Alison Taylor took up one such complaint in 1984. Two other complaints that she passed on from Ty Newydd received a negative response. In respect of the incident involving June Dodd, outlined in paragraphs 33.90 and 33.91, Gethin Evans told her that she was making mountains out of molehills. Again, on 30 July 1985 she wrote a report to Nefyn Dodd on an allegation by a girl resident that she had been hit by a male member of the Ty Newydd staff and Taylor discussed this allegation with Gethin Evans. The latter did speak to the member of staff but then told Taylor that the man had been under stress and that nothing was to be done.

  33.120  More seriously, another former member of the care staff at Ty'r Felin, who was there for 20 months in 1983 and 1984, told the Tribunal that in 1984 he received a complaint from a boy (not a witness before the Tribunal) that he had been struck by John Roberts and observed that the boy had a lump on his head. The staff member wrote a report of this complaint in the boy's file but the next day he was called by Nefyn Dodd to the general office, where Roberts was already present, and he was told that the report had been deleted from the file (or he was told to remove it himself).

  33.121  That staff member left Ty'r Felin in August 1984. Five months later he wrote to the new Deputy Director of Social Services for Gwynedd, (David) Glanville Owen, who had moved to Gwynedd on appointment to that office in April 1984, complaining about many aspects of Nefyn Dodd's management ofTy'r Felin, including his relationships with staff. Amongst the complaints directly affecting the residents that he made were allegations of favouritism, physical abuse, lack of food, inappropriate punishments and excessive control of children's free time. He gave, as examples of physical abuse, the incident referred to in paragraph 33.83, of which he was the witness, and that referred to in paragraph 33.120. The response four months later was in a letter in the name of the Director of Social Services (Lucille Hughes) but bearing Owen's reference. It stated that the complaints had been thoroughly investigated and continued:

"Following the investigation, I am confident that the Home is managed in accordance with Departmental policy and procedure and that the care given to the young people resident there is of a high standard.

I also retain full confidence in the ability of Mr N Dodd to successfully manage the home."

  33.122  When asked about this in cross examination Glanville Owen said that he saw the former staff member and explained to him the seriousness of his complaints, asking him whether he wished to "stand by" them. Subsequently, some of the complaints had been withdrawn, but not those under the heading of physical abuse. The allegations were looked at as a whole rather than individually and Nefyn Dodd denied all of them. The witness added that, looking at the matter 12 years on, he was quite appalled by the allegations and the way that they were or were not investigated by himself: he could only say that, in the 12 years, things had moved along considerably and positively because there was no way now that he would have allowed the letter to stand in the way that it stood 12 years ago.

  33.123  Another matter that needs to be highlighted is the absence of individual care plans for children in residential care before the end of the 1980s. The handbook that we referred to included three paragraphs under the heading "Planning/Contract" outlining the contents of care plans and explaining when and how they were formulated but they appear to have been statements of aspiration rather than fact. The Welsh Office SWSOs found in 1988 that written contracts between children in care and social workers were used extensively in Gwynedd and almost all the children in residential care had on file written statements signed both by the children and by representatives of the authority; but the inspectors were sharply critical of the contents of these contracts and aspects of the planning process, including reviews.

  33.124  Having regard to our terms of reference, it would be inappropriate for us to attempt an overall audit of the shortcomings in social work practice at Ty'r Felin but it is desirable to set out briefly here the main defects affecting the quality of care that have been disclosed by the evidence before us. These were:

(1)  The lack of adequate assessment prior to the admission of a child to care. There were too many emergency admissions and, even in non-emergency cases, the purpose of admission to care was ill-defined; often it was stated to be "for assessment" without further analysis of probable outcomes in terms of placement or time. Welsh Office inspectors in 1988 could find "no correlation between the statutory basis of care and either the precipitating reason for admission or the current reason for being in care".

(2)  The assessment process in care was defective because there were insufficient trained and experienced staff at Ty'r Felin to carry it out and residential staff were not given clear guidance about what they were supposed to be assessing. Too many children were left to drift "in the no-mans land between rehabilitation and permanence".

(3)  There was an unacceptably low level of fieldwork contact with children in residential care.

(4)  It was the practice for Nefyn Dodd, who was responsible for all placements within the County, to preside over all case conferences and it was his view that prevailed. Responsibility and authority were confused and the individual social worker was marginalised once a child entered residential care.

(5)  There was no effective county strategy nor monitoring system with the result that placements were haphazard and depended too often on availability rather than suitability. One result of this in a county covering a large geographical area was that many children were placed at great distances from their home communities.

(6)  Successive teachers at Ty'r Felin appear to have received no briefing as to their role and to have been required to function, in general, without supervision or professional support.

33.125  It is fair to add, however, that by 1988 Welsh Office SWSOs did find that the general atmosphere at Ty'r Felin during their inspection was relaxed and friendly. It felt generally accepting and "there was evidence of good rapport with the young people", although they felt over-supervised outside the home. The inspectors noted also that there was no evidence of families being pushed aside and excluded once their children had been received into care.

The aftermath of the Dodds' regime (1993 to 1995)

  33.126  Unhappily, the departure of the Dodds did not lead to a period of tranquillity at Ty'r Felin and within three years the home was closed. None of the complainants who gave evidence to the Tribunal was resident at Ty'r Felin during this last period but we received oral and written evidence about it from Dafydd Ifans, who was Principal Officer (Children and Adolescent Services) from 29 March 1993 and, as such, line manager responsible for the three remaining community homes for children in Gwynedd. We received also copies of a report on Ty'r Felin by O and K Associates, dated 14 February 1995, commissioned by the Director of Social Services in September 1994.

  33.127  According to Ifans a number of improvements were instituted shortly after his arrival, some of which had already been set in hand. Thus, the first inspections by an independent Inspection Unit took place and the inspectors' reports were put before the Children's Sub-Committee; a staff counselling scheme was introduced; a training scheme for residential staff on topics more relevant to their work was organised; Officers-in-Charge were redesignated as Residential Team Managers; the role of the key worker within the home was re-defined; and an appropriate form of care plan was devised. At Ty'r Felin itself a number of important structural changes were also put in hand to improve the physical standards within the home.

  33.128  Nevertheless, Ifans became aware within a very short time of his arrival that there were major difficulties at Ty'r Felin. The Residential Team Manager, although enthusiastic, was inexperienced. A Senior RCCO had to be suspended, then warned for misconduct and transferred to other duties. Other members of the staff misbehaved and there were divided loyalties. To make matters worse the Chairman of the Children's Sub-Committee was in the habit of making very frequent, unannounced visits to the home and intervening in its management inappropriately. Then in or about early March 1994 the personal diary of a young woman resident was reported to be missing but a month or so later a councillor and an ex-member of staff were said to have talked about the contents of the diary to others.

  33.129  Without going into unnecessary detail, the outcome of these events was thatO and K Associates, who were already advising the Social Services Department on other matters, were commissioned by the Director of Social Services on6 September 1994 to investigate the circumstances surrounding the alleged theft of the diary and allegations contained in the diary. O and K Associates reported on 14 February 1995 after seeing more than 25 persons and their report was an important (probably crucial) factor in the decision of the Children's Sub-Committee in September 1995 to recommend the closure of Ty'r Felin.

  33.130  The report found that three pages from the diary, covering the period 5 to14 February 1994, in a brown envelope had been pushed through the door of the Chairman of the Social Services Committee and that she had passed them to the Director of Social Services on 25 April 1994; but the investigation did not reveal who had stolen the diary or who had passed the three pages to the Chairman. The allegations in the diary were that several television sets, two micro-wave ovens, a video-recorder and quantities of food had been stolen from the home over a period; that drugs and alcohol were being consumed by residents on the premises; that there had been several incidents of violence between residents; and that several of the residents were sexually active within the home during early 1994. The report referred also to the boredom of some of the residents, who were excluded from school for a variety of reasons but for whom no educational facilities were provided on the premises. Amongst the disturbing factors were the reaction following the departure of the Dodds and ensuing divided loyalties; the locating of the home within the Maesgeirchen Estate, resulting in ties with some "dubious and unsavoury elements who knew about drugs and how to dispose of stolen property"; and a sometimes disappointing level of partnership between the home and the fieldwork staff. The authors made numerous recommendations on the basis of their findings, including one directed to improving the quality of visits by councillors, but they were not implemented at Ty'r Felin because the home was closed.

Conclusions

  33.131  There is no evidence that sexual abuse was prevalent at Ty'r Felin. Bearing in mind the length of the period under review, the number of allegations has been comparatively few and they do not suggest a pattern of habitual abuse by any member of the staff there. If sexual abuse did occur, it was on a few isolated occasions only and the evidence before us has not been sufficiently persuasive to justify a finding against any individual member of staff.

  33.132  We are satisfied, however, that, during the Nefyn Dodd regime, he and the teacher, John Roberts, did use excessive physical force to residents and staff in care from time to time as we have indicated. Moreover, both of them enforced discipline in an inappropriately hectoring and authoritative manner with the result that the whole atmosphere of Ty'r Felin was unduly oppressive for many of its residents and staff over a period of several years. The impact of this was particularly severe on children who remained at the home beyond the "normal" maximum assessment period of 12 weeks and the proportion of these children appears to have risen in the 1980s as the distinctive role of Ty'r Felin as an observation and assessment centre became increasingly blurred. The atmosphere improved later, when John Roberts left the staff and as Nefyn Dodd became increasingly pre-occupied with other responsibilities. It is likely also that the police investigation in 1986 caused the latter to modify his conduct. But the aftermath of the Dodd's regime was a degree of anarchy and the home survived for only a short period, as we have explained.

  33.133  We do not think that Nefyn Dodd's initial appointment as Officer-in-Charge of Ty'r Felin can fairly be criticised because it is likely that he presented himself well and he received a strongly favourable reference from Arnold of Bryn Estyn. It was a grave error, however, to give him additional and increasing responsibilities thereafter, despite the adverse independent Dyfed report in 1981, and his wife should not have been appointed to a senior position in the same community home. The combined effect of these actions was to facilitate the suppression of legitimate complaints about the regime at Ty'r Felin and to confer on Nefyn Dodd excessive powers and responsibilities beyond his capacity. These errors had direct impact on the quality of care generally at Ty'r Felin. In any event, however, effective monitoring and supervision of the community home ought to have revealed defects in Nefyn Dodd's attitudes and practices and to have led to a re-appraisal of him even before the police investigation in 1986.

  33.134  Some of the wider failings in the quality of care generally were attributable to Nefyn Dodd's dominant role in assessment and placement decisions but much greater blame rests upon higher management for assigning that role to him, for failing to devise an effective county strategy for residential children's homes and for failing to ensure that appropriate care plans were formulated and implemented for the comparatively small number of children in residential care within Gwynedd. These are matters on which we will comment further when we deal with the responsibility of higher management in Gwynedd later in this report.

Footnotes:

458   See paras 10.148 to 10.150, 13.21 and 13.22 for his earlier history at Bryn Estyn and Bersham Hall.

459   See Chapter 2 from para 2.08 for an account of her part in the background history to this inquiry.

460   See Chapter 34.

461   See para 5.02(3).

462   See para 5.07(8).

463   See Chapter 35.

464   Approving a recommendation of the Social Services Committee on 19 October 1982, itself approving the Children's Sub-Committee's recommendation of 17 September 1982 that Gwynedd County Council should ban the use of physical punishment, as control should be based on good personal and professional relationships.

465   See para 33.14.

466   Letter dated 31 August 1977 to the Director of Social Services, Mid Glamorgan County Council.

467   See Chapter 35.

468   See para 44.19.

469   Ty'r Felin, Ty Newydd, Y Gwyngyll and Queens Park

470   See paras 2.08 to 2.15.

471   See para 33.05.

472   See paras 44.18 and 44.25.

473   See paras 2.09 to 2.15.

474   He made statements to the North Wales Police on 10 September 1986 and 5 October 1987.

475   See para 33.14.

476   Alison Taylor's GCC Analysis p.76.

477   C was made the subject of a care order by Bangor Juvenile Court on 1 May 1980, at the age of 13 years, for burglary and taking away a motor vehicle without lawful authority.

478   Pyjamas.

479   For burglary and theft from a meter (with 23 other offences taken into consideration).

480   See footnote 7 to para 33.15.

481   See paras 33.46 and 33.69.

482   See paras 33.70 and 33.71.

483   D described this as holding the forearm and the wrist of the victim with separate hands and then twisting the victim's skin in opposite directions.

484   Owain Gethin Evans was then Assistant Director (Children) and Head of Children's Services.

485   See paras 33.70, 33.71 and 33.87.

486   See para 33.70.

487   See paras 33.64 to 33.69.

488   See para 33.63.

489   See para 33.73

490   See footnote 27 to para 33.90.

491   See para 33.82.

492   See para 33.47.

493   See paras 33.11, 33.12 and 33.29.

494   See paras 33.30 to 33.55.

495   See paras 33.23 to 33.25.