First Steps in Investigation into Historic Child Sex Abuse Claims
Nottingham Post
The chair of an investigation into historic child sex abuse claims at care homes in Nottinghamshire will announce key parties in the inquiry next week. Professor Alexis Jay, chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), will announce the investigation's 'core participants' at a preliminary hearing at the International Dispute Resolution Centre in London on Thursday, May 11. IICSA defines a 'core participant' as "an individual, organisation or institution that "played, or may have played a direct or significant role" in relation to the inquiry. It comes after an open process was launched in March, asking people to come forward. It was announced in November 2015, that Nottinghamshire's councils would be among the first to be investigated by IICSA. The inquiry was set up after allegations of abuse, some of it sexual, at children's homes previously operated by Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Council, and other organisations dating back to the 1950s. The investigation will consider "institutional failures to protect children" under the councils' care from sexual abuse and exploitation. Victims and survivors of historic child abuse will be invited to give evidence at the inquiry, which will examine how the councils investigated the allegations and whether they sought to learn lessons from them. The inquiry came after Nottinghamshire Police launched two investigations - Operations Daybreak and Xeres - into historic child abuse in the county. Operation Daybreak was launched after a former resident of Beechwood Community House, in Mapperley, made allegations of abuse to police in August 2010.
By May 2015, more than 130 people had made allegations of abuse - physical, emotional and sexual - to the Operation Daybreak team. Operation Xeres was launched in April 2015, after allegations of historic child abuse at a number of different care homes were made. Allegations of abuse range in date from the 1940s to the 1990s, and relate to 10 former care facilities across the county. Nottingham City Council and Nottingham County Council have welcomed the start of the proceedings. A joint statement issued by Anthony May and Ian Curryer, the chief executives of the two councils, said: "We welcome the independent scrutiny that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse will bring to cases of historical sexual abuse and will continue to engage fully with it. "We have been actively engaged with supporting survivors of historical abuse and would encourage them to take part in the inquiry if they believe it would be beneficial for them. We would also encourage anyone who believes they or someone they know was abused as a child to come forward to either ourselves or Nottinghamshire Police. "We have been jointly investigating allegations of historical abuse, some of which are of a sexual nature, for a number of years now with Nottinghamshire Police. From the outset, we have taken these allegations seriously, some of which date back many years. "The safety and well-being of children in our care today must be, and is, of the highest priority. The safety and quality of care for children nowadays is vastly different and is closely regulated and scrutinised by Ofsted and our Children's Safeguarding Boards." Nottinghamshire Police spokesperson said "Nottinghamshire Police are welcoming of the upcoming preliminary hearing relating to children in care. "The force has been working to provide the independent investigation into child sexual abuse with information for some time. "Anyone who has experienced abuse, whether recently or in the distant past, should feel confident talking to Nottinghamshire Police and be safe in the knowledge they will be listened to and taken seriously." A spokeswoman for IICSA said that public hearings held as part of the investigation will not take place until next year.
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