UNITED KINGDOM
Bedfordshire on Sunday

STEVE LOWE looks back on 15 years of campaigning journalism with Bedfordshire on Sunday to bring the perpetrators of Shefford boys home’ abuse to justice…

BACK in the 1990s I received a call from someone who had ‘a big story’.

I was new to journalism so was quite excited but my more experienced, sceptical colleagues were unconvinced.

‘If it’s a cat up a tree, don’t offer to get it down for them,’ was the advice.

This was the first time I met Damian Chittock and heard the story of St Francis Boys’ Home, Shefford.

The home was run by the Catholic Church and the residents were mainly abandoned or orphaned boys between the ages of six and sixteen.