UNITED KINGDOM
Kent Online
by Tom Acrestacres@thekmgroup.co.uk
Harrowing accounts of historical child abuse have been revealed by a further review into a Church of England home for young girls.
More than three decades of cruelty at Kendall House in Gravesend was first exposed by the findings of an expert panel in June, with residents found to have been drugged, sexually assaulted, locked in an isolation room and kept in straitjackets.
The 137-page report, compiled by Dr Sue Proctor, part-time judge Samantha Cohen and former police detective superintendent Ray Galloway, described Kendall House as “a frightening, violent and unpredictable place to live”.
Dr Proctor, who chaired the investigation into disgraced DJ Jimmy Savile, said the abuse at Kendall House was the most troubling thing she had worked on.
So many other former residents came forward after its publication that the Rt Rev James Langstaff, Bishop of Rochester, agreed to an extended review, which has resulted in testimonies from one woman who was just nine when she was sent to Kendall House.
She had never been in a children’s home previously and it remains unclear why she was sent there, with other girls sent there by the Dioceses of Rochester and Canterbury ranging from 11 to 16-years-old.
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