Charles Thomson - Freelance Writer/Reporter

Vulnerable children told Essex Council that social workers were using them for sex, secret files reveal
Wed 30th May 2018, Yellow Advertiser

AN INVESTIGATOR who probed child abuse allegations at Essex Council was told about numerous reports that child protection workers had sexually abused vulnerable children.

Documents and correspondence seen by the Yellow Advertiser show a whistleblowing ex-social worker referred the allegations to consultant Helen Kenward 18 years ago.

Kenward was contracted by County Hall in the late 1990s to investigate allegations against its staff and how they had been dealt with. Kenward is known for having carried out abuse investigations for other local authorities, but her work for Essex Council was only publicly revealed this year, by the YA.

Documents show the source told Kenward they believed alleged abusers has been ’protected’, rather than disciplined or sacked.

The council has refused to release Kenward’s report, saying there is ’no public interest’ in doing so.

Allegations passed to Kenward included claims by two young sisters in the 1980s that they had repeatedly accepted money from a Chelmsford social worker in return for sexual favours.

Around the same time, Kenward’s source said another girl reported she had been paid for sex by a different Chelmsford social worker.

The whistleblower said that when they passed the allegations on, they were ’disciplined’ and ’told that it would be a good idea if they left’ their team – while the accused men remained in post.

The two men were amongst 15 social workers the whistleblower said they had heard complaints about during their career.

The source also told Kenward of allegations against three police officers and a solicitor, naming ex-colleagues they believed would have corroborating information.

Allegations passed on by Kenward’s source included a Southend social worker being accused of ’sexual touching’, then being moved to a new team.

Later, the same man – who reportedly ran a youth club – ’asked a provocative, sexualised question’ about the sexual behaviour of toddlers during a seminar on child abuse.

Kenward’s source said, “I was sure he was masturbating. He had his hand below the desk and was sitting alone and shaking.”

Concerns about the man were passed on, the whistleblower said, but not investigated.

Around the same time, the source added, a Shoebury mum complained that another social worker ’had been touching up’ her daughter. The allegation was passed on, but the council continued to employ him.

The source also told how, years later, during a child protection seminar, a woman in the audience said she recognised a Basildon social worker on stage as having abused her as a child.

The authority kept the man on, claiming it had fully investigated the case – but the source told Kenward she knew the man who interviewed the alleged victim and knew nobody had even spoken to him.

The whistleblower also gave detailed evidence to Kenward about how they had been directly involved in the investigation of a 1980s paedophile ring in Shoeburyness.

They told Kenward how boys caught up in the ring had told police they were also abused at addresses in Basildon, Havering and Tower Hamlets – but the authorities only pursued two local men.

The YA has requested a copy of the Kenward Report, to see how Essex Council dealt with allegations against its staff and whether it complied with Kenward’s recommendations – but the council has steadfastly refused to co-operate, claiming our request is “vexatious”.

The YA has lodged a formal complaint and a review of the decision is due to be completed in summer.

**Comment by YA editor Mick Ferris**

With evidence piling up of historic child abuse, possibly involving former Essex County Council employees and police officers, it’s puzzling and disturbing that the council’s ’Your Right To Know’ department is arbitrarily making the decision that YOU do NOT have the right to know the details of a report County Hall commissioned in the late 1990s to investigate these allegations.

Hiding behind claims of data protection and saying it is not in the public’s interest to answer our questions only makes them complicit in the cover-up of a scandal the YA is determined to expose, for the sake of the victims who have shown remarkable bravery in coming forward.