Child Abuse Report Lets Suspended City Boss Off The Hook

Child Abuse Report Lets Suspended City Boss Off The Hook

Critics have blasted the latest review into the Rotherham child exploitation scandal as a whitewash after it failed to name a single person to blame for ‘failings’ that left 1,400 victims at risk.  They say that it is letting those in charge in Rotherham, including Liverpool City Council’s present suspended chief executive, Ged Fitzgerald off the hook.  The independent review concludes that there was “‘widespread systemic failure rather than anything for which individual practitioners can be held to account” at Rotherham Council.

A total of six new reports into various aspects of the Rotherham child abuse scandal have been published. Lawyer Mark Greenburgh, author of the part of the review concerning the conduct of senior council managers , declares that there was “more cock-up than conspiracy” at the local authority. He said: “there’s simply little or anything that Rotherham Council can do” to take action against former senior staff over whom they now have no control.

The reports were commissioned by Rotherham Co uncil in the wake of the Jay Report, which exposed how at least 1,400 children were raped, trafficked and sexually exploited in the town between 1997 and 2013 by gangs of men.

Mr Greenburgh said in relation to seven named senior officers, who included Liverpool Council’s Chief Executive Ged Fitzgerald, that despite errors of judgement and missed opportunities “we have found no culpable behaviour which could now justify any form of legal action or regulatory involvement of any kind.”

The report says about Ged Fitzgerald, former Chief Executive of Rotherham Council who is now chief executive of Liverpool City Council: “we recommend that the council refers this report and its findings to the current employers of Mr Fitzgerald and Ms (Jacqueline) Wilson.” Ms Wilson was formerly Rotherham’s head of children ‘s services.

“It is important to be clear that we have not found that either of these people were uniquely culpable for the council’s response to emerging evidence of CSE. But there are points at which each missed opportunities to have changed the outcomes.”

Reported in the Daily Mirror, a December 2002 letter to Mr Fitzgerald from Parents Against Child Sex Exploitation, about research into pimps getting young teenage girls pregnant to “‘exploit and control them “, flagged up to him their concerns that their research had been blocked. The letter read: “Our fear, which I hope is unfounded, was that the nature of the work touched upon significant entrenched interests. I am therefore asking you to carry out an investigation into exactly why the research was prevented from being completed after an initial agreement…”

A Home Office researcher into underage sex crimes while Mr Fitzgerald was leading Rotherham Council was subjected to threats and ‘intense hostility’, along with an alleged removal of some of her crucial files and an attempt to get her sacked,

More probes found that in 2003 when Dr Angie Heal, working for South Yorkshire Police investigating drugs crime, revealed links with sexual exploitation, her findings about a lack of convictions and named offenders were sent to  council managers

as well as  senior police officers but no action was taken. The report says:

“The work of the Risky Business project had. . . come to the attention of Mr Fitzgerald by late 2001. He had contact with senior Police officers and met with senior managers about specific issues relevant to a pilot project, connected with the Home Office, concerning matters we would now recognise as Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham. There is little evidence available about who else was involved in those meetings, the discussions they had, or any actions identified by or taken by or at the behest of Mr Fitzgerald, as a result of his involvement.  Mr Fitzgerald recalls that events were ‘downplayed’ and he did not raise the issue with Members. The pilot project ended in 2002.

“Correspondence from a partner of the pilot project, CROP (now PACE), at the end of 2002 and into 2003, culminated in a letter to Mr Fitzgerald in February 2003 asserting that the Council “obstructed significant planned research”.  We could find no evidence of an investigation into that claim, or of any response to that letter from Mr Fitzgerald, although he says such a letter would have been passed to the Director of Education, Culture and Leisure (Ms Billups) for a response.  We have not seen any evidence which substantiates that such a response was made.  In our view concerns of this nature deserved a response from the Chief Executive, but there is no reason to believe the absence of such was a deliberate strategy or that Mr Fitzgerald was involved in, or aware of any ‘cover up’.  Mr Fitzgerald says he relied on the professional expertise of others around him; but there is no documentary evidence of such advice being sought or obtained.  It is clear that opportunities to look into the position in more detail in 2001, when Mr Fitzgerald had personal dealings with the Police and again when he received external correspondence in 2002/2003, were missed.  Had a more rigorous approach been taken by him then, or if he had looked to establish the reasons behind the issues raised with the Police or in the correspondence, his understanding of the issues and response by the Council might have been very different”.

Rotherham MP Sarah Champion, who resigned  from Labour ‘s front bench  team

when she was accused of being ‘politically incorrect’ remains unhappy. She said:

“I had hoped that today’s publication of the reports into Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council preventing child sexual exploitation would draw a line under the catalogue of errors that led to our children being let down so badly by those supposed to protect them. However, despite these huge failures, leading to at least 1,400 victims being let down, it appears that no individual at Rotherham Council has yet been held to account for their role.”

“How are the survivors meant to rebuild their lives without the closure these reports could have brought? This feels like a completely wasted opportunity to allow the town to move forward.”