Children were sexually abused on an “industrial scale” at council-run care homes in south London, an inquiry has heard.
Vulnerable youngsters were the victims of “institutionalised evil” over a period of decades at homes run by Lambeth council, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was told. The claims were made by a representative of alleged abuse victims from the Lambeth-run Shirley Oaks home in Croydon.
Raymond Stevenson, from the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association, told the inquiry: “What took place at Shirley Oaks and other children’s homes in Lambeth was physical and sexual abuse on an industrial scale which remained unchecked for decades. The damage done was irreversible.”
He added: “Lambeth council itself has had many inquiries in the past. For whatever reason, including council cover-ups and institutional cover-ups ... we now see they were whitewashes.”
Allegations of abuse handed out to vulnerable youngsters while in the care of authorities in Lambeth will form part of the wide-ranging inquiry led by Dame Lowell Goddard, which will also investigate the Anglican and Catholic churches and children’s homes run by Rochdale Council.
Stevenson was speaking at a preliminary hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice, which focused on allegations about a string of homes run by Lambeth council.
Claims that the former Labour minister Lord Paul Boaten visited a children’s home run by Michael John Carroll and went on a caravan trip organised by a youth group were made on the BBC’s Newsnight programme at the start of March, the counsel to the inquiry Ben Emmerson QC said.
Carroll, who ran the Angell Road home in Lambeth, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1999 for a string of child abuse charges.
Thursday’s session also heard that Lambeth council knew in 1986 that Carroll had a conviction for indecently assaulting a child but did not stop him continuing to work with children.
Emmerson told the hearing that Newsnight had claimed that detective inspector Clive Driscoll, who investigated Carroll, “wanted to speak to Lord Boateng ... but was removed from the investigation and subjected to disciplinary action”.
He told the inquiry that the peer was alleged by the programme to have signed the visitors’ book at Angell Road and gone on a caravan trip organised by the Association of Combined Youth Clubs (ACYC).
Emmerson added: “The inquiry has so far seen nothing to corroborate any allegations of impropriety by Lord Boateng.”
He added that the peer denied “any knowledge of Carroll or any involvement with him” or of going on a caravan trip with the ACYC.
Lord Boateng was the Labour MP for Brent from 1987 to 2005. He was a home office minister between 1998 and 2001 and went on to be chief secretary to the Treasury between 2002 and 2005. He was made a peer in 2010.
A spokesman for Lambeth council said: “Lambeth council welcomed the decision to hold a national inquiry and has been fully co-operating with it.
“Documents and information held by Lambeth council that may help investigate historical child abuse in Lambeth have already been gathered.
“We first approached officials from the inquiry in March last year offering to share this material, and are honouring that pledge.”
Police are hunting for a man after a 13-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted on a rush hour bus in south London.
The teenager was attacked on a route 464 bus travelling from Eagles Drive, Tatsfield towards New Addington, Croydon on Tuesday, January 29 at 7.45am, police said.
The suspect, described as a white man, aged 30 to 40 years old, with dark hair, boarded the bus a few stops after the victim and sat next to her.
When she was getting ready to get off the bus, the man, who wore light, brown clothing, sexually assaulted her several times, officers said.
Police want to speak to this man in connection with the incident.
Police have released CCTV images of a man.