Watchdog condemns abuse response

18 July 2011 Last updated at 22:23 GMT Abuse of people living at the home was brought to light by BBC Panorama

A health watchdog has reported a "systemic failure to protect people" at a hospital where alleged abuse was secretly filmed by the BBC.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) published its findings after an inspection of Winterbourne View near Bristol.

The review was ordered after BBC Panorama filmed patients being pinned down, slapped and taunted.

Police said they had arrested a 12th person in connection with the inquiry.

The Panorama programme was contacted by whistleblower Terry Bryan who alerted the BBC with his concerns about some staff.

Mr Bryan, a senior nurse, acted after his concerns were not followed up by the home's management or the CQC.

'Appalling misconduct'

The CQC report on Winterbourne View found owners Castlebeck Care had failed to ensure residents living at the unit were adequately protected from risk, including the risks of unsafe practices by its own staff.

It said: "There was a systemic failure to protect people or to investigate allegations of abuse.

"The provider had failed in its legal duty to notify the Care Quality Commission of serious incidents including injuries to patients or occasions when they had gone missing."

Inspectors also noted staff did not appear to understand the needs of the people in their care and said "some staff were too ready to use methods of restraint without considering alternatives".

Winterbourne View was closed down in June.

The CQC's director of operations Amanda Sherlock said that, following the investigation, it was clear the abuse was far worse than they were warned of by Mr Bryan.

Winterbourne View, which had 24 patients, was closed down last month

She claimed that Castlebeck had "misled" the CQC, and if officials had known about what was taking place they "could have taken action earlier".

In response to the CQC report, Castlebeck's Chief Executive, Lee Reed, said: "We are truly sorry for the failures which led to the terrible mistreatment suffered by patients at Winterbourne View.

"As soon as the company was made aware of the appalling misconduct of staff at Winterbourne View, we alerted the police and other relevant authorities.

"We then took immediate remedial steps to safeguard the welfare of all our service users. This work is ongoing, and is our absolute priority."

The latest person to be arrested is a 27-year-old man from the South Gloucestershire area.

Police said he had been arrested under the Mental Capacity Act and had been released on police bail.

Eleven other people, eight men and three women, previously arrested remain on police bail pending further inquiries.

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'Record' numbers saved from abuse

31 May 2011 Last updated at 08:19 GMT Ceop's Chief Executive Peter Davies says there is far more abuse going on that can be brought to light

More than 400 children have been identified as victims of abuse over the past year by the UK's national centre for child protection.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (Ceop) said the children had been safeguarded or protected as a result.

And it said more than 500 people had been arrested for child sex offences.

But the "great tragedy" is that much child abuse goes unreported, said its chief executive Peter Davies.

Ceop was set up in 2006 to track online paedophiles and bring them to court.

In its annual report, the centre said 414 children were helped, 513 people arrested and 132 offender networks broken up in the UK in the past year. This is a record number of children and a record number of arrests for the centre.

Over a five-year period the agency said it helped to dismantle more than 394 high-risk sex offender networks and arrest 1,644 suspected paedophiles.

'Suffering in silence'

According to the report, images on the internet appear to show that younger children are increasingly becoming victims of abuse.

Mr Davies told the BBC: "The great tragedy and the great challenge for us is that so much child abuse goes unreported.

"One of the unique things we do is use the internet to identify people who pose a risk to children and identify children who are at risk who otherwise would have just carried on suffering in silence.

"There is far more child abuse going on out there than ever gets reported. It's a major concern, it's something everyone needs to pull together and do something about."

He added: "Our contribution to that is to highlight it and do what we can using our technical expertise and our partnerships to stamp out the offending.

"And make sure that children and young people, and their parents and whoever cares for them, have the best possible advice and guidance so that they can empower themselves."

Mr Davies said Ceop was trying to stay ahead of developments in technology, including in the area of social networking sites.

'Non-statistical crime'

Jon Taylor, an internet safety expert and former police officer who went undercover posing as a 12-year-old girl, said it was relatively easy to pose online - either as a child who may be groomed or as a sexual predator - to "mingle" and find out what people were doing.

But he said it was difficult because the internet is not "proactively policed", and instead reacts to intelligence and information.

"The big problem arises from the fact that we are dealing with what we call a non-statistical crime because you have to understand that the police do police through statistics.

"If it's reported it'll get a reaction, and that's one of the biggest problems with child abuse, especially online child abuse, that it doesn't really get reported," he said.

He said it was also important for people to understand the "whole picture" of how children use the internet, including chat rooms and webcam chats.

"There are all these different areas that sexual and child predators will use for their own benefit," he said.

'Break taboos'

Ceop is currently affiliated to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), but is to be merged with the new National Crime Agency when it is formed in 2013.

The move prompted the resignation of Ceop's former head Jim Gamble over concerns that the changes were motivated by a desire to cut the number of quangos rather than improve child protection.

Mr Davies insisted that, as well as retaining its own budget, the unit would also keep "its own brand, its own approach and its own dedication to putting the safety and well-being of children first".

He said the agency was "bringing this crime more into the open and are working collectively with many others to break down the taboos and obstacles that stop children getting the help and support they need".

A spokeswoman for child protection charity NSPCC said: "This impressive work by Ceop underscores the constant and serious threat to vulnerable children.

"Latest figures from our helpline show a record number of children had to be given immediate protection because they are at risk of harm.

"But the good news is more people are no longer standing idly by but are reporting these cases."

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Sex abuse cases 'reach 64 a day'

26 May 2011 Last updated at 01:17 GMT Jon Brown, NSPCC: "Most child sexual abuse goes undetected, unreported and unprosecuted"

At least 64 children are sexually abused every day in England and Wales, figures obtained by the NSPCC suggest.

More than 23,000 offences - including rape, incest and gross indecency - were recorded by police in 2009-10, an 8% increase on 2008-9, the charity said.

For the first time, its research also looked at the age of abusers and found a quarter were aged under 18. One in four victims was aged 11 or under.

The Home Office said the figures were "appalling".

The figures for recorded sex crimes against children were obtained through a successful NSPCC freedom of information request to all 43 police forces in England and Wales.

The figures showed that more than half of the victims were aged between 12 and 15, one in four was aged five to 11, and more than 1,000 were aged four or younger.

Girls were more than six times more likely to be assaulted than boys, with 86% of attacks taking place against females, the figures showed.

The police force reporting the largest number of crimes was London's Metropolitan (3,672), followed by West Midlands (1,531) and West Yorkshire (1,205).

Jon Brown, who heads the NSPCC's work on child sex abuse, said the increase was a "real concern".

"Thousands of people come forward every year to report sex crimes against children. But many victims are too young to ask for help. Others are too scared to tell anyone about their suffering until years later," he said.

"More than 2,000 suspects in these cases were under 18. It's clear we need more services that address the harmful sexual behaviour of young people, as well as adult offenders."

'Dark places'

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) warned that recorded crime figures were "not a good indicator of the prevalence or trends of child sexual abuse" as much abuse went unreported and rises could be attributable to victims of historic abuse coming forward.

However, Assistant Chief Constable Peter Davies, the Acpo lead for child protection and child abuse investigation, said: "Understanding the crime though is central to success.

"We are starting to bring it out of the dark places where victims suffer in silence for fear of reporting while recent infiltration of intricate global paedophile networks is further testament to the work we have collectively done to understand how offenders think and operate."

A Home Office spokesman said the government would continue to work with groups like the NSPCC to protect the most vulnerable people in our society.

It pointed to the roll-out of the child sex offender disclosure scheme across police forces in England and Wales earlier this year.

This allows parents to check whether someone in contact with their child is a convicted sex offender.

Dubbed "Sarah's Law", it was proposed after the murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne by a convicted sex offender, Roy Whiting, in West Sussex in 2000.

The Home Office said this was a "major step forward in our ability to protect children from sex offenders".

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