Council Leader not involved in sex abuse 'cover up' at Knowl View

Council Leader, Councillor Richard Farnell

The claims and counter claims of who knew what about the sexual abuse perpetrated on children by adults, including paedophile MP Cyril Smith, at Knowl View special school in the late eighties and nineties continue to make headlines with allegations of cover ups and smear campaigns.

Rochdale Council Leader Councillor Richard Farnell, who also was leader of the Council between 1986 and 1992, has been accused in some quarters of having been involved in a council 'cover up'. In response, Councillor Farnell said: "I have always said that I have no recollection about being told about the allegations at Knowl View when I was last leader 23 years ago. I doubt if anyone can clearly recall events that far back. However, any suggestion that I knew about and did nothing about allegations at Knowl View is an outright nonsense. Any suggestion I was involved a cover-up is absolutely ridiculous.

"What is really important is finding out what the various agencies – the Council, the health authority and Police – did about the allegations and the reports which were carried out at the time and whether they acted correctly. That is the job of the independent review and I have already indicated to Neil Garnham QC that the review team has my complete support. The review is very important to the Council and Rochdale and the Inquiry should be allowed to get on with its job without interference from politicians.

"Until such time as the Review is finalised I am legally advised that, as Leader of the Council, it would be inappropriate for me to comment further."

Confidential letters and reports appear to back up Councillor Farnell's claim that he never saw any of the reports documenting the abuse. The documents give the impression that council officers did not see fit to share the reports with councillors until June 1992, after Councillor Farnell had lost his seat on the Council.

In a report by Rochdale Council Director of Education Diane Cavanagh in June 1992, responding to concerns documented in a report by Consultant Clinical Psychologist Valerie Mellor, Ms Cavanagh says it was her "intention to discuss the content with", amongst others, "the education spokespersons/chairs of the party groups on the Council" - suggesting therefore that the content of Ms Mellor's report of February 1992 had not at the time of Ms Cavanagh's report in June 1992 yet been divulged to the Council Leader.

Heywood & Middleton MP, Jim Dobbin, who was at the time the deputy leader of the Council, has said he did not know anything of the abuse until the late nineties, though it is puzzling how the Deptuy Leader of the Council could not have been made aware of an detailed report into the abuse in The Independent newspaper in September 1995.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/boys-in-special-school-were-at-risk-of-aids-1600318.html

Chief Executive of the Council between 1986 and 1996, John Pierce is on record as saying that three reports by health workers into the school in 1988, 1991 and 1992 never made it to his desk, he told the MEN: “It could well have been that staff in my department were aware of the reports but they didn’t bring them to my attention.”

However, Mr Pierce was copied into a letter penned by Ian Davey, Acting Director of Social Services, on 16 April 1992 to the Chairwoman of Rochdale Health Authority, Councillor Pam Hawton (now deceased) in which the report is discussed. Moreover, questioned by Rochdale Online yesterday (Monday 9 June) Paul Rowen, who became the Leader of the Council in May 1992, taking over from Councillor Farnell, said he had a number of meetings with Mr Pierce in which the abuse at Knowl View was discussed.

Mr Pierce gave statements defending the council to the Independent newspaper in 1995. As reported in Private Eye, he even told the paper: “All the issues involved were discussed and investigated by a number of agencies and the necessary action taken.” If he had not seen the reports into abuse at the school, how could Mr Pierce know that the “necessary action was taken”?

In a letter to Knowl View whistleblower Martin Digan, in March 1996 responding to a letter from Mr Digan about the abuse at Knowl View, Mr Pierce discusses Valerie Mellor's report and says it was not "supressed" (as alleged by Mr Digan) "but was shared with appropriate professionals..." - it is therefore clear that Mr Pierce was aware of the reports and thier content, along with his senior council colleagues Diane Cavanagh and Ian Davey.

Former MP Paul Rowen became leader of the Council in May 1992 when Richard Farnell lost his seat and questioned as to what he did about the reports of sexual abuse at the school when he became leader, Mr Rowen said he had meetings with officers and was assured action was being taken to address the issues, however, following an incident on a camping trip in France in 1993 he resolved to close the school and did so in 1994. Asked why it had taken a year to close the school, Mr Rowen said closure procedures took time. He also said that reports that the school closed due to a fire are erroneous, that the fire ocurred after the school had been closed.

It is also made clear by the authors of the reports that despite acts between children, and between children and adults, such as buggery, mutual mastubation and oral sex, sometimes for money, for reasons unexplained the police decided that they should not be involved and any investigation should be carried out by the Council under child protection procedure.

It appears from correspondence in April 1992 that the chairwoman of Rochdale Health Authority, Councillor Pam Hawton, was seeking assurance from Social Services that action was being taken to address the issues and Ian Davey, Acting Director of Social Services, gave her that assurance stating that "concerted professional action" was being taken to "address the serious issues at Knowl View".

In her report of February 1992, Valerie Mellor says that though the Child Protection Guidelines Sub-Committee agreed an investigation should proceed, later Mr Davey decided that the alleged [sexual] activity did not fall within the Council's guidelines on child protection.

The question that currently remains unanswered is why the police and at least one senior council officer decided that acts of a gross sexual nature between children and adults did not merit their investigation.

An independent inquiry into the role of Rochdale Council is due to report at the end of July.