"The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth". This is what all of the witnesses must declare before they give evidence to the inquiry panel.
For those who watched yesterday's hearing, you will probably be able to guess what I am about to type...
After 6 days of listening to many different testimonies from various victims, all of whom had suffered sustained abuse while in the care of Nottingham city council, it was time to hear from those in positions of influence and presumed authority. Some of the many victims we heard from had been residents at Beechwood carehome, Redcot or Enderly carehomes and on Friday we heard testimony from a CP(Core participant) who had endured sexual and physical abuse while in foster care.
After all of the accounts were given it was clear to all that this abuse was organised and relentless, it also became apparent that the authorities had done their best to cover up all of the complaints made by the victims at the time of their abuse or in the years after when they found the strength to come forward.
I will paraphrase Friday's CP in summing up the atmosphere after this long hard week of the inquiry;
"While giving my testimony and after all of my accounts had been heard, everyone in the room was visibly upset, including the panel, the barristers and almost every else... I say 'almost everyone' because when I witnessed this outpouring of sympathy and emotion I noticed those who were here from the council. While all around them were in or close to tears they(The council reps) sat there stoney-faced and emotionless..."
This comment shocked myself and it certainly set the tone for Day-6 when it would be the turn of the authorities who were around at the time of the abuse and there to oversee the welfare of the children in their care.
Monday's hearing began with a representitive of Nottinghamshire council and I have to admit that I missed this part of the hearing and have limited knowledge of what was said. However, I did return home in the early afternoon and heard all of the accounts given by a gentleman named Mr White. It would be no exageration to say that this man lied through his teeth throughout the whole afternoon. This was no surprise and I imagine the same can be said for the council rep who spoke earlier in the day. A lie is a lie and the position of authority should make no difference but in this case I think it fair to say that Mr Whites lies had more of an impact and had the most devastating consequences, due only to his position at the time.
Mr David White, or Mr Whitewash, as I now refer to him, came into his new job in 1990 and his title was to be known as "Director of social services for Nottinghamshire county council". To put this in simple terms this man was at the top of the ivory tower and more influence than anyone under his control. For this reason alone I found his testimony of lies to be a pivotal point in this inquiry. Many of the cases we have heard about last week would have been passed directly to him and this man had the final say in any actions being taken against the abusers, of which there were many.
Whilst listening to the victims there was rarely a stutter and hardly every did I hear any of them interject there accounts with "ers". The same can not be said for Mr Whitewash and without going into massive amounts of detail, which would be a pleasure to do, I will just mention one key moment and then ask you to take a listen for yourselves.
Mr Whitewash' testimony begins at 4hrs 54mins and the part I am about to describe to you all is at 6hrs 21minutes. You can access this footage via this link and I would urge you all to listen to it in its entirety.
So, Mr White had just boasted to the panel about how he like to write up his own reports and how dilegent he is with this. Unbeknownst to him he was being led towards something he had long forgotten about, or maybe it was just something he had hoped would be overlooked. Unfortunately for Mr White, former director of the SS, this was not to be and he then spent the next few hours wishing that the ground would open up and swallow him whole.
As I was saying, Mr White had just been boasting and then the defence for the victims revealed his hand to Mr White. The very intelligent and brilliant barrister presented Mr White with a historical report that had been "signed-off" by the then director od social services in relation to an investigation hearing, about a 14-year old girl who was a resident at Beechwood care home and was being abused by various parties.
The report that was presented was the conclusion to the investigation and Mr White had many bouts of selective amnesia while he was asked to recall certain parts of the text within. If this were a game of chess I would say that this was the moment that the victor cries out "checkmate" and topples the defencless king. As Mr White own words were read out load from the historical report the inquiry panel, the CP's, and everyone else in attendance sat and listened to how he had come to the conclusion that this 14-year old girl was "promiscuous" and that her sexual activity was "completely consensual". The report than went on to tar every other complainant like her with the same brush, stating that they often came to the home with long histories of sexually deviant behaviour, habits of drug abuse and "bad attitudes" towards assisitance from the authorities. As we now know from the testimony of the victims, this reluctance top seek help from the authorities is with good reason, as they(social services or the police) almost always began any consultation with a victim, stating that their complaints would likely result to nothing and how the victim's complaints would destroy the life of the accused.
As satifying as it was to see Mr White squirm in his seat and looking around the room for a sympathetic gaze, of which their was none, hearing him stutter and stumble through every pathetic explanation to his warped conclusions and seeing him boil in his own poisonous juices, I still held on to the fact that this mans decisions to ignore and besmerch the victims had the most devastating effect on their already dreadful lives.
I have no problem in saying that this man should be placed on the sex offenders list for the rest of his life and never allowed to anywhere near a minor. Infact, I would go as far as to say that this man should be prosecuted for deriliction of duties and thrown into the darkest cell imaginable.
Mr White and others just like him, who operate in the police force, the social services and the government, to this very day, are the sole reason we are having to hold this enquiry. *They are the problem and they are the gatekeeper who allow monsters to run free in our world and evade justice. The victims that were logging complaint to the social services were totally ignored by Mr White and the pedophiles they reported were allowed to carry on fostering, adopting and "caring" for children all across the UK. I know that this inquiry will amount to little and, for what it is worth, this is the closest we will get to bringing these pedophile supporting criminals to justice. So let us all bask in this moment and enjoy this small victory.
I say well done to the defence team for their brilliance in exposing this industry of horror and allowing us all a glimpse of what it is really like to be a child placed into the care-system.
Again I would like to invite you all to watch today's hearing as I am sure it will be just as revealing as the days gone by.