Wales Child Abuse Scandal - The Waterhouse Inquiry

The Waterhouse Inquiry

In 1996, the then Secretary of State for Wales, William Hague, ordered a Tribunal of Inquiry into allegations of hundreds of cases of child abuse in care homes in former county council areas of Clwyd and Gwynedd between 1974 and 1990. Sir Ronald Waterhouse QC, a retired High Court judge, was appointed to head the inquiry.

The inquiry began in January 1997. The tribunal sat for 203 days, and heard evidence directly from 250 witnesses, attracted 200 additional personal statements, and in total heard from more than 650 people. Of the 260 witnesses that the inquiry, nearly half subsequently needed counselling for psychiatric help after giving evidence, paid for by the inquiry. The inquiry finished taking evidence in May 1998, with Waterhouse expecting to submit his report to the Welsh Secretary within 6 to 8 months. However, the volume of evidence taken and the serious of allegations within, led to a 12-month delay in publication of the report to the Welsh Secretary until October 1999. The final report ran to over 500,000 words, and contained 700 allegations of abuse involving 170 individuals. More than 80 people, many of whom were care staff or teachers, were named as child abusers in statements to the inquiry. Costing more than £12M, it was stated to be: "the biggest investigation ever held in Britain into allegations of physical, sexual and emotional abuse of children who passed through the care system."

The findings were published in February 2000, as Lost In Care - The Waterhouse Report. The report concluded that there was: "Widespread sexual abuse of boys occurred in children's residential establishments in Clwyd between 1974 and 1990. There were some incidents of sexual abuse of girl residents in these establishments but they were comparatively rare." As well as physical abuse and the unacceptable use of force, there was "widespread sexual abuse, including buggery." The public version of the report named and criticised almost 200 people, for either abusing children or failing to offer them sufficient protection. Although it identified 28 alleged perpetrators, many names were redacted due to either pending prosecutions or lack of evidence. The report stated:

The report found no evidence "to establish that there was a wide-ranging conspiracy involving prominent persons and others with the objective of sexual activity with children in care", but did recognise the existence of a paedophile ring in the Wrexham and Chester area.

The Inquiry made 72 recommendations for changes, constituting a massive overhaul of the way in which children in care are dealt with by local councils, social services and the police.

After the report was published, a window opened to allow victims to claim for compensation. On top of cases which had previously been handled and closed directly by both councils, additional cases were handled by lead solicitors Nelsons of Nottingham. In total, 140 compensation claims were settled on behalf of victims by the time that the claim window closed in July 1999. Further, a Children's Commissioner for Wales was appointed as a result of one of the reports recommendations.

In a subsequent statement to the House of Commons, the Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy stated: "It is a tragedy that such treatment should have been meted out to children in care." Murphy said there was no evidence of a high-level paedophile conspiracy, but that a paedophile ring around Cheshire and Wrexham had preyed on young people in care in the 1970s and 1980s.