Another Macur Reply

FAO: The Hon Mrs. Justice Macur

Further to your appointment to independent review the terms of
reference of the Waterhouse Inquiry 1996-2000, I would like to
respond to the questions for which my views are requested.

At the time I was admitted into the Bryn Alyn Community group of
Homes, I was not under a Care Order or interim care order but a
Statement of Educational Needs, undertook by my home authority
Coventry City Council.



Whilst a fluke of geography places me outside the remit of the
Waterhouse House Report, the ‘Community Home with Education’
I attended was owned and Managed by the Bryn Alyn Community,
which had its head offices in Wexham, Clwyd. Therefore, specifically
for me, my concerns over the Waterhouse Report was its failure
to acknowledge that a school mentioned numerous times within
that report was excluded because of those terms of reference, for
myself my specific concern is the inference that the behavioral
characteristics of those with a duty of care to protect me didn’t lesson
to do spatial, time and space constraints.

For me therefore, and as such a specific concern running through
my response is why was I sent to a ‘school’ for which concerns were
raised historically many years prior to my admittance, my experience
there, and in other ‘care’ homes leads me to conclude that abuse
was a fact of life, it was expected and indeed accepted as the norm.
That as a female I was of course sexually promiscuous, how could I
be anything else? To understand my abuse, it challenges everything
anyone could imagine to be ‘normal’.

Why when I had no care order, when I rightly absconded from this
Institution due to the very real concerns for my own safety, was I
on numerous occasions arrested for being an absconder, held in
police custody and returned to a place, sometimes under police
escort, where sex offenders worked, and the level of violence and
punishment placed on those who broke the rules was inhuman, and
can only amount to strange and unusual punishment, corporeal
punishment and serious assault, both by staff and other residents. I
had committed no crime.

Why were these schools/homes not monitored and regulated, why
were all these concerns ignored, and why did it go on for so long?
Again, I see reason, based on the current ‘looked after’ framework of
tendering out child care to big business that the same will not happen
again, to me nothing has changed in 38 years.

The assumption that North Wales is somehow unique, I find alarming
and distressing. As such I ask that for the 1000’s like me, this review
is just the start of the process of redressing the balance, that tax
paying public of Great Britain who felt that mine and my fellow victims
problems were being addressed at there significant expense, be
allowed to understand what happened, and the damage not only
done whilst in these intuitions, but since by the wall of silence, by
being called liars and to damaged to be believed. My only concern
is that the public wont be able to stomach the truth, they will asked to
think the unthinkable, they will be angry and shocked. For myself this
means publically admitting I was a victim of most unusual child abuse
multiple times across this country when all I wanted was somewhere I
felt safe.

My views

• The terms of reference for the Waterhouse Report were not
sufficiently wide enough. There is enough evidence to conclude
this, my concern is that this question is merely and academic
exercise, and assumes that what happened in North wales
didn’t happen anywhere else, This is the only pubic Inquiry
myself and the many 1000’s of children who were and still
are victim of systemic state sponsored child abuse have had,
and this is Justice? is this closure? Having such narrow terms
of reference as highlighted above, limited the scope and the
investigation, as such Sir Ronald Waterhouse was unable to
exercise any discretion and therefore unfortunately I believe he
acted illegally, thus making the Waterhouse Report merely a
brave attempt to reveal the truth.

• Undue restriction:

I can only, as a mere victim assumes so. The Waterhouse Inquiry
never directly approached me, nor do I believe I ever would have.
I have only ever been asked once did anything happen to me
when I was at Cotsbrook, if you were I, you would to deny it. It is
only now, as I approach 40 that I can accept I was a victim. Its my
understanding that no attempt was ever made to trace many former
residents, to do so would of placed my Local Authority at risk of
legal proceedings, insurance premiums would have risen. It has and
always will be for me to approach the authorities, not the other way
round. I believe victims come of age, so therefore the Waterhouse
report failed as it dealt with my fellow victims who were many years
older than myself, or like me to busy dealing with the ramifications of
my abuse to pick up a newspaper or watch a TV report.

• Covered above in point ii.

• I did attempt in 1999 to raise my concerns with my Local Police
Force, but I was deemed and unfit person. So yes, that was my
experience, I feel I’m not alone in this happening. It was clear
to me Justice, or Justice being seen to be done would have to
wait. The wait ends when these people die. I have no axe to
grind with Sir Ronald Waterhouse; I never met him, or his team
so therefore I cannot give a judgment. However, based on my
experience the answer is a resounding yes.

• Clearly the answer is no, and the situation is no different
today, why would we/I be believed? The cost to me of this is
immeasurable, In 1991 I complained to my Local Authority
about the physical and mental abuse I suffered in Coventry
Children’s Homes, it was ‘Investigated’ and I was told my
allegations were malicious. If they didn’t believe the physical
abuse, they would never believe the sexual abuse? It also
interesting to note that no record of this complaint is recorded
on my Social Services File.

• Only the victims of the Waterhouse Inquiry can answer this.

• No, I was never made aware of an Inquiry, and after my
experience is 1991, why would I put myself through that.

My abiding memory of Cotsbrook Hall is the graffiti that adorned one
of the out building next to Lewis House. It stated in white paint ‘Sin
Bin’ because that’s what Cotsbrook and Bryn Alyn was and felt like
a sin bin. A place children go because they are ‘bad’ so bad indeed
that anyone could do anything to them in the total self confidence that
their victims will never be believed. I’m sorry to report that nothing
has changed, there is and always will be a wall of silence.

The very real point I wish to make Mrs. Justice Macur to you and
the Government Ministers you will report too, is that the very system
designed to protect me, only harmed me and, when I sought ‘justice’
against them the system that very system only protected ‘them’ not
me. I have Human Rights, but mine are deemed less important.

Institutionalized care has cost me my faith in authority, my distrust
of authority, and to not be believed and treated like scum has left a
burning frustration that will never extinguish. For myself and many
like me my future was and forever will be ‘damaged’ beyond repair, I
want public recognition of this, and I look to you to doing this.

My kindest regards

Emma