'Culture of Endemic Abuse' at St. Paul's School
Report says school more concerned about reputation rather than pupils
A new review into allegations of abuse over five decades at St Paul’s School in Barnes has said that the school must issue an “unambiguous statement” that it accepts full responsibility for the past abuse experienced by pupils at the school.
The report was commissioned by Richmond Safeguarding Children Board in April 2017 following the conviction of five adults who had previously worked at St. Paul’s School or its associated prep school Colet Court, and published this Monday (13 January).
The £13,000-a-term independent school, whose former pupils include ex-politicians George Osborne and Dominic Grieve, saw more than 80 individual complaints emerge against 32 of its staff in the period 2013 and 2015.
These allegations mainly dated from the 1960s to 1990s, however the review also includes the most recent conviction of a member of staff, who had been working in the school until 2017.
It related to a science teacher who had taught at the school for 17 years before being arrested in the Thames Valley Police area in 2018 after he was tracked by the police having sexualised online communication with someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.
The Serious Case Review was conducted by Edina Carmi and Jane Wonnacott. It is a locally conducted multi-agency review that looks into circumstances where a child or children have been abused or neglected resulting in serious harm and death, causing concern as to the way the relevant authority worked together to safeguard the child.
The review involved speaking to 59 ex-pupils and sought to understand the experience of survivors of abuse at St Paul’s school who are now adult men. It has made 28 recommendations, nine of which related specifically to the school.
The review noted that many ex-pupils described a culture of endemic abuse. One ex-pupil described teachers as having “licence to terrorise”, with descriptions of teachers banging boys’ heads on the desk and beating a boy so badly he had to be hospitalised.
A pupil from the 1970s and 1980s alleges that on one occasion he woke up in a member of staff’s bed after becoming drunk the previous evening.
On another occasion records show that there was an apparently deliberate destruction of diary entries by the (then) High Master of diaries, detailing inappropriate behaviour which included spanking of pupils by a teacher.
As a result of this destruction, these diaries were not available to a later police investigation of allegations made against this member of staff.
However, not all offences involved pupils at St Paul’s School – there were also cases where staff at the school were found to have abused children who were not pupils.
One abuser also received several child abuse convictions after leaving St Paul’s School, before the allegations about abuse at the school were made public.
In recent years, five former staff have been convicted of sexual offences, while one former staff member stood trial and was found not guilty.
Another case was withdrawn at court and a not guilty verdict was recorded, while 16 other teachers were dead by the time the allegations came to light. In the cases relating to deceased members of staff, no further action was taken.
The report said that “accepting responsibility for past abuse must be a foundation for moving forward and developing an effective safeguarding culture.”
It said the school was “totally unprepared for what faced them” and criticised the school for not notifying the Charity Commission of the arrest of members of staff in 2013 and 2014. However, it noted the school now accepts they should have done so.
It also condemned the school for not always being “sufficiently sensitive in their use of language,” and for having “inadvertently given the impression that the needs and feelings of survivors and other affected ex-pupils are not important.”
It said the first information about the extent of allegations of non-recent abuse was given in 2014, but an apology including all past pupils was not sent until September 2018.
It called on the school to issue a “clear unambiguous statement that they accept full responsibility for the past abuse experienced by pupils at the school”, and should engage directly with survivors of abuse at Board level and consider co-opting a survivor of abuse to the Board of Governors.
It noted that when allegations were brought forward throughout the school’s history, the school was generally more concerned with “maintaining the reputation of the organisation and the needs of the alleged perpetrators” than any consideration of the impact that their behaviour had on pupils.
The report also noted the difficulties schools face in responding to allegations of abuse, and balancing employment law, education legislation and good safeguarding practice.
It said “this can result in an unintended message to pupils that concerns about abuse should be kept secret”, and recommended the Department for Education should ensure national guidance to schools on safeguarding practice is clear about best practice in managing this tension, where the child’s welfare is “paramount”.
It cited accounts where parents and pupils said the position of St Paul’s as a high achieving, fee paying, competitive entry school inhibited them from speaking out. Other key findings included improving relationships between agencies in safeguarding partnerships.
The report highlighted a lack of trust between the school and local authority which led to “unhelpful defensiveness”. Likewise, the review said there were gaps in the national safeguarding system in relation to the recruitment and regulation of teachers.
It called on the Department for Education to lead an immediate review of the system to eradicate the time lag between an offender’s conviction and appearance on the Disclosure and Barring Scheme barring list, in order to remove the possibility that an offender could obtain voluntary work with children. Police procedures in London were also criticised for not providing “sufficient clarity” for managing complex investigations.
The review said there is room for a more coherent support plan when there is a not guilty verdict.
It said it “may not be enough” for the Metropolitan police to signpost complainants to other services such as victim support.
It also added the unit should establish a system for the supervision and support of officers carrying out child abuse investigations to provide emotional support to minimise the likelihood of any bias within the investigation process itself.
In relation to St Paul’s, the review said the school should review its communication with parents to make them feel more comfortable when reporting concerns about the well-being of their children, and that it should require the counselling service in the junior school to keep contemporaneous notes in line with expectations in the senior school.
It also added that the school should stop “any expectation” of its traditional home visits where parents invite tutors to the family home for a social visit”, because they give the wrong impression regarding boundaries between staff and pupils.
If this is to continue, “any visits to the home should be formalised and recorded”, it said.
The report advised a “similar short review of progress” in about two years, to look at the progress made on the recommendations locally and nationally.
Chris Robson, Chair of the Richmond Safeguarding Children’s Board, said: “This review was commissioned to consider allegations of abuse reported at St Paul’s School over five decades. I am grateful to the independent reviewers, professionals that worked with them and most importantly those who contributed often giving very personal and difficult accounts.
“Through this process we have been able to understand what happened, why it happened and what it means for safeguarding practice going forward. The safety of children now and in the future is at the forefront of everything we do.
“It is important that the reader understands this is an independent multi-agency review and whilst the school is the focus safeguarding remains the responsibility of all of us. The entire safeguarding community, including this and similar schools will benefit from the review of processes and procedures with recommendations that are aimed at ensuring young people are safe in the future and not at risk of any abuse.”
A spokesperson from St Paul’s School, said: “St Paul’s School welcomes the Serious Case Review report. The school contributed to, and collaborated with, the SCR and accepts its recommendations.
“We accept full responsibility for the past abuse experienced by pupils at the school and have previously apologised to survivors and our wider school community. Today, we repeat that apology unreservedly to those who have come forward and to those who have not felt able to. Our modern safeguarding regime is of a very high standard and we are determined to ensure, through continuous improvement of practice, that we never forget the lessons of our past.”
The school has carried out internal reviews and commissioned six reviews of various aspects of safeguarding practice by external consultants and a QC.
If you or someone you know has been affected by the impact of child sexual abuse, directly or indirectly, and would like some help or support, you may wish to speak to your GP who can refer you locally for counselling.
You can find out more, or seek help and support over the phone, face to face, or online, at The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) and The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).
Allegations in respect of abuse at St Paul’s School should be reported to the police Operation Winter Key. The police can be contacted by telephone on 020 8217 6582 or email at OperationWinterKeymailbox@met.pnn.police.uk.
Sian Bayley - Local Democracy Reporter
January 14, 2020
