Abuse survivor 'running out of time' for apology

Mo Simmons said she was running out of time to get an apology from Southampton City Council

An 83-year-old woman has said she is running out of time to get a council apology for the historic abused she suffered in a children's home.

Mo Simmons said she was repeatedly abused by members of staff at Hollybrook Children's Home when she was 10, in circumstances experts have compared to a grooming gang.

Southampton City Council previously said it could not apologise because it was not a unitary authority at the time the abuse occurred during the 1950s.

It said it has continued to stay in touch with Mrs Simmons.

Warning: This story contains details that some readers may find upsetting

Mrs Simmons previously told the BBC her father left her at Hollybrook Children's Home, along with her two younger brothers, in 1952.

She said the sexual abuse started straight away, by the man who mended the children's shoes.

'It was horrendous'

"He sat me on a bench and pulled up my skirt. I told him he didn't need to pull my skirt up to look at my feet and I got a slap across my face. He pulled me off the bench and had sex with me," she said.

"Every time your shoes hurt you'd have to go back and it would happen again and again."

Mrs Simmons said she was raped multiple times, by multiple members of staff, during the two years she was there.

She said: "Every night was the same. You went to bed and wondered how long you had to wait, when they'd be coming.

"It was horrendous. But I had no-one to go to. They were in charge. If you spoke out you were threatened so you had to keep your mouth shut."

Mrs Simmons was left at Hollybrook Children's Home with her two brothers in 1952

Gabrielle Shaw, chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), said Mrs Simmons was the victim of a grooming gang.

She said: "How we define child sexual abuse or exploitation in a group-based context is two or more perpetrators working together to abuse children. And that's what happened to Mo."

Mrs Simmons reported the abuse to Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary but in 2020 the force said it was not able to take it any further.

She has also tried for years to get Southampton City Council to apologise for the abuse she suffered.

In 2021, she shared her experience at a council meeting. The then-leader of the council, councillor Daniel Fitzhenry, said he was personally sorry but no formal apology was issued.

The council said that was because it was not a unitary authority at the time the abuse occurred.

An Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was held between 2015 and 2022 and made 20 recommendations, including institutions apologising for abuse -without those apologies amounting to admissions of legal liability.

In January, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper rejected calls for another inquiry and said she would publish a timeline to implement those recommendations by Easter.

'Nothing has changed'

But Ms Shaw said the council could, and should, act sooner.

"Southampton City Council doesn't need to wait for the government to implement these 20 recommendations," she said.

"An acknowledgement, an apology, would make a huge difference to survivors like Mo."

A spokesperson for the council said: "Nothing has changed with regards to the legal powers we have for conducting an inquiry.

"We have continued to keep in touch with Mrs Simmons, facilitating a meeting between her and Jess Phillips, the Shadow Minister for Safeguarding, in September 2023.

"A letter was written to the then Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, about Mo's experience of abuse, putting this in the context of the national Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

"Mrs Simmons received a reply that primarily referred to the government's responses to the IICSA report recommendations."

Mrs Simmons has lived with the trauma for 73 years but vows she will carry on.

"I may run out of time but I'm going to keep fighting for as long as I can," she added.