Former Great Ormond Street porter groomed family to get at boys

Paul Farrell targeted victims between 1985 and 2020, committing offences at addresses across London

The mother of three boys sexually assaulted by a former Great Ormond Street Hospital porter said she felt as if her "heart had been ripped out" when the abuse was revealed, a court heard.

Paul Farrell, 55, previously pleaded guilty to 76 offences against eight victims between 1985 and 2020.

Wood Green Crown Court heard he kept a diary of threats and bribes he used to keep one of his victims under control.

Farrell, of Camden, north London, will be sentenced on Monday.

The court has been told how he befriended the parents of his victims and acted as a babysitter in order to abuse their children at addresses across the capital.

'I feel I have failed as a mother'

Prosecutor Paul Douglass said the defendant had "effectively manipulated and groomed the whole family" in order to "get at" the three brothers.

In her impact statement to the court, their mother said she felt that Farrell had "used us as parents" and described how her life had been "turned upside down" by the ordeal.

Visibly emotional while reading her statement, she said: "I feel I have failed as a mother. How could I have not known?

"Why did the boys feel they could not come to me? Am I that bad of a mother that they could not come to me?"

She added: "I will not allow this man to destroy my family. My boys are survivors and we will get through this and come out stronger."

'Malicious threats'

The abuse came to light when officers investigating allegations made against Farrell by two other victims found messages of a sexual and threatening nature to one of the brothers on his phone.

Mr Douglass said one of Farrell's phones showed how "he kept a diary in which he noted down, day by day, his strategy to keep them under his control".

His notes included reminders of presents to buy for members of the family, or to offer himself as a babysitter.

One of the brothers was aged 12 when the abuse started and the court heard Farrell had used "malicious threats, bribes and promises" to abuse him over a three-to-four-year period.

In one diary entry he noted he would "give (the victim) £10 for letting me stay in his room", while on another he said he would tell him he would get "very angry" if the boy's parents ever found out.

Mr Douglass said the boy would be attacked while he slept and had "frequently expressed his distress to the defendant" but Farrell would continue.

In his statement read to the court by the prosecutor, the boy said he cried himself to sleep during the abuse and felt suicidal following his ordeal.

Farrell worked at Great Ormond Street Hospital between 1994 and 2020

The court heard the victim's two younger brothers were abused by Farrell in the bedroom they shared, and while both were in the room.

Mr Douglass added that their older brother had no suspicion that his siblings were also being abused by Farrell at the time.

The 55-year-old worked at Great Ormond Street Hospital between 1994 and 2020, but he did not target any patients.

His offences, carried out between 1985 and 2020, include attempted rape, sexual assault of a child under 13 and making indecent photographs of children, against victims now aged between nine and 43, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

The court has heard the total number of offences Farrell had committed numbered "not less than 560 over a period of 35 years" but that the true figure was "likely to be in the thousands".

David Osborne, acting for the defendant, said on Friday that Farrell had expressed that he was "sorry for what he has done" and accepted that he is facing a lengthy prison sentence.

Farrell is expected to be sentenced on Monday.