Child Abuse Inquiry: Paedophile ring questions over children in care

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has been urged to investigate whether children in care fell victim to paedophile rings.

The long-running inquiry has started to examine the abuse of young offenders and vulnerable children in care in Scotland from 1930 to 2014.

Abuse survivors have asked it to investigate the extent of abuse by what they called "organised predatory paedophiles" in the community.

The inquiry is being led by Lady Smith.

It is now focusing on residential accommodation for young offenders, children and young people awaiting trial and those in need of care and protection.

It has already received allegations involving 39 establishments run by the prison service, local authorities, religious groups and charities.

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They include approved schools, list D schools, secure accommodation, remand homes, assessment centres, borstals, remand institutions, detention centres and young offenders' institutions.

The inquiry says it will explore the nature and extent of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, including corporal punishment, restraint and segregation.

Shelagh McCall KC, representing the group In Care Abuse Survivors (Incas), told the inquiry that some of its members had suffered lifelong damage by their experiences in the institutions.

She said they were places of last resort for children whose behaviour had been judged too difficult to manage in other settings, but often it was not recognised that many of them were troubled and traumatised.

"The system meant that a child accused of murder could be accommodated alongside another boy who was there because his mother was in hospital," Ms McCall said.

Survivors have talked of suffering physical, sexual and emotional abuse, and being subjected to excessive corporal punishment, degrading isolation cells and punishments such as toilet cleaning and forcible and excessive restraint.

'Organised predatory paedophiles'

Ms McCall said they were not protected from staff, from their peers or from themselves, and some took their own lives.

"When the brutality of these regimes was apparently well known, why was it tolerated?" she asked.

Ms McCall said the inquiry should look for links between institutions, individuals and groups and examine why perpetrators were able to move between institutions in spite of complaints or knowledge of their behaviour.

"What was the extent of abuse by organised predatory paedophiles in the community of children from these institutions?" she said.

"What did the authorities know about that and what did they do?

"Did perpetrators who worked in these institutions share information about vulnerable youngsters with other abusers in other institutions and in the community?"

Lawyers representing a series of organisations responsible for the care of children addressed the inquiry.

The Scottish government, De La Salle Brothers, Glasgow City Council, the Church of Scotland, Dr Guthrie's Association, Aberdeen City Council, St Philip's School, the Salesians of Don Bosco, the Good Shepherd Sisters, St Mary's Kenmure, Rossie Young People's Trust, City of Edinburgh Council, South Lanarkshire Council, East Lothian Council and Renfrewshire Council all offered their apologies to anyone who suffered abuse.

Hearings in this phase of the inquiry are expected to continue until the end of this year and most of 2024.