Apology to council child abuse whistleblower Sue Thomas

Sue Thomas raised concerns about paedophile Michael Smith nine years before he was jailed

A council has issued an "sincere apology" to a whistleblower who was sacked after raising concerns about a youth worker.

Sue Thomas first raised concerns about Michael Smith in April 2005 but was sacked by Pembrokeshire council the following year.

Smith carried on working for the council until he was sacked for unrelated gross misconduct in 2012.

He went on to abuse a boy two years later and was jailed in 2014.

Council leader David Simpson said the authority offered a "sincere apology" to Ms Thomas and cabinet member Neil Prior said it was a matter of "huge disappointment" that the historical failings had taken place.

The cabinet also agreed to pay £1,000 to a charity of Ms Thomas's choice.

Michael "Mik" Smith was jailed for six years in 2014 after being convicted of child sexual offences

Ms Thomas said people accepted even when quality safeguarding was in place, serious problems could arise within any organisation.

She added: "What people want to be confident about is that when things go wrong, everything possible is done to put things right, quickly and openly.

"Whistleblowing should be accepted as an effective monitoring process in any organisation and should be valued accordingly."

Ms Thomas had invoked the council's whistleblowing policy and contacted her line manager saying Smith could pose a risk.

She cited several concerns along with those raised by "other named youth workers" about his inappropriate conduct towards young boys, but he was only given a verbal warning at the time.

She then emailed the chief executive and the director of education in November 2005 about her complaint, but a report in 2014 found the reply she received was "dismissive" and her complaint was mischaracterised as "one of a personal nature about her relationships with others in her team".

This culminated in her dismissal as "being incapable of undertaking the duties of her post", while Smith continued in his role.

Smith was given a six-year jail sentence after admitting sexually assaulting a child under the age of 13, inciting the child to engage in sexual activity and taking indecent photographs of a child.

He also admitted possessing 1,136 indecent images of children.