Council let gay foster parents abuse kids!

[helium3]

By Lucy Thornton 06/09/2007
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Two gay foster parents were allowed to sexually abuse children in their care because social workers were scared of appearing to discriminate against them.

A damning report published yesterday revealed that managers and staff were reluctant to investigate partners Craig Faunch and Ian Wathey, who turned out to be paedophiles.

Faunch and Wathey were jailed in June 2006 for offences against four boys in their care.

The inquiry found the children had been let down through "failures in performance" by individuals and systems at Wakefield Council, West Yorks.

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The couple had 18 children placed with them between August 2003 and January 2005.

The report said: "It is clear that these foster carers proved challenging to a number of professional staff, some of whom were ill-equipped for the task of working with them and supervising them."

The document said staff had "anxieties" about their actions being viewed as prejudiced against gays and went on: "The fear of being discriminatory led them to fail to discriminate between the appropriate and abusive."

Staff had the chance to prevent the couple's offences and middle managers were most to blame for blunders. Investigators, led by former Surrey social services chief Brian Parrott, said bosses did not review information and ignored guidance on fostering placements and child protection.

The report said the council's fostering team manager was "unsuited" to the role and the independent reviewing manager's interventions were "too light-touch and too late".

The children's services manager responsible for family placement was "too remote".

Investigators also criticised the fostering panel which approved Faunch and Wathey, of Pontefract, as carers.

Questions were not asked and children were placed without their needs being properly considered. The placement of the couple's first child "could not have been more inappropriate".

The investigators said of the staff's fears of appearing prejudiced: "These anxieties about discrimination have deep roots in social work training, professional identity and organisational cultures."

Last year's trial at Leeds crown court heard suspicions were raised when Faunch photographed one victim urinating but social workers decided the men were just "naive and silly".

Judge Sally Cahill said it was "quite incredible" the council did not call police earlier.

Faunch was jailed for six years and Wathey for five.

Yesterday's report made 41 recommendations to Wakefield Council. Its family services chief, Elaine McHale, said: "We welcome the independent inquiry carried out at our request by Brian Parrott.

"We are grateful for all his work and for the recommendations he has made which we are using to improve our fostering services now and for the future."

Only three weeks ago it was revealed Wakefield Council had agreed a £1million settlement with six children's home workers who blew the whistle on a catalogue of mismanagement.

It sacked the staff for speaking out but caved in on the eve of an employment tribunal.


the reason i posted this story is: i was reading it in a paper today, and i realised just how politically correct we have become. we dare not speak out against anyone for fear of being branded or prosicuted these days.its even worse when you try and tackle issues with minority groups!

[Flagg]

By Lucy Thornton 06/09/2007
Related Articles
More Top Stories
Have your say: Top Stories forum
Two gay foster parents were allowed to sexually abuse children in their care because social workers were scared of appearing to discriminate against them.

A damning report published yesterday revealed that managers and staff were reluctant to investigate partners Craig Faunch and Ian Wathey, who turned out to be paedophiles.

Faunch and Wathey were jailed in June 2006 for offences against four boys in their care.

The inquiry found the children had been let down through "failures in performance" by individuals and systems at Wakefield Council, West Yorks.

Advertisement
The couple had 18 children placed with them between August 2003 and January 2005.

The report said: "It is clear that these foster carers proved challenging to a number of professional staff, some of whom were ill-equipped for the task of working with them and supervising them."

The document said staff had "anxieties" about their actions being viewed as prejudiced against gays and went on: "The fear of being discriminatory led them to fail to discriminate between the appropriate and abusive."

Staff had the chance to prevent the couple's offences and middle managers were most to blame for blunders. Investigators, led by former Surrey social services chief Brian Parrott, said bosses did not review information and ignored guidance on fostering placements and child protection.

The report said the council's fostering team manager was "unsuited" to the role and the independent reviewing manager's interventions were "too light-touch and too late".

The children's services manager responsible for family placement was "too remote".

Investigators also criticised the fostering panel which approved Faunch and Wathey, of Pontefract, as carers.

Questions were not asked and children were placed without their needs being properly considered. The placement of the couple's first child "could not have been more inappropriate".

The investigators said of the staff's fears of appearing prejudiced: "These anxieties about discrimination have deep roots in social work training, professional identity and organisational cultures."

Last year's trial at Leeds crown court heard suspicions were raised when Faunch photographed one victim urinating but social workers decided the men were just "naive and silly".

Judge Sally Cahill said it was "quite incredible" the council did not call police earlier.

Faunch was jailed for six years and Wathey for five.

Yesterday's report made 41 recommendations to Wakefield Council. Its family services chief, Elaine McHale, said: "We welcome the independent inquiry carried out at our request by Brian Parrott.

"We are grateful for all his work and for the recommendations he has made which we are using to improve our fostering services now and for the future."

Only three weeks ago it was revealed Wakefield Council had agreed a £1million settlement with six children's home workers who blew the whistle on a catalogue of mismanagement.

It sacked the staff for speaking out but caved in on the eve of an employment tribunal.


the reason i posted this story is: i was reading it in a paper today, and i realised just how politically correct we have become. we dare not speak out against anyone for fear of being branded or prosicuted these days.its even worse when you try and tackle issues with minority groups!

I heard this on the radio today and peoples views were all the same, instead of being sensible we were politically correct and look what happened.

[kfrost06]

It saddens me deeply reading about children being abused.

[Teabagger]

Oh yeah baby...the benefits of being "sensitive", "politically correct", "inclusive"," tolerent", non-judgemental, and lacking a moral compass.

Now lets wait for all to come and respond that this is an isolated incident, straight foster parents abuse kids more often, etc...blah blah blah...

Hell, NAMBLA should a placement agency for these kids considering how well the spineless, gutless, idiots performed.

[Tock]

the reason i posted this story is: i was reading it in a paper today, and i realised just how politically correct we have become. we dare not speak out against anyone for fear of being branded or prosicuted these days.its even worse when you try and tackle issues with minority groups!

I found this story at
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1770
(it would be nice if you'd post links to the news stories you post).

Anyway, ya, this is a terrible thing; I don't know why the British social services people didn't do their job and check these people out before entrusting children to them. There was no need to appear politically correct; all they needed to do was check their background, and periodically check on the environment the kids were put in. What's so difficult about that?

I'd be surprised if this was the only time that children were abused; I'd be very surprised if gay couples were the only people who abused children.

From the news story:
Last night, Michelle Elliott, a director of Kidscape, said: "Common sense went out of the window when they allowed political correctness to take over in this case.

"I don't care if you are homosexual or bisexual - if you are taking care of children you need to be vetted and subjected to the same investigation as anyone else.

"Child abuse knows no gender boundaries."

I agree with Ms. Eliott. The social service organization failed the kids when they allowed political correctness to prevail.

[BgMc31]

Not surprising that this has happened. And not because these foster parents were gay. There are bad people in every demographic. Bad straight people, bad gay people, bad black people, bad white people, etc. Evil isn't exclusive to any one particular demographic. The true tragedy is the fact the the investigators were 'afraid' to say anything because of fear of being looked at as discriminatory. To me that's a cop out and a lame-assed excuse. You expect people like that to do what's truely in the interest of children any investigation would prove that.

[Tock]

Say, Helium, where did you get your copy of this article? It doesn't match the version I found at the Daily Mail from England . . .

By Lucy Thornton 06/09/2007
Related Articles
More Top Stories
Have your say: Top Stories forum
Two gay foster parents were allowed to sexually abuse children in their care because social workers were scared of appearing to discriminate against them.

A damning report published yesterday revealed that managers and staff were reluctant to investigate partners Craig Faunch and Ian Wathey, who turned out to be paedophiles.

[helium3]

Say, Helium, where did you get your copy of this article? It doesn't match the version I found at the Daily Mail from England . . .

i was at a local drop off point at work there were several news papers i flicked through so im not sure although daily mirror rings a bell.

i then came home and pasted some of what i rmembered into google and took it from there.but if you are refereing to the title, i typed that in myself or are you refering to the whole story?

[helium3]

Not surprising that this has happened. And not because these foster parents were gay. There are bad people in every demographic. Bad straight people, bad gay people, bad black people, bad white people, etc. Evil isn't exclusive to any one particular demographic. The true tragedy is the fact the the investigators were 'afraid' to say anything because of fear of being looked at as discriminatory. To me that's a cop out and a lame-assed excuse. You expect people like that to do what's truely in the interest of children any investigation would prove that.

true, we cannot say that all gay foster parents are pedophiles, but what we can say is that pedophiles find their way into these postitions giving them easy access to children, similar to how the church has had this sort of thing go on in the past with alter boys etc.

so foster parents whether they be gay or straight should come under great scutiny at first until the authorities are satisfied nothing untoward is going on.
people should not be allowed to hide behind political correctness when issues need to be addressd.

[Tock]

people should not be allowed to hide behind political correctness when issues need to be addressd.

Nobody can disagree with that.

[Tock]

Originally Posted by Tock
Say, Helium, where did you get your copy of this article? It doesn't match the version I found at the Daily Mail from England . . .

i was at a local drop off point at work there were several news papers i flicked through so im not sure although daily mirror rings a bell.

i then came home and pasted some of what i rmembered into google and took it from there.but if you are refereing to the title, i typed that in myself or are you refering to the whole story?

Um, ya; the whole story.

It seems that the version you posted differs significantly from the version I found at http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_obje...name_page.html

The version at The Daily Mirror mentions:

Wathey denies six charges of sex with a child and one of causing a child to watch a sex act on video. Faunch denies two charges of taking indecent photos and five of sex with two boys. The trial continues.

There are other differences as well.


My concern is that some sources of news are less than impartial, and some reposters of news articles are biased, and often edit the story to their liking. So, to ensure that we're getting the version published by a reliable source, it would be nice if you'd include a link telling where the story came from.

Thanks . . .