Foster father raped me!
8:07am Wednesday 24th January 2007
Comments (7)SOCIAL workers in Cornwall have defended their procedures after it was revealed that they placed a young girl into the hands of a foster father who persistently raped her.
Now 17, the teenager has talked exclusively to the Packet about her ordeal and appealed for others in the same position as her to speak out.
The girl - now living in the Falmouth-Penryn area - was just 12 when she was put into the care of a foster couple by Cornwall county council.
Within weeks of her arrival the man started to sexually touch her before moving on to raping her over a three-year period from the age of 13 onwards. The teenager, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the Packet that she was too frightened at first to tell anyone about the rapes because he threatened to kill her if she did.
She said: "I just want people, if they are in care and are abused, to come forward and tell someone. Don't be scared. It will come all right in the end.
"He threatened to kill me and said that his wife, who is disabled, would be left on her own if I told anyone. I believed him. When it first started happening I was so young. He said it was one of his daily chores'.
"It started off with just touching, building up gradually to rape, which went on for three years. In the end I told my boyfriend.
"It was really hard to tell anybody. I thought nobody was going to believe me. I told my boyfriend on a Friday and on that Saturday my foster father raped me.
"My boyfriend told me if I didn't go to the police then he would, so I went to the police the same day and I had to undergo a rape exam."
The girl lived in the foster home for four years. She had been placed there by social workers after it proved impossible for her to live with her mother.
"Social services took me from a bad place with my mother to somewhere which was even worse," she said. "I just wanted to die there. I just hated it. I just cried and cried but I was just told that I had emotional problems.
"He even stopped me going to bereavement counselling over the death of my dad because he was scared I might tell somebody what he'd done."
Despite the county council carrying out police checks on the man and his wife nothing came up because he did not have a criminal record and he was given clearance. It later emerged at his trial that he had also been raping his own step-daughter for ten years.
The man's wife was all right but her daughter told her that she was being abused and her mother didn't believe her, the girl told the Packet.
"I am angry with the council because I thought they were going to put me in a better place.
"I have nightmares all the time and I get days when I am feeling really low and sad. If anyone else out there is going through the same thing as me I would just say go and tell someone. It will work out all right in the end."
Her attacker, who cannot be named because this might reveal his victim's identity, was jailed for ten years by a judge at Truro Crown Court after pleading guilty to three specimen charges of rape and 12 less serious sexual offences. The judge said the effect on the two girls he assaulted was "terrible" and described him as "evil and wicked."
A statement issued this week by Cornwall County Council Foster Care and Short Break Service said that following this "isolated incident" procedures had been reviewed.
"This is clearly a very concerning and thankfully an isolated incident, which does not reflect the immense amount of good work and high quality care that is provided by almost 500 carers within the Cornwall County Council Foster Care and Short Break Service, who look after children from the county during approximately 12,000 placements that are made each year," said a council statement.
"All carers undergo a rigorous assessment and statutory checking process in complete accordance with the National Minimum Standards and Fostering Regulations (2002) and this authority's procedures are audited annually against these standards by the Commission for Social Care Inspection.
"Following this incident we have reviewed our procedures and are confident they are comprehensive and robust."
Your Say YourFalmouth Packet
Mark Smith, says...
2:42am Fri 26 Jan 07
grace quinn, says...
8:25am Fri 26 Jan 07
Rachel Bramble, says...
8:42am Fri 26 Jan 07
There are lots of young people who come into care in their teens because their parents can't cope.
Parents ask for help from social services but are only given it when there is a crisis by which time it is difficult to change things.
I believe that if social workers were based in schools and GP surgeries then difficulties could be sorted before they became crises.
There will always be some children who cannot live with their parents and some monsters like this foster carer but they would be much fewer and then the children concerned could get real quality therapeutic help rather than the rather pathetic service that most children currently get.
I am campaigning to get social workers into schools and would be happy to hear from anyone interested in helping me
Rachelbramble@yahoo.co.uk
Adele, says...
6:06pm Sat 27 Jan 07
This seems to be happening extensively in the South West of England from the amount of desperate e-mails we are receiving from parents and families claiming that their children have been unjustly removed. - See www.fassit.co.uk
sue, london says...
2:34am Sun 25 Feb 07
sophie, cornwall says...
12:28am Sat 30 Jun 07
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Mike Ellis, says...
1:24am Fri 26 Jan 07
reputation as a consequence of some high profile cases. e.g. removing
children from their parents on the basis of the IQ of that mother albeit
that the mother was intelligent enough to realise that she needed
assistance. There would have to be a complete revision of social
services to overcome concerns about their behaviour. I am aware of
people who are reluctant to seek the assistance of Social Services
precisely because of the reputation that they have acquired as a consequence of these cases. The overriding objective of Social Services should be to keep the family unit together and to provide for practical support where necessary to that end.
Note: Why also are non experts such as Social Service and CAFCASS
officers being given the power to write reports the like of which family
court judges rely on 99.9% of the time, invariably one must add in
favour of mothers? Suffice to say even expert Professor Meadows got it wrong so why use non experts in family law! Surely now is the time to completely reform family law in accordance with both United Nations Act article 6 & 8
along with the United Convention on the Rights of the Child? For not to
do so in full is to contravene said Acts at the expense of justice seen
to be done. Suffice to say parity in family law is a must.
Only as a last resort should children be removed from the care of their
Parents and then only following an order of a court where the court
itself is open to public scrutiny. There is too much, particularly
related to family law that is carried out behind closed doors
consequently there is little by way of precedent or guidance to be
obtained by reference to family court decisions.
All courts should be open for public scrutiny, particularly where the
Action involves the state or agents of the state.
www.nscfc.com