Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse: Final Report

Debate between Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone and Lord Davies of Gower

Monday 24th October 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone (Con)]

My Lords, do I have the permission of the House to speak, because I was not here for the earlier Statement?

[Lord Davies of Gower (Con)]

It is normal to be here at the outset, so I regret that, on this occasion—

[Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone (Con)]

I gave evidence to the inquiry, and I have had very personal experiences of all this, so may I speak?

[Lord Davies of Gower (Con)]

Yes, on this occasion, we will make one exception.

[Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone (Con)]

Thank you.

I did not applaud the remit of the inquiry; it was much too broad. We had terrible problems with the chair, with whom we were, at last, third time lucky. The inquiry should not have been set up by the Home Office. In my days, it would have been set up by the health department, and now it should be by the education department—if it were, it would have been more focused, more relevant and more specific. It was far too broad.

I do not agree with all the recommendations, but I do agree with mandatory reporting. I will explain why very quickly. I used to be a chair of the juvenile court. I was a psychiatric social worker, but my first job was working with the Inner London Education Authority with a special boarding school, where I realised that the headmaster was abusing the children, if not also the parents. This was the most appalling horror to me, a virtuous person of 24. I reported it to my boss, who said, “If you complain about these sorts of things, they will not allow social workers at residential schools. You must not be a politician, Virginia; you’re a social worker”.

I then went and spoke to a very senior member of the Inner London Education Authority, a Labour member who was a friend of my family—I broke my professional line—and told her about this simply appalling man who was abusing children and the institution. She basically did nothing. Of course, what they did is what is reported in the report: they wrote him a good reference and he went off to Tunbridge Wells. I immediately wrote about this to my friend Patrick Mayhew—then the MP—to warn him, “If you ever hear anything about him at all, you must jump immediately”. Mr Bertram went off to Canada.

I say this because I think that few noble Lords in this Chamber will understand how horrific it is to think that you are working with a virtuous institution and gradually realise that the person leading it—and responsible for vulnerable children—is a perpetrator of horrendous crimes. Beyond all this, mandatory reporting would have helped me; I would have been able to say to my boss and to the local authority politician, “We have to have mandatory reporting”. So I commend Alexis Jay. She has ended up doing a very good job, but it has been quite a long journey getting there. Thank you for letting me speak.