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Scots sex inquiry expert vows to weed out paedophiles and slates authorities who blanked kids' pleas
By Annie Brown
THE UK could be on the brink of one the most shocking child sex abuse exposés in history, according to Scotland’s most respected social work expert. A five-year inquiry has been launched to uncover institutional paedophile activity and cover ups, and Professor Alexis Jay who is on the panel of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, has warned that the range of abuse is potentially enormous. The investigation has been launched amid allegations of abuse rings in Westminster. Professor Jay said: “Regrettably, what I think we are seeing is the uncovering of a scale of abuse, across many institutions, which we have never anticipated. “We don’t know yet exactly what we will find but it stretches back a long, long way.” Scotland’s former chief social work adviser has previously issued damning indictments on the systematic failures which allowed for the abuse of at least 1400 children in Rotherham. Her report was shocking, in terms of the extent of abuse and negligence it uncovered but also because it was so bold in its candour. Now she is reassuringly dauntless in the face of an investigation which will reach into the powerhouses of Britain, from Westminster and the BBC, to health services, schools, churches, charities and local authorities. She said: “If abuse has been carried out by anyone, anywhere, it doesn’t matter where they sit in our hierarchy, it needs to be uncovered.” The inquiry, set up amid allegations of a paedophile ring in Westminster, will see Jay tasked with investigating the handling of abuse within charities and voluntary groups, as well as local authorities and the justice system. It will investigate abuses and any cover ups in England and Wales but its tentacles will inevitably touch Scotland. Dame Lowell Goddard, the New Zealand judge running the five-year inquiry, has promised it will be transparent and lead to “meaningful change”. This time last year, Jay revealed widescale grooming and abuse by largely Asian men in Rotherham and concluded it had been compounded by the authorities, including the police and social work, turning a blind eye. She said: “The clarity and directness in my report was entirely intentional. Too often public documents use jargon and language which obfuscates what has occurred. I don’t know why that it is. “People needed to know how bad that abuse was. Without resorting to gratuitous, lurid details, we wanted to be clear about what happened to these children.” She is clearly angered that youngsters already vulnerable through social deprivation were made doubly so by the denials of the authorities tasked with protecting them. She said: “Nobody could say, ‘We didn’t know’. Police labelled them as scrubbers and tarts. “They continued to prioritise burglaries and car crime. They thought these victims weren’t worthy of having the abuse investigated as a crime. “The social services at that time, when they were inundated with child protection referrals, also took a line that these were ‘lifestyle choices’.” Over 16 years, gangs were able to target, groom and abuse girls as young as 11, with little to fear from the authorities. Jay revealed a series of incidents in which children were gang raped, beaten, threatened and then dismissed and ignored by the authorities. She described how in 2001 a 15-year-old girl was doused in petrol by her abuser who threatened to set her alight. “The sexual abuse and rape of children in itself is so dreadful. However, when we looked in detail at cases, the kind of things that happened to these girls was absolutely shocking. The level of violence and brutality that was used, as well as the sexual abuse to control and humiliate them, was appalling.” Her report drew a collective gasp and Jay found herself unintentionally in the spotlight. With the anniversary of the report this week, interest has extended beyond our shores, with interview requests from news services such as CNN. She said: “I believe that the impact of my report has been such that it has most certainly raised public awareness of the issue of child sexual exploitation. I expected it to attract a lot of attention but I hadn’t anticipated it would have had the effect it did. I am glad it did.” Jay, 66, developed her expertise in the field as a social worker in the poorest parts of Glasgow, Inverclyde, Lanarkshire and Edinburgh. From Edinburgh, she is the daughter of a bookbinder mother and a carpenter father who died in an industrial accident when she was two. Her mother found herself alone, raising two toddlers in a single end, until she remarried and graduated to a room and kitchen, before endeavour elevated them from poverty. She initially wanted to be a journalist but moved to social work after a stint volunteering for Save the Children in the schemes of Edinburgh. Jay said: “I recognised how important social justice was and equality and fairness. I was well grounded in some of the most deprived communities in Scotland.” In 2005, she wrote a report accusing social workers in the Western Isles of failing three girls who suffered prolonged sexual, physical and emotional abuse. Frustratingly, no prosecutions followed. But she said: “We were the least of the people to be frustrated. There were the victims.” In 2005 she became chief social work inspector at the social work Inspection agency, a government body scrutinising all aspects of social services. Jay served as chief executive and chief social work inspector until the functions of SWIA were taken over by the Care Inspectorate in 2011. She remained as chief social work adviser to the Scottish Government until early 2013. Exposed as she is to so much of society’s worst depravity, Jay is remarkably resilient. Her driving force is the truth and bringing redress to victims. The Western Isles case taught her that to listen to victims is essential. She recalls reaching saturation point only once after reading document upon document cataloguing particularly brutal abuse. Jay said: “I was reading witness statements and I just had to step outside, to breathe and look at normal people and get back in touch with reality.” Experience has taught her to set her own boundaries. She said: “I don’t think that I could cope with visual material of the very worst kind of sexual abuse. “I fear that watching and listening to the abuse of children would imprint on my mind and it would be hard to get those images out of my head. “I have never been required to do so but I know my limits in terms of stress.” Behind the inquiries, reports and investigations is the hope of protecting our children but the internet has made the task all but impossible. Jay said: “We need to know why there is an increased demand for sex with children, a demand which is hugely assisted by the explosion of internet grooming and social networking. “I don’t know the answer but there has to be a clear purpose that helps the victims, prevents abuse and catches the criminals.”
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