Larchgrove Assessment Centre

Larchgrove Assessment Centre

Glasgow ‘borstal’ Larchgrove identified in latest child abuse scandal to hit Scotland.

Government and the legal system have certainly let the victims of alleged child abuse at the Larchgrove remand home.

Now its up to the Law to put things right, as much as it can …

The Sunday Herald reports :

It was our duty to protect these children in remand homes. Instead they were sexually abused by staff for years’

By Neil Mackay

Former Glasgow ‘borstal’ at the centre of the latest child abuse scandal

ON THE eve of a watershed government report explaining why children in Scottish care homes from the 1950s until the 1990s were allowed to be sexually abused, the Sunday Herald has uncovered yet another disturbing scandal.

It centres on the sexual assault of children that lasted for decades in government-run Scottish remand homes and assessment centres – the country’s equivalent of borstals. Although children were abused at a number of borstal-type institutions in Scotland, the worst site appears to be a former Glasgow borstal called Larchgrove.

The details are coming to light just as the Scottish Executive is preparing to publish the Historical Abuse Review, which is meant to draw a line under a series of shocking revelations about sex abuse in care homes run by independent organisations such as the Catholic Church and charities such as Quarriers.

Des – not his real name – was put in Larchgrove 27 years ago as a boy. He was detained for playing truant from school to avoid bullying.

“I was in there between 1978 and 1979,” he told the Sunday Herald. “The sexual and physical abuse was terrible. This was perpetrated both by staff – although not all of them – and also by people who didn’t work there.

“I complained at the time, ran away and was dragged back screaming. Nothing was ever done. I still wake up screaming, sweat running off me, because of the abuse I suffered.”

Des said he ended up a heroin addict through using drugs to “block out all the pain and abuse I suffered there”. He’s now been clean for six years and is happily married. He was the first of many people spoken to by the Sunday Herald who confirmed the routine abuse of children at Larchgrove.

Reg McKay, a former director of social work who is now a best-selling crime writer, said he was aware of the abuse of children at Larchgrove from the very beginning of his career.

As a trainee social worker in the mid-1970s, McKay came face-to-face with boys who provided evidence of sexual abuse at the infamous borstal.

McKay was the social worker for three teenage boys who were locked up in Larchgrove. In 1976 they told him that they had witnessed other children suffering sexual abuse at the hands of both male and female staff. “These kids weren’t bad boys,” said McKay. “They were deeply disturbed – from dysfunctional homes. They had some very serious personal problems and were at risk of turning to offending or falling into drug misuse.” One boy told McKay that the most dangerous time in Larchgrove was just after lights-out when the boys were put to bed. The boys were housed in small dorms holding six to eight beds. Staff would sometimes call boys from their beds. Often this was for valid reasons, such as administering medicine, but at other times it was simply to abuse them.

McKay says that on some occasions female staff took the children from their beds to be abused. The women provided the children with a false sense of security, ensuring that they didn’t panic or scream on their way to be abused. The women were “either standing by or taking part” in acts of abuse, McKay added.

“I knew this was happening back then as I heard the allegations personally,” said McKay. “The kids trusted me and had no reason to lie. When I reported the allegations to management I expected a full investigation to take place for the sake of the boys who were being abused.

“It was our duty to protect these kids and we clearly failed them. I went on to report what I was being told up the chain of command. I raised the allegations with senior members of social work staff. As far as I know there were at least three internal investigations, but nothing happened. There were no sackings, no charges – nothing.

“To be blunt, many of the homes where children were being kept in those days were worse than something out of Oliver Twist. I can even remember staff taking money from children. These were kids who had nothing in the first place.”

McKay says that he recalls the same allegations resurfacing about Larchgrove in the 1980s. “Allegations of child sex abuse were being made against many similar institutions at the time. As far as I know, nothing was done about these claims either.”

McKay says that some managers “hated” him for reporting allegations of abuse and demanding investigations. “Many social workers found themselves in the same position: raising concerns and allegations with management then having no power to ensure the right action was taken,” he added. “It was bloody frustrating – especially when you or a colleague went back to the same institution a year or two later and heard similar allegations.”

Later, as McKay’s career as a social worker progressed, he led two investigations into allegations of sexual abuse at Kerelaw – another institution for detaining children who’d broken the law. Glasgow City Council also ran this facility for vulnerable children. Kerelaw closed last year amid allegations of abuse.

Glasgow City Council admitted that 40 of its employees had been alleged to have been involved in the sexual or physical abuse of children at the home. The council also said that some of those suspected of abusing children at Kerelaw were still working with children in care.

At the end of his investigations into abuse allegations at Kerelaw in the 1980s, McKay recommended that the claims be passed to the police immediately and that those accused of assaulting children be suspended with no pay. “Once again, nothing happened,” he said. “And once again, I have no idea why.”

Frank Doherty, founder of the Scottish organisation In Care Abuse Survivors (Incas), was sent to Larchgrove for 28 days in the late 1950s. He’d previously been in care in the notorious Smyllum orphanage in Lanarkshire where many children were abused. He used two words to sum up his memories of Larchgrove: “Getting battered.”

Doherty was sent to Larchgrove for “petty criminality”, he said. The physical abuse he suffered at Smyllum had left him a mental wreck so he was in no state to withstand the violence at Larchgrove. “Going into Larchgrove after being in Smyllum set me back years as I’d already been battered and tortured. Larchgrove was just another Smyllum. I saw regular physical violence in Larchgrove and I was often on the receiving end of it.”

Tommy “TC” Campbell was another child inmate at Larchgrove. He knew boys who were abused and spoke of warders trying – but failing – to sexually abuse him. Campbell was wrongly jailed for life for the deaths of six members of one family in a firebug attack during Glasgow’s infamous “ice cream wars”. He was jailed in 1984 and his conviction was not quashed until 20 years later.

Campbell has always admitted that he was a tearaway as a teenager. He ended up in Larchgrove borstal in the mid-1960s aged 14 for truanting, trespassing and stealing eight pence. “Everything was brutal. The staff were just like screws,” he said. “They thought nothing about giving you a wallop. There were also a few child molesters among them.” It was common for boys who misbehaved to have their trousers pulled down before being beaten with a cane on their backsides.

Campbell says he knew of a number of boys who were sexually abused. He also named one warder who preyed on the weakest boys in the borstal. The warder would single out bed-wetters and other vulnerable children, believing they were less likely to inform or resist.

“They’d target the weak ones,” he said. “They wouldn’t go for the boys who were rebels or who were tougher lads as they wouldn’t stand for it. They’d go for the ones with no mum and dad – the ones who were in there for care and protection. It was the worst place the state could have sent them.

“Everyone knew what was happening. You’d see boys being taking out of showers or their dorm and then the boys would tell you what happened to them. It was a terrifying place. You’d see boys in total terror – crying and withdrawn.”

Campbell said that at the beginning of his time in Larchgrove there were attempts made to sexually abuse him. “Three different warders tried it with me,” he said, “but they realised very rapidly that I was not one to try it with.” Campbell later butted a warden for physically assaulting him.

“The whole place was mentally and psychologically oppressive. We were starving all the time – there were fights over a slice of bread.” Campbell says that the children were even fed tins of pet food. “It was like Colditz. Boys were always plotting ways of escaping, although you’d be badly beaten for trying.” Many boys were deliberately disruptive because they hoped they would be transferred to an adult jail and get away from the abuse at Larchgrove.

Tom Shaw, who is heading up the independent review of historic abuse for the Scottish government, said his report – due out shortly – investigated the flaws in the care system that allowed paedophiles to abuse children. He said that the revelations about Larchgrove underscored the need for the review. “It shows the point of our work,” he said.

The review will highlight failures in the system which can be used by victims of abuse to sue the state for failing to protect them while young. However, no individual homes or perpetrators will be named in order not to prejudice future criminal trials.

Referring to the claims of abuse at Larchgrove, Shaw added: “What we don’t know is how many more people may still want to come forward to tell their story.”

Herald Scotland 01/09/07

Charges against boys’ home staff dropped.

No criminal proceedings are to be taken after an investigation of complaints about the conduct of staff at Larchgrove Assessment Centre for delinquent boys, Glasgow.

A statement issued yesterday by Mr Stanley Bowen, Crown agent, with the authority of Mr Norman Wylie, QC, Lord Advocate, said the the required standard of evidence was not available to justify criminal proceddings.

After an inquiry by Mr Ronald A. Bennett, QC, Sheriff of Berwickshire, and Mr Peter Righton, a child care specialist, a report was issued to Glasgow Corporation social work and health committee stating that certain allegations of violence and neglect had been found proved.

The Crown Office statement indicated, however, that this proof was reached “on a balance of probabilities,” which is the standard of proof applicable in a civil court.

Further inquiry was made by the police and the procurator-fiscal, on the instructions of the Lord Advocate, as to whether the evidence reached the standard required in criminal cases – proof “beyond reasonable doubt.”

This inquiry did not disclose that the required standard of evidence was available, and accordingly the evidence did not justify criminal proceedings.

Of the 30 allegations of ill-treatment of boys at Larchgrove investigated by the independent inquiry, 13 were held to have been proved according to standards applicable in a civil court.

Mr Bennett and Mr Righton, a senior official of the National Children’s Bureau, held proved nine incidents of violence shown by staff towards boys of varying severity and involving seven members of staff; two incidents involving neglect; and two instances of unsympathetic handling.

They said that 17 of the allegations had failed, largely for lack of corroboration.

After publication of the report submitted to the social work committee Mr Robert Murdoch, superintendent at Larchgrove, and Mr John McMahon, deputy superintendent, were suspended from duty on full pay by the social work committee.

Mr Francis Carrigan, a supervisor at the centre who made public the allegations and was praised by the inquiry for his courage in doing so, has been excused duty on full pay since he made the allegations in January.

Cleared air
Mr Robert Bryson, town clerk depute, said yesterday that the decision by the Crown Office had cleared the air. The special sub-committee appointed by the social work committee to deal with the inquiry report could now consider whether there should be any disciplinary action. They will meet soon, probably next week.

After the report was published seven members of the Larchgrove staff were charged with assaulting boys.

A copy of the report went to Mr Henry Herron, procurator-fiscal at Glasgow, who said Crown counsel had instructed him to tell the town clerk that newspapers should be advised to give no publicity to the section dealing with specific allegations of ill-treatment until the question of criminal proceedings had been disposed of.

Dealing with general allegations, Mr Bennett and Mr Righton said in their report: “There is ample evidence to support a clear conclusion that shouting, pushing, cuffing, and shaking frequently occurred, particularly at line-ups and when minor offences were committed. We find also that there was sporatic punching and kicking.

“Mr Murdoch was aware of pushing and of complaints of kicking and puching. He has told the staff they were a ‘bit rough’ and told them to use the minimum force in subduing unruly boys and breaking up fights. Many of the staff plainly ignored this instruction.”

The Glasgow Herald 22/03/73

CHANGES NEEDED AT CITY BOYS’ HOME

Wide-ranging administrative changes are suggested for Larchgrove assessment centre, Glasgow, in a report published today.

The recommendations are the result of a special inquiry into allegations of cruelty at the centre in Springboig. Newspapers have been advised by the procurator-fiscal not to publish a section of the report giving details of the allegations as the Crown Office have not completed their findings on whether or not prosecution or prosecutions might arise from the report.

The inquiry, which took 18 days and 53 interviews to complete, also had a brief to examine the general day-to-day operation of the centre.

Today the report was considered at a special meeting of Glasgow Corporation’s Social Work and Health Committee.

It was the committee who appointed Mr Ronald Bennett, Q.C., and Mr Peter Righton to carry out the inquiry to January.

The two-man team, as well as offering 14 separate suggestions for improvements at Larchgrove, come down heavily on the corporation.

They say a major part of what they found unsatisfactory stems from an “inadequate appreciation of an assessment service, and a consequent failure to provide appropriate services and support.”

The main task of Larchgrove is to prepare and submit assessments on boys committed to it by Children’s Panels and Sheriff Courts. This, says the report, is the objective agreed by the director of social work and the centre superintendent.

But from their observations, the inquiry team found that the main tasks in reality were custodial control of the boys’ behavior within the unit, and prevention of the boys absconding.

During their study of the centre they watched the daily routine of the boys. The total effect – in practice if not intention – is “drab, repressive, and undermining of individual dignity.”

They speak of “impersonal and distant” staff-boy relationships. But the report is at pains to stress that problems like this are the fault of the system rather than of any particular individuals, staff or boys.

Among the recommendations made by the inquiry members were that the plans to change Larchgrove from a block organisation to a three-unit system should be implemented with the utmost possible speed.

When there is a unit to contain violent and disturbed boys, the rest of Larchgrove should become an open establishment.

There should be an increase in the number of staff, and the staff-boy ratio should be increased to not less than 1-2.

At least four qualified teachers should be appointed as soon as possible to take over classroom and other educational activities.

The daily routine should be reorganised, and in the longer term a higher proportion of women should be appointed to the professional staff than is now envisaged.

Glasgow Evening Times 07/03/73

Glasgow Herald 08/03/73

Former Glasgow ‘borstal’ at the centre of the latest child abuse scandal.

How the Sunday Herald brought abuse to light.

David Whelan, Scotland’s leading campaigner for victims of child sexual abuse in care, said the government’s review of historical abuse would never have happened if the Sunday Herald had not campaigned on the issue and run a serious of investigations into the institutional abuse of children.

Out of dozens of sex abuse investigations carried out by this paper, two key stories led to the unravelling of the true extent and human toll of the abuse of children in care. In July 2000, we reported how a widespread campaign to protect paedophile priests was orchestrated by the former leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, the late Cardinal Gordon Joseph Gray. He was among senior clergy who refused to act against paedophiles in the Church after being informed by his own that sexual abuse had taken place under his jurisdiction.

And in November 2002 the Sunday Herald reported how Scotland’s most renowned children’s charity Quarriers, which cares for the most profoundly disabled children in the country, had knowingly allowed a paedophile to live alongside the children it was supposed to care for.

Whelan said the claims of abuse at Larchgrove made it all the more essential for a serious of public inquiries to be held into the sexual assaults of children in care in previous decades.

Whelan now a successful businessman, was placed in care in Quarriers in the late 1960s. He was sexually abused by John Porteous, a house parent. In 2002, Porteous was jailed for eight years. His sentence was later cut to five years, and he was recently released after three years.

ON THE eve of a watershed government report explaining why children in Scottish care homes from the 1950s until the 1990s were allowed to be sexually abused, the Sunday Herald has uncovered yet another disturbing scandal.

It centres on the sexual assault of children that lasted for decades in government-run Scottish remand homes and assessment centres – the country’s equivalent of borstals. Although children were abused at a number of borstal-type institutions in Scotland, the worst site appears to be a former Glasgow borstal called Larchgrove.

The details are coming to light just as the Scottish Executive is preparing to publish the Historical Abuse Review, which is meant to draw a line under a series of shocking revelations about sex abuse in care homes run by independent organisations such as the Catholic Church and charities such as Quarriers.

Des – not his real name – was put in Larchgrove 27 years ago as a boy. He was detained for playing truant from school to avoid bullying.

“I was in there between 1978 and 1979,” he told the Sunday Herald. “The sexual and physical abuse was terrible. This was perpetrated both by staff – although not all of them – and also by people who didn’t work there.

“I complained at the time, ran away and was dragged back screaming. Nothing was ever done. I still wake up screaming, sweat running off me, because of the abuse I suffered.”

Des said he ended up a heroin addict through using drugs to “block out all the pain and abuse I suffered there”. He’s now been clean for six years and is happily married. He was the first of many people spoken to by the Sunday Herald who confirmed the routine abuse of children at Larchgrove.

Reg McKay, a former director of social work who is now a best-selling crime writer, said he was aware of the abuse of children at Larchgrove from the very beginning of his career.

As a trainee social worker in the mid-1970s, McKay came face-to-face with boys who provided evidence of sexual abuse at the infamous borstal.

McKay was the social worker for three teenage boys who were locked up in Larchgrove. In 1976 they told him that they had witnessed other children suffering sexual abuse at the hands of both male and female staff. “These kids weren’t bad boys,” said McKay. “They were deeply disturbed – from dysfunctional homes. They had some very serious personal problems and were at risk of turning to offending or falling into drug misuse.” One boy told McKay that the most dangerous time in Larchgrove was just after lights-out when the boys were put to bed. The boys were housed in small dorms holding six to eight beds. Staff would sometimes call boys from their beds. Often this was for valid reasons, such as administering medicine, but at other times it was simply to abuse them.

McKay says that on some occasions female staff took the children from their beds to be abused. The women provided the children with a false sense of security, ensuring that they didn’t panic or scream on their way to be abused. The women were “either standing by or taking part” in acts of abuse, McKay added.

“I knew this was happening back then as I heard the allegations personally,” said McKay. “The kids trusted me and had no reason to lie. When I reported the allegations to management I expected a full investigation to take place for the sake of the boys who were being abused.

“It was our duty to protect these kids and we clearly failed them. I went on to report what I was being told up the chain of command. I raised the allegations with senior members of social work staff. As far as I know there were at least three internal investigations, but nothing happened. There were no sackings, no charges – nothing.

“To be blunt, many of the homes where children were being kept in those days were worse than something out of Oliver Twist. I can even remember staff taking money from children. These were kids who had nothing in the first place.”

McKay says that he recalls the same allegations resurfacing about Larchgrove in the 1980s. “Allegations of child sex abuse were being made against many similar institutions at the time. As far as I know, nothing was done about these claims either.”

McKay says that some managers “hated” him for reporting allegations of abuse and demanding investigations. “Many social workers found themselves in the same position: raising concerns and allegations with management then having no power to ensure the right action was taken,” he added. “It was bloody frustrating – especially when you or a colleague went back to the same institution a year or two later and heard similar allegations.”

Later, as McKay’s career as a social worker progressed, he led two investigations into allegations of sexual abuse at Kerelaw – another institution for detaining children who’d broken the law. Glasgow City Council also ran this facility for vulnerable children. Kerelaw closed last year amid allegations of abuse.

Glasgow City Council admitted that 40 of its employees had been alleged to have been involved in the sexual or physical abuse of children at the home. The council also said that some of those suspected of abusing children at Kerelaw were still working with children in care.

At the end of his investigations into abuse allegations at Kerelaw in the 1980s, McKay recommended that the claims be passed to the police immediately and that those accused of assaulting children be suspended with no pay. “Once again, nothing happened,” he said. “And once again, I have no idea why.”

Frank Doherty, founder of the Scottish organisation In Care Abuse Survivors (Incas), was sent to Larchgrove for 28 days in the late 1950s. He’d previously been in care in the notorious Smyllum orphanage in Lanarkshire where many children were abused. He used two words to sum up his memories of Larchgrove: “Getting battered.”

Doherty was sent to Larchgrove for “petty criminality”, he said. The physical abuse he suffered at Smyllum had left him a mental wreck so he was in no state to withstand the violence at Larchgrove. “Going into Larchgrove after being in Smyllum set me back years as I’d already been battered and tortured. Larchgrove was just another Smyllum. I saw regular physical violence in Larchgrove and I was often on the receiving end of it.”

Tommy “TC” Campbell was another child inmate at Larchgrove. He knew boys who were abused and spoke of warders trying – but failing – to sexually abuse him. Campbell was wrongly jailed for life for the deaths of six members of one family in a firebug attack during Glasgow’s infamous “ice cream wars”. He was jailed in 1984 and his conviction was not quashed until 20 years later.

Campbell has always admitted that he was a tearaway as a teenager. He ended up in Larchgrove borstal in the mid-1960s aged 14 for truanting, trespassing and stealing eight pence. “Everything was brutal. The staff were just like screws,” he said. “They thought nothing about giving you a wallop. There were also a few child molesters among them.” It was common for boys who misbehaved to have their trousers pulled down before being beaten with a cane on their backsides.

Campbell says he knew of a number of boys who were sexually abused. He also named one warder who preyed on the weakest boys in the borstal. The warder would single out bed-wetters and other vulnerable children, believing they were less likely to inform or resist.

“They’d target the weak ones,” he said. “They wouldn’t go for the boys who were rebels or who were tougher lads as they wouldn’t stand for it. They’d go for the ones with no mum and dad – the ones who were in there for care and protection. It was the worst place the state could have sent them.

“Everyone knew what was happening. You’d see boys being taking out of showers or their dorm and then the boys would tell you what happened to them. It was a terrifying place. You’d see boys in total terror – crying and withdrawn.”

Campbell said that at the beginning of his time in Larchgrove there were attempts made to sexually abuse him. “Three different warders tried it with me,” he said, “but they realised very rapidly that I was not one to try it with.” Campbell later butted a warden for physically assaulting him.

“The whole place was mentally and psychologically oppressive. We were starving all the time – there were fights over a slice of bread.” Campbell says that the children were even fed tins of pet food. “It was like Colditz. Boys were always plotting ways of escaping, although you’d be badly beaten for trying.” Many boys were deliberately disruptive because they hoped they would be transferred to an adult jail and get away from the abuse at Larchgrove.

Tom Shaw, who is heading up the independent review of historic abuse for the Scottish government, said his report – due out shortly – investigated the flaws in the care system that allowed paedophiles to abuse children. He said that the revelations about Larchgrove underscored the need for the review. “It shows the point of our work,” he said.

The review will highlight failures in the system which can be used by victims of abuse to sue the state for failing to protect them while young. However, no individual homes or perpetrators will be named in order not to prejudice future criminal trials.

Referring to the claims of abuse at Larchgrove, Shaw added: “What we don’t know is how many more people may still want to come forward to tell their story.”

Glasgow Sunday Herald 02/07/07

SUSPENDED BOYS-HOME BOSSES
Shock after report

Mr. Robert Murdoch, superintendent of Larchgrove Assessment Centre, Glasgow, and his deputy, Mr John McMahon, have been suspended on full pay.

Glasgow Corporation’s social work and health committee took this step today after considering a report of an inquiry into the Springboig centre.

The committee have also appointed a special subcommittee to consider the report of the inquiry carried out by Mr Ronald Bennett, Q.C., and Mr Peter Righton, who were appointed in January.

This sub-committee will hear what members of the staff at Larchgrove have to say on their behalf, or through their solicitors or other representatives, and will make its recommendations to a future meeting of the social work and health committee.

This was announced at a press conference in the City Chambers today by Councillor Mrs Nan Patrick, Glasgow’s social work and health convener, after the committee debated the report for almost two hours.

The investigation was prompted by allegations by Mr Francis Carrigan, a supervisor at the centre.

Newspapers have been advised by the procurator-fiscal not to publish a section of the report giving details of allegations of cruelty.

In a lengthy statement today, Mrs Patrick said the committee recognised the general validity of the criticisms made, and were resolved that as far as possible these matters should be put right.

“It is our firm intention to set our house in order, both as regards Larchgrove, and as regards headquarters support and, in consultation with the establishments committee and others concerned, we will see that this is done,” she said.

Mr Murdoch’s temporary replacement at the school is an official of Loaningdale School, Mr William Jardine.

“Mr Jardine has been at Loaningdale for only two years, but he is a very experienced man and is very highly thought of in many circles,” said Councillor Patrick.

The position of Mr Carrigan has yet to be decided by the committee.

Mr James Johnston, director of social work, said today – “Quite obviously he has been justified in some measure by the results of the investigation, there can be no question about that.

“It is also a fact, however, that the ways which Mr Carrigan could have used to bring his allegations to the notice of the committee were not used, and the implications here are something which we have to consider.”

Councillor Mrs Patrick said there was no question of Mr Carrigan being victimized, and Mr Johnston denied that Mr Carrigan had tried for a year to make his allegations through normal channels.

At the press conference Mr Robert Bryson, depute town clerk, pointed out that the suspension of Mr Murdoch and Mr McMahon was not necessarily connected with the allegations in the first part of the report.

They have responsibilities fpr the supervision of the home, and it is in that respect that the committee feel it necessary that they should be suspended on full pay.

“There is not any punitive atmosphere attached to it at this stage,” he said.

It was pointed out by Mr Johnston that there was a national shortage of trained social work staff at all times, and this, of course, contributed to the corporation’s ability to staff Larchgrove.