FAA Scotland - Costs of being gagged

Middleton Guardian discovers the cost of being 'gagged'
By Holdthefrontpage staff
In two separate requests under the Freedom of Information Act, the Middleton Guardian was able to reveal to its readers the cost a council was willing to pay to ban it from reporting the details of a scandal 15 years ago.

Back in 1990/91 Rochdale Council social workers took children away from six families living on a council estate in a case later becoming infamous as the Satanic Abuse scandal. Social workers believed the children were being made to take part in satanic rituals.

The council slapped an all-pervading injunction on the paper barring any reporting whatsoever of the events. The council’s social services department was later widely condemned for its actions and the country’s social services departments became the subject of a major government review and shake-up.

The North Manchester paid-for weekly skirted around the issue for months, unable to reveal the full extent of the fiasco. Later the Mail on Sunday succeeded in having the injunction partially lifted.

But it was only last month when the BBC, working with the Middleton Guardian, had the injunction lifted to broadcast their vilifying prime-time documentary When Satan Came To Town. The Middleton Guardian splashed the new revelations on the same day.

This week The Middleton Guardian was able to reveal under Freedom of Information Act powers that the total cost of gagging the media for 15 years was just over £120,000.

Of that total the council spent £82,000 in 1991, when the main hearings took place, plus a further £38,000 in September last year, when they tried to prevent the names of the social workers involved being revealed.

Guardian editor Gerry Sammon said: "We had been waiting to blow this story wide open for 15 years, and with the help of the BBC we managed to do just that.

"But the question remained, how much was the council willing to pay to keep its disgraceful secret. We found that out, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act."

The Middleton Guardian, part of the Greater Manchester Weekly Newspapers group, put the 1991 costs into context, realising that then £82,000 would have bought a smart detached house.

The victims of the 1990/91 blunder by social services have still not received an apology nor a penny in compensation.