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To Herald Jim McLean seems to have been badly informed regarding events in Cleveland in 1987, commonly known as the Cleveland Child Protection Scandal. (The Herald – 10 March 2006) and he seems to be unaware of pertinent facts. Firstly the test for sexual abuse used by Drs Higgs and Wyatt, the anal dilatation test, was an unproven medical theory and the subject of considerable dispute in the medical profession as such a test can be indicative of several causations. It was the Police Surgeon, Dr. Irvine, who first raised serious concerns regarding the diagnoses of child sexual abuse by Higgs and Wyatt and thereafter the police withdrew their cooperation in the investigations of the alleged child sexual abuse cases. Some of the milder criticisms of the social workers involved and the manner in which they undertook their duties were the dawn and midnight raids on families, removing children in their nightclothes, and the use of threats, blackmail, and forceful coercion on the children as illustrated in video recordings, and an abysmal failure to carry out a full assessment of the circumstances of the children and their families. Social workers refused to believe the children when the children said they had not been abused and the social workers still persisted in their questioning in the hope they would obtain the answers they wanted to confirm their own beliefs. Obviously the social work mantra of "Always believe the child" did not apply in those circumstances. Place of Safety Orders were not rescinded, they lapsed after 28 days during which period the local authority had to bring the matter before the Courts to obtain Interim Care Orders. Of the 121 children removed from their homes in the seven month period from January to July 1987, the Courts dismissed the cases of 96 children. In the 25 other cases there was evidence of other forms of abuse which warranted a legal decision. In the succeeding three years only a mere handful of the children involved were re-referred and these were largely for other forms of abuse and neglect. It was a group of medical personnel who some months later claimed that 70% of the children involved in the Cleveland Child Protection Scandal had been abused, but it is more than a little difficult to understand how they could have reached such conclusions without having examined the children involved and without any detailed knowledge of the backgrounds of the children involved. Two of the men accused of child sexual abuse took their own lives whilst awaiting Court appearances on charges for sexual abuse. Drs Higgs and Wyatt were not "the victims of opportunistic politicians and a media witchhunt" as claimed by Jim McLean but were a part of one of the most notorious episodes of the abuse and misuse of professional powers ever witnessed in Britain. The events which occurred in Cleveland were created by the doctors and social workers involved and the responses of politicians and the media reflected very serious public concerns regarding the actions of these child protection workers. In fact, the media and the politicians reacted very responsibly to a situation where children were suffering very serious `system abuse’ and consequently suffered severe and longlasting emotional harm and many families were devastated and destroyed, and exercised very considerable restraint in their criticisms of those involved. Charles Pragnell Expert Defence Witness – Child Protection and former Head of Research and Statistics for Cleveland Social Services Department(1985 – 1990).
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