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IICSA published its final Report in October 2022. This website was last updated in January 2023.

IICSA Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

Children in the care of the Nottinghamshire Councils Investigation Report

D.2: Allegations of abuse

3. Over the last 40 years, 10 foster carers in Nottinghamshire have been convicted of sexual abuse against children in their care,[1] whilst four have been acquitted and several others deregistered following allegations. The Inquiry has received 75 individual accounts of sexual abuse in foster care in Nottinghamshire over this period, primarily drawn from statements and interviews given to the police and from investigations by the Councils.[2] Additionally, 23 complainant core participants made allegations of sexual abuse in foster care,[3] five of whom gave evidence at the public hearings.

4. The Inquiry received a number of accounts about abuse in foster care, including:

4.1. P2 was in foster care in the 1960s. She was raped by her foster father on two separate camping holidays with her foster family.[4]

4.2. P7 described regular sexual abuse by NO-F277 in a private foster placement from the age of eight until she left the home aged 26. She came to accept that the sexual abuse – which included rape – was part of her life.[5]

4.3. L45 was sexually abused in foster care by NO-F57 in the late 1970s when she was around 10. She was also abused by Robert Thorpe, a friend of the foster family, both in the foster home and when she was moved to Beechwood, aged 14. She disclosed the abuse to staff, but despite this he continued to visit her and to rape her. Thorpe was convicted in 2009 of four counts of indecent assault and five counts of unlawful sexual intercourse against her, and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.[6]

4.4. During her foster placement in the 1970s, L47 was regularly indecently assaulted by her foster father, NO-F276.[7]

4.5. P13 was sexually abused by the 21-year-old brother of his foster mother when he was in foster care between 1979 and 1981. He forced P13 – then aged 11 – to masturbate him and perform oral sex on him, and on other occasions he lay behind P13 and simulated sex.[8]

4.6. F37 was sexually and physically abused by NO-F235, her foster carer, in the 1970s and 1980s from when she was a young child until she was 15. NO-F235 regularly touched F37 indecently and went on to rape her.[9]

4.7. L48 was aged six when he and his brother were placed with NO-F275 and NO-F358. In addition to regular physical abuse, L48 was made to touch NO-F275’s penis.[10] In his next foster placement, aged 11, L48 was indecently assaulted by NO-F276, culminating in attempted anal rape.[11]

4.8. L35 was in foster care in the 1980s. Her foster carer NO-F116 would touch her between the legs. She added: “He never forced himself onto me but would make me touch his penis, and him touch me. NO-F116 would hit me with the belt if I refused to do so.”[12]

4.9. L37 was placed with a foster family in 1986. One of the foster carers, NO-F36, digitally penetrated her in the bath. Two sons of NO-F36 digitally penetrated her, inserted objects into her anus and raped her.[13]

References

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