Abuse of Trust: Frank Beck and the Leicestershire Children’s Home Scandal

For the first time in 18 years, the definitive account of one of Britain's worst child abuse scandals is re-published — with a new chapter looking at the role of the Labour MP Greville Janner.

Frank Beck sexually and physically abused more than 200 looked after children while working as a residential care home manager for Leicestershire County Council. This books shows how he got away with it, after gulling social workers and council managers.

Janner, a lawyer, backbencher and influential figure in Labour, repeatedly avoided prosecution for his involvement in the Leicestershire care scandal, despite being named as an abuser during the criminal case against Beck.

In an epilogue to this new, enlarged edition of this acclaimed book on the scandal, Paul Gosling deals with Janner's dominance of the local Labour Party, his influence within the wider parliamentary party and the failed police investigations into him.

Detectives carrying out the latest investigation into Janner are working on the theory that he abused children with Beck.

Abuse of Trust, first published in 1998, has long been viewed by social work professionals as an important audit of this case. Gosling and the BBC journalist Mark D'Arcy, his co-author, investigate how Beck and his cronies came to rampage through children's homes in Leicestershire for more than a decade.

Despite complaints from children, they continued their psychopathic reign of terror for 13 years, aided by — at best — incompetence at Leicestershire County Council, Leicestershire Police, and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Hundreds of children in the care of the local authority were damaged, and some tragically died.

One is suspected, now, of being murdered.

At the time Beck was brought to justice for the scandal, allegations that the local MP Greville Janner was also involved were roundly dismissed in the House of Commons, where Janner was supported by his fellow Leicestershire MPs.



REVIEWS

Today when the pendulum seems to swinging again to start disbelieving claims by survivors that they were sexually abused the republication of a book examining one of the first major child sex scandals is a timely reminder of what victims faced in the 1970s and 1980s.

Abuse of Trust looks at the case of the long dead Frank Beck, a charismatic social worker who got away with abusing possibly up to 200 children for two decades before finally being caught and convicted.

It is particularly relevant as Alexis Jay’s child sex abuse inquiry is planning to resurrect the dire situation in Leicestershire social services at the time with an examination of the role of the then local MP, Greville Janner, who was facing multiple charges of child sexual abuse at the time of his death last year.

The book written by two diligent journalists, Mark D’Arcy, a BBC Parliament correspondent and Paul Gosling, an ex Leicester councillor and an experienced freelance journalist...

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to remind themselves about the sheer nastiness, brutality and cover ups that seem to dog this area.

— David Hencke, investigative journalist, DavidHencke.com



An important and in-depth analysis of one case among the many... involving members of the 'establishment', where child victims of sexual crime, adult survivors and those professionals supporting them have been silenced and denied justice.

— Dr Liz Davies Emeritus Reader in Child Protection London Metropolitan University, Canburypress.com

Few books have managed to get to the heart of a story of abuse as thoroughly and accurately as Abuse of Trust...

Its message is a chilling reminder of how charismatic abusers like Beck and, indeed, Savile, were able to operate so effectively and for so long in the system despite countless warning signs.

The question this begs: could this happen today?

— Christian Wolmar Journalist and author, Canburypress.com

Table of Contents

List of Characters

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Beck the man and his career Page 19

The Poplars, Market Harborough 30

The Ratcliffe Road Adolescent Unit 37

The Beeches 55

Confusion at County Hall 72

The child care strategy 83

Regression therapy 95

A charmed life? 113

Living to fight another day... 138

Investigation and arrest 153

The trial 167

Official inquiry 183

The case for the defence 191

Scant compensation 201

Beck’s network of abusers 217

Those who did not survive 236

A better future? 251

Greville Janner 277

Bibliography

Index