Welcome to you all and here we are on the final day of hearings, looking at the historical abuse of children who were in the care of Nottinghamshire councils.
So now, let's look at the highlights of Yesterday's inquiry and then I will leave you to watch Today's live stream.
I stated in yesterday's post that the last witness of the day would probably be the one to watch out for... Oh how wrong I was. As it turned out, it was actually the 2nd and 3rd witness who would give the most shocking accounts to the inquiry.
As I have just mentioned, I would like to highlight 2 witnesses from yesterday.
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As this part of the day's inquiry began it was revealed that Alison had tried to sneak in a last-minute apology to some of the core participants(CPs). This hollow letter of apology had been signed by Alison the same morning she gave her evidence to the inquiry. It was brought to the attention of the inquiry and to Alison, herself, that she had attended the inquiry on the 2nd day when many of the victims gave their evidence and asked why she didn't give her apology to the victims face-to-face. As one of the CPs (d-6) had already described on day-2, that the council attendees had been "stony-faced" that day, it was no surprise to hear a similarly cold response to this line of questioning. Alison spent the entirety of the hearing claiming that things had changed and that she felt sorry for all of the victims who had been abused while in her care. Thankfully, Alison's worthless excuses were vapourised when a representative of the CP's was allowed to question her, briefly, at the end of the hearing. After asking Alison to recall a recent case(2017), in which a child who was placed into the care of her Aunt was beaten to death, it was again put to this corporate director if she believed the council had learned any lessons at all. Shockingly, instead of admitting defeat and simply apologising, Alison responded to this question by stating that the postmortem report into the child's murder had stated that this final and fatal attack was one that could not have been anticipated and therefore not the fault of the social care team. It was then revealed by the CP's representative that social workers employed by Alison had visited the victim on many occasions and had, also, been given an official complaint of physical abuse by the young child, which was subsequently ignored.
After this part of the hearing was over the inquiry panel were given the opportunity to question Alison. Even up to this point in time Alison had more questions to answer for and it became obvious to everyone in the room just how neglectful she had been to the children in her care. Audible gasps from the audience could be heard at many parts of Alison's testimony and it is shocking to believe that this woman still holds a position in the care system to this very day.
If nothing else comes from this inquiry, I would like to believe that Alison and many others who still hold positions of responsibility will be removed from office and never allowed to work in such an industry ever again.
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Much like Alison had begun the day, Mr. Pettigrew also set off on bad footing. It has been stated throughout this inquiry that the council has remained defiant about claiming any responsibility towards what went on to the children abused while in their care. One example of this cold-hearted approach by the council towards the victims has been demonstrated by the way they have responded to victims claims for compensation, via the civil courts. It was asked of Mr. Pettigrew why victims were made to wait so long for their cases to be classed as "proven", therefore allowing them to access compensation for a lifetime of pain. Mr. Pettigrew first claimed that this was a thing of the past and something that had vastly improved over the years. Mr. Pettigrew gave the impression that this was something that he was not part of but was then made to recall how he had personally signed many letters of denial by the council... These letters had demanded that the victims prove their historical cases of abuse before the council was willing to compensate or apologise for their wrong-doing and, likewise, victims were asked to prove they had suffered any mental health problems. This left many of the victims having to relive their abuse once again and this would have to be done in front of a council-appointed health practitioner.
It was put to, both, Mr. Pettigrew and Alison Michalska, that their actions were part of a ploy to "wear-down" the victims in a battle of attrition, in the hope they would give up on their claims for compensation, therefore saving the council huge sums of money. Both corporate directors answered "No" with a defiant tone and Alison even went further, saying that she felt this particular accusation "wholly offensive". Her response earned an angry exclamation from the audience and left the inquiry in no doubt that the council still view themselves as the victims, saving any sentiments of sympathy for themselves.
Throughout this part of the inquiry, anyone who has represented the council or the police have preached the same mantra. This has been that; Whatever mistakes were made, they have been done so in the past and nowadays things like this are a lot less likely to happen, due to the robust reshaping of the system.
According to these corporate representatives; No longer will records be destroyed and no longer will victims be referred to as "clients", nor will they be seen as "promiscuous" by those who are tasked to protect them. No longer will victims be made to pay for their own rehabilitation and neither will they be denied their historical records. Victims who have had to wait years for settlements and apologies will be the last to suffer for so long.... "We have learned from our mistakes..."
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As always, I will ask you to go and view this footage for yourselves and see just how disgraceful these people really are. It has been very difficult for me to condense these hearings down to highlighted moments and choose what parts deserve to be showcased more than any other. So please, if you can make the time to listen to one full-day of these hearings, I would advise you to listen to this final day. As I have been typing out this post I am sat listening to this final day of evidence and I have to say it is probably the most powerful evidence I've heard so far. It is important for us to know the truth and sometimes that means listening to the evidence we would rather not have to. It has been upsetting having to listen to so much horror and the fact that my Father and his brothers were imprisoned at Beechwood care home makes this all the more painful to have to hear. I've heard my Dad say how he "escaped" Beechwood by running away and now I understand his choice of words. I also now understand why my Dad's twin-brother drank himself to death, as he was not as fortunate as my own Dad and had to endure a longer exposure to this evil.
I'll pay my respects to every victim by carrying on denouncing this horrendous deception and never backing down to those who say this is not a conspiracy.
I would like to end this post with a thank you.
My thanks go out to all of you who have been supporting and sharing these post and I would like to give a special thanks to @canadian-coconut, founder member of @familyprotection. Without her generosity, these posts wouldn't have caught the eye of so many people. @canadian-coconut's votes are worth more than just Steem and SP. They help to propel this information above the canopy. As should be standard when posting under @familyprotection tag, I have been donating all of my liquid post-payouts back to @familyprotection. I've said this countless times before, but I feel @fp are the greatest community on steemit and I would always direct anyone their way when introducing this wonderful blockchain community.
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Also, I would like to give special thanks to @informationwar for constantly sharing my posts with their awesome community. With your help and that of @fp, my posts have often reached over 100-votes. I could not have achieved this without you and I am truly thankful for all your help. Personally, gaining over 100-votes has been a milestone that I would otherwise have been very boastful about, but under the circumstances, I will respectfully keep my joy under control. Nevertheless, this does mean that more folk from the steemit community have viewed or at least acknowledged this inquiry, on a daily basis, which is more than from my own hometown of Beeston, Nottingham.
For this, I applaud you all and thank you for the strength it gives me to persevere with highlighting these hearings.
The final day - Live stream
This whole inquiry is VERY disturbing. Thank-you for covering it in such detail.
It must be a shock for people who have never really considered before that those in charge of preventing child abuse and 'caring' for our precious children, are in fact the ones allowing these children to be placed in terribly abusive situations.
Absolutely Linda and all part of our reliance on the state. Most of us have become so comfortable in allowing the gov to take care of things that this will no doubt come as a big shock to most. Sadly, I and probably yourself have known for a while that the system is rife with all the wrong types and it's been that way for so long now that they seem to have reached the top. Maybe this will open up peoples eyes to what is happening within the system but while the BBC keep reporting only the apologies and not the real details like I have been doing I think people will think this is all going to be taken care of. Thanks again for supporting this part of the inquiry, it has meant a lot.
lovely write friend
resteemid
You have been a great help @art-s, thank you very much.
I upvoted your post.
Keep steeming for a better tomorrow.
@Acknowledgement - God Bless
Posted using https://Steeming.com condenser site.
Much appreciated :)
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Another brilliant commentary. Sadly from what I've seen I think IICSA look like another part of the cover up. It is all heading towards 'mistakes' and 'systemic failures'. The exclusion of John Wedger's evidence (after a hasty evidence rule change) the exclusion of Melanie Shaw's (though I note Mickey Summers says the inquiry did receive a written statement) and the missing files all suggest an appalling cover up I'm afraid.
couldn't agree with you more buddy. This whole inquiry has been limited from the start and like you said yourself, those with real hard evidence have been kept quiet or pushed from sight. The section that looked into internet grooming just ended in a recommendation to control the internet. I'm wondering whether anyone will ever mention that in all parts of this inquiry the police have played a huge part in allowing things to happen. How does the saying go; " Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice..."
"fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." George W. Bush (PMSL)