Shirley Oaks: Admission of `dark history` as ex-residents set for millions in `abuse` payouts

Up to £60 million in compensation is expected to be shared among former residents of a children`s home at the centre of a sexual abuse scandal on an “industrial scale”.

Lambeth Council in south London has accepted liability for sexual, physical and mental abuse carried out from the 1950s to the 1980s at Shirley Oaks.

The Shirley Oaks Survivors Association (SOSA), which represents 700 people, has reported its findings after a two-year investigation.

The report by SOSA founder Raymond Stevenson has named 27 men as alleged abusers, claims to have identified 60 alleged paedophiles from that period and accuses some police officers of corruption.

It also claims to have exposed a cover-up by Lambeth Council, which destroyed 140 care records during the mid-1990s despite legislation stating records must be kept for a further 70 years.

The 129-page report also claims 48 children died in Lambeth`s care system between 1970 and 1989.

Last month SOSA pulled out of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) because of concerns over its leadership.

Mr Stevenson told a press conference in central London: “I can tell you the abuse happened on an industrial scale. The physical abuse was damaging mentally – being locked in coal sheds, in cupboards, over years, what that does to a young mind is it makes you angry.”

Lambeth Council leader Lib Peck said the report detailed “abuse on an industrial scale” but that this is not currently the case for children in its care.

She said: “This report shines a light on a period of Lambeth`s history that is very, very dark indeed and I feel ashamed in any way to be associated with – just because I am the current council leader.

“As the leader it falls to me make a full and genuine apology to all of you for the abuse you suffered because of the failings in the care system that you experienced.

“Lambeth should have been protecting you. Lambeth actually denied you that protection and worse.”

She added: “Going forward our commitment has to be around working with SOSA to develop a compensation scheme that is fair, that is speedy and that is generous.”

Mr Stevenson said that the local authority has said the compensation could run as high as £60 million.

Quizzed on who the council would compensate, he added: “They have kind of shifted on that. We know that every child that was in Shirley Oaks will get compensation, but they have also said that every child that was in Lambeth, they put a caveat where there was a paedophile in the home, will get compensation.

“Well we found a paedophile in every home. So in effect there is knowledge that all the children in Lambeth will get compensation.

“It will be a small amount but then they will be able to apply for physical, neglect, psychological abuse and sexual abuse on top of that.”

Streatham Labour MP Chuka Umunna said institutions beyond the council – including the Home Office and the police – were also “culpable”.

Mr Umunna, who grew up in Lambeth, said: “What happened over decades is very, very dark, the darkest episode in the history of our community and in particular of Lambeth Council.”

He said it is his “absolute priority” is to get the survivors the compensation they deserve as well as justice, saying it is a “disgrace” they have had to wait so long.

“There`s a lot of new material here. It should not have been necessary for the Shirley Oaks Survivors to do this work, that others should have been doing on their behalf,” he added.

“What the agencies have got (to do), whether it is the Home Office, the Crown Prosecution Service or any other affected agency, they need to take this report and act – and do what they failed to do decade after decade.

They have got the material in this report – now get on and do something about it.”

He also said the “Government needs to step up and provide the funding necessary to properly compensate survivors affected by what has happened”.

SOSA was one of the largest groups involved in the UK`s biggest child abuse inquiry before announcing it w