Latest news with #TheSmallSchool
BBC News
04-06-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Former Buxton school pupil speaks about alleged abuse
Leon was a teenager when he was sent to a children's home now at the centre of allegations of physical, sexual and mental 44, he is one of more than 40 survivors suing councils for damages in a civil County Council, which licensed The Small School at Red House in Buxton, near Aylsham, has received several "letters of action", a formality required before court action can be local authorities are facing legal action for placing children at the told the BBC how abuse was normalised, claiming it led him to commit an act of violence that put him in is his story in his own words. At the time, I was a problem child for my local authority and I was under the impression I was going there [to Red House] because it could offer me an education; it could offer me everything I couldn't be offered where I was it didn't turn out like that, for me and many others.I was a child and I was being physically hurt by an adult and they didn't care about us. We would be pinned on the floor. We would be punched. We would be scratched. We would have our legs tied behind our we were on the floor, you'd have a knee in your side, you'd have a teacher's elbow across your neck and then other kids wanted to jump on you just to be involved because they were teachers' the kids that were helping the teachers were being rewarded, even if it was just an extra £5 pocket money or extra free cigarettes... they were all happy to get I got away with it quite lightly because I was quite a big lad. I had friends in the school, but those friends would soon turn on you if there was an extra five cigarettes a day and the teachers said 'Go and sort them out.' We used to have a telephone booth which had a little counter on it so we were able to ring our parents or social services, but [the calls] were all mum came to the school and I said 'Please take me home with you' and she wouldn't. Everybody thought we were lying - this place was all hunky dory. Well, it wasn't. We were being abused, and very physically abused as so many people - not myself, I'm a strong lad and I carry on - that I'm in contact with that have got a bad life. They don't know any other way of life... They can't leave the Red House is one of the reasons why we have to have closure... because people just can't move on. They're stuck in the past and that's not fair on them.I want someone held accountable for why some of us are the way we are. I've had a really bad life myself, but this stems from the school. It took me a long time to realise wrong isn't right and right isn't wrong.I've done some bad things in my life that I'm not proud of, but when you're being brought up to be that, that's ok. You can be rewarded for that and you don't know any school was shut down in 1998. I was placed back into a children's home in Oxford and by the time I was 16 I discharged myself from care... and I was out to cause misery to every single person that crossed my path, because that's the life I'd been brought up in.I have been abusive to people. I have been arrested for things I'm not proud of being arrested for.I've tried to make amends as the years have gone on but that was the sort of life we were being brought up in.I didn't have an adult figure in my life as a child to show me what was right and wrong. I've been through the justice system up until I was 27. I did my last prison sentence in 2007, and from then I've just tried to keep my head down and hold down a job and just be a normal I not been there [at the Red House], I may have been a different person. My past has come back to bite me on the backside too many times and I don't want to live that life any more.I want to be a normal bloke where people like me and [do] not associate me with being the bad person that I was.I still see my mum... She says when she used to come to see me that the teachers used to say we were off doing this or that, so they couldn't see my mum now believes something happened. She's apologised immensely, knowing she couldn't do anything about it because I was under the care of social taken a lot for her to understand it [and] it helped when I got my social services reports; that she got to see some of the things that happened in the now we are being believed, it's a bit of a relief. 'The allegations are deeply concerning' A Norfolk County Council inspection report, seen by the BBC, said the school was registered as a children's home in August report, based on an inspection carried out in April 1994, said that since June 1992 there had been 16 reported incidents of suspected abuse of children comprised seven incidents of suspected sexual abuse and nine of suspected physical abuse or inappropriate restraint, involving 20 children in a statement, the council said it did not place any of the claimants in the case at Red it had received 14 "letters before action", it said: "The allegations made by former pupils of the independent Small School at Red House are deeply concerning and we have co-operated fully with investigations, which relate to children that were placed there by other local authorities more than 30 years ago."Our thoughts are with all survivors of abuse but as there is an ongoing legal claim we cannot comment further."Red House was operated by Tvind, a controversial Danish-based group founded in the 1960s that has been embroiled in financial scandals since the a company of the same name that provides teacher training told the BBC it was unrelated to the business that ran Red House."We are unable to provide comment as we have no status in relation to the former Tvind School Co-operation, and we are not aware of any legal action," it said. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
13-03-2025
- BBC News
Ex-Norfolk children's home school pupils sue council
Damages claims have been started by former pupils of a children's home/school claiming sexual or physical abuse while they were there in the 1980s and 90s, the BBC Shirley Oaks Survivors Association (Sosa) said it had worked with 43 former students and residents of The Small School At Red House in Buxton, claims Norfolk County Council was responsible for annual inspections at the school - which operated from 1989 until its closure in 1998. The council said it did not place any of the claimants in the case at Red House, but it could not comment further due to ongoing legal action. Youngsters were placed at the Red House by local authority social services departments from across the country, and they were given schooling on Stevenson, from Sosa, said the council was "aware of the abuse due to various inspections their social services department carried out" at the school, near Wroxham. Sosa said it had been working with former residents for two years to build the Stevenson has previously led an investigation into abuse at the Shirley Oaks children's home in Croydon in south London, where he was a the Norfolk case, he said the claimants said in testimony the Danish-owned operator Tvind ran Red House "through a regime of physical, sexual and psychological abuse and humiliation".Mr Stevenson also claimed the county council continued to license The Small School in 1995, despite 23 claims of physical or sexual abuse by teachers and volunteer teachers being reported between 1989 and added: "The most concerning thing about Tvind and The Red House is the lack of response from Norfolk County Council... and the licensing authority. "[The council] ignored the obvious signs of abuse taking place in a residential school for vulnerable care children," he claimed."We implore the council to compensate those affected without hiding behind lawyers which will ultimately cost Norfolk taxpayers millions of pounds in court and legal fees."A spokesperson for Tvind said: "We are unable to provide comment as we have no status in relation to the former Tvind School Co-operation, and we are not aware of any legal action." Daniel Lemberger, from law firm Imran Khan & Partners, said: "The children placed at Red House were already highly vulnerable. They were in desperate need of stability, love and care."They instead suffered unimaginable abuse, torture and neglect, the effects of which have been permanent and life-long."My clients are concerned that they [local authorities] may have ignored evidence of the appalling abuse taking place [and they] have serious concern about the role of Norfolk [County] Council, who inspected Red House many times." Norfolk Police said its Operation Walmsgate team conducted two investigations into alleged abuse at the former Small School At Red House School between 1984 and 1998.A statement said: "Despite extensive work in both investigations and following discussions with colleagues in the Crown Prosecution Service, it was concluded there was no realistic prospect of achieving a conviction against any suspect."We have personally contacted all victims and visited those who agreed to meet with us to explain the outcome of this latest investigation."Confirming it had received 14 letters of claim, the county council said: "The allegations made by former pupils of the independent Small School At Red House are deeply concerning and we have co-operated fully with investigations, which relate to children that were placed there by other local authorities more than 30 years ago."Our thoughts are with all survivors of abuse but as there is an ongoing legal claim we cannot comment further."A "letter before action" has been sent to the council, which happens before any legal moves are filed with a court. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
