By
Paul Armstrong
SOCIAL workers in Cornwall have defended their
procedures after it was revealed that they placed a young girl into the hands of
a foster father who persistently raped her.
Now 17, the teenager has talked exclusively to the
Packet about her ordeal and appealed for others in the same position as her to
speak out.
The girl - now living in the Falmouth-Penryn area
- was just 12 when she was put into the care of a foster couple by Cornwall
county council.
Within weeks of her arrival the man started to
sexually touch her before moving on to raping her over a three-year period from
the age of 13 onwards. The teenager, who cannot be identified for legal reasons,
told the Packet that she was too frightened at first to tell anyone about the
rapes because he threatened to kill her if she did.
She said: "I just want people, if they are in care
and are abused, to come forward and tell someone. Don't be scared. It will come
all right in the end.
"He threatened to kill me and said that his wife,
who is disabled, would be left on her own if I told anyone. I believed him. When
it first started happening I was so young. He said it was one of his daily
chores'.
"It started off with just touching, building up
gradually to rape, which went on for three years. In the end I told my
boyfriend.
"It was really hard to tell anybody. I thought
nobody was going to believe me. I told my boyfriend on a Friday and on that
Saturday my foster father raped me.
"My boyfriend told me if I didn't go to the police
then he would, so I went to the police the same day and I had to undergo a rape
exam."
The girl lived in the foster home for four years.
She had been placed there by social workers after it proved impossible for her
to live with her mother.
"Social services took me from a bad place with my
mother to somewhere which was even worse," she said. "I just wanted to die
there. I just hated it. I just cried and cried but I was just told that I had
emotional problems.
"He even stopped me going to bereavement
counselling over the death of my dad because he was scared I might tell somebody
what he'd done."
Despite the county council carrying out police
checks on the man and his wife nothing came up because he did not have a
criminal record and he was given clearance. It later emerged at his trial that
he had also been raping his own step-daughter for ten years.
The man's wife was all right but her daughter told
her that she was being abused and her mother didn't believe her, the girl told
the Packet.
"I am angry with the council because I thought
they were going to put me in a better place.
"I have nightmares all the time and I get days
when I am feeling really low and sad. If anyone else out there is going through
the same thing as me I would just say go and tell someone. It will work out all
right in the end."
Her attacker, who cannot be named because this
might reveal his victim's identity, was jailed for ten years by a judge at Truro
Crown Court after pleading guilty to three specimen charges of rape and 12 less
serious sexual offences. The judge said the effect on the two girls he assaulted
was "terrible" and described him as "evil and wicked."
A statement issued this week by Cornwall County
Council Foster Care and Short Break Service said that following this "isolated
incident" procedures had been reviewed.
"This is clearly a very concerning and thankfully
an isolated incident, which does not reflect the immense amount of good work and
high quality care that is provided by almost 500 carers within the Cornwall
County Council Foster Care and Short Break Service, who look after children from
the county during approximately 12,000 placements that are made each year," said
a council statement.
"All carers undergo a rigorous assessment and
statutory checking process in complete accordance with the National Minimum
Standards and Fostering Regulations (2002) and this authority's procedures are
audited annually against these standards by the Commission for Social Care
Inspection.
"Following this incident we have reviewed our
procedures and are confident they are comprehensive and robust."
Comments on this article
