Pleas to take boy rapist into care were ignored

Nov 13 2009 by Sam Wood, The Journal

A JUDGE damned a North East social services department yesterday for ignoring pleas from a child psychiatrist to take an 11-year-old rapist into care.

Just weeks after Dr Stephen Westgarth wrote two letters to Sunderland City Council’s social services department, the child raped a nine-year-old boy.

Judge Beatrice Bolton said the attack, which took place on June 8 in the Sunderland area, would never have happened if the defendant had been placed into care.

An inquiry has now been launched into the handling of the case by Sunderland City Council.

“It is a great pity that Dr Westgarth wrote to social services on March 23 recommending that you should be placed in care and that his letter appears to have been ignored,” the judge told the 11-year-old boy, as she passed sentence yesterday. “He wrote again on May 26 and he received no reply and nothing happened. If something had happened and if you had moved away from home you would not have done this to the boy.”

Newcastle Crown Court heard that the defendant raped the younger boy, who is disabled, after bribing him with Pokemon games.

He attacked him after luring him to his bedroom on the pretence of playing on his Xbox games console.

The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, received four-and-a-half years detention with another three-and-a-half years on licence once he is released. Penny Moreland, prosecuting, said: “The victim told police the defendant had invited him to come and play at his house on an Xbox.”

She said the boy told police the defendant had said to him that if he let him carry out a sex act on him he would give him a Pokemon game. Miss Moreland said that the attack lasted for about 15 seconds. She said the victim “went home for his tea and he began to cry and told his mother what he had done to him and his mother contacted the police”.

Shortly afterwards the defendant’s mother arrived at the victim’s house, the court heard.

“She was horrified and expressed sympathy to the boy’s mother and told her son she was going to phone social services to take him away,” Miss Moreland said.

During police interviews the defendant said he had been raped himself several times before he attacked the nine-year-old. However, the Crown is not pursuing these matters, as there was “no reasonable prospect of conviction”, Miss Moreland said.

The court heard the attack had affected the victim and he began to self-harm to get attention.

“His mother describes profound changes in his personality,” Miss Moreland said. “He is now aggressive, angry, withdrawn and preoccupied with swearing and sexual matters.”

The court heard the defendant had been reprimanded earlier this year for common assault on a 16-year-old boy.

The boy sat in the dock accompanied by three detention centre officers. Now aged 12, his parents were in court to see their son sentenced. Gavin Doig, defending, said: “All those that have seen him say that with support he will be able to respond to treatment.”

The judge said she accepted he had shown remorse and wanted to go home to his parents. But she added: “You won’t be going home until you are at least 14-and-a-half and even after that you are going to have to be very well behaved and not get into trouble with the police.” Judge Bolton also sentenced the boy to a 12-month conditional discharge after he admitted causing unnecessary suffering to two chickens after kicking them to death. At an earlier hearing, the boy admitted a single charge of rape.

Dr Helen Paterson, executive director of children’s services at Sunderland Council said: “We fully acknowledge the judge’s comments. Clearly these matters will be fully addressed through the serious case review process which we are involved with as a key partner. We are not in a position to comment further until the Executive Summary Report of the serious case review is published.”