Teletext Recovery - 07/03/1991

P142 CEEFAX 142 Thu 7 Mar 21:49/04   CRITICISMS FROM  THE JUDGE 1/5 Mr Justice Douglas Brown said that two factors were essential for any case of ritual child abuse to be proved. First, it had to be shown that evidence of what the child had said had been reliably obtained. Second, the evidence had to be correctly analysed. He said that during the case, the Official Solicitor acting for the children and expert defence witnesses had criticised the methods used to record interviews. "These criticisms are, in my judgement, fully justified", he said. 160 Politics 180 World News Next News News Plus Politics Headlines

P142 CEEFAX 142 Thu 7 Mar 21:45/04   CRITICISMS FROM  THE JUDGE 2/5 Mr Justice Brown said that evidence- recording had failed from the start. When the boy whom the social services originally became interested in was first interviewed, no video-recording was made despite equipment being there. In addition, notes were made later, not at the time. The judge described this interview as a "lamentable start to a lamentable series of events". The judge also criticised the policy of Greater Manchester police of not video- taping interviews with children. Notes should have been taken but were not. 160 Politics 180 World News Next News News Plus Politics Headlines

P142 CEEFAX 142 Thu 7 Mar 21:50/10   CRITICISMS FROM  THE JUDGE 3/5 Mr Justice Brown said that the social workers had failed to follow interview guidelines from the Cleveland affair. "They were not minor, trivial or infrequent breaches but substantial ones which rendered the information valueless and unreliable," he said. Leading questions were asked and inter- view techniques resulted in children exaggerating and making things up. Anatomically-correct dolls were used in inappropriate and incorrect ways which might have resulted in the children fantasising, he said. 160 Politics 180 World News Next News News Plus Politics Headlines

P142 CEEFAX 142 Thu 7 Mar 21:5:/45   CRITICISMS FROM  THE JUDGE 4/5 Mr Justice Brown also criticised the authorities' analysis of the evidence. He said that the evidence of at least one psychiatrist had been ignored - a very serious error of judgement. The judge said that if the local authority had obtained an independent review, support for removing the children would have been most unlikely. Thosj involved had become "so obsessed" in what the children were saying that they resolved to take them away from their homes without any independent appraisal of the evidence, he concluded 160 Politics 180 World News Next News News Plus Politics Headlines

P142 CEEFAX 142 Thu 7 Mar 21:46/14   CRITICISMS FROM  THE JUDGE 5/5 Mr Justice Brown said the training of social workers in the local authority left much to be desired. One of the key workers had not read the Cleveland report and another important document on interviewing children. The council believed drugs were used and the children spoke of ritual murder of babies but police and health workers said there was no evidence of either. The judge decided that it was highly likely that the children had been describing horror films such as The Evil Dead and Nightmare On Elm Street. 160 Politics 180 World News Next News News Plus Politics Headlines

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