30 January - Council and police compete in the corruption stakes
I used to be optimistic that exposing Bexley Council’s worst excesses and the lies
required to conceal them might eventually lead to it cleaning up its
act. I am inclined to think it has to some extent, or maybe they have become
more expert at covering their tracks.
The new Chief Executive has certainly gone
out of her way to stop staff and Councillors making contact, but despite
the
literal barriers erected, conversations have not been choked off entirely.
What we haven’t had recently is a major scandal, last year only
the Masseys
behaved like total idiots. It’s a long time since anyone died because of Bexley Council’s mismanagement.
They privatised the Link Line to a company which presumably will not staff their
emergency switchboard with just one trainee and hope for the best.
In Bexley a
lady died alone because of Bexley’s incomprehensible staffing decision.
Cabinet Member Philip Read claims to have transformed Children’s Services since
he took over from Katie Perrior, now working in Downing Street.
I have no inside knowledge of Children’s Services except that I too often hear of
kiddy snatching but the initiatives and figures coming out of Philip Read’s
department suggest that is unlikely to again neglect children to the point of
death and the Deputy Director who made so many poor decisions no longer works in Bexley.
Long term readers may recall three year old
Rhys Lawrie who suffered 38 serious injuries to his tiny body
which were said to have been caused by a fall from a sofa.
His mother moved to Erith in October 2007 following a career in the Army which
had sectioned her because of mental instabilities. In Erith she reported herself
to medical staff because of urges to harm her baby. The medics made a report to
Bexley Council which ignored it.
From 2007 to 2010 Rhys was in and out of hospital constantly with injuries that
were blamed on epilepsy. His mother banned his grandparents from seeing him. When
he attended pre-school covered in bruises the teachers reported the situation to
Bexley Council and again it took no action.
By January 2011 Rhys was dead and a mentally challenged 16 year old was convicted
of his manslaughter.
Rhys’s grandfather unearthed a great deal of evidence that suggested it was a
wrongful conviction. By studying end of school times and bus times he concluded
that the 16 year old boy could not have been present when Rhys died. He was
convinced the mother was implicated.
The first ambulance men on the scene confirmed that the boy was not there but
the mother was. Inexplicably they were not called as witnesses for the defence.
The case bore remarkable similarities to Haringey’s Baby P. case which was
still in the news at the time.
The theory was that Bexley Council was so concerned that their failure to
protect Rhys or help his mother had been a major factor in the death that
they prevailed upon the police to find another killer. A mentally retarded 16 year old who was a regular visitor to the house was a Godsend.
However despite the pathologist’s report the police initially decided the death
was an accident and failed to secure what should have been declared a crime scene. Rhys’s mother spent
the night of his death, not grieving or being comforted by friends but scrubbing
the house clean of all forensic evidence.
Whether
Bexley Council really did a deal with the police is uncertain but they made sure
that the author of the Serious Case Review was a former Bexley Director, so not
exactly impartial, and
Philip Read refused
to answer a question about the
case. The lack of transparency raises suspicions.
Rhys’s grandfather continues to
study the evidence relating to what he believes was a miscarriage of
justice and recently discovered something new.
A [named] Detective Inspector made a secret pact with Rhys’s mother that if she
kept quiet about her being able to wipe a Crime Scene clean she in return would
be offered immunity from prosecution.
The pact was approved by a [named] Detective Superintendent after
which no one was prepared to rescind it.
Despite Rhys’s mother being innocent of his killing under the law Bexley Council
took another of her children into care and to this day she is only allowed
infrequent supervised visits. The grandfather is convinced that Bexley Council knows who killed Rhys
but admitting it at the time would have landed them in far too much trouble.