In 1995, a former resident informed the Director of Social Services at Tower Hamlets that he had been sexually abused whilst at St Leonard’s. As a result, the Metropolitan Police, in Operation Hamoon, interviewed a number of former residents and sent a file about the investigation to the Crown Prosecution Service. Four residents made allegations that Alan Prescott and Davies, who both worked at St Leonard’s in the 1970s, committed acts of indecent assault, buggery and indecency with children. The Crown Prosecution Service declined to prosecute. [10] One of our Specialist Abuse Lawyers will be happy to discuss your situation in confidence – they are here to provide support and guidance at a very difficult time. St Leonards was a childrens home in Hornchurch Essex around 1950 until 1985, when it was closed down. It was run for part of this time by Tower Hamlets Borough of London. It was also known as Cottage Homes as it was divided into separate homes of about 30 children looked after by two house parents. Prescott was the Assistant director of Tower Hamlets Social Services, a Magistrate and a Labour Councillor and was a child abuser at St Leonards. Did he visit other homes and abuse? What action did Tower Hamlets take after the court case? What did his Labour colleagues know? Why did he get such a light sentence? How did the Police lose a video tape and other evidence and what was done about this? Did the Police investigate the 50's and 60's abuse? When Paul Connolly was just two weeks old, his mother put him out with the rubbish. “one of the neighbours heard me crying and called the police. They came and got me, and I was taken away by social services.” Born the seventh boy of eight children to an Irish Catholic family in Stratford, in london’s east end, he spent his earliest years living with nuns in a convent.

Connolly did not go to prison in reality. He learned to read at aged 25 and later published his memoirs titled “Against all Odds”. In 2001, Prescott, who had run St Leonard’s from 1968 to 1984, [13] pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault and was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. [14] St Leonard’s was a children’s home in Essex operated by Tower Hamlets London Borough Council (Tower Hamlets) from the late 1960s until it closed in the early 1980s. It comprised a series of family cottages, run by a house father and house mother together with other members of staff. [1] Allegations of sexual abuse However the abuse was obviously much more widespread. Even Daniel O’Malley, the Detective Inspector who headed the investigation, suggested there may have been as many as 70 victims – with 30 abused by Starling alone [4] , but the figures will be far higher, and as well, I have been told that the sexual abuse was happening in the 50's and 60's. There's MUCH more where that came from! Want all the jaw-dropping stories from the world of showbiz and up to the minute news from TV and soaps?His latest book, Not Normal , was released earlier this month and Paul says it is even more detailed than the first. Read More Related Articles He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.” Charles Peguy The five year long Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse shone a light on the shortcomings of institutions in responding to the needs of victims.

He was taken to St Leonard's Children's Home in Hornchurch where he suffered mental and physical abuse, and remembers men 'climbing the fire escape' to rape children.He began working as a doorman for busy bars and admits he would get involved in altercations on the door. A] Sanctuary for the Abused http://abusesanctuary.blogspot.co.uk/2006/07/for-survivors-coping-with-triggers-if.html This book was a real eye opener for me and has made me grateful for my own childhood. Paul Connolly was abandoned as a baby and wound up in an awful children's home, where all the children suffered some level of abuse. This book was not easy reading at times as Paul explains how there was a lot of emotional, psychological, physical and also sexual abuse in the home. I felt my eyes fill up with tears many times. It is a true testament to just what a character Paul has managed to become though, as through all the horrors in his story he also managed to make me laugh out loud on multiple occasions.

It emerged that one house-father, Bill Starling, 94, had indecently assaulted, raped or buggered 11 victims, aged between five to 14 years old over twenty years, The Guardian reports. On my first night I wet the bed and a nurse scrubbed me in bleach and said 'That's what we do to whoever wets the bed here'," he said. It portrays Connolly, in his 20’s, after he is released from prison and working as a bouncer in London and forced to confront his abusive childhood. When Paul was there, Alan Prescott was the Head. Pauls house parents were Bill Starling, and Auntie "Coral" which is a pseudonym. All these were child abusers physically, sexually and emotionally. Paul himself was not sexually assaulted, perhaps because of his aggressiveness to the people concerned, but he did suffer physical and emotional abuse. Great friends and a loving heart transformed Paul’s world and he has gone on to help thousands of people as a specialist conditioning coach, sports injury expert, celebrity personal trainer, presenter and best selling author.For a survivor of sexual abuse, the rebuilding of their life is a monumental task. The deep and lasting hurt makes it impossible for many. They carry deep scars from their experience for the rest of their life. There is also information on St Leonards on Operation Greenlight [5] Needleblog [4] . St. Leonards deserves a great deal more time than I can spend on it. I had to wait a year and a half to go to Crown Court, and all I could hear was the people who’d brought me up in children’s homes saying to me you’re a low-life Irish scumbag and the only place you’re gonna end up is in prison.” Then, at the age of eight he was moved to St leonard’s children’s home in Tower Hamlets. It was to be a life-changing move, for all the wrong reasons. From the Principal, down, the home was run by a paedophile ring. From then on, Paul’s childhood and schooling was fi lled with violence and mental torture. Fascinating ! i was thinking at the beginning of this book what shall i do with it when ive finished ? do i give it to a friend? a charity or do i Burn it so nobody ever see's the information again !? But people need to know whats gone on in the world dont they to make sure it never happens again ! keep your eye's closed and nothing changes ... and the beginning part of this book is HORRIFIC ! however it then becomes such an eye opener i feel like ive had an education on wallks of life that i didnt know about ..... i dont normally write this much on a review.

Paul has spoken of how the children would not go to school as they would be bullied following the abuse at the children's home, and instead would go and ride horses. With no real schooling and no positive male role models, Paul gained a reputation as a violent schoolboy, which at least protected him from the attentions of his potential abusers. When he was nine, he joined a boxing club. Here, he fi nally found a group of men who took him in, trained him and fed him. AR-A15 gave evidence that, while at St Leonard’s, he was made to sit on a priest’s lap and could feel his erection. Haydn Davies, who worked at St Leonard’s, forced him into mutual masturbation, drugged and raped him. [7] AR-A15 told us that, as a result of the abuse, he has sought help all his life but that therapy has been no help. [8] In the Archdiocese under the name of “Safe Communities” an office has been established to assist clergy, parish personnel and staff within our institutions to understand and live by nationally recognised standards of professional behaviour. There is an ongoing process of audit to ensure that these standards are adhered to. After being abandoned as a baby, Paul Connolly grew up in a very poor and abusive children's home. Throughout his childhood, he was told he would amount to nothing, and probably end up in prison, or dead. For most of the kids he grew up with, this proved to be true.Seamus Carroll, was the man who prompted the police investigation, called Operation Mapperton, when he made a complaint to Tower Hamlets about the abuse he says he suffered from four to 15. In the court case in 2001, it showed Prescott had indecently assaulted four teenage boys at various points throughout the 1970s [4] . However he only got 2 years jail. The confrontation, which happened when Paul was 13 years old, meant that the abuse towards him stopped. Learning to read and write as an adult Apply for any of your records that may still exist with a Subject Data Access Request from the Data Protection Act