South Wales child abuse inquiry spreads to 33 homes

Detectives in South Wales are investigating allegations of child abuse at 33 children's homes. Roger Dobson reports on one of Britain's biggest child abuse inquiries, triggered by the suicide of a care worker nine years ago.

Operation Goldfinch, launched yesterday in South Wales, takes the number of children's homes in Wales where allegations of abuse have been made or where there have been police investigations to 96.

Detectives in South Wales are now investigating claims of sexual and physical abuse at 33 children's homes, where more than 250 individual allegations by former residents make the inquiry one of Britain's biggest into child abuse. With the latest inquiry, homes in Cardiff, Swansea, Bridgend, Neath, Port Talbot, and the South Wales Valleys, have joined those in Clwyd and Gwynedd where the North Wales Abuse Tribunal has been investigating over 500 complaints.

"The allegations range from minor physical abuse to the most serious sexual assault," a police spokesman said yesterday.

Allegations of abuse at homes in areas outside South Wales have also been made to detectives in Cardiff and have been passed to other forces for investigation.

A squad of 42 detectives has been set up by South Wales Police and Chief Constable Tony Burden said yesterday that whatever resources were needed would be made available for an inquiry whose scale is likely to rival that of investigations in Cheshire, North Wales and Merseyside.

The events which led up to the launch of Operation Goldfinch yesterday have their roots in the suicide of a care worker, Alan O'Brien, nine years ago. Following his death, two large suitcases containing paedophile material were found in a left luggage locker at Cardiff railway station. It is not known who put them there, but O'Brien was being investigated over an allegation of abuse on Merseyside.

Around the time of his death, he was working at the Taff Vale Children's Home in Cardiff. No wider action was taken at the time, but last year an inquiry was launched at the home following the jailing of another care worker for abuse.

Following claims that the discovery of the suitcases in 1989 should have been acted upon at the time, West Midlands Police carried out an independent investigation. The Crown Prosecution Service has decided that there is sufficient evidence to prosecute a former director of social services in South Glamorgan, and the former head of Taff Vale, for the alleged offence of misconduct in public office.

In September last year, Cardiff social services formally asked the police to investigate allegations of abuse at Taff Vale. South Wales police began the investigation using a helpline to allow former residents to contact them. It is a result of what police were told by former residents five other homes that were being looked at, and yesterday a second inquiry looking at 27 other homes was launched.

It is the seventeenth and latest of a series of major police investigations in abuse at children's homes in Britain. As with many of the other inquires, most of the claims relate to the Seventies and Eighties.

One man who has given evidence to the North Wales Tribunal told The Independent, "For years they made me think I was to blame for what happened ... it was only when my son was born two years ago that I knew I had to do something. I looked at him and decided that I would do everything I could to make sure the men who abused me never abused any other child."

A helpline has been set up by the police on 01656 869484 for complainants and witnesses to contact.

Two other former Taff Vale staff have been charged with offences, and a third man aged 50 was arrested yesterday.