Teachers jailed for child abuse to have their convictions quashed

Two men who were jailed for a total of 19 years for child abuse offences after Merseyside police trawled local children's homes for evidence are expected to have their convictions quashed today.

The cases follow the acquittal of David Jones, the former Southampton Football Club manager, who was wrongly accused of child abuse after being arrested by officers working on the same inquiry.

Dozens more former care workers convicted on the basis of questionable evidence obtained by Merseyside Police over alleged abuse in children's homes across five local authorities in the 1970s and 1980s are waiting to have their convictions reheard. Last month Merseyside Police announced that it had closed operation Care (Child Abuse Residential Establishments).

Basil Williams Rigby and Michael Lawson, who are serving 12-year and 7-year prison terms respectively for child abuse offences, are expected to be freed by the Court of Appeal today.

During their appeal hearing last month, judges were told that both men, colleagues of David Jones, were members of staff at approved schools on Merseyside. Their lawyers claimed they were convicted on uncorroborated evidence of complainants, some of who may have been motivated by possible compensation. The judges heard they were unjustly convicted because police "trawled" for victims and used dubious interviewing methods.

One of the alleged victims, a convict who cannot be named for legal reasons, is alleged to have confessed to a fellow prison inmate 19 months ago that he had fabricated the abuse to get money to fund a sex change. He also made allegations against Mr Jones, now manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers, who was cleared at Liverpool Crown Court in December 2000 of 20 charges of physical and sexual abuse of children.

MPs and lawyers acting on behalf of 26 men convicted of child abuse offences across the country are to refer their cases to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). Another two men have already died in prison.

Claire Curtis-Thomas, a Liverpool MP, has spent three years investigating wrongful convictions in child abuse cases. She wants the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith QC, to conduct an inquiry into police methods for collecting evidence from prosecution witnesses in child abuse inquiries.

The CCRC, established to examine possible miscarriages of justice, has already set up a working party to look for flaws in cases where individuals had been convicted solely on the word of the victim.

Last year, John Wagstaff, the commission's legal adviser, said: "There may well be miscarriages of justice ... where, with very little corroboration, one person's view has been taken against another's."

Doubts about child abuse investigations have been raised by an all-party parliamentary working group and have led to a House of Commons inquiry by the Home Affairs Select Committee. Investigations into sex abuse at children's care homes have been conducted by at least 32 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales.