The Wass Inquiry Report into Allegations Surrounding Child Safeguarding Issues on St Helena and Ascension Island (Redacted Version) December 2015 Return to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons dated 10 December 2015 for The Wass Inquiry Report into Allegations Surrounding Child Safeguarding Issues on St Helena and Ascension Island (Redacted Version) Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 10 December 2015 HC 662 © Crown copyright 2015 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: [email protected] Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. This publication is available at www.gov.uk/government/publications Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at [email protected] Print ISBN 9781474125598 Web ISBN 9781474125604 ID 20111502 12/15 51735 19585 Printed on paper containing 75% recycled fibre content minimum Printed in the UK by the Williams Lea Group on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office Contents Foreword 1 1. Overview and recommendations 5 2. Government and the Governor 31 3. Police 43 4. Former Police Constable Michael Anderson 55 5. Social Services 67 6. Recruitment of Claire Gannon and Martin Warsama 77 7. The Lucy Faithfull Foundation report 87 8. The case of Child F 97 9. The case of Child L 109 10. The case of Jeromy Cairns Wicks 111 11. Allegation of assault by a teacher 119 12. The case of Adult M 121 13. Termination of Claire Gannon and Martin Warsama’s employment 129 14. Employment Tribunal allegations 137 15. Aftermath 145 16. Schools 149 17. Health 159 18. The criminal justice system 165 19. Ascension Island 171 Appendices 1. St Helena: A brief overview 183 2. Reports summary 185 3. Constitutional and jurisdictional issues 193 4. Dramatis personae 215 5. Government submissions on St Helena to ministers 217 Contents iii Chapter 9, the body of this report and Appendix 4 have been part redacted further to paragraph 3.12 of the Information Protocol and on a ground identified in paragraph 4 of that protocol (“Prejudicing the course or outcome of any contemplated or ongoing criminal investigation or other legal proceedings, the adminstration of justice or the prevention or detection of crime”). The full report will be published in due course. Appendix 5 has been part redacted further to paragraph 3.12 of the Information Protocol on a ground identified in paragraph 4 of that protocol (“Breaching the principle of legal professional privilege; Breaching the Data Protection Act 1998”) and on grounds of relevance. iv The Wass Inquiry Report Foreword St Helena, despite its small size and a population of around 4,000, has a fully functioning government, elected representatives and small departments mirroring those of a much larger territory and population. When looking at the operation of these small departments, the Inquiry inevitably found itself focusing on the individuals within each department and their inter-relationships. It was these inter-relationships, more than the formal structures, which set the tone and style of the island’s overall governance and management. Some individuals had a disproportionate influence on their department’s operational effectiveness, especially within the Police Service. The report is thus unusually coloured in some areas by the detailed personal observations and comments which some of the islanders we interviewed wished us to express. The Inquiry was established in response to a series of newspaper articles, leaked documents and extraordinary allegations made by “whistleblowers”. As the Inquiry progressed, it became increasingly clear that two of these individuals were largely responsible for the more salacious allegations and the resulting furore. This report necessarily looks at their role in considerable detail. St Helena and its people have been grossly and unfairly tarnished by the allegations which the Inquiry was asked to investigate. I hope that this report clears away the wilder, unsupported accusations. I would like to thank all of those islanders and expatriates who not only agreed to give evidence but also assisted the Inquiry Panel while we were on the island. Without their positive and unstinting assistance, the Panel could not have covered so much ground and interviewed so many islanders. I would also like to thank the Inquiry Panel, who lent their expertise and tireless enthusiasm to completing the rigorous schedule of meetings and interviews we conducted, looking into almost every area of St Helena’s government and administration. Foreword 1 The Panel Sasha Wass QC, Chair of the Inquiry Moira Murray Moira Murray has over 30 years’ experience in safeguarding and protecting children, in both local authority and voluntary settings. She was Head of Safeguarding at the Children’s Society from 2005 to 2009 and was appointed by the then Home Secretary to the Board of the Independent Safeguarding Authority, serving from 2007 to 2012. More recently, Moira was the Safeguarding Manager for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. She has written and chaired serious case reviews into the death and severe abuse of children. She has conducted safeguarding audits for local authorities and the NHS and has advised various organisations on best practice in safeguarding children. She is the co-author of Safeguarding Disabled Children: Practice Guidance (HM Government, 2009). Moira’s expertise was used most recently in an assessment of the BBC’s child protection and whistleblowing policies. Colin Welsh Colin Welsh recently retired from the Metropolitan Police Service after more than 30 years. He managed child abuse investigation teams for over eight years and spent a further nine years overseeing the most serious intra-familial crimes against children, including in excess of 100 child homicides and suspicious child deaths. He has led national and international inquiries, many of a sensitive nature, and has received several commendations for his work. Colin was a Senior Investigating Officer for over 10 years, accredited to Professionalising Investigation Programme (PIP) level 3, a family liaison coordinator, and trained in the investigation of sexual offences and inter-agency work. He provided safeguarding training to both police and external professional audiences and lectured internationally on aspects of child death investigation. In 2014 he received an Association of Chief Police Officers award for making a major contribution to improving the national standards of child death investigation. He remains on the National Crime Agency register of expert advisors for safeguarding and child protection matters. Since his retirement, he has set up a business with two colleagues (Safeguarding Strategies Ltd) providing safeguarding training and consultancy services to professionals from the private and public sectors, including those working in health, education and social care. Detective Superintendent Robert Vinson Robert Vinson is a Detective Superintendent and the Head of the Kent/Essex Major Crime Department. He is approaching 28 years’ policing service, primarily as a Detective in the field of crime investigation. Robert is responsible for the management of some of the most serious and complex crimes across both counties. These include offences of homicide, kidnap, extortion and stranger rape, as well as complex child abuse investigations. Robert is nationally trained and accredited as a Senior Investigating Officer (PIP level 3) and in the strategic management of complex and serious crime cases (PIP level 4). He is also nationally trained in reviewing complex criminal cases and has expertise in leading cold case investigations. He has led numerous high-profile investigations, including into homicides, kidnaps, rapes and complex child abuse cases, both nationally and internationally. In 2009, Robert was awarded an MBE for his role in the uncovering 2 The Wass Inquiry Report and investigation of child abuse allegations centred around Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific, which encompassed a number of generations. This investigation resulted in the prosecutions and convictions of a number of men for sexual offences against children, following trials on Pitcairn and in New Zealand. Mark Waring Mark, who was appointed Inquiry Solicitor, is a solicitor with 15 years’ post-qualification experience. After five years in a major City law practice, Mark joined the Government Legal Service in 2003 and has pursued a career covering a broad range of public law litigation across government. Mark’s present role is in the Justice and Security team, where he has undertaken significant cases for the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office, the Security Services and the Ministry of Justice. Particularly challenging cases include Judicial Reviews concerning military operations and detection in Iraq and Afghanistan, religious extremism in English prisons and government transformation of rehabilitation services. Mark’s inquiry experience began with a role in the Gibson Inquiry into extraordinary rendition. Recent experience was in 2014, working for the Hallett Review on the operation of an administrative scheme during the Northern Ireland peace process. He assisted