21/07/2014 BBC London News

Wednesday evening. We're looking forward to it. Now we join our news

teams where you are. Hello. A man who was repeatedly

sexual abused four decades ago while in the care of Lambeth Council has

spoken for the first time about his ordeal. He is urge ohhing thers to

come forward. `` urging others to come forward.

Our home affairs correspondent has David's story.

Because of the nature of the place it was isolated. You have all these

vulnerable children. It was like a paedophile's paradise. David was six

when the abuse began. He had been placed during the 1970s at this

children's home, run by Lambeth Council. Now closed, is the only

reminder of what it was. William Hook was a swimming instructor

there. Later jailed for 10 years for sexually abusing young boys. One of

his victims was David. It is something I have tried to block out

all my life. I just want to say he just interfered with me as a child.

David's story dates back to the 1970s. His abuser was one of three

men jailed many years later during a police investigation into the sexual

abuse of more than 100 children in the care of Lambeth social services.

Children got raped, sexually abused, physically abused. According to

David there was no`one who'd help. Staff knew what was going on. They

turned a blind eye. Who do you turn to? Last week, BBC London reported

that John Carol worked in Lambeth children's homes. He had a

conviction for child abuse and the council failed to remove him. What

is more shocking is 1998 a senior police officer was removed by

Scotland Yard from investigating child abuse investigations after

revealing some of the suspects were politicians. Scotland Yard is not

prepared to discuss further. We were put into care to be cared for, not

to be abused. It's not, they cannot say it was one

bad apple. It was systematic over years ` it's not someone touching

you once. It's not someone doing the abuse to you once. This is years and

years of abuse. David hopes that speaking out will encourage others

to come forward. He wants to form a group of survivors to challenge

Lambeth Council in the courts as to why they allegedly let so many

vulnerable children down during the 1970s and 1980s. Two weeks ago the

Home Secretary announced an inquiry into different bodies. Lambeth says

it will co`operate fully. A spokesman adds, it has apologised to

victims and children's services have been overhauled.

Two young boys from London have been reunited with their mother after

they were kept in Russia by their father in breach of a court order.

Daniel and Jonathan were taken to Russia in 2012. Their mother was the

first to successfully use an international convention on child

abduction, which allowed authorities in Moscow to return the children.

With rocketing house prices and a shortage of affordable homes, there

are growing calls for drastic action to be taken to help solve the

capital's housing crisis. In the first of our series this week, Home

Truths, Sam Bowman from the think`tank, the Adam Smith Institute

puts forward the case of building new homes on London's greenbelt.

Building within London is fine. It gives you something like

high`density homes without gardens and not near green space. People

don't want to live in places like that. We should roll back the

greenbelt around London, make it easier to build on this land so we

can build outwards and have lower density housing. That means gardens

and cheaper homes for everybody. It does not mean throwing away the

greenbelt or getting rid of all this land, it means building on a little

bit of it. I have come here which is 80% greenbelt. It is 12 miles from

central London and still within the M 25. Here I have met Ann who has

spent many years of her life of protecting the greenbelt. Greenbelt

is very important. We need green spaces for recreational purposes and

to make a Dation between the settlements. If you wanted to come

up with a compromise that made maybe nobody happy but was in the middle

of people like me who want to build on greenbelt and people like you,

what compromise would you suggest? Well, as a compromise that I have

suggested, gradual enlargement of existing settlements in some

greenbelt, saving as much as possible. Meeting Ann helped me

understand why people are so attached to the greenbelt and fight

so hard to protect it. It made me think maybe if we stop thinking of

it as one single unit and differentiate between the areas of

beauty like this and the intense sieve farmland that constitutes a

lot of greenbelt, then it would be easier to come to a compromise.

Well, we are really keen to hear from you. Please get in touch with

your thoughts on the housing stories we are featuring this week. You can

send us an e`mail to: Or join the conversation on Twitter.

Tomorrow Patricia Brown, the chair of the London fes London Institute

of Architecture argues for a revolution in the rental market to

help the housing crisis. Good night. How is this week looking?

Similar to last week. It is very warm. The one key difference is it

is drier than we ended last week. We had in places over the weekend with

heavy showers. A warm evening out there at the moment. It will stay

so. We have some cloud which will drift into Essex and will go further

west during the night. Some clear skies. Again it will be warm. 15`16

Celsius. No lower for many of us. We wake up to a fair amount of

greyness. Particularly the further north`east you go. That will burn

back towards the north`east. There'll be sunshine. A breeze `

Southend will be fresher. London and the west, likely to get to 27 of

Celsius. More sunshine for Thursday and Friday. Feeling hot. More of a

risk by the time we get to the weekend of showers.

Good evening. If you were unfortunate enough to be at the

sharp end of the weekend storms you'll be pleased to know that the

atmosphere is less volatile now. Temperatures of 28 Celsius on the

Sussex coast today. Most places were fine and