:00:16. > :00:23.Tonight Panorama investigates allegations that schools and
:00:24. > :00:27.hospitals failed to investigate serious child abuse. I was so angry
:00:28. > :00:32.that the school had got legal advice on whether they needed to report a
:00:33. > :00:38.paedophile. Secret Government files showed how paedophiles were able to
:00:39. > :00:42.move freely between institutions, putting children in danger. He
:00:43. > :00:47.should have been stopped at that stage. Had he been stopped, other
:00:48. > :00:56.boys would not have been abused in the way that they were. Following
:00:57. > :01:01.the Jimmy Savile abuses, there are calls for changes in the law. People
:01:02. > :01:09.should not feel scared of speaking out and helping another human being.
:01:10. > :01:12.And now the former Director of Public Prosecutions says that those
:01:13. > :01:17.that do not report abuse should face jail. I think the time has come to
:01:18. > :01:36.change the law and close a gap that has been there for a very long time.
:01:37. > :01:43.Two years ago, Rob Hastings's life was turned upside down by a phone
:01:44. > :01:48.call out of the blue asking him about his school days. The phone
:01:49. > :01:56.call was from Avon and Somerset police. Did you go to Downside? It
:01:57. > :02:02.was all he had to say. He did not have to say any more. Just that one
:02:03. > :02:11.sentence fundamentally has changed my life. And brought back a part of
:02:12. > :02:20.my life that I really could do without. This is Downside School
:02:21. > :02:25.near Bath where Rob Hastings was sexually abused by a teacher. It is
:02:26. > :02:29.one of the oldest and most prestigious Catholic boarding
:02:30. > :02:36.schools in the country. When Rob arrived here aged 11, he was ordered
:02:37. > :02:42.by the grandeur of the school. -- in all of the grandeur. The scale of it
:02:43. > :02:48.was quite intimidating and I was impressed. I enjoyed being there to
:02:49. > :02:53.begin with. I quite liked it. However, within a few weeks of
:02:54. > :02:58.arriving, Rob had been targeted by his geography master, Father
:02:59. > :03:03.Nicholas, who used his interest in ancient manuscripts to groom him.
:03:04. > :03:09.Conveniently for him, there was a whole bunch of ancient books in the
:03:10. > :03:14.library and from there he progressed his interest in me, tried his luck,
:03:15. > :03:21.and progressed it further and further. Did you object to it at any
:03:22. > :03:29.point? I think this is one of the things that really upsets me now.
:03:30. > :03:38.When it all broke out, I was proud. Proud? Proud. How so? I had special
:03:39. > :03:44.attention from this monk, someone that we all looked up to. Father
:03:45. > :03:47.Nicholas groomed and then abused Rob for year and a half. It was only
:03:48. > :03:53.discovered because other boys complained that he was apparently
:03:54. > :03:58.getting special privileges. He would award me with money. 50p was what I
:03:59. > :04:03.remember. He gave me access to the tuck shop when other people were not
:04:04. > :04:07.around. Remember that some kid in the prep school asked me why I had
:04:08. > :04:18.different suites from them. I proudly said that I had got this
:04:19. > :04:22.monk in my pocket. Aren't I clever? Rob was summoned to a meeting at the
:04:23. > :04:29.school where he was cross-examined. I remember there was a huge amount
:04:30. > :04:31.of pressure on me that because of my dyslexia I misunderstood the
:04:32. > :04:38.relationship, I was wrong, it did not happen and I was simply, for
:04:39. > :04:43.want of another word, being stupid. Rob was removed from his school by
:04:44. > :04:49.the parents. The police were never called. For 20 years, Rob heard
:04:50. > :04:52.nothing more. Police only found evidence that Rob had been abused
:04:53. > :04:56.because they were trawling through the school's old records
:04:57. > :05:03.investigating another complaint. Astonishingly, it turned out that
:05:04. > :05:08.between the late 1960s and the early 2000s, six monks had sexually
:05:09. > :05:14.assaulted children or viewed images of child abuse. In January last
:05:15. > :05:21.year, Rob's abuser Father Nicholas, real name Richard White, was jailed
:05:22. > :05:25.for five years. At the trial, Rob discovered two things. The first was
:05:26. > :05:29.that Richard White had abused another boy a year earlier. Although
:05:30. > :05:37.he had confessed, the school kept it secret. The second thing was that
:05:38. > :05:40.the school had written to their lawyers, asking if they had a legal
:05:41. > :05:50.obligation to report Richard White to the police. This letter came. I
:05:51. > :05:56.was shocked. It shocked me absolutely to my core. I can't tell
:05:57. > :06:01.you. I was in floods of tears. I was so upset, so angry that the school
:06:02. > :06:06.had gone and got legal advice on whether they needed to report a
:06:07. > :06:15.paedophile. I personally could have been saved.
:06:16. > :06:22.The lawyers said the school did not need to go to the police, so instead
:06:23. > :06:29.Richard White was quietly moved to an abbey in Scotland, away from
:06:30. > :06:32.children. The current headmaster of Downside didn't want to be
:06:33. > :06:39.interviewed but told Panorama in a statement: Neither I nor the school
:06:40. > :06:43.would today follow the steps taken more than 20 years ago. Such a
:06:44. > :06:50.matter would be reported by the school to the police and other
:06:51. > :06:56.relevant authorities as appropriate. So what is it about our system that
:06:57. > :07:00.allowed this to happen and could it still happened today? Ever since the
:07:01. > :07:05.revelations about Jimmy Savile, I have been investigating the secret
:07:06. > :07:09.historical record looking at what Government officials knew about
:07:10. > :07:12.abuse in children's homes and boarding schools. I have unearthed
:07:13. > :07:20.declassified Government files going back to the 1950s. What they show is
:07:21. > :07:24.that more than 60 years ago senior civil servants recognised that
:07:25. > :07:28.school authorities routinely his child abuse, preferring instead to
:07:29. > :07:35.protect the reputation of their own institutions. One of the most
:07:36. > :07:41.detailed files is about a cover-up at this school, the Royal Alexandra
:07:42. > :07:44.and Albert. Today it is a well-regarded state boarding school
:07:45. > :07:52.set amongst the grounds of Gatton Park in Reigate, Surrey.
:07:53. > :07:58.Founded 250 years ago, the Royal Alexandra and Albert was originally
:07:59. > :08:02.an orphanage, albeit one whose patron was the monarch and where
:08:03. > :08:13.visits from royalty were and are a regular treat. However, research by
:08:14. > :08:18.Panorama has revealed that seven child abusers worked here between
:08:19. > :08:22.the 1950s and 1980s. What went wrong here in the past, some say, makes
:08:23. > :08:30.the case for a change in the law today. One of the files we found
:08:31. > :08:35.deals with events here in 1950. This declassified document comes from the
:08:36. > :08:38.National Archives. What it shows is how one of the most junior members
:08:39. > :08:44.of staff tried hard to bring a paedophile to justice and how the
:08:45. > :08:52.school authorities tried to bury the evidence that she collected. It all
:08:53. > :08:56.began when the assistant matron overheard some boys talking about
:08:57. > :09:04.that old housemaster, saying that he had sexually assaulted them. From
:09:05. > :09:07.their verbal remarks, it appeared that these things had gone on for a
:09:08. > :09:12.long time and involved a considerable number of boys. She
:09:13. > :09:16.also discovered that two boys had previously complained to the
:09:17. > :09:21.headmaster. It was a clear pattern of abuse but alleged abuser had
:09:22. > :09:29.moved onto another job the Barnardos home. Until last week, Keir Starmer
:09:30. > :09:34.was that Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales.
:09:35. > :09:38.I showed him the files. It is a deeply troubling story because on
:09:39. > :09:42.the face of it you have junior staff recognising something is wrong and
:09:43. > :09:47.others in a position of authority equally intent on doing nothing
:09:48. > :09:51.about it. The documents reveal that the assistant matron went straight
:09:52. > :09:55.to the governors because she knew that previous incidents had been
:09:56. > :10:00.hushed up by the headmaster. She took her story to one of the senior
:10:01. > :10:10.school governors at his home. Months past, but nothing was done. The
:10:11. > :10:14.assistant matron had kept copies of the boys' statements and later
:10:15. > :10:20.showed them to another member of staff. He called in the police.
:10:21. > :10:26.Confronted by police officers at the Barnardos home where he now worked,
:10:27. > :10:31.the housemaster confessed to assaulting and raping boys both here
:10:32. > :10:39.and at the Barnardos home. It was at this point that the home office
:10:40. > :10:42.became involved. In the files is a 62-year-old letter from a senior
:10:43. > :10:49.civil servant in the Home Office to the then Director of Public
:10:50. > :10:52.Prosecutions. It looks as though the governors, having acknowledged there
:10:53. > :10:57.was primer face the evidence of criminal offences, decided to keep
:10:58. > :11:16.quiet, not to involve the police. -- rumour . The chief prosecutor
:11:17. > :11:19.refused to tell the police. There is no criminal offence with which they
:11:20. > :11:26.can be charged and therefore no sanction to report a homily from me.
:11:27. > :11:32.When we look at these files, the difficulty, the DPP said, that there
:11:33. > :11:37.is no criminal offence with which they can be charged, means they had
:11:38. > :11:44.not broken the law. Would they have now? The position has not really
:11:45. > :11:49.changed. On the narrow view taken in 1951, no offence for failing to
:11:50. > :11:54.report, that is the position now. With no compulsion to report abuse,
:11:55. > :11:57.paedophiles were able to move around the system and children at the Royal
:11:58. > :12:07.Alexandra and other residential schools were exposed to abuse again
:12:08. > :12:12.and again. This man is Allen Meredith, housemaster at the Royal
:12:13. > :12:19.Alexandra School in the 1980s, responsible for children's welfare.
:12:20. > :12:22.We have disguised his appearance. We tracked down Allen Meredith. He
:12:23. > :12:27.didn't want to be interviewed on camera but he told us that he had
:12:28. > :12:32.started abusing boys soon after arriving at the school. He said
:12:33. > :12:36.parents complained in 1983 and 1984 but the police were never called. It
:12:37. > :12:44.was only when a parent went directly to the police in 1985 that Allen
:12:45. > :12:49.Meredith was interviewed. Detective Inspector Alec Love later prosecuted
:12:50. > :12:54.Meredith, found evidence of repeated complaints against him at the Royal
:12:55. > :12:58.Alexandra school, and they were not passed to the police at the time.
:12:59. > :13:02.The reality is that he should have been stopped at that stage. If he
:13:03. > :13:08.had been stopped, other boys would not have been abused in the way that
:13:09. > :13:11.they were. We asked the former headmaster about complaints against
:13:12. > :13:16.Meredith. He said he was aware of just one, when a parent went to the
:13:17. > :13:21.police. He had suspended Meredith but reinstated him when no charges
:13:22. > :13:30.were brought. Meredith was told not to be on his own with children. When
:13:31. > :13:37.he did not comply, he was sacked. Four years later, in 1989, Meredith
:13:38. > :13:40.was able to get the new job at another state boarding school. The
:13:41. > :13:47.Royal Caledonian in Hertfordshire is now closed. But if there were
:13:48. > :13:54.previously such serious concerns about Allen Meredith, what puzzled
:13:55. > :13:58.police was why that information was not shared. My understanding was
:13:59. > :14:02.that there was no mention and quite honestly I would be astounded if the
:14:03. > :14:08.Royal Caledonian had employed him if mention had been made of it. I asked
:14:09. > :14:14.Allen Meredith if he had started abusing boys at the Royal Caledonian
:14:15. > :14:22.school as soon as he arrived. Oh, no, he said. I had to groom them
:14:23. > :14:25.first. He said he abused boys between 1990 and 1994. Again he said
:14:26. > :14:30.there were complaints to the school and again the police were not
:14:31. > :14:35.called. It was only when a parent went directly to the police that
:14:36. > :14:40.Allen Meredith was interviewed. That was in 1995. Meredith confessed and
:14:41. > :14:45.was sentenced to ten years in prison for his crimes. I would say that
:14:46. > :14:50.they were at the top level of serious abuse. Basically the rape of
:14:51. > :14:58.boys who were 11. I don't think you can get much worse than that.
:14:59. > :15:01.Strikingly, Allen Meredith told me he wished he had been caught
:15:02. > :15:07.earlier. He said it would have saved a lot of victims and helped him sort
:15:08. > :15:10.his life out. Paedophilia, he said, is like a disease and it needs
:15:11. > :15:14.really intensive treatment to deal with it. Allen Meredith tells us
:15:15. > :15:20.that while in prison he had intensive treatment for paedophilia
:15:21. > :15:25.and there is no record of any further offences since he left
:15:26. > :15:28.prison in 2001. But Alec Love was outraged that there had been
:15:29. > :15:33.complaints is about Meredith at both schools. He wanted to bring
:15:34. > :15:38.prosecutions for failing to stop Meredith's abuse. In the end, no
:15:39. > :15:46.case could be made against the Royal Alexandra. The prosecution against
:15:47. > :15:50.the head and deputy of the Royal Caledonian for wilful neglect was
:15:51. > :15:55.thrown out by the judge. I can see why, in that particular case, wilful
:15:56. > :15:59.neglect was tried. The problem is, if you haven't got a central
:16:00. > :16:02.provision requiring people to report, all you can do is fall back
:16:03. > :16:05.on other provisions that are not really designed for that purpose.
:16:06. > :16:10.That usually means they run into difficulties. What you really need
:16:11. > :16:16.is a clear, direct law that everybody understands. Failing to
:16:17. > :16:23.report abusers to the police is still a problem today. At Hillside
:16:24. > :16:29.First School, in Somerset, staff had been raising concerns about a
:16:30. > :16:34.teacher, Nigel Leat, since 1999. Concerns that then headmaster had
:16:35. > :16:41.ignored. Tell us how it was you managed to keep those children
:16:42. > :16:44.silent. In 2011, he was jailed indefinitely after admitting 36
:16:45. > :16:49.sexual offences, including the rape of young children. The school was
:16:50. > :16:56.renamed and put under new management. This is not something
:16:57. > :17:01.confined to the past, is it? There was the recent case of Nigel Leat.
:17:02. > :17:05.This is a very real issue that has been with us for a very long time.
:17:06. > :17:08.We can go back to the 50s and probably earlier to find examples,
:17:09. > :17:12.but we can find more recent examples. It is a simple
:17:13. > :17:15.proposition. If you are in a position of authority and you have
:17:16. > :17:22.cause to believe that a child has been abused, you really ought to do
:17:23. > :17:27.something about it. Because the headteacher, Chris Hood, did not do
:17:28. > :17:28.enough to stop Nigel Leat, in April this year he was banned from
:17:29. > :17:40.teaching for life. Professor Eileen Munro is the author
:17:41. > :17:44.of an influential report for the government on child protection. I
:17:45. > :17:49.asked her if the case of Nigel Leat demonstrated the need for criminal
:17:50. > :17:53.prosecutions. That is not true, you are saying there is no prosecution
:17:54. > :17:57.case but there is a sanction in terms of you have been
:17:58. > :18:02.professionally irresponsible. Whatever agency you are working in,
:18:03. > :18:23.you have failed to meet the responsibilities of that Agency
:18:24. > :18:27.under the strategic guidance. In Ireland they are bringing their law
:18:28. > :18:34.into line with Canada, benighted state and Australia. Soon, reporting
:18:35. > :18:37.suspicions of child abuse will be mandatory. That means that
:18:38. > :18:42.professionals working with children will be required by law to report
:18:43. > :18:52.suspected cases of child sexual abuse, or CSA, as it is sometimes
:18:53. > :19:05.known. Does introducing mandatory reporting increase reporting of CSA?
:19:06. > :19:08.I would say yes. First of all, it has been shown that he will find
:19:09. > :19:13.more cases of very severe child abuse and neglect then a system
:19:14. > :19:19.without mandated reporting well. I think the figures are sufficiently
:19:20. > :19:23.clear about that, over time. You will identify more cases of severe
:19:24. > :19:29.abuse and neglect. You are changing those children's prospects in life
:19:30. > :19:32.for ever. The British government does not want a mandatory reporting
:19:33. > :19:37.law for England and Wales. No one from the responsible department,
:19:38. > :19:44.Education, was available, but they issued this statement. Mandatory
:19:45. > :19:49.reporting is not the answer. They say many thousands of cases of abuse
:19:50. > :19:54.are reported every year. And numbers of referrals have increased over
:19:55. > :19:57.recent years. We recognise, however, that sometimes professionals do not
:19:58. > :20:02.refer a child when they should do so. Addressing this is a priority.
:20:03. > :20:06.Other countries have tried mandatory reporting and there was no evidence
:20:07. > :20:09.to show it is a better system for protecting children. In fact, there
:20:10. > :20:23.is evidence to show it can make children less safe. Ben Matthews's
:20:24. > :20:25.work was cited by the Department for Education as evidence of why
:20:26. > :20:29.mandatory reporting could make children less safe. He does not
:20:30. > :20:33.accept that. Nor does he agree with other critics, who say that
:20:34. > :20:39.mandatory reporting would generate an overwhelming flood of reports. If
:20:40. > :20:42.you introduce mandatory reporting, at least in the short term, the
:20:43. > :20:46.evidence does indicate, as you would expect, an increase in the number of
:20:47. > :20:51.reports. An absolute prerequisite for a healthy system is that
:20:52. > :20:57.mandated reporters have excellent educational training about the
:20:58. > :21:01.nature of reporting, so that they can report cases that should be
:21:02. > :21:06.reported and avoid making clearly unnecessary reports. When it comes
:21:07. > :21:12.to protecting children in institutions, the focus has recently
:21:13. > :21:17.become much broader. Organisations like the BBC and the Health Service
:21:18. > :21:24.now face serious allegations that they did not do enough in the past
:21:25. > :21:28.to protect children. This is Stoke Mandeville Hospital in
:21:29. > :21:33.Buckinghamshire. In 1977, a 12-year-old girl was on one of the
:21:34. > :21:35.wards here. She told us she was raped while recovering from an
:21:36. > :21:45.operation to have her tonsils out. She has asked us to conceal their
:21:46. > :21:48.identity. I was bored because I was in an old peoples ward. I asked the
:21:49. > :21:52.nurse if I could go and watch television. She said I could go to
:21:53. > :21:56.the television room. I came out of the water and there was a porter.
:21:57. > :22:00.You seemed very nice. He asked me where I was going. I could not speak
:22:01. > :22:06.properly, but I said I was going to the TV room. He said he would show
:22:07. > :22:11.me where it. Celia says that the porter Tucker into the empty
:22:12. > :22:15.television room and raped her. -- tucked her. You told the nurse
:22:16. > :22:22.absolutely what had happened? I said the porter had hurt me, down here.
:22:23. > :22:26.She said? Don't say anything, she will get in trouble. Do you think
:22:27. > :22:31.she knew the kind of thing he was doing? She knew. The reason the
:22:32. > :22:36.nurse told her to keep quiet about the attack was because the porter
:22:37. > :22:43.was not a porter at all. He was Jimmy Savile, now accused of assault
:22:44. > :22:49.in 30 hospitals. People may feel they know about Jimmy Savile in the
:22:50. > :22:54.NHS, but do they? I don't think they do, I don't think they know half of
:22:55. > :22:58.it. The evidence I am still hearing from our clients is truly shocking.
:22:59. > :23:04.Shocking in the sense of the nature of the assaults that he carried out
:23:05. > :23:07.and also shocking that people reported it, clearly reported that,
:23:08. > :23:15.and that it was not passed on and nothing was done. The Jimmy Savile
:23:16. > :23:20.scandal has given many survivors of abuse the courage to come forward
:23:21. > :23:27.and make a fresh reports. What upsets many victims is that they
:23:28. > :23:31.were not listened to at the time. The Government need to step up, they
:23:32. > :23:34.need to open the doors properly so that people are able to speak out,
:23:35. > :23:41.and they don't lose their jobs, they don't feel scared of helping another
:23:42. > :23:45.human being. Celia's lawyer believes if there had been a mandatory
:23:46. > :23:48.reporting law, details of Jimmy Savile's abuse could have been
:23:49. > :23:56.reported to the police as early as 1964. Scores of victims could have
:23:57. > :24:02.been saved. Stoke Mandeville Hospital say they are unable to
:24:03. > :24:09.comment while the NHS inquiry into Savile's abuse continues. Some of
:24:10. > :24:13.the institutions were abuse and cover-up have been rife, and the
:24:14. > :24:19.Catholic Church, are now calling for a change in the law. I would have no
:24:20. > :24:23.problem with mandatory reporting, because, in a sense, we follow that
:24:24. > :24:29.principle. I think it would be a healthy and right thing to do,
:24:30. > :24:33.because it would make a paramount the needs and rights of the victim.
:24:34. > :24:37.So, a very clear message to victims from society saying, if you have
:24:38. > :24:41.been abused, come forward and this is what we will do, and this is what
:24:42. > :24:48.people are required to do. The Church of England has also had its
:24:49. > :24:50.share of scandals. The Archbishop of Canterbury has condemned the Church
:24:51. > :24:53.of England in Sussex for its appalling record in handling
:24:54. > :25:32.allegations of sexual abuse by priests
:25:33. > :25:34.idea for institutions across the country. There is a whole range of
:25:35. > :25:38.reasons why people have not been doing it. They worry about how they
:25:39. > :25:44.will be viewed. They are concerned that they will be misunderstood. Or
:25:45. > :25:49.they simply think, I don't want to get involved. I'm worried if I get
:25:50. > :25:55.involved. But we have to think of the child first. Not ourselves, not
:25:56. > :26:00.the institution. What is best for the child. I have spoken to
:26:01. > :26:05.charities concerned with child welfare. Some believe a new law
:26:06. > :26:11.should be considered, while others believe it could undermine child
:26:12. > :26:16.protection systems. They fear it could divert precious time and
:26:17. > :26:24.resources and that it will solve the problem of institutional cover-ups.
:26:25. > :26:27.I don't see any evidence it would make a difference. Taking the
:26:28. > :26:31.Catholic Church as an example that has occurred in countries with
:26:32. > :26:35.mandate we reporting, I know of no criminal prosecution of a Bishop for
:26:36. > :26:40.failing to act upon information that a priest was being abusive. You
:26:41. > :26:43.don't think a criminal sanction would make any difference? I don't
:26:44. > :26:47.see that it has had that effect in other countries. The kind of
:26:48. > :26:56.institutional pressures that make people try and cover problems are
:26:57. > :26:59.not solved by mandate we reporting. As Director of Public Prosecutions,
:27:00. > :27:01.Keir Starmer has tried to improve the way that victims of abuse are
:27:02. > :27:11.treated by the criminal justice system. He sees mandatory reporting
:27:12. > :27:14.as the next step. I think it is time for a change in the law. I think
:27:15. > :27:18.there should be a mandatory reporting provision. I have spent
:27:19. > :27:22.quite a lot of time trying to think how the criminal justice system can
:27:23. > :27:25.improve its response to child sexual abuse. I went to Washington to see
:27:26. > :27:30.how the specialist teams their deal with it. They do have a mandatory
:27:31. > :27:33.reporting scheme. It is very straightforward, a simple scheme. I
:27:34. > :27:37.think something like that could work in this country. Now is the time to
:27:38. > :27:44.plug a gap that has been there for a very, very long time. While the
:27:45. > :27:48.Department for Education say they will continue to examine the
:27:49. > :27:55.evidence, victims are calling for action now. I personally feel, given
:27:56. > :28:01.the situation at the moment, that our children are just as vulnerable
:28:02. > :28:06.as they were. We know so much more about abuse now than we did. Our
:28:07. > :28:12.failure to act is simply a statement saying we don't care. That is
:28:13. > :28:18.morally wrong. We should not allow it to happen.
:28:19. > :28:25.Next week, as the latest property boom prices more families out of
:28:26. > :28:27.homeownership, Panorama investigates whether we are heading for a new
:28:28. > :28:52.debt fuelled house price bubble. A family memoir that captured
:28:53. > :28:57.the hearts of millions. A potter telling stories
:28:58. > :29:00.out of porcelain