Stanhope Castle School abuse survivors are still looking for justice

Stanhope Castle School opened as an approved school for boys in Stanhope, County Durham in 1941. It was under the control of the home office until 1973 when approved schools were abolished and it then became a controlled community home under local authority control until it closed in 1981.

For those not familiar with the term, an approved school was a residential institution where young people as young as 11 could be sent by the court system after committing relatively minor criminal offences. Others were sent there simply because they were considered to be beyond the control of their parents or their home life was unstable.

The schools were loosely modelled on boarding schools and their aim was “to achieve the re-adjustment and social re-education of boys and girls in preparation for their rehabilitation into the community”.

Many approved schools were known for their strict discipline and even at a time when corporal punishment was still used in our schools the discipline in approved schools was known to be more severe than ordinary schools. There were lots of ex-forces among the staff at the school and those who were placed there often describe it as a boot camp.

Reports of sexual abuse at the school and general brutality have been in the public domain for some years. It is fair to say that most victims and survivors of abuse at the school feel that they have been let down by the authorities over the years.

Attempts were sometimes made by the victims and survivors when they were children to report the sexual abuse to social workers who did not believe them and to the police who on occasions physically assaulted them before returning them to the school. Threats and further physical violence were then used by staff at the school to discourage the victim from reporting the sexual abuse again.

In 1999, a complaint was made by a former pupil relating to child sex abuse at Stanhope Castle to Durham Constabulary.

A number of victims and survivors of abuse at the school gave evidence at the IICSA enquiry which included evidence that the complainant felt he had been misled by the police at the time of this investigation. It is alleged that he was told that alleged abusers were dead when they were in fact still alive at the time, could have been interviewed by the police and if the evidence was sufficiently strong prosecuted. It was suggested that there was no evidence that other alleged abusers had worked at the school or they were said to be untraceable when in fact years later it was confirmed that there was evidence of their employment at the school and they could have been traced.

Durham Constabulary accepted at the IICSA enquiry that it had not properly investigated the allegations that were made at that time.

Three more victims then came forward and made complaints of sexual abuse to the police in or around 2013 and by 2016 more than 30 complainants had come forward making complaints of abuse against staff and other pupils at the school. That investigation is still ongoing.

Durham Constabulary then admitted that their file relating to the 1999 investigation had been damaged in a flood in 2006 and had been destroyed.

In 2021, Middlesbrough Council Middlesbrough who are responsible for any civil claims relating to the school reported that some claims relating to alleged sexual abuse at the school had been made in and around 2014. The Council and their advisors had however rejected those claims on the basis that it was argued that the claims were out of time, there were no convictions against the alleged abusers and/or any corroborating evidence of sexual abuse.

Jordans solicitors have a long history of acting for the victims and survivors of sexual abuse and have been involved in landmark court decisions for Claimants. We feel strongly that justice has been denied to the victims and survivors of abuse at Stanhope Castle school for too long and some ten years on from when the previous claims were rejected are acting for some new Claimants who have not come forward before and are pursuing new claims relating to sexual abuse at the school in the 1960’s and 1970’s. They want an acknowledgement of what happened to them at the school and for someone to be held accountable for it.

Unfortunately, we are unable at this late stage to help some who come forward to speak to us as the alleged abusers have now been confirmed as deceased and others are alleged not to be fit to stand trial. It may that these unfortunate victims and survivors will be able to claim in the future when the proposed limitation reforms hopefully come into force.

However, in other cases there are good arguments that the claim should be allowed to proceed out of time. Social care records are often still available which help prove that the person was placed at Stanhope. The victims and survivors of the abuse often refer to the same alleged abusers which help corroborate other’s accounts of abuse. In some cases, there is evidence that  the alleged abusers were employed at the school and they are known to be alive and able to give evidence.