April 2011

Orkney child sex abuse scandal: 20 years since ordeal that horrified a nation

June 1989: Eight children taken from a home amid allegations of abuse. Put into care on mainland.

July: Children’s panel hearing in Kirkwall decides that children should be returned to Orkney under supervision.

July: Social workers and the RSSPCC hold case conference in Kirkwall.

August: RSSPCC writes to Orkney Islands Council and Scottish secretary criticising the reporter and panel. Allegations found not proven by Scottish Office.

March 1990: Katherine Kemp, reporter to the children’s panel, suspended.

November: One of the girls from the original family taken into care. Days later other seven siblings taken into care. Social workers claim children disclosed evidence of ritualistic sex ring involving four other families and the Rev Morris McKenzie.

February 1991: Nine children named by the original kids are taken from their homes.

April: The nine return home after sheriff David Kelbie throws out the case as “fatally flawed”. Scots secretary Ian Lang announces full judicial inquiry and reinstates Kemp as reporter.

August: Public inquiry opens in Kirkwall under Lord Clyde.

October 1992: Clyde’s report savages the social workers’ action although he accepted those involved acted in “good faith”.

March 1996: Four families accept compensation deal – one receiving £40,000 – and full apology.

The full story

TWO decades ago, as the morning sun kissed the shores of a Scottish island, a squad of strangers grabbed nine sleepy-eyed youngsters from their beds.

Amid astonishing allegations of ritual sex abuse, police and social workers targeted four family homes where they were convinced children had fallen prey to a devil-worshipping paedophile ring.

What unfolded on tiny South Ronaldsay in Orkney that morning in early 1991 triggered Scotland’s biggest case of alleged satanic child abuse.

And it led to some of the darkest days in the history of the island.

Although the allegations were eventually dismissed and ridiculed as completely false, it still remains known as the Orkney child abuse scandal.

Exactly 20 years ago, the five boys and four girls, aged eight to 15 and all from the families of English “incomers”, were reunited with their parents.

They had spent five weeks on the mainland where they were denied any contact with their families.

Most were placed in foster homes but one boy was sent to a List D school and locked up with teenage crooks. A cheering crowd of more than 100 people gathered at Kirkwall airport to welcome them home.

Hours earlier, the allegations were thrown out of court by the late sheriff David Kelbie, who criticised the social work case as “fundamentally flawed”.

The children, he said, had been subjected to cross-examinations designed to make them admit to being abused.

And a subsequent nine-month public inquiry led by Lord Clyde would lambast the actions of over-zealous social workers.

Today, many of those directly involved in the events are either dead or have no desire to talk about the episode.

But the woman who stood at the helm of a support group to help the frightened families has spoken for the first time in years.

Surgeon Dr Helen Martini is withering in her criticism of the social workers and fears the same thing could happen again.

She lives in South Ronaldsay’s main village St Margaret’s Hope with retired husband Richard Broadhurst, the island GP at the time the shocking claims surfaced.

He was convinced it was all rubbish but patient confidentiality prevented him from speaking out.

But his wife, who was pregnant at the time and not working, agreed to chair the South Ronaldsay parents’ support group.

Yesterday, she said: “I think everybody who was involved has moved on – but I’m not totally sure that social work has moved on.

“I could see it happening again because I think the health service, social work departments, councils are being run by stupid people.

“We have a protocol-driven care system – tick boxes, tick boxes, do not engage brain, tick a box. I think that’s what happened here 20 years ago.”

The raids were a response to talk of ritualistic satanic abuse by a girl from an island family during therapy sessions with social workers and police.

A relative had been jailed for incest and she apparently told police and social workers that she and her friends had been abused in a bizarre ceremony. It was claimed she spoke of a masked man called “The Master” – later alleged to be local minister the Rev Morris McKenzie, since deceased – leading chants and dancing in a local quarry with dozens of adults.

She and others in her family allegedly recounted tales of adults dancing naked in a circle, with music, drinks and wearing strange costumes.

They even claimed that they and other children would be taken into the centre of the circle and sexually abused.

Social workers decided they had no choice but to act and, on February 27, 1991, removed nine children named by the other family from their homes.

Social workers then began trying to corroborate allegations with nearly 60 hours of interviews.

Liz McLean, the social worker who led the interviews, advocated controversial new theories from the US on child abuse and interviewing techniques.

Despite intensive questioning, none of the children seized said they had been abused.

The four families involved were from four different faiths – Jewish, Church of Scotland, Baptist and Quaker. Suspicions intensified when the authorities learned Quakers prayed without a minister present – and gathered in a circle.

But one of the mothers whose boys were taken from her later rubbished the conspiracy theories.

She said: “Orkney has very few trees. It’s a farming and fishing community, the locals are always watching, keeping an eye out. If we’d all been leaping around in a quarry with fires burning and so on, we would have been seen.

“What a wonderful source of gossip – the white settlers are up to no good. But no gossip came from the islanders, it all came from social workers.”

Outraged at the absence of any evidence, the close-knit community rallied behind the accused parents.

After Sheriff Kelbie dismissed the case, the nine children were reunited with their parents.

Dr Martini believes social workers at the time were influenced by a then-fashionable American theory of child-sex abuse which saw satanist perverts at every turn.

She said: “I don’t think there was any malice – an awful lot of stupidity, but no malice. I think the people involved really genuinely thought they were doing the right thing.

“They genuinely thought we were all satanists who were abusing children.”

She added: “The whole thing was absolutely awful. The kids were interrogated for hour after hour, day after day, week after week.

“People involved in child protection and the whole social work field are poorly trained. Everyone goes on courses and that’s great. ‘I’ve been on a two-day child protection course so I’m now an expert’.

“There’s a total lack of common sense. So 20 years ago, I don’t think there was any malice – there was just no brain.

“That’s what worries me, I think it could happen again. Not the same scenario – but the same underlying problem.

“Inadequately trained people put into a position of incredible power.”

But Cathie Cowan, director of Orkney Health and Care, said “many lessons were learned” from Clyde’s inquiry.

She added: “Decision-making is now based on robust inter-agency planning which minimises the risks of such events happening again.

“Orkney Child Protection has had two positive inspections in recent years and the way we listen to children and young people is seen as a strength in our joint services.”