Who Knew What?

This section was setup in August 2018 in order to move the existing related discussions from other sections into this new section to group them together, and separate from the other CH-related topics.

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wagenman
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Re: Who Knew What?

Post by wagenman »

TMF wrote: Tue Jul 17, 2018 5:46 pm According to the 1976-1977 Blue Book, the CCF Naval Section was the responsibility of Lt. R.C. Durrant.

If you google R.C. Durrant you find that a teacher by that name, who taught at Christ's Hospital, was found not-guilty in Wales in 2008, see:

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north- ... ex-2810551

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north- ... ex-2811014
I think this demonstrates two things. (1) That this type of offending is not restricted to a single school and (2) that even the weakest defence can be enough to gain acquittal.
yamaha
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Re: Who Knew What?

Post by yamaha »

This seems to be developing into an unseemly 'News of the World' style lynch mob.
We still have trial by jury, he was aquitted and as a barrister, Richard, you should know what to say.
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J.R.
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Re: Who Knew What?

Post by J.R. »

richardb wrote: Tue Jul 17, 2018 5:53 pm I really don't know what to say.

No doubt CH moved him on with a glowing reference.
"Hello Sailor" ?? :lol:
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Re: Who Knew What?

Post by misfit82 »

It's very difficult to know how accurate memories might be from 40 years ago, but I seem to recall that RC Durrant's career at CH ended shortly after he hit a pupil - by hit, I mean a punch to the stomach rather than the "legitimate" gym shoe to the bottom.
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Chrissie Boy
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Re: Who Knew What?

Post by Chrissie Boy »

I was just reading an article about how it took decades to bring to justice (in 2005) four sex-offender monks who taught at Ampleforth College, even though all the boys had known exactly what offences the monks had been repeatedly committing over the years.

No doubt it was hoped, in 2005, that the trials of these offenders would mark a pivotal point in the history of safeguarding, and yet here we are 13 years later, hoping that the trials of Karim, Webb, Burr, Husband and Dobbie will similarly mark a pivotal point. Depressing, isn't it? It seems to me that the main obstacle has been precisely what it continues to be - the schools themselves not wanting to risk dragging their supposedly good names through the mud by letting the police know what their present and former teachers have been getting up to. Personally I struggle to see that mindset ever changing.

Can you believe that one of the monks, Piers Grant-Ferris, was only given a two year prison term as punishment for 20 sexual assaults? In the post-Jimmy Savile era, that'd be unthinkable. But cover-ups, undertaken to protect the name of one's school, are I suspect still entirely thinkable, especially when most private schools are businesses of a sort. Schools may claim to be keen to co-operate with the police once a potential offender has been identified, but it's definitely still up to the poor old pupils and ex-pupils to undertake the chore of pointing the finger - and since many ex-pupils would be extremely loth to step into the spotlight in that kind of context, especially if they believed erroneously that they were the sole victim, it figures that many offenders may well still make it to the grave without being exposed, just like Jimmy Savile.
bakunin
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Re: Who Knew What?

Post by bakunin »

He was acquitted but that doesn't mean we are obliged to believe he was innocent. What follows are my personal opinions and speculations, not factual statements about the school but inferences and possibilities.

It is very suspicious that he was at CH for a short time, left under mysterious circumstances and then this happened in Wales later on.

There are at least three (and possibly a lot more) separate newspaper reports that suggest a pattern in which offenders were quietly moved on with positive references, which is very disturbing. The pattern seems to suggest that CH administration consistently went out of their way to ensure that these people remained employed as teachers. It almost seems as if this was the official (but unwritten) policy. Why?
yamaha
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Re: Who Knew What?

Post by yamaha »

It looks like CH was reckless about the plight of future victims and it is likely the subsequent employers of Karim and Dobbie would have relied on references from CH. It was said in court that Karim was given references by CH. Unless those two face charges for activities after they left CH we may never know any further detail.

It seems to be a criminal offence not to inform the police of a possible terrorist act yet it is not an offence to endanger minors by concealing knowledge of actual crimes such as these, let alone suspicions. I cannot understand why.
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Re: Who Knew What?

Post by jakew »

yamaha
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Re: Who Knew What?

Post by yamaha »

Another visit to Urban Dictionary for translation!
TMF
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Re: Who Knew What?

Post by TMF »

It is straightforward to analyze this issue:

List the staff employed by the school in the 1970s and 1980s, note starting and finishing dates for each employee

Then check for:
-Short residence times
-Mid-term departures
-Column inches in 'The News of the World' (etc.)

...and report on what appears to be the maximal extent of the problem and why it can no longer happen.

This is what I would do if I were responsible for the school.
coliemore
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Re: Who Knew What?

Post by coliemore »

This thread confirms that there has been a long-standing policy of management cover-up of well-documented child abuse and this provides data including many strange practices for the "Four Eyes" proposal for a Truth & Reconciliation Inquiry "Way Ahead". Please might the Forum Moderator progress this "Four Eyes" proposal via a small London-based Old Blue Group to "Petition" Council for such an Inquiry? Action is the way ahead after these various court proceedings and talking threads on this Forum. The 2015 "Petition 1552'" via over one thousand Old Blues made a successful impact on Council and CH policies.
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jtaylor
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Re: Who Knew What?

Post by jtaylor »

Speaking for myself as founder and moderator, I can’t take this on - too much history with CH organisations already, and the running of the forum is taking up enough time as it is, particularly the (very) few wayward posters we get from time to time, who take up a disproportionate amount of our volunteer day job.
I can’t speak for the other moderators, but this would be a big task, and I’m not sure why it’s the moderators you feel should lead on this? Would be good for others to step-up and volunteer and run it, if there’s someone suitable who’s prepared to?
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Sweyn Forkbeard
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Re: Who Knew What?

Post by Sweyn Forkbeard »

Being new to the forum I'm still catching up with the strands, but there seem to be at least three that are dealing with the issue of what did management know......a minority opinion has seemed to defend the management as they might not have known, but actually it was their JOB to know. This especially applies to the person responsible for safeguarding/welfare. It is also unacceptable to accept a brush off if you are in the role of whistleblower - you have a moral duty to take it further if you think your manager's response is wrong.

Adding it all together you can see sustained and systemic failure of management, allow predatory behaviour to persist - both at CH and other schools. Because one gets away with, others think they might too. Crookham Court (see various press stories, Esther Rantzen etc) is the 'classic case' with court cases more than 20 years later. Similar problems happened with children's social care in Islington - the police had to complain about officials making their enquiries problematic, someone went off to work in Africa, and one of the officials who should have been responsible ended up as Director of Social Care at Ofsted. Unsurprisingly, some people complained.

The pattern of cases we have seen, and may yet see, makes it clear that this was the accepted 'way of doing things.' You gave someone a reference to get rid of them, if you did anything at all. The behaviour described in the 1990s is exactly what we KNEW had happened with a certain history teacher in the early 1970s (discussed elsewhere as a man whose car you would not want to get in), and seemingly in the earlier 1960s. One more 'tradition' to add to the school's repertoire.

I agree with the person who suggested researching who left when....but who has the paperwork?
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Re: Who Knew What?

Post by richardb »

One of the real disgraces is that the school was not honest with parents and so many pupils, both at CH and other schools, were left at risk.

I was a pupil at the school when Burr was moved on. Not a word was said to parents about him interfering with the pupils. The same happened with Webb. Not only was he moved on, but parents were told anything but the truth.

Had the truth been told then it may well be that pupils would have been removed from the school.
DazedandConfused
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Re: Who Knew What?

Post by DazedandConfused »

Good point. I remember telling my parents the reason for Husband’s exit and them not believing me. They insisted it must be speculation and rumour otherwise the school would have told them (for context, they both worked in education themselves).
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