Trial of Gary William Dobbie

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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richardb
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Re: Trial of Gary William Dobbie

Post by richardb »

Don't forget that unless the contract of employment allows for suspension without pay (and fee contracts do), the employee is entitled to be paid while suspended.
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marty
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Re: Trial of Gary William Dobbie

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The point here is that Shrewsbury school had suspended Dobbie and they wouldn't have done so without knowing the reasons for his arrest. The newsletter could simply have said "He's been arrested but we can't comment further as investigations are still ongoing. He won't be returning as a teacher." They didn't do that. The phrase "I was saddened in the holidays to hear that our Chaplain, Rev Gary Dobbie, had decided to retire" implies that they knew nothing of his arrest and also that Dobbie had made an active decision to stop work when in fact Dobbie was not, at that point, in any position to decide where he did and didn't work. The use of the word "saddened" also seeks to soften/blunt/water down the seriousness of the allegations of which they were aware.

All I'm asking for is honesty but, as Julian said, public schools care more about their reputation.
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richardb
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Re: Trial of Gary William Dobbie

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Looking at safeguarding procedures, state schools are operated by the same public authorities as the local social services departments. They have joined up procedures which provide for inter departmental procedures and consultation.

The public schools are independent of the local authority and so slightly detached.

Have to agree with Marty that Shrewsbury down played his "retirement". Taking into account what is often said about leopards not changing their spots, I can't help thinking that there is a ticking time bomb under Shrewsbury school as they wait for the complaints of abuse to start.
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Re: Trial of Gary William Dobbie

Post by J.R. »

richardb wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2019 2:46 pm Looking at safeguarding procedures, state schools are operated by the same public authorities as the local social services departments. They have joined up procedures which provide for inter departmental procedures and consultation.

The public schools are independent of the local authority and so slightly detached.

Have to agree with Marty that Shrewsbury down played his "retirement". Taking into account what is often said about leopards not changing their spots, I can't help thinking that there is a ticking time bomb under Shrewsbury school as they wait for the complaints of abuse to start.

I quite agree Richard.

I personally think that there is a lot more going to surface over the coming months.
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DazedandConfused
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Re: Trial of Gary William Dobbie

Post by DazedandConfused »

I agree with Marty re Shrewsbury playing things down. Wasn’t the Head one of Dobbie’s character witnesses?

On a slight tangent, I listened to the first episode of a podcast called And The Band Played On, about a school in Canada with both allegations and convictions of sexual assualts by teachers going back decades. It is pretty hard listening due to the victims’ accounts, however there are many similarities with CH and how things were handled.
richardb
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Re: Trial of Gary William Dobbie

Post by richardb »

DazedandConfused wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2019 9:21 pm I agree with Marty re Shrewsbury playing things down. Wasn’t the Head one of Dobbie’s character witnesses?
No. It looks like it was one of his ex pupils who is in his mid 20s.
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Re: Trial of Gary William Dobbie

Post by seajayuu »

Looking at safeguarding procedures, state schools are operated by the same public authorities as the local social services departments. They have joined up procedures which provide for inter departmental procedures and consultation.
Quite right RichardB. I have had to implement the removal of staff in the state sector. It is done as a matter of extreme urgency and following/being led by the hand through, a strict protocol laid down by the child protection section in the education authority. In my experience, once child protection receive information from the police the member of staff is prevented from any access to pupils immediately and is off the premises within the hour. I had naively assumed that independent schools followed the same procedure.
richardb
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Re: Trial of Gary William Dobbie

Post by richardb »

I can't speak of independent schools but there are a lot of safeguarding procedures which are thrown up by a Google search. They all operate "cross department" procedures.
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Re: Trial of Gary William Dobbie

Post by adlop »

marty wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2019 2:36 pm The point here is that Shrewsbury school had suspended Dobbie and they wouldn't have done so without knowing the reasons for his arrest. The newsletter could simply have said "He's been arrested but we can't comment further as investigations are still ongoing. He won't be returning as a teacher." They didn't do that. The phrase "I was saddened in the holidays to hear that our Chaplain, Rev Gary Dobbie, had decided to retire" implies that they knew nothing of his arrest and also that Dobbie had made an active decision to stop work when in fact Dobbie was not, at that point, in any position to decide where he did and didn't work. The use of the word "saddened" also seeks to soften/blunt/water down the seriousness of the allegations of which they were aware.

All I'm asking for is honesty but, as Julian said, public schools care more about their reputation.
I absolutely agree about the honesty, CH needs to do a lot more on this. Shadows of the letter sent to parents by the school about Webb here, the contents of which I only found out about recently having assumed it had informed my parents why my housemaster had left. I'm not sure who was angrier when we realised this deceit, my parents or me.

However surely these more recent letters and the ongoing statements are pored over by lawyers to make them as sanitised as possible. After all, once the public prosecutions are over the private ones are going to follow so they'll want to ensure these are squeaky clean?
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Re: Trial of Gary William Dobbie

Post by sejintenej »

adlop wrote: Sat Jun 08, 2019 11:40 am
However surely these more recent letters and the ongoing statements are pored over by lawyers to make them as sanitised as possible. After all, once the public prosecutions are over the private ones are going to follow so they'll want to ensure these are squeaky clean?
There is "cleanliness" and there is " open honesty" and the same are not always the same.

The solicitor's primary function is to ensure that any statement is true and can be proven to be such. Thus you can say thaty "he has been charged with bu****ing a pupil so he has been terminated with prejudice" or you can say "there appears to be evidence that his actions have not always been appropriate to his position and accordingly we have informed him that his presence here is no longer required".

As a parent I would not wish to recieve a missive of the second type which suggests he got too drunk too often or took drugs in public or even showed pornography to older pupils.
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yossarian
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Re: Trial of Gary William Dobbie

Post by yossarian »

As ever I can't find definite information online. Courtserve seems to cover Tuesday but not Wednesday. Does anyone have the time/court number for Dobbie's sentencing on Wednesday?
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Re: Trial of Gary William Dobbie

Post by richardb »

The sentencing hearing will be before HHJ Henson in court 4 at Hove.

The time will not be finalised until about 4.30 tomorrow to allow for changes in cases tomorrow. I would expect it to be 10 as she has a trial ongoing at the moment and I would expect her to get rid of the sentence and then concentrate on the trial.
richardb
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Re: Trial of Gary William Dobbie

Post by richardb »

The sentencing hearing will be before HHJ Henson in court 4 at Hove.

The time will not be finalised until about 4.30 tomorrow to allow for changes in cases tomorrow. I would expect it to be 10 as she has a trial ongoing at the moment and I would expect her to get rid of the sentence and then concentrate on the trial.

I will try to put something on tomorrow about what those who are attending might expect to happen and the order of events.
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Re: Trial of Gary William Dobbie

Post by yossarian »

Thanks -- that's very helpful.
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