Webb and sexual abuse at CH

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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robert totterdell
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Webb and sexual abuse at CH

Post by robert totterdell »

Hi All

I haven't posted for a long time. Can I firstly say that the victim in the current case contacted me as the response to his allegations by CH was not of the best. I guess you all know me by now - and you will be aware that the latest result of the Courts was to once again find Webb guilty.

I am writing this to say that if any of you need to come forward concerning sexual abuse at CH - well I am here and so is Rebecca at Sussex police.

I am aware that there are many other victims of sexual abuse at CH and I do know that it is extremely hard to come forward but, if you are a victim, it is best to say something now and not on your death bed.

I gave support to the latest victim; I have given support to many of the victims; I don't do this lightly - it is an immense burden on my life but I believe in my fellow colleagues at CH so I just bl**dy do it.

We, that is a group of Old Blues (including a teacher), are trying to find a format for reconciliation and CH is positive on this, albeit with absolutely no real understanding (come on give them a break they are not the sharpest knives in the draw), but we can only do this if we we can clear the air - so I ask again if you need to say something then please do.

Best wishes to all - please contact Rebecca Wilde at Sussex Police or me either as a private post or at [Email removed as obsolete - please contact via Private Message] - and I don't bite (well i do but not at you).
Rob
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Re: Webb and sexual abuse at CH

Post by LHA »

Is anyone aware of any statement from the school re Webb's latest conviction?
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J.R.
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Re: Webb and sexual abuse at CH

Post by J.R. »

John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
Elvie
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Re: Webb and sexual abuse at CH

Post by Elvie »

This letter seems at odds with Robert's message on the schools response.
robert totterdell
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Re: Webb and sexual abuse at CH

Post by robert totterdell »

The schools response is what it is. I will say that they have been 'somewhat lax' in their support of the police. There will come a time when you will know all the details of how CH behaved both in the past and in recent times. That time is not now but it will be, I hope, by 2022.

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Re: Webb and sexual abuse at CH

Post by AMP »

https://nowmynews.blogspot.com/2020/11/ ... s.html?m=1

Not dormitories but study bedrooms these days.

Could one of the more enlightened members of this forum please explain to me why they are so confident that with current safeguarding it couldn't happen again?
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J.R.
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Re: Webb and sexual abuse at CH

Post by J.R. »

Does it really Make an difference ?

It's all a case of control from the top. Something that has been seriously lacking in the past !
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
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Re: Webb and sexual abuse at CH

Post by bakunin »

AMP wrote: Sun Dec 06, 2020 5:44 pm Could one of the more enlightened members of this forum please explain to me why they are so confident that with current safeguarding it couldn't happen again?
Never heard any substantial explanation of how safeguarding methods have improved, only the vaguest of claims. The only specific thing mentioned was the security perimeter, which would make absolutely no difference to the type of abuse we know happened.
sejintenej
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Re: Webb and sexual abuse at CH

Post by sejintenej »

I simply cannot see how they can ENSURE that there are no repetitions. It would mean every adult AND/OR every pupil under continuous 24/7 scrutiny wherever they are and whatever they were doing in whatever state of dress.

Yes, they can TRY to check that every adult is of exemplary character but that doesn't always work; they could exclude the one person who would not do anything untoward and how would they check the checkers?

What they can do is ensure that pupils can safely and confidently report situations but reports without proof ........ One way of getting rid of a teacher you don't like.

I think this could be referred to as a Gordian Knot and we have no Alexander the Great
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Re: Webb and sexual abuse at CH

Post by loringa »

I am sure Christ's Hospital like every other school does its best to ensure that its pupils are safeguarded and I have no doubt that claims of abuse are taken far, far more seriously that they were in the past. I sense also that there are now far more married couples on the staff or otherwise part of the school community. I think this makes for a much more normal atmosphere as well as a group of individuals who are, quite honestly, far less likely to abuse. It's not foolproof, think Husband, but Burr, Webb and Dobbie were all very definitely 'confirmed bachelors', though I must admit I would also have put Martin in that category.

One of the problems, and one of which the vast majority is not aware, is how neither a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) nor ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) are remotely interested in what people working abroad get up to unless they commit an offence which is investigated under English law. It would be perfectly possible to gain a clean DBS check and ACPO report and go abroad, commit a range of offences, and then return with as clean a record as you had when you departed. After 4 years in Kuwait I obtained a Police Good Conduct Certificate which I attempted to send to both the DBS and ACPO people and there was simply no way of submitting and recording it. Bearing in mind that most employers / voluntary organisations check the DBS on line, they would have had no idea what I might have got up to whilst overseas. BTW - clean record!

So, this will be a challenge for CH but I am absolutely sure they are doing everything they can. Plus, I don't think anyone who is currently on the staff during the period when most of this abuse took place are still there.
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Re: Webb and sexual abuse at CH

Post by AMP »

I agree with the previous comments.

A quick review of the staff list shows two masters who joined around 1982/3

Frank McKenna Manual School
Sean O'Boyle Maths, Assistant Head

Both are thoroughly decent men.

I suspect their length of service is heading for one of the all time records.
sejintenej
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Re: Webb and sexual abuse at CH

Post by sejintenej »

loringa wrote: Fri Dec 11, 2020 8:39 am One of the problems, and one of which the vast majority is not aware, is how neither a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) nor ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) are remotely interested in what people working abroad get up to unless they commit an offence which is investigated under English law.
I am far from sure about that; information about offences is shared between EU police forces. A man, originally from Rhodesia worked in the UK (where I met him), had certain ideas after which he left for climes more warm. I suddenly had a call from a friend in a UK authority authority; a man of the same name and qualifications had turned up in Dublin newspapers and did I know if this was the same man? The UK police have certainly been interested in the actions of UK males in south east asia and I also know of some connections between the UK authorities and their equivalents in a south American country.
It would be perfectly possible to gain a clean DBS check and ACPO report and go abroad, commit a range of offences, and then return with as clean a record as you had when you departed. After 4 years in Kuwait I obtained a Police Good Conduct Certificate which I attempted to send to both the DBS and ACPO people and there was simply no way of submitting and recording it. Bearing in mind that most employers / voluntary organisations check the DBS on line, they would have had no idea what I might have got up to whilst overseas. BTW - clean record!

So, this will be a challenge for CH but I am absolutely sure they are doing everything they can. Plus, I don't think anyone who is currently on the staff during the period when most of this abuse took place are still there.
I cannot accept that the police would accept a certificate from a man walking in off the street; IF there were a need to, knowing of your visit they could easily contact Kuwait for verification. I should repeat that when I could have been employed by an education authority they would not try to get an ACBO report for one simple reason - I have an adoption certificate and not a (legally usable) birth certificate.
If someone applies to CH and is suitably qualified then they have to be warned if that person has spent and real length of time abroad and make extra detailed enquiries. How, for example did they get an ACBO on that French lady teacher in the language area?
I will not comment on the Kuwaiti authorities but there are many countries where one could buy a "clean" police record.
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
loringa
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Re: Webb and sexual abuse at CH

Post by loringa »

sejintenej wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 3:40 pm I cannot accept that the police would accept a certificate from a man walking in off the street; IF there were a need to, knowing of your visit they could easily contact Kuwait for verification. I should repeat that when I could have been employed by an education authority they would not try to get an ACBO report for one simple reason - I have an adoption certificate and not a (legally usable) birth certificate.
If someone applies to CH and is suitably qualified then they have to be warned if that person has spent and real length of time abroad and make extra detailed enquiries. How, for example did they get an ACBO on that French lady teacher in the language area?
I will not comment on the Kuwaiti authorities but there are many countries where one could buy a "clean" police record.
No - this was simply my following up on the certificate that ACPO had issued me four years previously. Like CVs, I thought it was important that there were no unexplained gaps and this certificate confirmed that for the four years I had been away I had, a) been working in Kuwait, and b) had committed no offences in that country. If I applied for one now I guess there would be this gap and thought it would be easier to provide the evidence now to pre-empt any future issues; I was wrong. As for the DBS check, each year my certificate is renewed for a small fee despite the fact that I was out of the country for these four years. It might be possible for a prospective employer to apply to the Kuwaiti authorities for evidence of my good behaviour but it would only say the same thing as the certificate I already have.

The point I was making is that I could theoretically have committed offences that would have an effect on my DBS clearance and my overall record (ACPO) but that seems of little interest to either authority.
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Re: Webb and sexual abuse at CH

Post by Pe.A »

loringa wrote: Fri Dec 11, 2020 8:39 am I am sure Christ's Hospital like every other school does its best to ensure that its pupils are safeguarded and I have no doubt that claims of abuse are taken far, far more seriously that they were in the past. I sense also that there are now far more married couples on the staff or otherwise part of the school community. I think this makes for a much more normal atmosphere as well as a group of individuals who are, quite honestly, far less likely to abuse. It's not foolproof, think Husband, but Burr, Webb and Dobbie were all very definitely 'confirmed bachelors', though I must admit I would also have put Martin in that category.

One of the problems, and one of which the vast majority is not aware, is how neither a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) nor ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) are remotely interested in what people working abroad get up to unless they commit an offence which is investigated under English law. It would be perfectly possible to gain a clean DBS check and ACPO report and go abroad, commit a range of offences, and then return with as clean a record as you had when you departed. After 4 years in Kuwait I obtained a Police Good Conduct Certificate which I attempted to send to both the DBS and ACPO people and there was simply no way of submitting and recording it. Bearing in mind that most employers / voluntary organisations check the DBS on line, they would have had no idea what I might have got up to whilst overseas. BTW - clean record!

So, this will be a challenge for CH but I am absolutely sure they are doing everything they can. Plus, I don't think anyone who is currently on the staff during the period when most of this abuse took place are still there.
I think you'll find that quite a lot of cases of offences against minors are committed by people who are married - that shouldn't really make anyone above suspicion like it's a Get-Out-Of-Jail card (I think Husband was married, for example ?)
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Re: Webb and sexual abuse at CH

Post by rockfreak »

AMP wrote: Sun Dec 06, 2020 5:44 pm https://nowmynews.blogspot.com/2020/11/ ... s.html?m=1

Not dormitories but study bedrooms these days.

Could one of the more enlightened members of this forum please explain to me why they are so confident that with current safeguarding it couldn't happen again?

One of those books detailing the history of boarding schools records that in the 19th century there was an outbreak of paranoia about boys w*nking (sorry, I never know what language is allowed in these days of the New Puritanism) along with even more paranoia about them getting it on with other boys. So at one school they had them in enclosed cubicles but with barbed wire on the top to make it even more difficult for the randy little sods to climb over and pleasure each other. Unfortunately they didn't take precautions about the masters getting in. Which they seem to have done over the years without having to clamber over the barbed wire.
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