How safe are your kids, and how much do the authorities care?

I ask this after realising that the authorities concerned have little or no interest in extremely dodgy behaviour in and around the institutions that they supposedly govern.

Here's just one example:

We all know that residents in caretakers cottages on school grounds are the paragon of trust and there has never been any problem regarding child safety with regards to anyone living in said accommodation. While you think about that, I shall continue.

When myself and my partner raised the issue of why a bloke of 70 odd wanted to film kids that he encouraged to go into his fenced in enclosure and shed with a bed, we thought that we were being responsible parents, without passing judgement on the intentions behind this old gits motives we tried to be grown up about it and reported it as a child safety issue to ADC. Shortly after doing this, the vandalism started, then the rumours about us, then the abuse, the assault by the allotment manager and finally the eviction and decimation of our shed greenhouse and plants.

The main conspirators were strangely the people that one would expect to support child safety issues, namely the council leader, the school governor (John Bowd), and a person who lives in a school. It is the last of these whom I will now address.

Eastbrook Primary School (formally Manor Hall Road School) in Southwick is site managed by Mrs Sharon Morgan, and she and her family reside within school grounds in a small cottage. Her husband Stephen Morgan is the allotment holder who seemed to appoint himself defender of Kevin Hartney against anyone who dared to question his behaviour (we have been told by previous tenants that they were hounded off the site after asking questions as well). Imagine our surprise when a quick scout round the internet revealed this......

 

 

 

If you are having trouble reading this tiny pic, it is a posting my Mr Morgan on a web forum in which he suggests the 10 best places in the world to visit. Number one is "the shower room at Roedean's private school for girls" and other favourites include naked sex cruises, peep shows and Thai brothels. Well I don't know about you, but I would have a bit of an issue if someone living in a school appeared to display a predilection for the Thai sex industry and appeared to harbour fantasies involving school children and showers.

 

Well, yes it would appear that it is just me that thinks that this is a bit wrong, as when this information was passed to the relevant authorities, the only action taken was to let him know that it could be a bit iffy and he deleted the post in question, luckily I saved a couple of copies for you.

 

I noticed the other week that this same individual had decided to take the lead of his mate at the allotment and fit a couple of CCTV cameras himself. These cameras are on the grounds of the cottage and overlook the kids coming and going to school. Not really that comfortable with this idea I thought that the responsible thing to do was ask the school why they had CCTV cameras that appeared to be operating outside of the data laws (ie. the owner of the camera is not required to be safety checked or any images captured kept secure).

 

 

 

This was the eventual response:

 

The CCTV is absolutely nothing to do with the school and solely the responsibility of the Caretaker on her grounds. It does not cover the school playground and has not been offered to the school as security or used as security by the school. We knew nothing about this until it was spotted last week.

The Caretaker’s house is the property of the Local Authority and not the school. We are not responsible for the upkeep of that property.

I have spoken to our Caretaker about the CCTV and use for her awareness.

 

Sincerely

Mrs P Bird 

 

Not that reassuring is it? They had no idea that their staff member's other half had set up cameras overlooking the school entrance and feel that it's not their problem anyway, as the cottage is the property of the local authority, just like the school itself is. I did ask the local authority, but they couldn't give a damn either.

So the lesson is learned, if someone wants to film your kids on local authority land, be it school or allotment, no bugger is going to stop them.

 

Take care, and control

HHH