QUARRIERS, Scotland's most prestigious
children's charity, is facing ruin after a Sunday Herald
investigation revealed that the organisation is knowingly renting
homes to paedophiles and suspected child molesters within a
community housing profoundly disabled children. The revelations have
led to calls that Quarriers' chief executive, Phil Robinson, resign.
Parents of children at Quarriers Village have described
Robinson's conduct as a 'massive breach of trust'. They say the
charity's reputation is destroyed and it is impossible for Quarriers
to continue. The Scottish Executive has also said it is seriously
concerned.
The Quarriers Village in Bridge of Weir in Renfrewshire is a
network of cottages providing residential care for disabled children
.
Some cottages are no longer used as care facilities and have been
sold or rented out. One was rented to John Porteous, who was jailed
on Thursday for eight years for sexually abusing two boys. Robinson
knew that Porteous was under investigation by the police but allowed
him to remain in his rented flat.
Robinson also deliberately withheld information about Porteous
from parents. Another man, who the Sunday Herald has not named for
legal reasons, is also currently living in the village -- unknown to
parents but with Robinson's knowledge -- despite having appeared in
court in June for 13 child sexual offences. Both Porteous and the
other man are former employees at the village.
Robinson said: 'I don't agree that parents should have been
informed on the basis of suspicions alone ... we had a duty not to
disregard the presumption that someone is innocent until proven
guilty.'
Responding to claims that parents' trust was betrayed, Quarriers
spokesman Colin Adams said: 'What about betraying the trust of a man
who had not been convicted?'
Nicola Sturgeon, SNP community care spokesman, said Robinson and
the board of management should immediately resign. 'Their actions
are an unforgivable and serious dereliction of duty,' she said.
A relative of a disabled child who attends Quarriers Village
said: 'We are left with a gaping hole where our trust once was. We
need to know if these men could have had any access to our child. It
is all but impossible to think of ever sending our child back there
again.'
News: Revealed: how a
leading charity let a paedophile rent a home amid Scotland's most
vulnerable children
10 November 2002
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