Child abuse inquiry hears Moffat evidence

ABUSE at a former Moffat children’s home has been in the spotlight this week.

The ongoing Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has been hearing evidence from witnesses in relation to disturbing events at the Merkland home.

On Wednesday and Thursday four witnesses shared their experiences there at the Edinburgh hearing.

Today, Stephen Morgan, the current Dumfries and Galloway chief social worker officer, will speak for the council.

Meanwhile, the opening submission made by Dumfries and Galloway Council last December at the start of this phase ten, has now been published.

Representing the local authority was principal solicitor Ben Thom, who confirmed the regional council’s ownership and operation of the Merkland home from 1952 until its closure in 1982.

He noted that ‘a number of children and young people’ were abused by the officer in charge of the home over a five-year period, from 1977 and 1982.

Mr Thom said: “Following the first disclosure of abuse in 1994, which prompted a formal police investigation which identified more victims, the perpetrator was convicted and imprisoned in 1996 for the abuse that he committed.

“Since that time, more ex-residents have come forward, revealing the extent and scale of the abuse suffered. The perpetrator was convicted and imprisoned in 2022 for further abuse committed at Merkland. “Separately, he received an additional eight-year sentence at Cardiff Crown Court in December 2000 for abusing seven young males from Dumfries and Galloway whom he had taken on holiday to Wales.”

The solicitor wrapped up his submission by saying: “The council sees its role in this phase of the inquiry as being firstly, to provide the inquiry with information to supplement the evidence that it will hear from witnesses who will speak to direct experience; and, secondly, to use that evidence and subsequent findings to further interrogate processes and best practice and to eliminate, insofar as possible, potential for the repetition of abuse such as that suffered at Merkland.”

The inquiry is now in its ninth year and is currently considering abuse at 20 residential care establishments run by local authorities, from within living memory until the end of 2014.

This phase will run until May, exploring the nature and extent of all forms of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, including the abusive use of corporal punishment and restraint.

The investigations will also examine reporting systems and the wide-ranging impact of abuse, along with staff recruitment, training and organisational culture.