See Hear presenter Erika Jones has uncovered a story of historical child sexual abuse at a London Deaf school, in a hard-hitting item that can now be seen online on BBC iPlayer.
The story centres on a Deaf school in London called Woodford School for the Deaf, which closed 20 years ago. There, pupils experienced repeated instances of abuse. Now adults, they have told Jones what happened to them.
Incredibly, the programme reveals that their abuser pleaded guilty to indecent assault on two Deaf children at the school but was let off with a fine, and continued to abuse children there for years afterwards.
28 of the children were willing to testify in a court case against the abuser, but the case collapsed when an unsympathetic judge decided that the abuser was too old and that too much time had passed, and yesterday’s episode was the first time their stories have been told.
In making the item on the story, Jones worked extensively with the BBC’s Newsnight programme, and the same story is set to be shown in an upcoming episode of Newsnight, which will be the first time an item on Newsnight has been presented in BSL.
Watch yesterday’s episode of See Hear on BBC iPlayer by clicking here.
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Jill
October 13, 2015
A very powerful and sensitive report – a big thank you to Erika for bringing this to a wider audience. I would hope that, in future, this report is integrated into safeguarding training for all teaching and support staff working with D/deaf children and young people.