The picture you see above is of Sarah Harrison. At the age of 15-years Sarah commited suicide while in the care of Nottinghamshire council. Sarah was a resident at Beechwood carehome under the care of Nottinhamshire city council.

Pic sourced from 2003 BBC report
15-year old Sarah had been dealing with constant bullying while at school and this treatment continued when she was made a resident at Beechwood carehome. Within 2-days of arriving at Beechwood she had her mobile phone and cash stolen from her and this continued all through her residency.

Sarah spent just 9 months at Beechwood and the inquest into her death revealed that the staff at the care-home felt "powerless"

Social worker Michelle Riley told the inquest at Mansfield Civic Centre that incidents of bullying were recorded, but staff felt powerless to stop them. The jury also heard there was a culture of drugs and underage sex at the home.

On the day she died, 15-year-old Sarah Harrison phoned her mother to say the abuse from other youngsters had become too much.

In yesterday's live streamed hearing we heard evidence from Michelle, a support worker who was part of the inquiry that looked into the suicide of Sarah Harrison. I mentioned in yesterdays post that this particular support worker was one of the "good-guys/girls" and my assumptions were proven right.

Whilst speaking to the IICSA panel, yesterday, about this incident she recalled how her boss had visited Beechwood just before the 2003 Inquiry began. She informed the panel of how her boss had threatened her with dismissal, saying not to speak of certain details to the inquiry, especially when it came to subjects of drug use and underage sex, issues that were common-place at Beechwood. Michelle dutifully ignored her boss' instructions and continued to give a full and honest account to the 2003 inquiry.

Michelle also went onto to detail this interaction in her statement to the IICSA and this was spoke about while she gave evidence yesterday. When informed that her former boss had denied ever saying this to Michelle she was then asked for a response to the denial. Michelle gave a short sharp answer and stated her opinion that her former Boss was a liar and was still continuing to lie about this incident.

To hear such untethered accounts about the environment at Beechwood carehome was truly shocking. What I found even more shocking though was the witness who followed...

The next witness was the very person that Michelle had just accused of lying and now I was glued to my laptop. This ladies evidence was unmissable and I wanted to hear her side of this story as there are always 2-sides. What unfolded in the next 3-hours was nothing short of breathtaking and if you even want to understand how children get abused while in care I would implore you to go-back to yesterdays post and listen to her evidence in its entirety.

This is Margaret Mackenchnie and at the time when Sarah Harrison commited suicide she was the Assistant director of childrens providers services for Nottinghamshire city council. Margaret was co-commander and chief and she was the lady that oversaw everything that went on in the carehomes around Nottinghamshire. In her opening statement she was asked why she had referred to the children in her care as "Clients", to which she responded with a series of stutters and weak excuses.

For the most part Margaret fell victim to large bouts of selective amnesia when faced with difficult questions from the amazing Mr Sadd. This became very frustrating to Mr Sadd but he never let it deter him from pressing her for the truth. He then went into detail about how we had just heard evidence from her former employee and informed Margaret that she had been accused of lying by the previous witness.

When asked of her-own accounts of the 2003 inquiry and the meeting she held with Michelle, Margeret failed to recall the threats she had made and continued to deny any wrong-doing. Pressed further about how she had curtailed an internal inquiry into Beechwood, forcing the "independant" reviewer to retract her recommendation that Beechwood be closed-down immediately, Margaret began to look incompitent and also complicit an obvious cover-up. Mr Sadd went on to detail how Margaret had insisted that Beechwood stay open-for-business and also revealed how she had visited the center very infrequently(Once every 2 or 3-months).

Even after the 2003 inquiry had demanded that the carehome be closed down, following the evidence it had been given by other staff members, Margaret personally made sure to petition against these demands. The 2003 inquiry then gave Margaret the option to repair the delapidated carehome, within 48hrs, if it was to have any hope of staying open to care for the "clients" in Margarets care.

Mr Sadd then asked her what followed and Margaret sheepishly stated that all repairs were carried out withn this miniscule time-frame, which allowed Beechwood to continue housing vulnerable children using the same abusive staff-members. When asked by Mr Sadd is she thought, retrospectively, if the home was now an appropriate place for such children to live, Margaret spluttered a response, simply stating that "all requirements had been met". The IICSA panel was then reminded that Beechwood was finally closed-down just 6-months after this had happened. He finished off this topic with a very simple, yet very telling question to Margaret.

"In the 6-months that followed the inquiry, looking into the suicide of Sarah Harrison, their recommendations and the time Beechwood closed down permanently, how many times did you visit Beechwood?"

"None"

Day-10. Itinery and Live stream

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