Glasgow City Council recently published the findings of their three year investigation into supposed abuse within Kerelaw Residential School. This report is basically 6 pages of nonsense, lies and contradictions and has been widely condemned by ex staff, public and Councillors alike.
In this report, GCC have made sweeping statements stating that everyone, with the exception of David Comley and the people behind the report, were either child abusers or knew about the abuse. This report also goes against every other inspection report that has been made regarding the school.
This report sparked a media frenzy when it was leaked to the Glasgow Herald before its official publication. However, it was dropped like a hot stone when, on closer inspection, it was found to be nothing short of drivel.
A number of Councillors and MSP's have joined the fight for an inquiry into the Kerelaw Scandal. They have raised serious concerns over the Councils investigation and handling of the whole affair and have been further infuriated by the Councils recent report into Kerelaw. Adam Ingram has told the Council that it must come up with a more substantial report, giving them until the end of August to do this. So far, they have not submitted this report.
The publishing of the independent report by Tom Shaw into historical abuse in residential units has been postponed until November 07, after issues were raised about the Council's handling of the Kerelaw Scandal. Adam Ingram has invited the views of a number of organizations, including the Care Commission, SIRCC, and Glasgow City Council, regarding the claims that have been made by ex staff and pupils alike.
Unison has published response to the Councils report. It gives a very different view of what happened at Kerelaw and what the investigation team got up too. It also outlines what should have happened during the investigation and what the report should have included.
The Tribunals of the wrongly sacked staff members have begun. Let's hope that the truth comes out and we wish all those going through this process our backing and best wishes.
Below are links to Glasgow City Council's report and Unison's response. Click on the links to open or save each file.
GCC's Official Report
PDF file which requires a PDF reader such as Acrobat Reader or Foxit (38kb in size)
Unison's response
RTF file opens with most word processing software (42kb in size)
We are undertaking a letter writing campaign to Alex Salmond at the Scottish Parliament, and to the Scottish Executive. We have written a letter expressing the concerns of Kerelaw employees and their families and we would ask if everyone could print off these letters and send them to the relevant parties.
Click on each of the links below and, if prompted, either open the file directly or save it to the hard drive of your computer. The letters can be opened in Microsoft Word or most word processing programmes. Add your contact details and date at the top and your name at the bottom. The letters can then be printed and posted.
Contact letter to Alex Salmond MSP at Scottish Parliament
Contact letter to First Minister at Scottish Executive
Contact letter to Education Department at Scottish Executive
We hope everyone will support us in this campaign and will spread the word to anyone connected with Kerelaw, as the more awareness we can generate, the more likely it is that some action will be taken.
It has been alleged that UNISON is not giving its members the support they are entitled to. We would like to know of your experiences, as UNISON members, in the wake of the Kerelaw investigations. We would also like your views on the fact that one of the leading investigation officers used to be a top ranking UNISON representative.
The first meeting of The Kerelaw Support Group was held recently and we would like to take this time to thank all who attended and also to those who were there in spirit. We would like any feedback on the meeting and any topics which you think should be brought up at the next meeting, which is scheduled for some time in January . (Details will be posted soon).
We are launching a letter writing campaign to highlight the scandal at Kerelaw and the plight of the staff. Names and address of the people to write to will be posted shortly.
We are calling on everyone who has had dealings with Glasgow City Council to write down their experiences in a letter of complaint and to send it to The Public Service Ombudsman. You can find this service on the web and they deal with complaints regarding councils, police etc.
In order for us to get an investigation into the way Glasgow City Council has dealt with its staff members, The Ombudsman looks like a good starting point. I would appreciate it if you would let me know if you intend to or have already sent a letter of complaint away and if anyone wishes to write their experiences down and have it posted on the site just send it to the email address provided. All emails and correspondence are dealt with in the strictest of confidence and anonymity comes as standard.
More information on the Ombudsman available here
A number of former staff members at Kerelaw have informed us that Police may not have followed proper procedures when taking statements. It has been claimed that police did not write down everything that was said and they seemed to pick and choose what went into the statements. It has also been claimed that Police twisted what was said and when these statements were read back, it did not resemble what had been said or the nature in which it was meant.
We are calling on anyone who was interviewed by the police to think about how it was conducted and what was written down and if you have had a similar experience or think that there may have been something strange going on, then please get in contact with us at the email address provided and tell us about your experience. Thank you.
It has been brought to our attention that the Police are now looking for a paedophile ring that they say was active within Kerelaw for a number of years. This is totally false and shows the Police up for the fools that they really are. When will this nonsense stop? When all the staff from Kerelaw are behind bars?
Stop trying to justify why you have put innocent men behind bars and are investigating others by talking about paedophile rings. The Keystone Cops are alive and well and running Operation Chalk.
it has been alleged that police have a hitlist of over 100 former Kerelaw staff members that they would like to question about allegations of 'abuse'.
Whilst we are only beginning to gather information on this latest investigation, it appears that police are not interested in statements regarding physical abuse, instead they are concentrating on alleged reports of sexual abuse.
We will post more information as we receive it.
We hope to post frequent updates of ongoing investigations and appeals here, to keep former members of staff and the general public informed. If you have any information that you think would be of interest, please email us.