Cleveland child abuse scandal
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The Cleveland child abuse scandal occurred in the United Kingdom during the day care sexual abuse hysteria of the 1980s.
Allegations of child sexual abuse were being made by Marietta Higgs, a paediatrician at a Middlesbrough hospital (in the now abolished county of Cleveland). Using a novel technique known as reflex anal dilatation, in 1987 she diagnosed 121 children as victims of sexual abuse. Once the allegations had been made, social workers were compelled by law to remove the children from their families and place them in foster care.
Initially public opinion favoured the doctor and the social workers but, as the number of cases increased, parents decided to hold a protest march from the hospital to the offices of the local newspaper, where they planned to tell their versions of events. The media slowly turned to support the parents and a public inquiry was enacted, led by Elizabeth Butler-Sloss. Cases involving 96 of the 121 children alleged to be victims of sexual abuse were dismissed by the courts.
[edit] External link
- The Cleveland Child Sexual Abuse Scandal: An Abuse and Misuse of Professional Power by Charles Pragnell, Children Webmag, UK
