Address to the Governing Council help please

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robert totterdell
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Address to the Governing Council help please

Post by robert totterdell »

Hi All
As you will all be aware I came 'out' to you about the sexual abuse committed against me whilst at CH. I have subsequently revealed to my closest friends that I was raped by Mr. Burr on 14th February 1970.

At the end of September, I will address the Governing Councils committee dealing with sexual abuse at CH.

I have been advised that other members of the General Council may attend.

To the best of my knowledge, other than at a Founders Day address, I will be the first Old Blue to be allowed to address the Governing Council since the Foundation back in 1552.

I will make a formal address and then there will be a question and answer session. I will be accompanied by two other old Blues from my time to lend support and help.

I now ask each and every one of you to contribute to this by asking one or two questions that you would like to either be put in the address or be asked at the end - no names mentioned and I do not mean why did it happen or why was it allowed to happen (I've covered this in my address).

This is a real chance for any of you to say your thoughts and ask a question or two, to allow me to ask the questions and submit the thoughts.

I must say at this point that this is a living hell and I wish that I had never come forward. But life is what it is. I will try to do my best for all - too late for me!

Cheers

Rob
CodFlabAndMuck
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Re: Address to the Governing Council help please

Post by CodFlabAndMuck »

You are a very brave man and I salute you.
I would like to know if the Headmaster and SMT will have more oversight of how Houses are run?
Housemasters had too much autonomy, and in my 7 years, the Headmaster only visited once.
How can he possibly know what is going on?
Last edited by CodFlabAndMuck on Fri Aug 31, 2018 1:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Elvie
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Re: Address to the Governing Council help please

Post by Elvie »

My thoughts are very much with you and the other victims. i know that is a statement that is easily made but please be assured that there hasn't been a day in the last few months where i haven't thought about the abuse which was endured and the pain you must have been through to bring these ******** to justice.

The anger i have within me knowing that my friends and peers were subject to abuse under the same roof as me is nothing in comparison to what it has done to you and the others.

I have resigned myself to the acceptance that those in the senior leadership teams that accommodated this abuse will most likely escape being held accountable. However there is one gap which i have mentioned on other threads, but which i think i would like to propose is challenged;

Have the police been made aware of all known cases where abuse was reported to the CH senior management team, in order for further investigations to take place?

Without this assurance there remains a possibility that children either at CH or elsewhere may be subject to abuse today, because reports were dismissed.
TMF
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Re: Address to the Governing Council help please

Post by TMF »

Rob, thank you for doing this, you are brave.

I wonder if any of the Council knew of abuse when it occurred - and subscribed to the 'don't rock the boat'/'open secret'/'just another sudden departure' approach to handling such matters. (i.e. the approach that guarantees a steady increase in abuse).

The Council members are listed here: https://www.christs-hospital.org.uk/abo ... overnance/
cstegerlewis
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Re: Address to the Governing Council help please

Post by cstegerlewis »

Interesting, James Arnell, James Maclean and Nick Atkinson (if it is the right one) are all near contemporaries of me, so were in the school during the tenure of several of the 5 convicts
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J.R.
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Re: Address to the Governing Council help please

Post by J.R. »

cstegerlewis wrote: Tue Aug 28, 2018 3:12 pm Interesting, James Arnell, James Maclean and Nick Atkinson (if it is the right one) are all near contemporaries of me, so were in the school during the tenure of several of the 5 convicts
Which will make Rob's address even MORE interesting.

I don't think the fire-buckets filled with sand trick will work this time !!
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
cstegerlewis
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Re: Address to the Governing Council help please

Post by cstegerlewis »

I should probably confirm, all as pupils, not teachers
Craig Steger-Lewis
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ZeroDeConduite
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Re: Address to the Governing Council help please

Post by ZeroDeConduite »

Respect, Rob.
So, trying to interpret the list, only one of the four listed Education Committee members (which deals with 'welfare' amongst other things) is an Old Blue (1973-1980 approx).
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Scazza
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Re: Address to the Governing Council help please

Post by Scazza »

TMF wrote: Tue Aug 28, 2018 2:53 pm
The Council members are listed here: https://www.christs-hospital.org.uk/abo ... overnance/
Rob, you need to park this, you must be exhausted, so imo get the ball absolutely in CHs court:

"The Council includes the head of Internal Audit for the NHS. Where is CHs investigation and report into what went wrong?"


That would be the norm in any other business and the Council must know that. Imo without understanding what went wrong in the past, the audit into current safeguarding provides only limited assurance or meaning.

It wasn't a different universe 15 years ago when this was still going on. If they investigate the school would then be in a position to at least comment on whether Poulton, Cairncross, Sillett, the Flemings and others acted appropriately.

Who do you want accountable, Rob? We all really want to help you get that.
Last edited by Scazza on Tue Aug 28, 2018 5:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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J.R.
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Re: Address to the Governing Council help please

Post by J.R. »

As TMF said above. There are a very many OB's with you on this one.

We are all sick of constant cover ups.
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
Jim Rayner
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Re: Address to the Governing Council help please

Post by Jim Rayner »

Hi Rob

It will be interesting to see which members of the council you get to meet. The current Chairman of the Council, Guy Perricone, is about to retire and he's being replaced on 1 October by Christopher Steane https://www.christs-hospital.org.uk/sch ... -hospital/. You may remember Christopher? I'm not sure of your dates, but I believe you, Christopher and I were very near contemporaries - I think he was a year later than me, but we were in the same Maths Grecians Oxbridge group so I knew him reasonably well.

What the means of course is that he will have known Burr, Webb, Husband and Karim (as a pupil). That may help when you are trying to paint a picture of what life was like during your time - although his experience (and mine) was obviously very different to yours. And I dare say his memories will be coloured by looking back from the perspective of a very successful career, for which he no doubt feels a debt of gratitude to CH. But you would hope he would be profoundly shaken by the realisation that while he was set on the path to a life of success one of his contemporaries received life-changing damage.

As to questions. I'd like to know what the school proposes to do to provide the very best professional help for the victims. I'd also like to be assured that the same help will be extended to victims in cases that haven't come to court, either because the perpetrators have died or the CPS did not feel the evidence was strong enough to secure a conviction.

Thank you for your courage. We're all behind you.
LHA 67-70; ThA 70-74
sejintenej
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Re: Address to the Governing Council help please

Post by sejintenej »

Jim Rayner wrote: Tue Aug 28, 2018 6:27 pm As to questions. I'd like to know what the school proposes to do to provide the very best professional help for the victims. I'd also like to be assured that the same help will be extended to victims in cases that haven't come to court, either because the perpetrators have died or the CPS did not feel the evidence was strong enough to secure a conviction.

Thank you for your courage. We're all behind you.
I sugest that amongst your comments you point them to this Forum and the relevant threads. There is enough anger, disgust and detailed facts here to convince any sensible person.

My best wishes also

DB
What happens if a politician drowns in a river? That is pollution.
What happens if all of them drown? That is solution!!!
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Re: Address to the Governing Council help please

Post by DazedandConfused »

Robert your courage is quite incredible. I can’t imagine how it must feel to address the abuse you suffered so directly and after so many years, however I hope you know how much support you have from the OB community and that this process offers some form of healing for you.

I am fairly certain that CH cannot answer the question that I would like answering the most, probably due to pending legal action from the victims. It is the action, or lack of action, from Poulton, Cairncross and Sillett that I would like addressed by the school. It sickens me that Poulton’s portrait still hangs in the school and that he had the audacity to wear a CH tie to court when he waved Karim off with a glowing reference. I refuse to accept that it was a different time and therefore their actions were understandable. I appreciate that CH cannot make them testify in any inquiry but I’d like the school to share the information that they do have and to publicly say that their actions were unacceptable.
Scazza
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Re: Address to the Governing Council help please

Post by Scazza »

Rob, if they cannot provide an internal audit report:

Can the Council fully explain the lessons learned from the court cases to prevent any possible recurrence?


The Headmasters 5Jul18 statement suggests that this work has already been done:

The School has followed the court proceedings very closely. Learning from the experiences of those affected can only help refine our continued commitment to ensuring that time spent at Christ’s Hospital is a safe, happy and fulfilling one for every pupil.

Full statement posted here by Richard:
http://www.chforum.info/php/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=5134

That would significantly reassure survivors and the wider Old Blue community that this cannot be repeated and help us to better understand and process what happened.

Of course, the big obstacle to transparency is pending litigation.

@dazed, Ive realised that if the individuals in charge could be held accountable then CH would have happily thrown them under the bus by now. I can't imagine any teachers received anything approaching safeguarding training until recently, so an easy out for them to pass vicarious liability back to the institution instead. I cant imagine there were written processes that staff failed to follow either. Maybe there is a frantic battle going on behind the scenes on that score, though.
michael scuffil
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Re: Address to the Governing Council help please

Post by michael scuffil »

'It sickens me that Poulton’s portrait still hangs in the school... I refuse to accept that it was a different time and therefore their actions were understandable.'


On the first of these points, re-writing history is always bad, whatever the motive. Probably he shouldn't have been, but he was headmaster, period.

On the second, their actions would not have been 'understandable' at any time, as some of us have tried to point out. From 1955 to 1977, I don't think anything was covered up. Okay, the procedure for dealing with it was different, and the cases weren't shouted from the rooftops; the police were not involved, and probably wouldn't have wanted to be involved. To that extent things were different. But abusers were removed, without glowing references.
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