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DANIEL, with mum Beverley, dad Andrew and sister Julie.
Satanic abuse: Town in shock
David Edwards19/ 1/2006
SHOCK waves reverberated round the Langley estate this week as residents tried to come to terms with the revelations of the suffering of the parents and children involved in the false allegations of satanic abuse more than 15 years ago.
Last week a Middleton Guardian special edition and a BBC prime-time documentary graphically illustrated how allegedly flawed interview techniques by Middleton social workers led to more than 20 children being separated from their parents, some for more than six years.
For the first time some of the victims were named and were able to give their own accounts of what happened.
This week the parents of the family that sparked off the "witch-hunt" told the Guardian there was still no closure for them. They would be fighting on to get the council to publicly admit their mistakes.
And a former Langley councillor has revealed that he warned the chairman of the Social Services Committee at the time, that the social workers were fundamentalist Christians on a mission, lacked objectivity and should be replaced.
He said the families should receive "serious compensation".
Andrew, the father of Daniel, who inadvertently sparked off the ritual abuse alert, and Julie, said that he had been gratified by the reaction of local people who had expressed their support since the programme was transmitted.
He said: "People have stopped me in the street and in the shops to say how shocked they were at the injustice we have suffered and the ordeal our family has been put through. They have seen for themselves how the social workers conducted those terrible interviews with the children.
"But there has been no complete closure for us and there will not be until the council honestly admits fully and publicly its mistakes. In the meantime we will continue our campaign for full disclosure."
Last night the family was travelling to London to appear on today's (Thursday) "This Morning" programme on ITV.
This week a former Langley councillor, Robin Parker, told the Guardian that he tried to alert the then chairman of the Social services Committee, Councillor the Rev Paul Flowers, a clergyman, that something was going wrong.
Parker - a former Manchester City Council social services official - said: "I was a very new councillor in Rochdale at the time. I was approached by Langley councillors Kevin Hunt and Tony Heaford.
"They said that something was going very badly wrong and they were on the wrong track."
He said it was apparent that the two social workers involved were fundamentalist Christians and that could be affecting their judgement.
"I went to the chairman of Social Services and said the two social workers were on a mission and could not be objective when they believed Satan was at work, but he rejected this."
Mr Parker, who will fight the Langley seat for Labour in the forthcoming municipal elections, added: "The video interviews we saw on the BBC programme disproved the chairman's view. The interviews were obviously flawed.
"What should happen now is that the parents and the children should be given the apology they have asked for and serious compensation considered".
It is a view endorsed by many residents of the Langley estate who believe that the estate has been wrongly maligned and that justice has yet to be done.
Langley community activist, Barbara Guisbourne-Hilton said that after 15 years of trauma for the children and their parents it was time for the council to give them a full public apology.
The mother-of-five, who lives on Windermere Road, said that when the story first broke in 1990 she found it "very frightening".
"But it soon became very apparent that there had been a gross over-reaction by the authorities," she said.
"To split the children from their parents at such an important time of their lives must have been terrible for them and left them scarred."
She said there would only be a final closure when the council came clean and the families compensated.
Carl Cooper a member of the Bowlee Park Management Board that now runs the estate said it was time for a closure.
"How can we have any confidence in social services?"
MP for Heywood and Middleton, Jim Dobbin, said that although he didn't watch last week's documentary he thought that the sooner the situation was resolved, the better.
He said: "I was on the council at the time although it was an issue that I personally was never directly involved in. The sooner this gets resolved the better, for the sake of all those that were around Langley at the time and certainly for the future of the estate, as well as for the families involved.
"I hope the whole thing is resolved amicably in due course."
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23/08/2006 at 19:21
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