“The legal principles that apply when the court is determining questions of fact are now well established and can be summarised as follows: i) The burden of proving the facts pleaded rests with the local authority. ii) The standard to which the local authority must satisfy the court is the simple balance of probabilities. The inherent probability or improbability of an event remains a matter to be taken into account when weighing the probabilities and deciding whether, on balance, the event occurred (Re B[2008] UKHL 35 at [15]). iii) Within this context, there is no room for a finding by the court that something might have happened. The court may decide that it did or that it did not (Re B[2008] UKHL 35 at [2]). iv) Findings of fact must be based on evidence not on speculation. The decision on whether the facts in issue have been proved to the requisite standard must be based on all of the available evidence and should have regard to the wide context of social, emotional, ethical and moral factors (A County Council v A Mother, A Father and X, Y and Z[2005] EWHC 31 (Fam) ). v) In determining whether the local authority has discharged the burden upon it the court looks at what has been described as ‘the broad canvas’ of the evidence before it. The role of the court is to consider the evidence in its totality and to make findings on the balance of probabilities accordingly. Within this context, the court must consider each piece of evidence in the context of all of the other evidence (Re T[2004] 2 FLR 838 at [33]). However, the concept of the broad canvas is not an excuse for forensic laxity. Wide as it is, the canvas surveyed must still be comprised of threads of relevant admissible evidence. vi) The evidence of the parents and carers is of utmost importance and it is essential that the court forms a clear assessment of their credibility and reliability. The court is likely to place considerable reliability and weight on the evidence and impression it forms of them. vii) It is also important when considering its decision as to the findings sought that the Court take into account the presence or absence of any risk factors and any protective factors which are apparent on the evidence (see Re BR[2015] EWFC 41 ). These, however, cannot be determinative by themselves.”
“1245. In circumstances where there is a wealth of guidance for professionals and the police, it is not appropriate for this court to reinvent the wheel or burden those tasked with dealing with this fraught area with further detailed instructions. [...] That said, it does appear that the following “lessons” bear repeating as the foundation of rigorous forensic investigation by professionals and police of allegations of child sexual abuse. I venture to suggest that whenever a referral is received in a case that raises allegations of sexual abuse the social worker or police officer allocated to the case should, before they do anything else, pause and remind themselves of the following checklist of ten cardinal principles: i) The investigation of child sexual abuse is a demanding, complex and sensitive task and should be undertaken by those who have received the requisite training. ii) Very great professional care is required when dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse, both in the initial phases and at the ABE interview stage. iii) Whatever the nature of the child’s presentation, and whether the response is immediate, prompt or deferred, the response of professionals and the police must be planned. Children's best interests are rarely served by precipitate action. iv) The primary principles governing, and the procedures for the investigation and assessment of alleged child sexual abuse are those set out in Achieving Best Evidence 2011 and Working Together 2018 and must be followed in all cases. v) Any investigation into child sexual abuse that focuses attention on the statements of the child runs the risk of producing a false result if what the child says is unreliable, or if the child’s primary caretaker is unreliable. vi) All interactions with a child who is making or appears to be making an allegation of child sexual abuse have the potential to influence that child's memory. vii) Accounts given by children are susceptible to influence as the result of bias or preconceived ideas on the part of professionals and police. Those speaking to children who have made allegations of sexual abuse must keep an open mind with respect to the allegations made and must guard against the development of bias or preconceived ideas. A professional who loses their objectivity ceases, by definition, to act professionally. viii) Questioning the child should ordinarily be left to a formal ABE interview. If any initial questioning is necessary, it should be limited to eliciting a brief account of what is alleged to have taken place; a more detailed account should not be pursued at that stage. ix) Anything the child says must be recorded in a note that must detail (a) the timing, setting and people present, (b) what the child says in the words used by the child (avoiding summaries of the account in the interests of neatness or comprehensibility and avoiding recordings of the adult’s interpretation of what the child said), (c) a full note of the actual questions asked (if any) and (d) what was said by anybody else present. x) Overall, the proper methodology is one that combines listening to the child and taking them seriously with an open-minded approach that takes account of both sides of the story, is open to new evidence that disconfirms original ideas, that reasons dispassionately, that demands that claims be backed by evidence and that deduces and infers conclusions only from available facts. 1246. [...]. 1247. It is the expectation of the courts, and the collective expectation of society as expressed through the laws passed by a democratically elected Parliament, that allegations of child sexual abuse will be investigated in an assiduously open minded, procedurally fair and forensically rigorous way. A focus which accords from the outset primacy to the allegation is antithetic to that end. Where the law requires, and will continue to require, proof to a defined standard, derived from admissible evidence, before making findings or pronouncing guilt, such an approach also does a manifest disservice to those who have experienced the pernicious tragedy of sexual abuse, as well as undermining more widely the principle of due process that is a bulwark of a fair and just society.”
“If a child makes a disclosure to you If a child discloses a safeguarding issue to you, you should: . Listen to and believe them. Allow them time to talk freely and do not ask leading questions . Stay calm and do not show that you are shocked or upset . Tell the child they have done the right thing in telling you. Do not tell them they should have told you sooner . Explain what will happen next and that you will have to pass this information on. Do not promise to keep it a secret . Write up your conversation as soon as possible in the child’s own words. Stick to the facts, and do not put your own judgement on it . Sign and date the write-up and pass it on to the DSL. Alternatively, if appropriate, make a referral to children’s social care and/or the police directly (see 7.1), and tell the DSL as soon as possible that you have done so. Aside from these people, do not disclose the information to anyone else unless told to do so by a relevant authority involved in the safeguarding process”
“- See the child who is the subject of concern to ascertain their wishes and feelings; assess their understanding of their situation; assess their relationships and circumstances more broadly -determine the child’s needs and the level of risk of harm faced by the child to inform what help should be provided and act to provide that help.”
“Not anything I can remember.”
“Well, I was, I was really angry at him whenever I thought about it, and I kept on thinking, like, I'm going to tell someone and then you're going to go to jail, and then you'll see.”
“When asked what she does when the lights are switched off he said that she comes into the sitting room and her face goes pale.”
“She said, ‘it is not anything I’d have expected from him, I trusted him.’ [the Mother] stated that she was ‘devastated’ and added, ‘it’s the most awful thing, sexual abuse of a child’ and added, ‘physical I see it but ....’ and appeared entirely horrified by the concept that her daughter had been sexually harmed and she had not noticed anything.”
“I’m shaken to my core. I don’t know myself any more.”
“A will say that she tried to tell her mother about the abuse. It is often the case that children will give tester, or brief indicator of abuse occurring to establish what the parents’ response will be. A might not have been sufficiently clear or obvious in what she said to capture her mother’s attention, particularly as her mother would never have imagined sexual abuse was occurring in her own home. The disclosure would need to be rather obvious to her for her to have taken notice. It might be that A in fact said sufficient to her mother, but [the Mother] did not understand the seriousness or gravity of what was occurring and so did not respond appropriately. I do not get the impression that [the Mother] received a full disclosure from A, as I believe [the Mother] would have reacted to that. I got the impression that [the Mother] is hugely regretful that she did not take more notice of her daughter and asked more questions of her.”