A Portsmouth Child Sexual Abuse Network linked to ex MP

An Abusive Childrens Home A Childhood Destroyed                   {Trigger warning}

After his childhood of being abused and sexual abused, Les had met one of his abusers as an adult, beaten him up, felt ashamed at stooping to their level, and put his life of being abused behind him- the end of Crazy Cummings.

He had moved to America, had married and had built a successful career as a salesman in America. He thought he had successfully buried the torments of his past… until one day when he checked the webpage of his old local paper and the face of one of his abusers crashed into the privacy of his home, and triggered Les’s rage 5000 miles away from where the abuse had happened. Thats when Les was forced into further action. Part of that further action was writing this book.

He was first taken to the Childrens Cottage Homes, Cosham at the age of 2, in the 1950s. Whilst there he was viciously physically abused by sadist Houseparents Mr Bott, Aunt Ross, Aunt Round and Superintendents Otterbourne and Isacke.

The Cottages were a mixed lot and whether you were abused depended partly on which cottages you were in, and with which houseparents. Not all were bad, and Les had many words of praise for Mrs Ingram and Mr and Mrs Peters.

As well as the extreme physical abuse, there was sexual abuse and Housefather Mr Prosser sexually assaulted at least one girl [p220], Aunt Round was arrested for having sex with a 13 year old [p219] and gardener Mr Bone appeared in court in 1956 for exposing himself to girls [p220].

Les was also fostered twice. Once at the hands of Hilda and Peter Baker of 258 Queens Road. Here he was not only sexually abused by the father, but starved, beaten and locked in a cupboard, for hours on end, where there was no room to even lie out straight. Their son Peter Baker used to join in the physical abuse, used to get Les beaten by his parents and used any manner of means to taunt and goad Les including with food. Bizarrely the family had Les baptised. This fostering lasted two and a half years.

The second fostering with Mr Peter Goodchild and his sister Winifred West at New Road East Copnor was idyllic until Peter began sharing Les’s bed, which sent him off the rails again. Aunt Wynn however was the nearest thing Les ever had to a mother and Les regrets any heartache he caused her. Fortunately another boy was fostered, shared Les’s room, which put a stop to the abuse. Les eventually left to live with a girlfriend.

Mr Maynard was placement officer, presumably working for the Council, and placed Les in the Homes and fosterhomes. He was told by Les of physical and sexual assaults but did nothing. Why?

Similarly police were culpable for not helping Les and stopping the abuse. Les attended Fratton Police Station to make a statment in 2006. DC Lorraine Bell and DI Linda Dawson carried out the interview. They had no record of him having contacted the police before. Les showed them his social security records and they had to accede that he was right, that he had reported the abuse.

In the book Les mentions that some children from the home were sent to Australia and some sent to work in coalmines in Scotland and Wales [p104].

Les’s quest for an apology in 2008 was not met with much help from Stuart Gallimore Director of Childrens Services City of Portsmouth Council or Council Leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson. As his campaign grew he had found at least 38 other abused children. He set up a website for his Childrens Cottage Homes Justice Project at http://www.cchjp.co.uk . Unfortunately it appears to be no longer online and not archived. If anyone knows what happened to it I would be grateful to know. There is though now a website [3] covering all cottage homes and there is now a book for sale on there about the Cosham Cottage Homes, which I have not read yet.

The Council having refused Les an apology, eventually with help of an Inside Out programme, details here [6], broadcast on 7 March 2008, 19 litigants managed to extract just £92,000 from Portsmouth Council for the abuse they suffered when the Council was meant to be looking after them.

Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson refused to accept liability and to say sorry. But for Les after all this time, after a lifes trauma, he has allowed himself to accept that he has won. For others I suspect that in the current atmosphere, there will be renewed efforts to demand an apology and accept liability.

Networks of Abuse

The Housefather Mr Prosser mentioned earlier is very likely to be the same Peter Prosser referred to by Janella in her book [p238 [8]] who was owner and superintendent of St Joes Lodge. He had been investigated 3 times previously for sexual abuse of children in his car [8].

Janellas adoptive father Bonner Pink MP, who abused her, is shown in Council Minutes to have financed and placed superintendents for The Childrens Cottage Homes [8]. He also placed Prosser in charge of a holiday home in Talgarth Wales.

Thus it could well be that abuse at the Cottage homes took place with knowledge and connivance of Bonner Pink a councillor, alderman, Mayor and a child abusing MP. At that time Freddie Emery Wallis, who has since been convicted of offences against children going back to this time, was a councillor, Lord Mayor of Portsmouth and was even on the childrens committee with Bonner Pink [8].

In 1961 Bonner Pink was Mayor and councillor for St Pauls, Portsmouth Council and Alderman in 1969 [13]. He became MP for Portsmouth South from 1966 until he died in office in May 1984, aged 71 [16]. His wife, Janellas adoptive mother Rita was Chairperson of the local Portsmouth NSPCC in 1960s, and also is believed to have abused her daughter. Janella is also suspicious of Eton and Sandhurst educated Sir Jocelyn Lucas former MP for Portsmouth South, who left the House of Commons in 1966, to be replaced by Janellas adoptive father.

Frederick Alfred John Emery-Wallis was Conservative Councillor for St Thomas P0rtsmouth in 1961 [10], Mayor 1968 [12] , 69-74 he was City Council Alderman [9] , Hampshire County Councillor 1973-2001 [11][17]  Leader Hampshire County Council 1999-2001; a Deputy Lord Lieutenant for Hampshire [11]. It is not known exactly when he was made one of the 50 or so Deputy Lieutenants of Hampshire but it is likely that he was appointed by Lord Lieutenant Mary Fagan, who was appointed by the Queen on advice of the Prime Minister. He was given a CBE in 1999 which was stripped from him in 2001 as was the Deputyship when he was found guilty of indecent assault against 2 boys back in the 1960s and 70s. He was cleared of a more serious charge when the jury could not agree and the CPS said there was insufficient evidence for a later charge on historic indecent assault against a girl. He was 80 in May 2008 and so would be aged about 86 or 87 if alive today.

Summary

In the Cosham Childrens Cottage Homes there were several child abusing sadists including Mr Bott, Aunt Ross, Aunt Round and Superintendents Otterbourne and Isacke. Then there were child sexual sadists including Aunt Round and Superintendent Peter Prosser with a flasher Mr Bone as the gardener.

In charge of some aspects of the Home in the 1960s and in different posts at different times for the Portsmouth Council was Ralph Bonner Pink, Councillor and Alderman, and a child sexual abuser. His wife and fellow abuser was Chair of local Portsmouth NSPCC.  Bonner Pink appointed Prosser, another abuser, to be a superintendent of one of the Childrens Cottages. From 1966 Bonner Pink also became local MP. He was known to be on the Portsmouth Council childrens committee for at least part of this time with yet another  child sexual abuser , his best friend Emery-Wallis. Emery Wallis transferred his Council attentions to the Hampshire County Council from about 1973, being leader from 1999 to 2001. He was also one of the Crowns Deputy Lieutenants for Hampshire around the millenium.

At this stage it is not known how long these two child abusers, Bonner Pink and Emery Wallis were on the childrens committee of the local Portsmouth council, or what their tasks were, or whether or how they used their position to abuse more children. Similarly more information is needed on Emery-Wallis’s positions on the County Council. It would of course be entirely consistent with other child sexual abusers if they abused hundreds of victims over their lifetime, using their positions of authority and influence to help them abuse and cover up. It is also very likely that they were in touch with many other active paedophiles.

Was Ralph Bonner Pink  in touch with other child abusing MPs? Was it just a coincidence that he forced his adoptive daughter illegally into Broadmoor where she was abused by Jimmy Savile who was a procurer of children for a Prime Minister amongst others?

It would not be far fetched to suggest that, just as MPs William Whitelaw, Leo Abse and Enoch Powell were reputed to partake of the sea air and abuse boys in Brighton just 60 miles from London on the South Coast, then other MPs would indulge themselves a little further along the coast at Portsmouth using Bonner Pinks contacts with children.

Aangirfan blog makes the connection of Hampshire to a number of top Conservatives – Derek Laud, Julian Lewis, Ian Greer and Michael Colvin, as well as a number of other interesting ideas in his article [15].

Bonner Pink had a boat called Ambler, an old RNLI boat and travelled across the channel to Normandy once with Janella. Did Bonner ever use it to go to Jersey? A superintendent from a cottage home in Cosham visited Haut de la Garenne, taking a 17 year old girl who states she was sexually assaulted over a 3 day period. Male victims at the Jersey home were told they would be put in a mental hospital if they told on the MP now deceased who was allegedly abusing them regularly.

What were Bonner Pinks connections in his child abuse network? What was the full sexual abuse network of abusers and enablers surrounding Cosham Childrens Cottage Homes and Portsmouth City Council? What did Maynard and the Council know? What were Emery-Wallis child sexual abuse contacts and network in Hampshire County Council? What were the Bonner Pinks child abuse contacts amongst MPs and across Hampshire?

The Hampshire Police ignored at least one child, Les Cummings who reported being sexually abused? Was this more widespread? Were the police involved in the sexual abuse as in other parts of the country, did they actively cover up or were they just incompetent?

Have Hampshire County Council had or are they going to have an inquiry into child sexual abuse and Emery-Wallis?

When are Portsmouth City Council going to carry out an inquiry to get to the truth of what happened and offer a full apology to the abused victims of Portsmouth City Council “care”?

Is the insurance company a problem? [19]

Any further information would be gratefully received in confidence to [email protected]

Please note that victims of abuse may be triggered by reading this information. The Sanctuary for the Abused [A] has advice on how to prevent triggers.  National Association for People Abused in Childhood [B] has a freephone helpline and has links to local support groups. Other useful sites are One in Four [C] and Havoca [D]. Useful post on triggers [E] from SurvivorsJustice [F] blog.

Links and References

Page numbers eg [p220] refer to [1] unless stated.

[1] 2008 Forgotten An Abusive Childrens Home A Childhood Destroyed by Les Cummings ISBN 978 0 330 522227 4

[2] Les Cummmings on Amazon book and reviews http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0330466879?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

[3] Childrens Cottage Homes website http://www.childrenscottagehomes.org.uk/

[4] Memories in Print http://www.memoriesinprint.co.uk/writing_your_memoirs.html

[5] Needleblog Cosham’s Children’s Cottage Homes https://theneedleblog.wordpress.com/operation-greenlight/south-east-england/portsmouth/coshams-childrens-cottage-homes/

[6] 2008 Mar 6 BBC Inside Out Inside Out South: an emotional journey http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/03_march/06/abuse.shtml

[7] Care Leavers Association http://www.careleavers.com/ and care leavers reunited http://www.careleavers.com/clreunited/

[8] 2015 Mar 4 Cathy Fox blog Heartless and Heartless too by Janella aka Steven George https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/heartless-and-heartless-too-by-janella-and-steven-george/

[9] 2008 May 6 The News Portsmouth Emery-Wallis sex case is dropped http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/local/emery-wallis-sex-case-is-dropped-1-1294809

[10] History InPortsmouth 1961 http://history.inportsmouth.co.uk/people/city-council/city-council-1961.htm

[11] Wikipedia Freddie Emery-Wallis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Emery-Wallis

[12] Portsmouth City council website https://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/ext/the-council/lord-mayor/lord-mayors-of-portsmouth-since-1927.aspx

[13] History InPortsmouth http://history.inportsmouth.co.uk/people/city-council/city-council-1969.htm

[14] National Archives Emery Wallis http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F50290

[15] 2014 Sept 14 Aangirfan  Linking politicians to sexcrimes http://aanirfan.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/linking-politicians-to-sex-crimes.html

[16] Wikipedia Bonner Pink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonner_Pink

[17] Wikipedia Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Lieutenant_of_Hampshire

[18] Wikipedia Mary Fagan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Fagan

[19] Cathyfox Insurance and Child Abuse https://cathyfox.wordpress.com/2015/02/24/insurance-and-child-abuse-file-on-4/

[20] Star and Crescent Book Review Heartless Too http://www.starandcrescent.org.uk/book-review-heartless-too-by-janella/

[A] Sanctuary for the Abused http://abusesanctuary.blogspot.co.uk/2006/07/for-survivors-coping-with-triggers-if.html

[B] NAPAC http://www.napac.org.uk/

[C] One in Four http://www.oneinfour.org.uk/

[D] Havoca http://www.havoca.org/HAVOCA_home.htm

[E] SurvivorsJustice Triggers post http://survivorsjustice.com/2014/02/26/triggers-what-are-they-and-how-do-we-work-through-them/

[F] SurvivorsJustice Blog http://survivorsjustice.com/

This is all written in good faith but if there is anything that needs to be corrected please email [email protected].

cathyfox the truth will out, the truth will shout, the truth will set us free