The Cleveland Child Sexual Abuse Scandal

 

February 1987: The Cleveland sexual abuse scandal is one of the most shameful episodes in child protection (so-called). Really it began in July 1986 when Dr Marietta Higgs examined a child at the Fleming Memorial Hospital and concluded she had been sexually abused. In January 1987, she transferred to Middlesbrough General where the following month she and her colleague Dr Geoffrey Wyatt set about the mass diagnosis of the anal rape of young girls and boys with the reflex anal dilation test. In all over a hundred were so diagnosed and taken into care. Luckily the police soon caught on; there was an official report, but Marietta Higgs remained unrepentant in spite of the enormous damage she caused virtually single-handed.

This file consists of 32 pages beginning with a document dated 1ST OCTOBER, 1987 called:

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
SOME PRINCIPLES OF GOOD PRACTICE

These were extracted from the relevant file held at Kew.

This file contains a summary of the Cleveland inquiry findings as reported by the BMJ, July 16, 1988. For those who are really interested, a lot more can be found on-line with a few clicks of the mouse.


Back To False Rape Timeline