South Ronaldsay child abuse scandal

The South Ronaldsay child abuse scandal started on February 27, 1991 when social workers and police removed nine children from four families from their homes on the remote Orkney, Scotland island South Ronaldsay in dawn raids, following suspicions of ritualistic Satanic child abuse. The nine children were placed into foster homes and barred from any contact from their parents. During lengthy interviews the nine children denied that any abuse had occurred, and medical examinations did not reveal any evidence of abuse.

The suspicions had been raised after searching interviews with children of one family, the W family with 14 children, who had turned out difficult to integrate. Initially only the W family was suspected of child abuse but during the course of the interviews W children claimed involvement of other children they were friendly with. This made social worker suspect that there was a larger pedophile ring at work in South Ronaldsay and eventually lead to dawn raids on the four families.

Following a community meeting, many of the citizens of South Ronaldsay started a campaign to raise awareness of their situation. This resulted in the allegations receiving widespread media attention.BBC news article on a programme examining new evidence from the children themselves [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/5272092.stm] ]

When the case reached court in it was thrown out by Sheriff David Kelbie due to a lack of any corroborating evidence. Kelbie also criticised the interviewing techniques used by social workers, and said that the manner in which social workers had dealt with the case had been "fundamentally flawed". BBC news article on the return of the children (April 4, 1991) [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/4/newsid_2521000/2521067.stm] ]

The children were returned by plane to Kirkwall airport on April 4, 1991 where they were reunited with their parents. BBC news article on the return of the children (April 4, 1991) [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/4/newsid_2521000/2521067.stm] ]

Causes

The removals followed allegations made by some of the children of the "W family", who had moved to South Ronaldsay shortly before the incident. The children's father had been imprisoned shortly after their arrival on child abuse charges. Following further allegations of inter-sibling sexual abuse all fifteen of the W children were removed from the island and taken into care.

Liz McLean, a local social worker, was in charge of interviewing the children. She advocated controversial new theories from America on child abuse and interviewing techniques. Orkney social workers based their removal of nine other children based on claims made by three of the W children against the parents of the nine children, and the local minister, the Reverend Morris MacKenzie. Glasgow Herald article http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/68172.html]

Interviewing techniques

During the investigation the children received a number of lengthy interviews. These involved drawing exercises and questioning by social workers. The techniques used were later strongly criticised by Sheriff Kelbie.

One of the W children said of the interviews:

"In order to get out of a room, after an hour or so of saying, "No, this never happened", you'd break down."BBC news article on a programme examining new evidence from the children themselves [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/5272092.stm] ]

References

Further reading

[http://www.amat.org.nz/SexAbuse1.htm Sex Abuse: An Issue in Human Sexuality] (revised extract from: Fitzsimons P. 'Michel Foucault: Regimes of Punishment and the Question of Liberty', Int J Sociol Law (1999), 27, 379-399)