How Could You? Hall of Shame-UK-SW Dean Gathercole

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Stapleford, UK, “a social worker raped a girl at his mother’s home, a jury heard today.

One of two alleged victim’s of Dean Gathercole told his trial that he said “he had an errand to run”, then raped her in the 1980s.

Gathercole pleads not guilty to 11 historic allegations of indecent assault and rape of two teenagers when he worked at Amberdale children’s home in Stapleford.

The alleged victim described to the hearing at Nottingham Crown Court how Gathercole had taken her to his mum’s house in Radcliffe-on-Trent.

“I went to his mother’s house,” she said from the witness box. “He took me into his mother’s house and showed me around his living room and kitchen and introduced me to his dog.

Gathercole told the girl he had been adopted and that his mum was a person “who was high up in social services”, she told the jury.

And she claimed he “took me upstairs to his mother’s room and in his mother’s bed he raped me”.

She told the jury that’s why she started absconding from Amberdale.

On one occasion she absconded from the home and was found in a stolen car. Gathercole was contacted to fetch her from a police station.

She said in her evidence on Wednesday, April 25: “When I was in his car, he went to a deserted car park in Bulwell, where he again started touching me and groping at me. And, unlike the last time he did that, I firmly shouted at him “no..he couldn’t do this to me again”.

“I wasn’t going to let him rape me again,” she said. “I was told then I was discharged from Amberdale and I couldn’t go back and I was left in that car park”.

She ended up homeless, saying, “I didn’t stay at my sisters. I wasn’t wanted. It was too much for my family to cope with at that point.

“And they didn’t know what happened. I didn’t tell them why I was being the way I was being, so I walked the streets. I slept under lorries. I sofa surfed, I survived the only way I knew how to”.

Later in life she had health and trust issues. She is recovering from mental health issues, depression, anxiety and PTSD.

Philip Bown, defending Gathercole, asked her: “Do you blame Dean Gathercole for all that has happened to you in your life?”

The woman – who cannot be identified due to the nature of the allegations – said: “I blame Dean Gathercole for raping me. I blame Dean Gathercole and the staff at Amberdale for the neglect, and I blame the council for the neglect that occurred in that home”.

Gathercole, 53, of Westcliffe Avenue, Radcliffe-on-Trent, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The trial continues.”

Social worker allegedly raped a girl at his mother’s home, court hears

[Nottingham Post 4/25/18 by Rebecca Sherdley]

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