Bittersweet Justice-UK-Jackie Davies case

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 UK, “a woman who was left in the foster care of a convicted paedophile has been awarded £35,000 ­compensation – 57 YEARS later.

Jackie Davies was just eight when she was placed into the care of perverted Stanley Fairbairn. Six months later the abuse began, on an almost daily basis.

The ordeal haunted her for decades and she ended up on medication and feeling suicidal.

Jackie, one of seven siblings who all ended up in foster care, was taken in by Fairbairn and his wife in 1960.

A year later he was convicted of ­abusing two girls aged 12 – but Jackie was left in his care for a further two-and-a-half years before being moved.

Now she has been awarded damages after suing council chiefs over the ­terrifying blunder.

Jackie, 67, told the Sunday People: “My life was ruined by this man.

“The council should have known he was a convicted child abuser and should never have had me living with him after he was convicted. It is a scandal.”

Council bosses finally admitted the terrifying mistake and offered compensation after Jackie obtained her records and fought a two-year legal battle.

Her case is believed to be one of the most historic on record to lead to a ­successful damages claim.

The payout was offered even though Fairbairn – now dead – was not convicted of abuse against Jackie.

Yet Jackie recalls with chilling detail how Fairbairn stole her innocence – ­taking her on fishing trips so he could get close to her.

Every time he came home from work she knew he was going to pounce.

Jackie has waived her anonymity to talk about her ordeal at the terraced home of Fairbairn and his wife in Chepstow, Monmouthshire.

She said: “It started with him putting my hands down his trousers.

“But then it got worse. He would sit me on his lap and make me rub up against him. He would take me into the bathroom and make me touch him.

“He would try to rape me. One day he did it and I was in pain for days.

“I couldn’t even move. He would tell me that I couldn’t tell anyone because his wife would say I was naughty.”

The abuse only stopped when neighbours called Jackie’s school to ask why she had been housed with a paedophile.

Her headteacher notified social services.

And it was confirmed Fairbairn had been convicted by Chepstow magistrates of indecent assault against two girls of 12 in July 1961. He pleaded guilty and got a conditional discharge.

Jackie said: “He had been convicted while I was living there. But nobody thought to remove me from the house. I was put in danger by the people who were supposed to be protecting me.”

In a filed memo, Jackie’s case worker had expressed his “surprise” about the crimes as he “considered the Fairbairns to be rather anxious to preserve a good standard of behaviour in the home”.

When Fairbairn was visited by social workers he admitted that he had withheld information. But Jackie remained in his care a further 10 days after an assessment concluded it was “unlikely” she had been sexually assaulted.

That exposed her to yet more abuse – including one final act of rape.

Jackie added: “They just left me there. I told them he was abusing me and they didn’t care.”

She was finally moved to a workhouse-style institution where she said she was branded a “dirty girl”.

Jackie recalled: “It was sheer hell. We didn’t have birthdays or Christmas. We didn’t watch TV. I didn’t know what the date was. It was just work.”

Two years later the desperately sad girl was taken to a children’s home in Newport and finally “met normality”. She added: “They were wonderful. It was the first time I’d gone into a normal house.

“I was taught that I was a decent person.”

When Jackie was 17 she went to work as a machinist and married her first ­husband, John. They had children Darren, 49, and Claire, 43.

Jackie, who used to drive a bus, said she has suffered her whole life with breakdowns and tried to kill herself three times.

She said: “I’ve been passed from one doctor to the next. I am on medication for depression.

“I believed my whole life Stanley had been imprisoned.

“It wasn’t until I went to get my records two years ago – after I made contact with my sister Christine and I wanted to know what had happened to me – that I found out he had died. I rang the police to tell them of my abuse. But they told me he was no longer here.”

But Jackie, who has been wed to second husband Ian for 33 years, wanted justice and fought for the truth to come out.

She added: “No amount of money will ever take away the past.

“I just want everyone to know what happened to me. And for it to never happen again. The system failed me.”

Jackie was offered the settlement after her case was taken up by Harding Evans solicitors in Newport.

She filed a historical abuse claim against the local authority in 2016. The case was listed for a civil hearing at Cardiff County Court.

But on March 23 the council offered £35,000 to settle out of court.

Jackie has now accepted the settlement, which was made on the basis of loss of earnings due to trauma of being housed with a convicted paedophile. She said: “I felt the fight had gone on long enough. I’m delighted this is finally the end.

“It was never about the money, it was about the powers that be admitting they made a terrible mistake.

“Hopefully this will give hope to other victims who have suffered then had doors slammed in their face by people in power.”

Last night a local authority spokesman said: “Newport County Borough Council, the relevant authority in 1964, ceased to exist in 1996, and Newport City Council inherited any historic insurance claims.

“As we are not the authority that placed her with the family, we cannot comment further.””

Woman left in foster care of convicted paedophile awarded £35,000 compensation 57 YEARS later

[Mirror 5/19/18 by Scarlett Howes]

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