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Thread: South Liverpool Kids Homes

  1. #1
    paddy Paddy's Avatar
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    Default South Liverpool Kids Homes

    South Liverpool in the 60?s and 70?s had more care homes than any other part of Liverpool. The infamous Remand Home on Menlove Avenue has now been pulled down by the local authority. The cruelty that was allowed to go on in there was extreme and is well documented. Westfield on Greenback drive is another care home that had an awful reputation under the regime of a Mr. **** who was eventually prosecuted. However there were progressive establishments such as New Heys on Allerton road and Parkfield on Parkfield road Aigburth. The present Liverpool council stonewalls any attempt at compensating victims even though the council is insured. The Catholic Church won?t come out about their contribution to cruelty in the care system so a curtain has been pulled down. Many of the children are dead now and the survivors carry on yet no apology is ever forth coming. Writing on the echo forum about this topic the replies were about seeking self pity and looking for hand out?s Actually I would like to be more professional and just expose some of the cruelty that went on, because I suffered myself I don?t think that I should be prevented from offering a perspective. With chat shows in the 90?s sexual abuse scandals made the head lines and if you could prove you had been molested you got a few bob. Well some of us suffered severe beatings in those homes and that too can be painful and cause young people to mistrust the world. Well hoods won?t suffer in this topic as most of the homes were quite secluded and out of the way. As I said there were progressive regimes too and the happiest days of my childhood in care were spent at New Heys assessment centre and my foster home on Mersey Avenue.

    If anyone has any positive contributions to this thread I would like to read them. The problem with people coming forward about Menlove Avenue is that it was a punitive establishment. Yet kids like myself went there because they had no where else to place us and it was there the assaults took place. When I see the lengths they go to cover up as in pulling the place down it makes me really angry. The beating of boys in that place went on for years and they still wont as a council apologize so how can they promote themselves as a caring community protective of children. I hope one day that this issue reaches the European courts and is treated as a human rights issue as it should be. I have seen too many broken lives to want to walk away from this. The hostility of Liberal Democrats to this issue is beyond me and other councils have gone out their way to try and put things right as in North Wales. I have spoken with the ex deputy chief constable of Merseyside on this issue and he was in agreement as to the serious nature of the allegations against Menlove Avenue. The Irish to fall in line with European human rights legislation offered victims a compensation package and a full apology from the state. The Liverpool kids that got shipped out to Australia have had an apology of the Pope so there is something in it! and it is not about looking for pity as the Liverpool Echo would have it. So if any others who suffered in the south Liverpool care homes want a say here?s the thread.

    Last edited by Kev; 01-05-2009 at 10:27 PM.
    Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
    Time held me green and dying
    Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

    Dylan Thomas

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    Senior Member kevin's Avatar
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    Paddy,
    The topic has come up several times before, under various guises but often connected to discussions about St Gabriel's.
    I grew up not too far from New Heys and had several friends from school living there. I was a frequent visitor in early to mid 60s and found it to be a quite happy place with contented kids - though I dare say there were exceptions.
    Kevin

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    paddy Paddy's Avatar
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    Kevin I can assure you that I know about this topic and I also know about alot of the allegations. I knew all the places and they really do have reason to worry about what I know. There has also been false allegations and that doe's not help the victims. Made up accounts and also vamped up statements have been produced. Some claimants have had thousands for stays of a few weeks in care whilst others who spent their life in the system have recieved nothing. The problem for alot of claimants is that sexual abuse has been the cause celeb and violence against children relegated to a secondary status when both are as bad as one another. Yet the more outrageous allegations and often not substantiated have been accepted and awarded. The problem has been created by media interest in sexual abuse and to some extent the novelty has gone. NewHeys was a good place and the policy was to help kids find out their needs and also to move them on to better placements.
    Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
    Time held me green and dying
    Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

    Dylan Thomas

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    Senior Member wsteve55's Avatar
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    Errmm!?
    I spent a couple of weeks at Woolton remand centre,many moons ago, and one of the favoured spots for "rehabilitation" was the showers,were there was no protection from a "good hiding",and I saw a couple of hardcases bite the proverbial dust there,as well as some much less deserving! One of the main protaganists,told us of his invitation to a garden party at Buck' palace, so it was obviously considered o.k.! I was lucky just to get the odd belt, but guess what, I didn't go back,so a lesson well learnt!

    p.s I was innocent,but I found out that standing round with a chisel,and a hacksaw,in your pockets,near a magistrates home, was not a good idea

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    paddy Paddy's Avatar
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    Default Hide and seek

    I remember those showers, and there was a disused room connected with a recess in the wall where a tank had been it was all in the basement of the building. Three little twelve year old kids hid in the hole the idea being that when the rest went upstairs they would come out and pull the bars off and get out. Their desperation to get out caused them to overlook the fact that once upstairs they had a head count. When it was discovered that they were missing the overpaid bullies went down and found them. Those kids got a good hiding and what is more they were given the cane six times each on their bare backsides. I remember seeing the bluey black and red indentations on their behinds the work of a certain Mr. **** and his side kick Mr. ****. I had not been sent there by the courts and was left in there all summer while the new New Heys that had just opened got a place ready for me. I was amongst the first intake of the experimental home that let you climb trees and act like a kid. I think Menlove got away with a lot because it was a lock up place. I saw a lot of kids get beaten up and was eventually assaulted by a Mr. **** who?s reputation for doing kids was very well known
    Last edited by Kev; 01-05-2009 at 10:26 PM.
    Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
    Time held me green and dying
    Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

    Dylan Thomas

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    Creator & Administrator Kev's Avatar
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    Paddy, can you avoid naming individuals. I'm unsure of the legalities and don't wish to be put in an unfortunate position in the near future.

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    paddy Paddy's Avatar
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    Default Point Taken

    Sorry Kev, if at anytime you feel uncomfortable with content don't hesitate to act, the Forum has to be protected. As far as the topic goe's it might be interesting to see a more informed debate on the issue as I feel that I can provide that and with substance. I will in future refrain from using the names of the meanies.
    Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
    Time held me green and dying
    Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

    Dylan Thomas

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    Creator & Administrator Kev's Avatar
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    Thanks for the support mate
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    paddy Paddy's Avatar
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    Default Family

    To be quite honest I felt a bit worried about making the post. I think that evenso we never all experience the normative family upbringings, and everyone has a right to talk about their lives, and belong to a community. However I will be very careful with content.
    Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
    Time held me green and dying
    Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

    Dylan Thomas

  10. #10

    Unhappy nazareth house

    I was in a convent called Nazereth House it was in Ditton Widnes that would be around 1955-56 would like to hear from anyone else who spent time there, can,t remember much was only 6years old at the time, but don,t have pleaseant memories of the place, or if you know anybody that was there Iwould like to hear from you, thank,s

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    paddy Paddy's Avatar
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    Default Contacts

    Well Georgieboy I was not in that one but I was brought up in Nazareth House Crosby from the age of Ten months till I was nine and then thrown out. I too have unpleasant memories and a scar on the back of my head. If you at anytime make a complaint be very careful the Church is very powerful and they can hurt people. Also beware of any solicitors wanting to act some solicitors work very closely with the lib dems who are actively involved in covering up. It has now become very dangerous territory for individuals who complain. Group actions are best but even group actions can be infiltrated by false claimants. I hope you make a contact even if it is just to share your memories.
    Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
    Time held me green and dying
    Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

    Dylan Thomas

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    Newbie mikemoate's Avatar
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    Paddy I think part of the difficulty in getting people at large and the powers that be to take this seriously was the widespread use of corporal punishment at that time both in family homes and mainstream schools. There is also the perception that for the most part kids who were in the homes were probably ne'er do wells who 'deserved what they got.' I know for sure that this latter perception is totally wrong.

    But lets face it there remains a large and vociferous lobby even now who extoll the virtues of corporal punishment, point to its demise in respect of the behaviour exhibited by some kids now, and lobby for it's return. Of course what they don't see is the experience you suffered. People in positions of power who used the then acceptance of corporal punishment to create regimes of institutionalised violence in which kids were brutalised for nothing more than the self gratification of the brutes who dished it out.

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    Re-member Ged's Avatar
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    Luckily I was never so unfortunate. I watched a film on the true stories movie channel over the Christmas about the 'Magdelene Sisters' home run by nuns for fallen girls, some of whom had done no more than become a nuicence to their families because they were good looking and possibly sexually active. Gladly, such places have since closed down as we've become a more aware society.
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    paddy Paddy's Avatar
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    Default Normative

    Mikemoate you make a very good point and it is now a legal usage to point out that corporeal punishment was a social norm in the Fithties sixties and to some extent seventies. However what I saw at Menlove was beyond the punitive it was down right brutality. The labeling of children these days as anti social has become a norm the creation of a moral panic and the idea of a return to stricter parental control use of corporeal punishment at home and in schools is quite a popular mainstream. However I would challenge anyone to deny giving a four year old three stitches in the head is justifiable, and that is what they did to me.
    Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
    Time held me green and dying
    Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

    Dylan Thomas

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    Senior Member kevin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ged View Post
    Luckily I was never so unfortunate. I watched a film on the true stories movie channel over the Christmas about the 'Magdelene Sisters' home run by nuns for fallen girls, some of whom had done no more than become a nuicence to their families because they were good looking and possibly sexually active. Gladly, such places have since closed down as we've become a more aware society.
    Saw it a few years ago and found it heartbreaking.

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