Abuse accused’s lawyer slams ‘lazy’ Pallial police
Published date: 11 December 2015 |
A BARRISTER defending a pensioner charged with historic child abuse has hit out at “lazy” police officers from Operation Pallial.
Tania Griffiths, representing Peter Steen who is charged with beating children in his care between 1978 and 1992 while working for the Bryn Alyn community near Wrexham, also called for and end to the “witch hunt against the care workers of North Wales”.
She told a jury that Steen, of Heol y Wal, Bradley, Wrexham, as well as other former care workers, were an “easy target” for an operation which had risen out of the ashes of the Jimmy Savile scandal.
Ms Griffiths said the officers involved in the operation were “incompetent” and “misguided”, adding: “They wouldn’t even lift a finger to support Mr Steen.”
She criticised the lack of investigation since the defendant’s arrest in 2013. Ms Griffiths added officers from Operation Pallial – set up to investigate historic child abuse in North Wales – had done nothing to find a balance in the case.
She described the operation as an “attack on North Wales”, adding that it had impacted on the area’s reputation.
All the evidence during a four-week trial against Steen, 75, has now been heard.
Mold Crown Court, sitting in Chester, has been told Steen brutally assaulted children in his care, with allegations that he had fractured one boy’s nose and scalded the arm of another with boiling hot water.
He faces five counts of assault and five counts of cruelty to a child under 16 - said to have taken place during his 14 years while working at the homes.
He denies all the charges against him and the court has also heard evidence that Steen was a kind and caring man who was decent towards the children.
The defence say all the allegations against him are untrue.
Ms Griffiths said Steen treated the children as if they were his own.
She said that if care workers kept on being “demonised”, then there would be no-one left to do the job in the future.
The court heard that Steen, who was a keen bodybuilder, liked children and only ever used restraint when it was necessary.
Steen, who used to run gym sessions for the children, was “incapable of throwing a punch” following two operations on his right elbow, members of the jury were told
Cairns Nelson, prosecuting, said: “No one doubts Mr Steen could be a good family man, but on occasions we suggest he was out of control.”
Mr Nelson asked the jury if they believed it was “everyone else’s fault” and that Steen was the real victim or whether he might have reacted while under the pressure of dealing with difficult children.
Steen is also accused of forcing youngsters to scrub the floor on their hands and knees for hours – a practice which sometimes lasted for weeks.
Judge Niclas Parry is today expected to direct the jury before sending members out to deliberate.
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