Stalking Channel 4

This is interesting, Darren Laverty demanding answers from a Channel Four programme mentioning Bryn Estyn that he did not feature in.

Have a look.

I did not hear Bryn Estyn mentioned anywhere in relation to Peter Morrison, but Laverty seems to hear as much shit as he speaks.

He does seem very upset about this, has a bit of a jealous hissy fit as the idiot still believes that this programme went out 'across the globe'.

What an arse, I live in Cwmbran and I missed it, why? Because the only person who is even remotely interested in Bryn Estyn now is the one who has much to hide about his role in the abuse handed out there and the lies he has told.

*see the various instances of his lies elsewhere on this blog*

Tick Tock indeed Laverty, you are indeed correct, time is finally running out.

For you at least.

DOH!

Can you imagine being so stupid that you accuse everybody who is online of being the person you are stalking?

Darren Laverty is that stupid.

Can you imagine his surprise when the person he is attacking happens to own the biggest Anti-Stalking Company in the South East.

Also imagine the owner of that company calling him with details of him, his location, his wifes mobile phone number, all his online aliases and also knows all about his disgusting behaviour on the internet.

And knows exactly where he is.

Most people would be mortified I would think.

Not Laverty though, he still continues being the same kind of weird twat that he has always been.

No shame, no self respect and is so arrogant that he genuinely has no idea that his whole life of lies, stalking, bullying and compo-seeking is about to collapse around him.

Shame.

The Grey-Haired Man

THE PERSON WHO MADE one of the most revealing allegations in the entire North Wales investigation was a 25-year old Wrexham man named Brendan Randles. In December 1982, when he was fifteen, Randles, a likeable and happy-go-lucky youth, had appeared before Wrexham magistrates on a charge of burglary. He had been remanded into custody at Bryn Estyn where he spent a total of four nights.

In the years that followed, Randles made no complaints about his brief spell at the home. However, around. Christmas 1988, he found himself living in the same part of Wrexham as Darren Laverty and for a brief period he drank with him and his friends. Later, in the autumn of 1991, Laverty had given Randles's name to the North Wales police as somebody who had once been at Bryn Estyn. Laverty recalls that he had bumped into Brendan in Wrexham soon afterwards. 'I remember. Brendan saying to me "What the fuck are you doing talking to the police about me at Bryn Estyn?" I said, "Well, you were there weren't you?"

Laverty gives no details of what else he says to Randles on this occasion. In January 1992, however, the police took a statement from Randles, in which he claims that when he arrived at Bryn Estyn he was introduced to a stockily-built, grey-haired man who appeared to be in charge, but whose name he could not remember.

He then claims that, while he was having a shower, Laverty came in and accused him of going out with his girlfriend. He says that, with two other lads ('whom I can't remember'), Laverty had beaten him up. 

The grey-haired man is said to have watched this without attempting to intervene. The next day the man took him to the secure unit, placed his hand on Randles's penis and testicles, and tried to kiss him. Randles says he pushed him away and ran out the door. 'As I drew near to the door I saw Darren Laverty walking towards the building. I didn't stop to talk to him.'

He says that he ran into the pool room but that the grey-haired man followed him and said, in a whisper, 'I'm going to fuck you tonight.'

Later that evening the grey-haired man supposedly repeated these words to him several times when. Randles had seen him through the door of his first-floor flat. Randles, however, says he returned to his dormitory where he spent the night without further incident. He goes on to say that in the morning he was taken to court where he told his mother what had happened to him. He was then bailed and says that the next day he told his girlfriend 'exactly what had happened'. 

He ends his statement with the following words: 'I couldn't sleep after what that man had said to me because I honestly believed that he was going was going to do to me what he said.' From Randles's first statement it is therefore clear that the threat which the grey-haired man supposedly made was NOT carried out.

The complaint was one of indecent assault only.

The police took this statement from Randles on Friday 22 January.

The following Wednesday they interviewed Laverty. 

His version of events corresponded in some respects to that given by Randles but some details were different. Nowhere in his statement did Laverty mention that he had been in contact with Randles since they had left Bryn Estyn. Randles, similarly, gave no indication in his statement that he knew Laverty.

In that Randles had been unable to identify the grey-haired man by name, it was highly improbable that his allegation of indecent assault could have formed part of any prosecution. However, within the next few weeks, Randles met Laverty and they spent the evening talking about Bryn Estyn. About two months after this, Randles made another statement to the police in which he revised the account he had given three months earlier.

Without offering any explanation of how he has identified him, he now refers to the grey-haired man as 'Mr Howarth'. Whereas previously he described encountering him in three locations - the secure unit, the pool room and the first-floor flat - the second and third of these alleged meetings now disappear. Randles claims that in the secure unit, 'Mr Howarth' actually carried out his whispered threat. He supposedly did so by stripping Randles, punching him in the stomach, and then, as he bent over in pain, anally raping him.

At this point a strikingly new element is introduced into the allegation. Randles says that, as he was being buggered, another man came into the room: "I then heard the door open and then shut and I heard Mr Howarth speak to another man and say words to the effect "It's your turn."

Randles then claims that, without any preliminaries, the second man raped him anally while Howarth raped him orally. At this point it became evident 'that someone was coming down to the secure room, I think it was Darren Laverty although I'm not sure.'

The identity of the second man is left veiled in mystery. 'To this day,' says Randles enigmatically, 'I do not know who this man was, however I think he must have something to do with Bryn Estyn although I didn't see this person when I was there.' 

This second statement was taken from Randles at the beginning of May. Three days later the police visited Laverty once again. On this occasion they apparently asked him specifically whether he had been in contact with Randles. The history of the contact between Randles and Laverty (or part of it) now emerged. About three weeks after he had made his first statement, Randles, who had been drinking, came round to Laverty's flat with a bottle of Sherry. They talked about Bryn Estyn and and Laverty says he asked Randles to tell him what had happened there: 

'I tried to convince Brendan that whatever his problem was, he was not the only one and others had made complaints. Brendan told me the police had asked him questions and Brendan said "What do you want me to say, that he's fucked my arse?" I then asked gentler questions about what happened.'

It would appear that Laverty had actually discussed with Randles, complaints which had been made by others, and that he felt he was being put under pressure to go further than his original complaint and make an allegation of buggery. The reason why Randles's highly significant words had been preserved was that Laverty had actually taped part of the conversation: 'Brendan also knew that I was taping the conversation. I did this because I wanted to play it back to Brendan at a later date. If he should deny anything happened and also to assist the police in their investigation.'

The grey-haired man had not at this stage been identified. However Laverty evidently met up with Randles again and on this occasion he had shown Randles a photograph of Howarth: 'At a later stage I showed Brendan a copy of the Independent newspaper which had a photograph of Peter Howarth on the front page. Brendan told me that it was Howarth who had sexually assaulted him in the secure unit at Bryn Estyn.'

In the light of Laverty's police statement of 8 May, and of his subsequent evidence to the tribunal, it would appear that he not only encouraged Randles to make a more serious allegation against the 'grey-haired man' at a time when he was drunk, but that he was himself responsible for bringing about the belated identification of this man as Howarth.

There is no clear evidence that Laverty, however reckless and ill-advised his conduct, had deliberately set out to manufacture a false allegation.

On this occasion, as on others, it seems plausible to suggest that he was motivated by a kind of misguided idealism and that he may genuinely have believed that he was helping Randles to retrieve memories which had become buried, and that by doing so he was helping the police.

On any view, though, Randles's allegations were remarkable. 

His eventual claim that, before he had even spent 24 hours at Bryn Estyn, he had been viciously raped by two men, that he had remained silent about the assaults for nine years, and that he had been able to retrieve the memories only after drinking from a bottle of Sherry at Darren Laverty's flat, was one of the most far-fetched in the entire Bryn Estyn investigation.

One question, however, remains.

This concerns the identity of the second man - the shadowy figure who was supposed suddenly to have appeared in the secure unit and, as if by some prior arrangement, to have joined in the alleged sexual assault on Randles.

Who was this man, and why had he been belatedly introduced into a complaint in which he had originally played no role at all?

Gang Rape?

"One question which inevitably arises is whether Holden or Singer or both had been contacted by Darren Laverty and made aware of their role in his statement before they were interviewed by the police.

One piece of evidence which suggests that this is not the case is that Singer claimed in his first statement, that while he was at Bryn Estyn he had been gang-raped by a number of residents, among whom was Darren Laverty.

Confronted by this allegation by the police, Laverty said that it was not true. Asked if he had any more to say, he said that "Singer was evidently not well and that he felt sorry for him"

Prime Witness

Prime Witness

"Having portrayed Tŷr Felin as a tyrannical and bullying regime, cut off from the outside world and presided over by a Welsh 'Monster', Laverty goes on to describe the rest of his time in care. He says that he left Tŷr Felin after seven or eight weeks and went to a home called Eryl Wen where he stayed for a year. Then after six or seven weeks in Y Gwyngyll, he was transferred, in 1981, to Bryn Estyn.

He then offers sketches of a number of members of Bryn Estyn staff. Some are said to be bullies who would punch, kick or knee the boys in their care. Others are portrayed as possible sexual Abusers. His principal target in this latter regard is Peter Howarth.

According to his own statement:

"Mr Howarth was known as 'Vaseline' because it was believed by myself and others that he was queer (homosexual). The reasons for believing this was that were three boys namely Andrew Singer from Wrexham, James Shaldon from mid-Wales and John Evans from South Wales, who individually went to Howarth's flat in Bryn Estyn every night after 9pm.... The boys I have named admitted going to his flat, but they would never say why they had gone or what had happened whilst there. I used to see James Shaldon regularly walking over from Clwyd House where he was resident, to the main school and to Howarth's flat. Howarth was a single man and not particularly friendly with any member of staff. It was because the above named boys never offered any explanations for their many visits to Howarth's flat, that we assumed something indecent must have taken place. In addition to this Evans, Singer and Shaldon always had more money than the rest of us and were regularly taken by Howarth to play golf. Andrew Singer was a really effeminate boy.

Mr Howarth would always stand and stare at us when we were showering. No other member of staff would do this, they would merely supervise. A boy named Carl Holden was another regular visitor to Mr Howarth's flat. Carl was 14 or 15 years old. Although I didn't actually see it happen, the other boys in the dormitory told me that Stan Fletcher, the night care officer, would wake Holden up for him to go Howarth's flat."

In one of the reports prepared by Darren Laverty's social worker it is recorded that, in 1984, after Laverty had left Y Gwyngyll and gone into approved lodgings, he became involved in a dispute with his landlady.

At this point, he contacted Nefyn Dodd directly and asked whether he could be re admitted into residential care. Although this request was refused, the very fact that it was made at all suggests that Laverty's attitude at the time bore no resemblance to that which he later claimed.

At the time he apparently regarded Dodd not as a 'Vicious Monster,' but as somebody whom he could - and did - approach for help. 

There is indeed, no evidence at all that Laverty had ever held the view of Dodd which he expounded in 1991 during the period he was actually in care.

The circumstantial evidence suggests that he made the various complaints contained in his statement partly in response to the prompting of Alison Taylor and partly because of his own ability to 'create' vivid memories.

An Invaluable Placement

An Invaluable Placement

"After his brief spell of remand at Tŷr Felin, Laverty spent several months at two other homes in Gwynedd, returning in between to two placements with his family. Then in September 1981, at the age of 14, he was sent to Bryn Estyn.

It was perhaps not entirely surprising that this intelligent but unruly child, finding himself surrounded by other boys, and by an almost entirely male staff, appears rapidly to have arrived at the conclusion that toughness was a virtue and that 'might was right'.

Effectively schooled in a culture of bullying, the kind of culture which inevitably grows up amongst boys in male-dominated boarding schools (which in effect Bryn Estyn was), Darren Laverty soon emerged as one of the shrewdest and toughest of all Bryn Estyn residents.

In a note written during the period of Alison Taylor's placement, Matt Arnold recorded his impression of the boy.

"Laverty" he wrote, "certainly is becoming one of the most unpopular children in Bryn Estyn both amongst his peers and staff. This unpopularity is centred largely around his verbal abuse of all, coupled with threatening and belligerent attitudes to younger children and to such staff as he feels he can comfortably threaten."

To this assessment he added a single, seemingly gratuitous observation.

'Alison Taylor has a working relationship with Darren Laverty'.'

The John Roberts Accusation

"On this first occasion in Bangor, the police refused to take a statement from Laverty on the grounds that he had come to the wrong place. It was as a result of Taylor's intervention that an arrangement was made for him to make his statement at Mold, four days later. Laverty's evident haste to contact the police at the earliest possible point in the enquiry stood in curious contrast to his tardiness in bringing to their attention events which he said had happened up to thirteen years previously.

Neither Laverty's delay in making these allegations, nor the fact that he was apparently encouraged to do so by Taylor, automatically discredits them. Nor should any aspect of Laverty's statement lead to the conclusion that any of his claims were made either maliciously or insincerely. But, like all allegations of this kind, his claims need to be examined with more than ordinary care. One of the most significant features in this respect, is the complaint Laverty makes against the teacher John Roberts.

According to his statement, Roberts was one of three people - the others being Nefyn And June Dodd - who slapped him 'daily'. In the course of time, Laverty would dramatically enlarge the scope if his allegations he made against John Roberts, claiming that he was not only slapped, but also punched, kicked and caned by him. However, a scrutiny of the Tyr Felin records reveals a significant inconsistency in this claim.

The records show that the account of his time in care in his statement bears only a tenuous relationship to the actual chronology if his placements. Laverty had deduced that the date of him being sent to Tyr Felin from the time he was placed under a care order - 22 February 1978. Having found this date on his criminal record, he assumed that it marked the beginning of his stay at Tyr Felin. In fact, it marked the end. He was sent to Tyr Felin for a 21-day period of remand in 1 February 1978. On 22 February, he appeared in court at Holyhead where he was placed under a care order and transferred to Eryl Wen. He therefore spent a mere three weeks at Tyr Felin at this point instead of the eight or nine weeks he claimed in his statement. Much more remarkable than this is the fact that John Roberts did not begin working in Tyr Felin until September 1979, 18 months after Laverty had left.

The only time at which the paths of Roberts and Laverty might conceivably have crossed was during the period between 1 June and 10 June 1981 when Tanner had returned briefly to Tyr Felin pending his transfer to Bryn Estyn. Yet since Laverty himself remains adamant that the assaults he alleges took place during his first spell at Tyr Felin (and flatly refuses to accept that he ever returned there), his story is at odds with the facts.

The only conclusion we can reasonably draw is the allegations Laverty made against John Roberts in 1991, allegations that would become progressively more serious with the years, were completely untrue.

Laverty's further claim that he could not convey his unhappiness about Tyr Felin because nobody came into the home from outside is also contradicted by the records. The content of Nefyn Dodd's report and the existence of a Psychiatrists report, do not in themselves negate Laverty's claims. But they do cast doubt on his credibility. The doubts are multiplied if we compare the complaints he made to the police about Dodd in August 1991 with what he said on other occasions. One of the most interesting perspectives is provided by the verbatim records of what Laverty told Yorkshire Television almost exactly two years before he made his police statement."