Children at risk: `Pleasant young man' who preyed on young
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Your support makes all the difference.When Mark Trotter was first interviewed in September 1981 as a houseparent for a children's home in Hackney the panel which appointed him were impressed and described him as a "pleasant young man who appeared quietly determined".
But only three months later a young man in Trowbridge House alleged Trotter had "interfered" with him. A month later there was an allegation of indecent assault made by another boy. Trotter was suspended but after a full disciplinary hearing in June 1982 when the case was "not proven" he was returned to duty at Trowbridge House.
Two years later in 1984 Hackney heard that Merseyside Police and Liverpool Social Services - where Trotter had worked previously - were investigating another incident. In 1987 there was yet another allegation from a young woman in Hackney. The police were informed and investigated. The allegation could not be substantiated.
Little happened then until 1993 when Trotter retired on health grounds, dying in July 1995 aged 34 of an Aids-related illness. Merseyside police had been just about to question him about sexual abuse of five young men in Liverpool.
When Hackney social services were told of this they commissioned a social worker to trace as many young people as possible with whom Trotter had worked. He was meant to report by December. That deadline was missed. The second was also missed and the report - a mere seven pages - was not received until the following July. A year since the council were first alerted, only a fraction of the children had been traced, four of whom had died, one from an Aids-related illness.
The story finally hit the media. The warfare within the Labour group at Hackney meant that it was perceived as a cover-up because Trotter had been a Labour party activist. And a delay in setting up an investigation split Hackney's ruling Labour group with 17 members walking out amid claims of the cover-up. The Liberal Democrats requisitioned a special council meeting which finally voted at 1am to set up an independent inquiry.
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