Case No. KH18C00272

10.This judgment is given part-way through the case. A decision is required urgently to determine if, and how, the case is to proceed. I have heard detailed oral submissions and read detailed skeleton arguments. It has not been possible in the time available to address every issue that has been raised. Although I have confined myself to making only those determinations necessary to resolve the interim applications made, I have taken all that I have read and heard into account in reaching my conclusions. 11.It is not necessary to include anything other than broad detail of the allegations in this judgment. A summary is provided by allegations 1 and 2 from the schedule that had originally contained 90 allegations: “1. All 7 children have suffered significant harm by living in households with their parents where sexual abuse of the children within the family was commonplace and/or where there were no sexual boundaries established by the adults. 2. The adults and the children within these 2 households were all aware that the sexual abuse of the children within the family was commonplace and/or that there were no sexual boundaries in place.”12.The findings schedule relied upon by the Local Authority then lists the individual allegations made against each of the Respondents. Although allegations were made against the Maternal Grandmother, the Local Authority have not pursued findings against her. Allegations are made against male siblings, and the stepson. Those allegations are said to have occurred when the male siblings, and the stepson, were children themselves. The Local Authority has treated those males as perpetrators. Although allegations have been made against a female sibling, events also said to have occurred during her minority, she has been treated in the findings schedule as a victim and not as a perpetrator. 13.The court bundle provided for this hearing contains some 20,000 pages. As part of their investigation the police seized a number of devices, the interrogation of which produced download material exceeding 130,000 pages. That material was analysed by the parties and a further 1316 pages of relevant material was agreed to be added to the court bundle. 14.The bundle is presented electronically on the Caselines system. The use of Caselines has provided all parties with online remote access to the court papers. The use of Caselines has also enabled the documentary evidence to be displayed on-screen by the Caselines page direction feature and additionally by the CVP screen sharing function. This has been essential for the fair operation of this remote hearing involving so many lay parties. 15.Although a number of legal teams have been together with their clients at solicitors’ offices or barristers’ chambers and joining the video hearing as a group, there have been in excess of 40 participants logged into the CVP video platform for the majority of the days of this case. I am grateful to the Local Authority for its provision of a supported witness room within a Local Authority building, from where most of the witnesses gave their oral evidence. I have absolutely no doubt that the use of Caselines has saved a considerable amount of court time. I am also satisfied that the hearing of the evidence via the video hearing platform provided a fair, and full, opportunity for those facing allegations to challenge the case raised against them by the Local Authority. 16.I have heard oral evidence from a number of professionals who received and recorded allegations made by the children. Those witnesses have included the 2 interviewing police officers, the supervising investigating officer, the foster carers for the children, 2 fostering agency supervising social workers, 2 local authority social workers and a fostering agency support worker. All of these witnesses, except the fostering agency support worker, have accepted that their meetings with the children, be they formal interviews or not, have breached the terms of the Achieving Best Evidence [ABE] Guidance. All of the witnesses, save the fostering support worker, accepted to a greater or lesser degree that their manner of questioning of the children either did or may have influenced the responses of the children. All of the witnesses accepted that they failed to take adequately detailed notes that included detail of the questions asked of the children. All of the witnesses, save the fostering support worker, accepted that they should, in hindsight, have behaved differently and all, other than the foster support worker, agreed that they would now behave differently. 17.The children have been accommodated in 2 separate foster placements. The foster carers accepted that one group of siblings were told of the allegations made by the younger 2 siblings before the older children had made allegations. The foster carers accepted that the children spoke about their allegations between themselves. The carers accepted that they received allegations from the children when the children were together and contributing to the account given by another child. 18.The witnesses accepted that the children were given praise and attention when allegations were made. It has been accepted by all that they had questioned the children and not just listened and recorded the allegations made. All of the witnesses, save one interviewing officer, said that they believed the children’s allegations and as a result of that belief accepted that they had not kept an open mind. Both of the interviewing officers accepted that they conducted the interviews with the aim of having the children repeat the allegations they had made to the foster carers or to the fostering support worker. 19.All of the professionals receiving allegations from the children had received either no training concerning the application of the ABE guidelines, had attended training but many years ago that had not been repeated or had received training but could not adequately recall its content. Where some principles had been recalled from training received, all witnesses accepted that they had not applied those principles consistently, or at all, when interacting with the children. 20.It is these breaches of the ABE guidance that form the basis of the submissions made by the Respondents that no court could properly make findings of sexual abuse on the basis of the evidence this court has received. The Respondents have provided detailed schedules describing the breaches of guidance that they submit are present. These schedules particularise the breaches said to have occurred in the investigation of each allegation made by each child. 21.The Local Authority accepts there were very many breaches of the ABE guidance, although it has not in its response to the interim application engaged in any way with the particulars provided by the Respondents. The Local Authority accepts that the court may reach the conclusion that it cannot make the findings sought but it submits that the court cannot make that determination until it has heard all of the evidence in the case, including the evidence of the Respondents.