The missed chances to stop nursery paedophile: Damning report finds Ofsted and council ignored series of warnings over abuser of girl, 3

'Depraved': Paul Wilson, of Birmingham, was jailed for life in 2011 for twice raping a child in a nursery

A nursery teacher raped a girl of three after authorities ignored ‘obvious’ warning signs that he was a danger to children, a scathing report has found.
Paul Wilson, 23, was free to abuse the child despite staff repeatedly  warning Ofsted and the local council that he had developed a ‘special relationship’ with her.
A serious case review found that the little girl had been ‘failed by those responsible for caring for her’.
Criminal record checks were not carried out properly before he was given the job at the Little Stars Nursery in Nechells, Birmingham, which his mother used to manage. She left before he started.
Nursery staff alerted authorities again and again to the fact that Wilson was developing a ‘special relationship’ with the girl.
Wilson took a particular interest in the child, and was seen cuddling and rocking her for hours, refusing to leave her.
Concerned nursery staff told authorities he had been seen taking the child into an adult toilet alone and, on one occasion, had been found alone with her in the sleep area of the nursery, with the child hysterically crying: ‘I want my mummy.’
Yet despite several warnings over 18 months, neither the council nor Ofsted launched a proper investigation.

 The review was carried out by Birmingham’s Safeguarding Children Board.
It said the authorities had been so lax in dealing with the situation that Wilson would almost certainly have got away with the abuse had he not come to the attention of police separately when a 13-year-old girl reported Wilson for grooming her online.
When officers checked his mobile phone they discovered videos of two attacks on the toddler.

The case is the latest in a series of catastrophic child protection  failures by the children’s services department of Labour-run  Birmingham City Council, which has been rated ‘inadequate’ for the past four years.
High profile cases include that of seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq, who was starved to death in 2008.
In May, the department was described as being in ‘utter chaos’ by members of its own watchdog.
The review found the council and Ofsted both missed ‘obvious pointers’ that Wilson was a paedophile and ‘missed opportunities to intervene’.
Their inaction had ‘supported’ his offences, it said.

Wilson started work at the nursery in 2008. In November the following year, a few months after the toddler joined, a student teacher on placement at the nursery reported Wilson to her college and the council for ‘inappropriate behaviour’.
No action was taken. Two further complaints were made over the following year, but again nothing was done.
The ‘manipulative’ Wilson was so confident he would not get caught he even filed his own complaint about ‘safeguarding issues’ at the nursery.
He was not pursued about the allegations against him, it was suggested, because he was a male teacher, and staff were anxious not to make him feel singled out.

Jailed: Wilson was originally sentenced to life with a minimum of 15 years but this was cut by 18 months following an appeal

Wilson was eventually caught because of the bravery of the 13-year-old girl he had groomed online, one of 22 other victims all aged between 12 and 16.

THE EIGHT KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Colleges providing early years qualifications should ensure students’ application and understanding of child protection procedures has been properly evaluated
2. Ofsted should ensure the review’s findings on safeguarding practices are used in the training of inspectors
3. Ofsted and Birmingham Children’s Services should work together on child protection concerns in early years settings to coordinate intervention
4. Early years development workers should receive safeguarding training, which includes how to raise concerns about a colleague's conduct
5. Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board should review local internet safety education campaigns to ensure people are aware of the dangers of internet chat rooms
6. Information from the setting of where a child at a nursery is subject of an assessment by Children's Social Care must be incorporated into assessments
7. Early years settings should adhere to safer recruitment’ best practice, to prevent unsuitable people working with children and young people
8. Organisations that complete individual management reviews must provide evidence that action has been taken to address individual and management practice below expected standards

Once he had gained their trust, Wilson would get them to commit sexual acts which he recorded on webcams before threatening to show the images to their family if they spoke out.
In 2011 Wilson was jailed for life for raping the child, grooming 22 other girls and for more than 40 offences related to grooming young girls on the internet and distributing indecent images.
The judge described him as ‘chilling, vile and depraved’.
Wilson, who pleaded guilty, was originally sentenced to serve at least 15 years of a life  sentence.
But he has since had his minimum term reduced to 13-and-a-half years to encourage other paedophiles to admit their crimes.
Jane Held, chairman of the Safeguarding Children Board, said: ‘There were unfortunately a number of weaknesses in the way that nursery was run and a number of opportunities to intervene earlier and prevent the continuation of abuse which were missed.
‘There were obvious pointers that should have raised the alarm, yet both Ofsted and the local authority failed to recognise them and respond appropriately.’
No staff members at Birmingham City Council were sacked or disciplined after the case.
A council spokesman said it was ‘sorry’ about the failures, but added: ‘The first responsibility must sit with the perpetrator and with the nursery which had a responsibility for checking and supervising.
‘The council had a responsibility in terms of responding to reports of Paul Wilson’s behaviour rather than preventing it. ‘
[The council] fully acknowledges that a referral to us was not  followed through and that this meant that Paul Wilson was able to continue undetected for a longer period.’
An Ofsted spokesman said: ‘We very much regret that our inspection regime did not help to stop this dangerous and manipulative child abuser sooner.’

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