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| 'Abuse' payouts for all ex-residents of Shirley Oaks home | 'Abuse' payouts for all ex-residents of Shirley Oaks home |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Every resident of a former network of children's homes in south London is to receive compensation for being at risk of abuse dating back decades. | Every resident of a former network of children's homes in south London is to receive compensation for being at risk of abuse dating back decades. |
| Lambeth Council is set to pay tens of millions of pounds to people whether or not they were abused at Shirley Oaks. | Lambeth Council is set to pay tens of millions of pounds to people whether or not they were abused at Shirley Oaks. |
| The offer comes as 27 men were named as alleged paedophiles, in a report by former residents of the home. | |
| Their investigation says at least 60 abusers were active, and accuses some police officers of corruption. | |
| The publication by the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association (SOSA) covers a period from the 1950s to the network's closure in 1983. | The publication by the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association (SOSA) covers a period from the 1950s to the network's closure in 1983. |
| BBC home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds says details of the compensation scheme have yet to be finalised, but the council says a key principle would be that there would be a blanket payment to any resident in the Shirley Oaks homes because all were judged to be at risk. | |
| The payments will not be large in many cases but there will be higher payments to those who were abused, our correspondent added. | The payments will not be large in many cases but there will be higher payments to those who were abused, our correspondent added. |
| Shirley Oaks was an 80-acre site near Croydon in south London that included cottages where children in care were looked after by house mothers and fathers. The site also included a school, swimming pool, sick bay and playing fields. | |
| The SOSA has spent two years investigating claims of abuse at the home. | |
| It says in the report that it was "shocked" by what it had found. | |
| Both boys and girls had been abused, including young infants, the group says. | |
| Two of those named in the report - William Hook and Philip Temple - have been convicted of child sexual abuse relating to Shirley Oaks. | |
| The report also accuses one named police officer of "providing misleading information to victims" and of "informing one victim their abuser was dead when in fact he was alive". | |
| Lambeth Council leader, Lib Peck, said: "The council accepts that the system set up to protect vulnerable children failed. | |
| She added: "Lambeth Council has previously publicly apologised to those who were so badly let down. The investigation by the Shirley Oaks Survivor's Association has shone further light on the suffering of those entrusted into the council's care. | |
| "Lambeth Council is preparing a new, far reaching redress scheme for survivors of historical abuse in the borough. It will allow them to secure compensation quickly whilst minimising legal fees." | |
| Last month the survivors association pulled out of the independent inquiry into historical child sexual abuse in England and Wales because of concerns over its leadership. |