APPEAL TO VICTIMS OF CARE HOME SEX FIENDS.

DECEMBER 2001 THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS.

Police have urged other victims of abuse in council care homes to come forward after the conviction of a former Manchester Social Services boss.

Ronald Hall was starting an 11-year prison sentence after being found guilty of a series attacks on children. His conviction is a major success for Operation Cleopatra, which was set up four years ago by Greater Manchester Police into allegations of sex abuse against boys in homes across the county stretching back 40 years.

Investigating officers have praised the courage of Hall's victims who came forward and gave evidence at Manchester Crown Court and ensured he was brought to justice.

Hall, now 66, was jailed after the jury returned guilty verdicts on 18 charges of sexually molesting children during the 1960s and 1970s. He was a warden at a Manchester home before his promotion to assistant director of Social Services. Ian Gray, who was Hall's deputy between 19972 and 1976, was convicted March this year of serious sexual offences against children in Manchester and in the West Midlands and was sentenced to 14 years in jail.

Detective Constable Shaun Egan who was involved in the investigation said: "We are pleased with the verdict and sentence which follows a four-year investigation and a lot of hard work from police officers and social workers. "However, the success of the conviction is down mainly to the courage of those victims and witnesses who came forward and gave evidence in these trials. We take these complaints extremely seriously and our message to other victims of abuse in homes is that they should come forward because they will be listened to".

Lorraine Wilson, head of Social Services operations for Operation Cleopatra said: "A much more robust system of safeguards is now in place in order to protect children from this kind of abuse in children's homes".