“St Leonard’s should have been idyllic,” says Paul Connolly, a resident of the former Hornchurch children’s home where sexual abuse was rife.
“All these cottages in the countryside for inner city boys and girls. It even had its own swimming pool. Idyllic except for the staff.”
The staff Paul is talking about include former house parent Bill Starling, jailed for 14 years in 2001 for a string of sexual assaults over a period of 20 years.
The paedophile was in charge of Paul’s house, and was also convicted of two rapes against children.
St Leonard’s Children’s Home Superintendent Alan Prescott, who was also a Labour councillor and magistrate, was also jailed at the same court case for indecently assaulting four boys between 1970 and 1980.
And on Friday former carer Paul Setchfield, 64, of Cromer, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment for 11 counts of sexually abusing a young girl and boy between 1978 and 1981.
“I knew of him, but he wasn’t in my cottage so I didn’t know him that well,” Paul told the Recorder.
“He always seemed quite affable.”
Paul, 55, was sent to St Leonard’s, in Hornchurch Road, when he was just eight years old in 1970.
The children’s home housed around 3,000 youngsters in care from east London boroughs between 1965 and 1984.
And it has since been proved that systematic sexual abuse was rife.
While Paul wasn’t sexually assaulted, several of his friends were, and he says he suffered physical violence and mental torture during his 12 years at the children’s home.
“On my first night I wet the bed, as lots of children in care do, and I was dragged out and put in a bath full of bleach,” he claims.
He also says he was beaten regularly and thrown off a balcony.
“This sounds crazy, but we were actually sometimes jealous of the kids getting abused, because they got treats and special privileges,” Paul explained.
He added that one of his best friends tragically took his own life after suffering sexual abuse at the children’s home.
Paul, who lives in Brentwood, is now a core participant in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, and he is also making a film about St Leonard’s.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here