The Making of a Modern Witch Hunt

by RICHARD WEBSTER

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE

The Orwell Press
Hardcover 2005
Paperback due 2007

IN 1991 RUMOURS BEGAN to circulate in North Wales that Bryn Estyn, a home for adolescent boys on the outskirts of Wrexham, was the centre of a paedophile ring. A massive police investigation was launched which, over the next ten years, spread to care homes throughout Britain. Thousands were accused, hundreds arrested, and the prisons began to fill up with convicted care workers. Had we at last faced up to a horrifying reality? Or had we unleashed an entirely new kind of witch-hunt, one that was unable to discriminate between the innocent and the guilty?

‘This is an extraordinary book … gripping and coherent ... a major achievement ... Webster has admirably succeeded in what the police … and two successive [inquiries] failed to do: discover what really happened.’ Professor Jean La Fontaine, Evening Standard

‘This is a tragic story. I am in no doubt at all that a whole new genre of miscarriages of justice has arisen from the over-enthusiastic pursuit of allegations of abuse – some of which date back several decades. Richard Webster has done us all a service by documenting so meticulously what went wrong in this seminal case.’ Chris Mullin MP

‘courageous...fearless...so closely and cogently argued that it demands attention’ Gerald Haigh, Times Educational Supplement

‘... meticulous and admirable ...’
Tanya Luhrman. Times Literary Supplement

‘Brilliant’ Brendan O’Neill, Guardian Unlimited

‘It’s a story that has everything: personal animus, fantasy, intrigue, alleged Masonic conspiracy, bizarre sex acts and courtroom drama ... This is brilliant stuff. It is fair, measured and brave. Webster does not deny abuse – only that it was endemic in residential care. This book should be read by ... anyone interested in the human condition.’
Mark Smith, Child Abuse Review

‘The Secret of Bryn Estyn is simply a marvellous book ...It is thorough, well balanced and as compellingly written as a mystery novel.’Professor Mary de Young

‘In his massively researched, compelling recent book The Secret of Bryn Estyn, about the notorious North Wales child abuse scandal, Richard Webster demolishes the belief that there was a vast conspiracy of sexual corruption in Welsh care homes in the 1980s ...’Leo McKinstry, Spectator

‘I was one of those people who, until I read this book, believed what the press had told me about the North Wales scandal . . . I can remember how shocked we all were about what the [Tribunal] report contained … This book has made the scales fall from my eyes … It is a book of national importance.’ Earl Howe, Shadow health minister

‘It is unarguable that Webster has a powerful case. The book will make uncomfortable reading for all those involved in investigating these cases, from police and lawyers to journalists and judges. Webster’s forensic skill ... could well have been used by all of them, too ... [His] detailed exposition of how the “scandal” unfolded, despite scant hard evidence, should be required reading for newsdesks.’Christian Wolmar, The Oldie

‘Webster, in an epic piece of investigative journalism ... bears eloquent witness to the suffering of all those, and their families, whom he believes to have been wrongly accused of these terrible crimes.’
James Le Fanu, The Tablet

‘Webster’s book ... uses hard evidence, much of it released for the first time during Waterhouse, to chart the genesis of a modern witch-hunt ... He investigates the accusations that led to the imprisonment of some of the most notorious offenders such as Peter Howarth, and demonstrates why they were false; he reveals the failings of the criminal justice system and offers remedies; exposes the key figures behind the scare, and puts the propensity for witch-hunting in its cultural, sociological and historical context.’
Simon Caldwell, Catholic Herald

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