Ex-social worker who abused Derbyshire teen in care walks free.

A social worker at a Derbyshire children's home has admitted grooming and sexually assaulting a teenage boy more than four decades after the victim reported the abuse.

Derby Crown Court heard how after being assaulted by Paul Harvey, the victim was told to keep quiet by the now 73-year-old defendant. But instead, he reported the abuse and was not believed at the time, spending over 40 years recounting the ordeal he endured while in care.

In 2017, another man who also sexually assaulted him at the same home was jailed for 10 years for carrying out sex attacks on him and four other care home children. Now, the victim finally has his justice against Harvey, who was also jailed in the 1980s for similar offences.

Handing Harvey a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, Judge Michael Fowler said: "You served a significant custodial sentence in 1984 for similar offences committed against other boys in a children's home. You were a member of staff at Greenacres, in Clay Cross, a social worker responsible for the counselling of (the victim) who was there because he had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of another. You had responsibilities, and you groomed him."

Robert Underwood, prosecuting, stated that the sex attack occurred when the victim was in his mid-teens and the defendant was a social worker at Greenacres, run by Derbyshire County Council. He explained that the teenager was at the home after allegations of sexual assault by a different man led to his conviction for assault.

The prosecutor said: "He had authority and responsibility over his young charges, and we say he groomed him (the victim) with kindness and attention. One night, he took him to a flat he was using that night and gave him lager, which caused this young boy to suffer some memory loss. He says the next thing he recalls was waking up on his front with his trousers and pants down and the defendant on top of him (sexually assaulting him). He (later) said this made him remember the pain he suffered when he was sexually abused before."

Mr. Underwood continued: "The defendant sent him back to his room with the instruction not to tell anyone, but he did make a complaint to another member of staff, but, sadly, that was not believed and he was moved to Moorfields Children's Home, in Sinfin. The local authority did carry out an investigation, but they 'formed the view' that no action needed to be taken. But the complainant continued to tell people for years he had been sexually abused in care. He went on to say a second man at Greenfields, called Duncan Ritchie, has sexually abused him, and in 2017 he (Ritchie) was jailed for more than 10 years (after he was found guilty of eleven sexual charges involving five teenagers following a trial)."

Mr. Underwood said a police investigation into Harvey, then of Pilsley, was launched in 2019 after the victim disclosed to officers what happened when they spoke to him about an unrelated matter. The defendant, now of Dayton Road, Hull, was interviewed, denied the allegation, and told officers he recalled the victim was moved from Clay Cross to Derby as he "was a troublemaker." However, he later pleaded guilty to sexual assault.

In 1984, Harvey was jailed for 30 months for similar offences against boys at the children's home, Mr. Underwood said. John Dunning, mitigating, said: "Actions speak louder than words, and there is no way what I say can compensate for what (the victim) has suffered over the years."

In addition to the suspended jail sentence, Harvey was ordered to pay £1,000 compensation to the victim and was handed a four-month curfew confining him to his home address each daytime between 11 am and 10 pm. He was also given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and will be on the sex offender register for 10 years.

In 2017, after Ritchie, then 71 and of Highfields Way, Holmewood, Chesterfield, was jailed for 11-and-a-half years, Derbyshire County Council issued an apology to his victims saying, "We deeply regret if there have been complaints that may not have been dealt with as they should have been at the time they were made."