Historic complaints from former residents of a Gravesend children’s home - over sex and drug abuses - are set to be reviewed by a new panel.
The Independent Kendall House Review has been created by the Bishop of Rochester James Langstaff to investigate complaints surrounding the Pelham Road home more than three decades ago.
The review aims to “understand what happened at Kendall House and to identify lessons that can be learnt for the church today in its work with vulnerable young people”, its website states.
The panel is to be chaired by Sue Proctor, who led the investigation into Jimmy Savile’s victims at Leeds Teaching Hospitals and chaired the NHS Savile Legacy Unit.
Former resident, Teresa Cooper, told News Shopper that she was raped and repeatedly forced to take drugs over the three years she was in Kendall House.
Ms Cooper, who now lives near Chelmsford in Essex, said: “I do not think people realise how serious it is.
“We want justice, we want people prosecuted, we need the children to have care and help.”
Teresa Cooper now runs the no2abuse pressure group
Ms Cooper came to the children’s home just after her 14th birthday in 1981 and left when she was 17-years-old.
The church agreed an out-of-court settlement in 2010 for Ms Cooper’s case but did not accept liability for the alleged abuses.
Since then she has set up the no2abuse pressure group to help others who stayed at Kendall House.
Kendall House closed in 1986.
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