“David Westwood should resign. At the project I was employed at hundreds of images of children were accessed on the internet and those responsible were allowed to resign. When I found out about this I visited the police. It took them weeks to visit the project and they have never questioned the staff that was unfortunate enough to see the images.
“I was so disappointed with the failure to investigate that I wrote to the Chief Constable on two separate occasions. He never bothered to reply.
Those responsible have not been prosecuted, and they are free to work with children.”
Dee Hodgson has also accused Councillor John Black of not ensuring that the individuals responsible were formally reported to the police in events which took place in 2001 at the Hull Resettlement Project he manages.
John Black, a Hull City Councillor for the Longhill ward, has a chequered past. Once nicknamed ‘The Godfather’ in a national newspaper he was forced to resign as chairman of the Housing Committee when he became the subject of a police investigation into £42,000 of claimed for civic hospitality when he was Lord Mayor.
Mr Black is the General Manager of Hull Resettlement Project, a post he has held for over seven years. He is also the company secretary. At the time of his appointment in 1997 questions were raised by Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish in the House of Lords on November 27th 1997.
According to a report prepared by Mr Black himself and dated July 19th 2002 the Finance Officer, Colin Cooper, on August 8th 2001 had drawn to his attention details of ‘the telephone accounts that he had received for the Russell Street’ [hostel].
Mr Black contacted a ‘board
member’ and visited the hostel where in his own words ‘Within a
short space of time clear evidence was discovered that pornography i.e. images
of young girls, had been accessed on the internet’. This is confirmed
by an ex-employee who was present at the time. This person, who wishes to remain
anonymous, has reported being called into the office by
Mr Black and being told that "there were pornographic images on the computer
including images of children."
"I personally chose not to view the images," the ex-employee also reported that Steve Wilson, another local councillor was present at the time.The following morning Mr Black confronted an individual and suspended him, his resignation letter arriving later the next day.
In his report Mr Black asked a member of staff to contact the ‘police hot line number to seek advice….. to establish whether a criminal act had taken place.’ According to Kim Prewer at Humberside Police someone from the project had informed the police that ‘no child porn was apparently seen’ and therefore the police said that ‘the matter could be dealt with internally.’
According to Mr Black’s report he had earlier visited the work place of the Chair of Hull Resettlement Project to inform ‘him of the situation’. Rob Batty is one of John Black’s fellow Labour Party members. He is also a trade union convenor on Hull City Council for Britain’s largest union, UNISON. When asked to comment on events which took place on or around August 9th 2001 and the subsequent aftermath he claimed that he had “no knowledge on that” and he doesn’t “get involved in staffing” matters.
Mr Black proceeded to contact a council employee who he claims had ‘considerable I.T skills and experience of the internet’ who on behalf of the Resettlement project carried out an investigation in his lunch break over the following two days. This provided ‘further information … that clearly identified a second former member of staff who it appeared had also accessed pornographic materials of a similar nature’ thus confirming that ‘both members of staff had been engaged in inappropriate use of the internet which involved images of young girls.’
At another hostel it was found that a third member of staff had been downloading ‘adult pornography’.
Dee Hodgson had started work at Hull Resettlement project in April 2001 and claims to have been horrified when two of her colleagues told her in “late 2001’ that they had ‘seen hundreds of images’ including ‘an image of a baby being raped’. One of these is the daughter of a Hull City Labour Councillor; the other who initially said he would be happy to help with my enquiries and confirmed that the police have never questioned him about what he witnessed has since refused all my requests to be interviewed.
Concerned that the two men who had accessed images of children could continue to work with vulnerable young people Mrs Hodgson eventually rang the police herself on April 27th 2002, the police log shows she and her husband attended Queens Gardens Police Station to speak with PC Foster who reported that he felt the police ‘cannot ignore what she has told us’. Yet it was to be another 11 days before Mrs Hodgson was asked to come in and make a formal statement on May 8th 2002. In it she told the police that when she had asked what had happened to her colleague at the time of his suspension, she had been told by Mr Black that “I wouldn’t believe what was on the computer” and that he wouldn’t be coming back.
Mrs Hodgson supplied the police with the name of the man who had resigned along with the names of employees who had witnessed the images of young children on the computer. Neither of them was questioned.
The police appear to have been reluctant to get involved or to visit the project. Mrs Hodgson became anxious about the length of time it was taking them to begin investigating her concerns. She admits reporting her concerns to Terry Gerraghty, the then Lord Mayor. As Mayor he couldn’t do any constituency work so he requested Councillor Chris Jarvis to look into Dee Hodgson’s allegations. Cllr Jarvis said “I discussed this case with Simone Butterworth, who was then leader of the council; we decided to write to the Chief Constable.”
Cllr Butterworth was unable to remember whether she wrote a letter or not to the Chief Constable of Humberside Police. If so, she has been unable to locate it.
As such it was only on June 24th, nearly 10 months after Mr Black reports that Hull Resettlement project had discovered on its computers ‘images of young girls’, not to mention pornography on computers at other premises, did the police make a formal visit to the project. This was nearly 2 months after Mrs Hodgson rang the police and 7 weeks after she was interviewed.
Even when they did visit, they contacted Mr Black before they arrived and asked for permission to take away the computers. When they arrived they were willing to “confirm that Mrs Hodgson had communicated with a politician from another political party with details of this matter.’ According to Kim Prewer ‘the man who had resigned was spoken to by officers and denied the offence of viewing pornographic material’. Of course, and this would seem obvious, he would, but it does beg the question then why did he resign?
No attempt appears to have been made to interview the second man who the project had identified as also accessing pornography of young girls.
Mr Black, a politician for over twenty years standing, commented that he found Mrs Hodgson’s actions in reporting what had happened to the police and politicians from other parties as “threatening and intimidating.” Mrs Hodgson was subsequently suspended and dismissed on July 26th 2002.
Hull Resettlement Project was established in July 1991 and became a registered charity on January 30th 1992. Accounts registered at the Charity Commission show that the objects of the organisation are ‘The Care and Support of Persons who are homeless and in need by providing developing and maintaining short term accommodation’ for two client groups children/young people and elderly/old people. The project has three premises in the City of Kingston upon Hull.
The financial records of the project show that in the three financial years from April 1st 2000 to March 31st 2003 gross income at £1,813,860 exceeded the expenditure at £1,580,085 by £233,765, a not inconsiderable sum. Following the introduction of the government’s Supporting People legislation the organisation is now required to bid with other local organisations for its future funding from Hull City Council.
In reply to a letter sent asking him whether he knew about events which had occurred at the Hull Resettlement Project between August 2001 and July 2002 or had spoken with the Chief Constable of Humberside Police about them the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has stated that ‘Mr Prescott will not be drawn to comment on a letter, particularly from a non-constituent, that contains scurrilous and unsubstantiated allegations.’
The letter sent to Mr Prescott makes clear that it was his own friend and political colleague Mr Black who had identified that two individuals had accessed ‘pornography, i.e. images of young girls had been accessed on the internet’ and that there are additional witnesses to back up such a claim.
Humberside Police are also refusing to comment as to whether Mr Prescott and the Chief Constable of Humberside Police have spoken about events at Hull Resettlement Project.
Another local Councillor when asked why he thought the police appeared to have done little to investigate a potential crime or series of crimes said “This is Hull.” Another former ex-employee who left Hull Resettlement Project following a substantial pay out said that John Black was “pretty much untouchable” as “he has the local media in his pockets.”
Letters sent to John Black at his home and at Hull Resettlement Project concerning all the events surrounding events on and around August 9th 2001 remain unanswered.
Westwood was suspended from his post on Friday July 2nd in controversial circumstances when a High Court ruling agreed that Home Secretary David Blunkett was entitled to suspend him from duty. Humberside Police had a week earlier refused to suspend him. Although he has a reputation for straight talking John Prescott was remarkably quiet about whether he backed Blunkett’s decision and agreed that Westwood should be suspended. No statement appears to have been issued by him and no journalist appears to have asked him for his opinions. Prescott and Westwood’s homes in Hull are next door but one to each other in a highly desirable street in the City.
Article updated November 28th from an orginal article posted online in June 2004
In the last few months we have received a considerable number of reports on other incidents at Hull Resettlement Project, some of which we are currently investigating. We would welcome speaking to anyone who has worked at the project and any past or present residents. We are particularly concerned about the death of an ex-resident two years ago.
In June 2005 following Colin Inglis's removal as chair of Humberside Police Authority, John Black was elevated to serve on the authority.
Additional research by Ian Newton