Former children's home worker sentenced for child abuse

An 84-year-old former children's home worker has been sentenced to 11 years for historical child abuse offences.

In October, George Hendry of Serpentine Parade in north Belfast, was found guilty at Belfast Crown Court of four counts of indecent assault and two other serious sexual offences of a boy under the age of 16.

The charges spanned a 14-week period between 14 November 1980 and 20 February 1981.

The offences were committed while Hendry worked as deputy manager at Palmerston Assessment Centre (PAC) in east Belfast, which was part of the Eastern Health and Social Services Board (EHSB) network of children's homes.

These centres acted as initial points of contact or assessment for children needing social care, providing a place for evaluation before further placements.

The trial heard Hendry sometimes worked the night shift at PAC where he was the sole member of staff on duty during which much of the abuse took place.

The victim, aged 15 at the time, reported that the sexual assaults took place in his bedroom.

Hendry threatened the boy not to speak about what was happening to him or he would be ''sent to Rathgael", a training school for young people in Bangor, County Down.

Judge Catherine Chasemore said the aggravating factors were the age of the injured party, the defendant was in a position of trust and the repeated nature of the offending.

She said the case involved high culpability and high harm by Hendry on his victim.

Judge Chasemore said that sexual abuse had affected the injured party's mental health and he now suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

A pre-sentence report compiled by the Probation Board assessed Hendry as a high likelihood of reoffending in the future but was not a danger to the public.

It said Hendry still denied the offences ever took place and showed no remorse for the indecent and sexual assaults on his teenage male victim.

The court heard that the defendant had previous convictions for similar offending dating back to the late 1970s and early 1980s but never received a custodial sentence.

Passing the 11-year sentence, Judge Chasemore told Hendry that his offending was so serious only a custodial sentence was appropriate.

Hendry was placed on the sex offenders register for an indefinite period but was not made the subject of Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

Richard Maguire, from the Public Prosecution Service (PPS), said Hendry "used his position as a member of staff in a children's home to abuse a boy who he should have been protecting".

He paid tribute to the bravery of the victim.

"The PPS takes cases involving sexual abuse extremely seriously," Mr Maguire said.

"No matter when the abuse happened, we will consider every case that we receive from police.

"I hope anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse knows they can come forward and report it to police - no matter when it happened. You will be listened to and treated with respect at all times by police and prosecutors."