Orkney child abuse inquiry

The Orkney child abuse scandal began on 27 February 1991 when social workers and police removed some children from their homes on the island South Ronaldsay, in Orkney, Scotland, because of allegations of child abuse. The children denied that any abuse had occurred, and medical examinations did not reveal any evidence of abuse.

The father of a family was imprisoned in 1986 shortly after the family's arrival in South Ronaldsay, for child abuse. No formal child protection proceedings were initiated. After an alarm raised by officials in a neighbouring authority, sparked by a girl's claim to social workers and police that ritualistic satanic abuse had taken place, action was taken. Other children were taken in late 1990, and the two youngest were told that their mother was dead. Local people began a campaign for the children to be allowed home. It was repeatedly decided that their welfare could not be assured in the care of their mother. It took six years before the last of the children was returned to their mother.

After consultations among police, social workers, and local officers of the Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and after receiving legal authority from Scotland's most senior sheriff, pre-dawn raids were made on the houses of the minister and the families who had assisted his campaign.

Following a community meeting, many of the parents organised a support group, the South Ronaldsay Parents Action Committee, led by a local doctor, and assisted by the voluntary organisation Parents Against Injustice (PAIN). The group collected petitions of support that showed overwhelming scepticism about the charges.

The case came to court in April, and after a single day the presiding judge, Sheriff David Kelbie, dismissed the case as fatally flawed and the children were allowed to return home. The judge criticised the social workers involved, saying that their handling of the case had been "fundamentally flawed" and he found in summary that "these proceedings are so fatally flawed as to be incompetent" and that the children concerned had been separated and subjected to repeated cross-examinations almost as if the aim was to force confessions rather than to assist in therapy. Where two children made similar statements about abuse this appeared to be the result of "repeated coaching". He added that in his view "There is no lawful authority for that whatsoever". Sheriff Kelbie also said that he was unclear what the supposed evidence provided by the social services proved.

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