Hammer attack school 'failed to spot series of racist incidents' - report

The school where a white 15-year-old was brain-damaged in a hammer attack by a gang of Asian pupils failed to recognise a series of racist incidents prior to the assault, a report revealed today.

Henry Webster (pictured) was repeatedly punched, kicked and hit with the sharp end of a claw hammer in an assault by the gang on the tennis courts at Ridgeway School in Wroughton, near Swindon, Wiltshire, in January 2007.

He had agreed to fight a boy "one on one" to end the harassment which he thought he and his friends were experiencing and because of peer pressure.

The ensuing attack, which happened when four boys pointed him out to three Asian men who had arrived in cars, took about one minute and it was the six blows from a hammer produced by one of the intruders which left the teenager with a depressed skull fracture.

Although Henry, who is now 18, has recovered sufficiently to return to part-time education, he still suffers from short-term memory loss.

The attack led to the conviction in 2008 of seven young men for wounding Henry with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm, with a further six men being convicted of conspiracy.

They were given custodial sentences ranging from eight years to eight months, with others receiving suspended sentences of up to 18 months. Four were pupils at the school.

Last year, Henry, of Beranburh Field, Wroughton, and his family launched a High Court challenge claiming that the school had been negligent, failed to maintain proper discipline and failed to deal with racial tension. The school denied liability.

In February this year, Mr Justice Nicol rejected their claims and said the school did not breach its duty to take reasonable care to keep Henry reasonably safe while on its premises.

Following the High Court ruling, the Swindon Local Safeguarding Children Board commissioned a Serious Case Review to examine the facts and allow professional agencies to learn lessons.

The executive summary, which is published today, found there were some incidents between white and British Asian pupils, which were not recognised as racist by the school.

Among the 20 key findings are:

:: The school, although it knew in advance, did not prepare for the arrival of a significant number of British Asian students in 2005. There was a lack of understanding or challenge by the school on subsequent pupil behaviour;

:: There were some incidents between white and British Asian pupils, which were not recognised as racist by the school. The report acknowledges that there was some success in the measures taken to address the racist behaviour of some white pupils in a small part of the school. However this approach was not extended throughout the school;

:: The school, by trying to deal with these incidents by itself, missed the opportunity to gain a better understanding of what was actually going on through external intervention. Other agencies did not challenge robustly the school's approach or its procedures;

:: The review found that, during this period, there were changes in direction for many agencies with apparent multi-agency inertia, including three new headteachers at the school and the creation of a new Children's Services department at the council;

:: This may have led to lack of a multi-agency intervention to the May 2006 racist incident outside the school and the lack of response under established child protection procedures to the assault on Henry.

Mike Howard, independent chair of the Swindon LSCB, said: "I hope that the Webster family, and in particular Henry, regard this report as a thorough examination of the events around the dreadful attack which he suffered, and it will help them all to move on.

"I am sorry that what was already an extremely distressing experience was made worse by the lack of co-ordinated support they received from some agencies.

"The attack took place over three and a half years ago and, despite the regrettable delay in concluding the SCR process, many of the measures made in the recommendations have already been identified and acted upon by individual agencies."

The report also lists the lessons learned from this case.

One of the most significant is that, in the event of critical incidents within schools, the level of support required by victims and their family should be a key consideration.

The Serious Case Review makes 32 recommendations for improvements.

Mr Howard added: "Swindon has made significant progress in many areas of safeguarding, a fact recognised by Ofsted in their inspection in December 2009.

"The overall effectiveness of safeguarding services was judged 'good' whilst 'ambition and prioritisation' was one of several areas deemed 'outstanding'.

"It is my responsibility, as LSCB chair, to build upon the Ofsted findings. The effective implementation and delivery of the actions from this distressing case is a key priority for the Board.

"Most importantly, I hope that Henry will be able to move on from this tragic and protracted incident and be able to achieve his ambitions in life."

Henry's mother, Liz Webster, said the Serious Case Review had "gone some way in exposing the failures" of both the school and local authority.

"This review has confirmed our belief that the Ridgeway School was responsible for the horrific, devastating assault on our son which has left him with permanent injuries," she said.

"Since the assault, this school and Swindon Authority have been excessively defensive - the headmaster has actually gone as far as stating Henry was not an innocent victim.

"It is now clear this defensive/aggressive tactic was to try to deflect blame from the school and the local authority.

"The independent panel of this Serious Case Review has gone some way in exposing the failures of both this school and Swindon Authority, which has started some dialogue and acceptance of the racial tensions that have existed and contributed to the build-up and the eventual attack on an innocent pupil whilst at school - a place where every child should be safe at all times."

Mrs Webster said the school's race relations policy "was not worth the paper it was written on".

"There was no cohesive approach to dealing with matters of race," she said.

"Whilst Henry has been the primary victim, we are and always have been of the firm belief that this school also let down the young Asian pupils who were eventually prosecuted for this attack.

"They have been criminalised and demonised - had their integration been properly handled we are certain this attack would not have happened."

Mrs Webster said she and her family were "very concerned" that the report has failed to address many of the "failings" surrounding their treatment.

"There were failures at virtually every level of the case from the police, to the Crown Prosecution Service to the behaviour of individual teachers," she said.

"The criticism of the local authority is tantamount to a whitewash as it is so minimal and limited.

"The review doesn't mention what needs to be done to improve race relations in Swindon, which is an urgent concern considering the considerable increase in the vote for the BNP."

Mrs Webster added: "Our faith in the justice system and the Establishment has been severely damaged. We are completely at a loss to understand how the judge in the civil trial could have found in favour of the school.

"Our belief is that the justice system is not just or fair and we feel badly let down.

"We also firmly believe that the entire report should be published in full.

"We will be extremely angry if this does not happen."