Father Michael Ingram: Dominican priest and paedophile activist
English Dominican priest Father Michael Ingram was convicted of child sex offences in 2000. He was found guilty of sexually assaulting and raping six boys on weekend trips and on camping holidays to the Isle of Wight. He died before he could be sentenced, after driving his car straight into a wall. He was found at the wheel of the car wearing just his underwear. He had repeatedly denied the charges throughout the trial and had referred to his accusers as ‘delinquents’
For several decades, Ingram had been an open advocate of sex between adults and children, but this had not resulted in his expulsion from the priesthood. He also claimed to be an expert on child development and child sexuality, and had written a number of essays on the subject for academic journals which cited highly dubious ‘research’ which minimised the effects of child sexual abuse. He was booked to appear at the ‘Love and Attraction’ conference in 1977 at the invitation of Paedophile Information Exchange chairman Tom O’Carroll, and in 1986 he had a chapter published in the book ‘Betrayal of Youth’ (BOY), edited by PIE executive commitee member Warren Middleton.
Leicester Mercury, 2000
Catholic Herald, 1st March 2002
Michael Ingram’s CV shows that he continued to find work with access to children despite his repulsive views.
Below is a selection of his published articles in which he talks of ‘willing victims’, minimises the harm caused by child sexual abuse, claims that the abuse can be ‘beneficial’, talks of ‘participating victims’ and claims that investigation by the police is more damaging than the abuse itself. Many of his views are similar to those of sociologist (and PIE member) Ken Plummer of University of Essex, and criminologist Donald West of the University of Cambridge.
The Guardian, 9th September 1977
The Guardian, 14th September 1978
More on Father Michael Ingram in Richard Scorer’s book Betrayed: The English Catholic Church and the Sex Abuse Crisis (Biteback Publishing, 2014)
spotlight 
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19770910&id=ldw-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=50wMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1729,2266856
Glasgow Herald – 10 September 1977
Religion
It is not easy to write dispassionately about paedophilia – a word once apparently so unmentionable that my somewhat venerable shorter Oxford Dictionary does not give it.
Paedophiles – adults who seek sexual gratification with children – arouse distaste in so many people that it would be easiest to turn a blind eye.
But with the Paedophile Information Exchange, the pressure group which wants the age of consent abolished, so much in the news after being barred from holding a public meeting in a London hotel mainly through staff objections, plus condemnation from a few churchmen and politicians, we ought, do we not, to try to face the issues objectively.
Moreover, we have had leaked the speech being given yesterday to the international conference on “Love and Attraction” at Swansea by a Roman Catholic priest, Father Michael Ingram, in which he is reported to have argued against paedophiles being sent to prison, saying that children who become involved with them are not “victims,” nor are the adults “assailants” or “molesters.”
Relationships he has studied – mostly involving such people as social workers, teachers, clergy, choirmasters, youth leaders, and Scoutmasters – are “characterised by gentleness, in which the child ‘worships’ the adult and the adult loves the child. In most cases the children enjoy the sex, often behave seductively, and come back for more.”
Father Ingram does not approve of paedophilia. […how’s that, again?] He is a trained pyschologist and child counsellor and was reporting on 91 cases in all of which boys under 14 had had sex with male adults.
Certainly traditional Christian doctrine utterly condemns such behaviour. But, even within the Churches themselves, long-accepted restraints are now being questioned. So, on moral and ethical grounds generally can paedophilia ever be justified? I sought the help of an old friend – an experienced and dedicated teacher.
He felt strongly that you would need far more careful and detached sampling [!] before you could begin to argue that children are not harmed by sexual relationships with adults.
A teacher, or social worker, or priest, or minister, stands in for parents – not just any old parents – but loving and responsible ones. Such parents do not have sexual relationships with their children.
The processes of childhood – of growing up – and integral to the development of the adult personality. What happens when you suddenly end a child’s childhood, as the introduction of adult sexuality must do? Children, as my friend put it, must grow in care and mature in care.
The law of the age of consent was largely to protect young people from child prostitution and other horrors of the so-called Victorian age of morality. No one thinks the law by itself can produce an ideal society. But the law imposes sanctions that offend inherent and tested human ideals.
So, argued my friend, the law of consent should not be changed. I have a feeling that most of you will say amen to that.
DOUGLAS BROWN
http://books.google.com/books?id=9OUvAAAAYAAJ&q=%22See's+action+because+the+book%22&dq=%22See's+action+because+the+book%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=UlSiU8yMMoWZyASJh4KwBw&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA
People, Volumes 1-2
International Planned Parenthood Federation, 1973
Religion Publication interruptus
The Vatican has failed in an attempt to suppress a book on population issues prepared by Roman Catholic experts. The Problems of Population – the Challenge to Mankind Today was commissioned in 1973 by the Conference of International Catholic Organizations as a contribution to World Population Year. But the last three chapters, which attempted to analyse moral concepts relevant to abortion, contraception, sterilization, euthanasia and social justice, did not find favour with the Vatican.
Although a French edition was already printed and in some bookshops, the Vatican sent a delegation to Paris and ordered that it be withdrawn from sale. When the story leaked to the news media, the Vatican agreed to a compromise whereby the book could be issued if all mention of its connection with the cico was deleted.
Canon Joseph Moerman, secretary- general of the International Catholic Child Bureau, who edited the final draft of the book, said he regretted the Holy See’s action because the book “is very sound, well balanced, not provocative, respectful to authority’. He added: ‘The people who read that book will see that it was not accepted and will have a very sad impression of the Vatican.’
***Father Michael Ingram***, a British Dominican who was editor of the book at the outset, said the controversial three chapters ‘attempted to face the conflict which sometimes exists in the minds of some religious people about the alternative between practising contraception, which the Church states to be evil, and the evils which come upon the world if large numbers of people in fact do not limit the number of children they have.’
A French edition, entitled Le Profit de la Population – une Interpellation aux Hommes, is available from Editions du Centurion, 17 Rue de Babylone, Paris 7e, at 27 francs.
***
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19770921&id=Y5AjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bKEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3516,1548753
Montreal Gazette – 21 September 1977
Pedophiles attacked by London crowd
LONDON (AP) – A crowd kicked, punched and hurled fruit and eggs at people arriving for a meeting here organized by a group that wants to legalize sex between consenting children and adults.
The meeting was organized by the Pedophile Information Exchange, which in recent weeks has been attacked by newspapers and politicians for its views. Stedman’s Medical Dictionary defines pedophilia as “fondness for children.”
The crowd of about 50 persons yelled ‘Bring back hanging” and “Let the women get their hands on the perverts” as police charged in to rescue late arrivers. Capital punishment ended in Britain several years ago.
A police cordon guarded the Conway Hall where about 100 persons attended the meeting.
The group managed to hire the hall after it had been banned from other London sites following protests.
The guest speaker was supposed to have been a Roman Catholic Dominican priest, ***Father Michael Ingram***, described by the meeting’s organizers as a child psychologist who has studied sexual attraction of adults to children. But he failed to turn up and ***his speech was read*** by the group’s chairman, Thomas O’Carroll.
Outside the meeting hall an elderly woman who hit a man arriving for the meeting with her umbrella claimed to speak for the crowd when she said: “The question we want answered is what would any of the people in there do if their child was raped.”
***
http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/19th-august-2000/26/former-priest-guilty-of-sex-abuse-a-former-dominic
The Tablet – 19th August 2000
Former priest guilty of sex abuse.
A former Dominican priest was this week found guilty at Leicester Crown Court of sex offences against six boys, committed between 1971 and 1978.
Michael Ingram, who left the Dominicans in 1993 and was dispensed from the priesthood, had denied the charges. He will not be sentenced before 4 September because of injuries sustained last weekend when he drove his car into a wall.
Ingram abused the boys when he was serving as a priest at Holy Cross priory in Leicester. The charges included one of a serious sexual offence, two of gross indecency and four of indecent assault.
After the verdict the Dominicans said in a statement: “From seeing, in our own work as priests, just how damaging can be the effects on a person of being sexually abused in childhood, we deplore what Michael Ingram did to some boys in the 1970s.”
Even though Ingram was no longer an active priest or a member of their order, the Dominicans said they were “deeply grieved” that he had betrayed his professional and religious duty. Their statement added: “We were totally unaware at the time of what was happening at no time during those years was anything reported to us and we have co-operated with the police throughout their investigations.”
• Victims of sexual abuse by clergy are to walk in silence to Westminster on 28 August to present a memorandum to Archbishop Murphy-O’Connor.
The so-called “Names Walk” is being organised by Survivors of Spiritual Abuse by the Catholic Church, a group concerned not only with those who have been abused sexually, but also physically, mentally and spiritually. Walkers will carry names of abuse victims, living and dead. The group hopes that these will eventually be incorporated into a memorial.
An open letter released last week by the Bradford-based organisers of the walk refers to the case of Fr Michael Hill, a paedophile priest from the archbishop’s former diocese of Arundel and Brighton. Archbishop Murphy-O’Connor recently admitted that he had been mistaken in appointing Hill to a post at Gatwick airport after the priest had already received treatment for his paedophilia (Home News, 22 July).
The letter goes on to criticise the archbishop for suggesting that abuse victims might seek “pastoral care” from the Church. “You are apparently unaware”, it says, “that the abusers can never be the healers.” It also asks him to fund a memorial to abuse victims, and to provide “an absolute unconditional apology from the Catholic Church”.
The walk is being supported by the groups We Are Church and Catholics for a Changing Church.
***
https://www.newgon.com/wiki/Michael_Ingram
References
1. M. Ingram, A study of 92 cases of sexual contact between adult and child’, British Journal of Sexual Medicine, Vol 6, No.44,January 1979, p, 22f(Part 1), and Vol 6, No.45, February 1979, p. 24f (Part 2).
2. Birmingham Post, Aug 1, 2000, “Michael Ingram (68) denied four charges of indecent assault, two of gross indecency and one of serious sexual assault from 1970 to 1978 against boys . . .” (via Google)
3. As reported in [1] and [2] (from Google cache as of April 2009)
4. Birmingham Evening Mail, Aug 28, 2000, “Michael Ingram (68) originally from Cambridgeshire, died in the health care centre of Leicester Prison on Saturday night.” (via Google)
5. The Mirror, Aug 15, 2000 “. . . convicted at Leicester of assaulting boys up to 30 years ago” (via Google)
6. Daily Record, Aug 15, 2000 “But Roman Catholic Father Michael Ingram was in intensive care as the jury returned their verdicts, after driving his car into a wall at high speed.” (via Google)
http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/23rd-january-1976/3/this-document-could-prove-a-by-michael-ingram-op
Catholic Herald – 23th January 1976
This document could prove a disaster for the Church
THE VATICAN’S declaration on sexual ethics, instead of making the pastor’s job in giving guidance and help easier, has served to confuse the issues.
There is a grave danger that priests may use this document to be stricter with their people and ignore its advice to act with prudence and compassion.
If this happens, far from being helpful to the Church, the document could he a disaster, another blow to the Magisteriron as a wise teaching authority.
With pre-marital sex, “sleeping around”, trial unions and the relationship of two people committed to each other for life. but who for external reasons are not getting married, need to be distinguished from one another.
Puberty is occurring earlier today than 100 years ago, and the age at which young people are allowed to leave school has been increased. We have the grossly anomalous situation of sexually mature young people still at school like children.
To treat them as children and to demand adult responsibility in sexual matters is a psychological contradiction. The easy availability of contraception is advocated by some as a means of helping young people to exercise responsibility at least in the effects of their sexual relations.
It seems to me that it is important to encourage young people to be able to integrate their sexual desires, rather than indulge in them at a whim.
In married life there are times when a wife does not wish to make love with her husband. If he is properly integrated, he will accept this. If he has never learned to tolerate delayed gratification, there are likely to be difficulties between him and his wife.
It makes sense to me, therefore, to discourage “sleeping around” but to do so with the greatest care and understanding, respecting the difficulties young people have nowadays. Trial unions are a monstrosity. Love is not love unless it is an unconditional acceptance of one another.
Genuine pre-marital relations are a different matter. Here there is no casual gratification of young people using each other. or trying each other out, but an unwillingness to wait until the wedding day.
Few Catholic thinkers would publicly encourage this as being desirable, but also few counsellors would want to make an issue of it and prejudice their chances of helping young couples to look at far more important matters concerning their future married life.
It is very important to sort out what masturbation represents for the person performing it. A blanket condemnation or something that adolescents do because they have not yet learnt to integrate their sexual powers, something that a prisoner does in prison, and so on, need not necessarily lead to a clarification of the Church’s teaching, but only further confusion.
In counselling practice, I find it usually advantageous to distract attention from the morality of the act, to what it represents for the one performing it. To emphasise the guilt, the moral culpability tends to lead to a cycle of masturbation, guilt, reassurance through a further act, and so on.
Masturbation is an unsatisfactory act. It is self-frustrating because the mutual love that is fostered by a mutual act is absent. It is therefore common to find feelings of guilt, or self-dissatisfaction after the act, and the prudent counsellor will help the subject to look at this.
Thus, with adolescents, I help them to see in the act a lack of integration because it is something they say they are not able to control. To do otherwise, to give too much reassurance about the act, can take away a valuable incentive towards integration.
A clear statement about the sinfulness of the act can help to make conscious and clear the natural regret at the unsatisfactoriness of the act, but only if applied with the greatest of care — with understanding rather than condemnation.
My chief regret at the recent document is that over-permissiveness is condemned (and with this I fully agree). but not the enormous harm that is done to very many young people by imprudent, over-strict priests and counsellors.
On the other hand, when counselling someone who is masturbating because of loneliness and depression, it does not help at all to discuss the sinfulness and guilt, but to discuss only the ways to end the isolation and unhappiness. This is not permissiveness, but a means of helping to overcome the difficulty.
I have counselled many homosexuals and in every one I have found a history of a disturbed relationship in early years with a parent of the opposite sex.
I regard homosexuality, which is notoriously difficult to treat by psychotherapy. as a personality damage and it should not be condemned any more than one condemns a misshapen leg. It is unnatural to walk with a limp, if one has two good legs, but not if one leg has been damaged.
In the opinion expressed above I am at variance with the campaign for homosexual equality, but I will not change it until I can find one homosexual who has not had a history of psychological trauma.
Counselling a homosexual often means trying to help him to accept his condition without feelings of guilt. A condemnation of homosexuality will make this approach impossible, and ***a counsellor following the recent decree will find himself in the same situation as if his subject had sexual desires for young children.***
He will have to help the subject to strengthen himself against the inclination to make love with a partner and to live a life without physical love. The Pope has reiterated traditional Catholic teaching, but the document may cause many unhappy people to cease coming to the Church for help. This would deprive them of the help of a counsellor in their moral growth and development.
For example, if one can help a man to stop picking up strangers in a public lavatory, one has already made moral progress. If living with a lover becomes a permanent mutually supporting and sustaining relationship, one has made more progress.
It is still less than what the Church demands. But starting with a moral condemnation would make any improvement in morality impossible.
• ***Fr Michael Ingram. OP***, Chaplain to the English Community in Geneva. is a trained child counsellor and has practised as a child psychotherapist.
http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/28th-february-1975/8/population-report
Catholic Herald – 28th February 1975
Population Report
****Fr Michael Ingram OP, secretary-general of the commission which prepared the book on population problems for the Conference of International Catholic Organisations****, describes the opposition the project met from the beginning
In the course of the publicity given last week to the attempted suppression of a book on population problems I became fully aware for the first time (though I had been used to seeing it happen, and should have known better) that a rebellious priest makes better news than a loyal one.
I gave virtually identical interviews to several papers and broadcasting interviewers. The resulting reports were so different that I have made a collection, and will offer them to any scholar of the New Testament Synoptic problem to see if he can decide what the historical facts were, and what I actually said.
If he can do either he will be a man of very remarkable genius. So I am using an invitation from the Editor of the Catholic Herald to write a brief history of the project.
Various Catholic societies have branches throughout the world, and have their status recognised by the Vatican as international Catholic organisations. Some also have consultative status with the United Nations. They occasionally meet together, and when they do so they form the Conference of International Catholic Organisations.
One such conference commissioned Canon Moerman, Secretary-General of the International Catholic Child Bureau, to convene a working group of experts to make a report on world population problems to provide information and guidance, and make a specifically Catholic contribution to World Population Year. ***Canon Moerman asked me to become secretary-general of this commission and editor of the book, and I took up residence in Geneva to work full time with him.***
From the very beginning the commission met diplomatic difficulties. The Holy See was anxious that the conference should not set itself up as a rival voice to the Vatican, and the United Nations, which was engaged throughout in diplomatic negotiations to persuade the Vatican to take part in the events of the year, was hesitant about giving us too much official recognition.
We were tentatively approached by the World Council of Churches to consider making the whole thing an ecumenical venture, but it withdrew when it thought it would jeopardise its relations with the Holy See.
It was for these reasons that a work of major significance for the Church and the world received little publicity.
Within the conference itself there was a great deal of disagreement about the project. One may dislike the words “conservative” and “progressive”, but one cannot deny that many members in the Catholic Church align themselves in a partisan way in groups to which these words are referred.
I would like to think that both parties were matched intellectually and could enter into dialogue, but the unhappy fact was that it seemed virtually impossible to have an intelligent argument with “conservatives” in the group.
Within the commission we argued heatedly about every sentence in the book as it was being written, and every argument was backed up with facts, and science. But when we encountered “conservatives” from the conference it was quite another story.
If I quote an example you will. perhaps, see what I mean. One passage mentioned an aspect of family life and included the phrase “as happens today in China”. It was insisted that this should be removed in case we appeared to approve of anything happening in China. This petty quibbling marred our debates and correspondence, and we often made corrections in non-essential matters just to keep the peace.
All the authors of the book eventually became resigned to having their favourite passages rewritten, and I think I lost more material than most. I was hurt and angry as anyone would be in the circumstances, especially when the critics said that what I wrote was not wrong but controversial, ie, thought-provoking.
However, as the work of Canon Moerman and myself became more widely known in other circles, and we were increasingly called upon to take part in international meetings and seminars, there emerged the possibility of publishing our work independently arid that provided compensations by giving greater freedom.
The last section of the book, which deals with religious and moral questions, caused the most difficulty. Three different Spanish theologians and canonists were invited to draft chapters, and we had to reject their contributions as being likely to bring the whole project into ridicule because they simply repeated once more those arguments in defence of “Humanae Vitae” that have been rejected both within and without the Church. One even discussed the canonical right of the sperm to unite with the ovum.
I was then commissioned to set up a sub-group of well-known experts and re-write the whole section. I first drafted a paper, circulated it among nearly 100 correspondents and then revised it according to their criticisms.
Later I went to Louvain where I reworked it with a professor of moral theology, called a meeting in London of some 15 experts and revised it again. It was submitted to the plenary sessions in Paris and rejected as being too controversial.
At this point there was an intervention from outside, and I was invited to speak at a Population Conference in Geneva. I gave a summary of the rejected paper, and its publication was immediately commissioned by the International Council for Voluntary Agencies, and money was given by a charitable trust in America. The text was to be distributed free to all interested, and over 1,000 copies were sent to Bucharest to be distributed among the delegates.
Meanwhile, Canon Moerman was appointed to the Planning and Management Committee of the Tribune at the World Population Conference (where he delivered the opening speech and closing message); Fr Arthur McCormack, our leading demographic expert, was dismissed from the Pontifical Commission on Justice and was appointed Consultant to the United Nations.
The question of finance was a thorny one. The international Catholic organisations which had commissioned the work did not give one penny towards the cost, and we had to approach a large non-Catholic trust for the money. The trust insisted that my salary should be about £2,000, hut because we were so short of money, I gave half that back to ensure that the book would appear in three languages.
The Vatican took a dim view of all that was going on, and we encountered difficulty at every stage. When this was open and straightforward we could cope, and adapted ourselves to whatever criticisms they made, short of stopping publication. But sometimes the opposition came in the form of unbelievably petty harassment, which only hardened our determination to go ahead with publication. “The book WILL be published” became the warcry with which Canon Moerman and I encouraged each other.
Meanwhile, the strain had taken its toll of my health. I developed a migraine which lasted for three months, and when my stay in Geneva came to an end, I was relieved of my post, appointed special consultant to Canon Moerman, and continued to work part-time with a secretary in England. My name was taken from the title-page, and Canon Moerman’s inserted instead, which meant that he now had to bear the very heavy burden.
I attended the World Population Conference in Bucharest and there was told openly on several occasions what a bad impression the delegation from the Vatican was giving. United Nations officials who had refused us official recognition in favour of diplomatic relations with the Vatican were disillusioned.
Representatives of the World Council of Churches spoke publicly of the way they had been let down by broken promises and fickleness. We avoided open confrontation with the Vatican delegation, and worked with them as far as possible, having meetings and discussions with them. But we also encountered great opposition from some Catholic elements present, and with these we were in more open confrontation. It has to be said that some of their interventions in the public debates brought ridicule on the Church.
However, the book proved too controversial for the Conference of International Catholic Organisations, and it decided it could not be published in its name. Since it had been so carefully worded, there was not one statement in it that could be taken to be opposed to the Papal teaching. But by repudiating the book, the conference lost rights to control its publication. It tried to prevent any mention of the conference in the book, but we decided it was a matter of honesty to describe the book’s origins, and it was left at that.
A Paris publisher signed a contract to publish in three languages, and Canon Moerman signed on behalf of the authors. When the book emerged from the press a delegation of the Holy See went to Paris to order the suppression of the book.
The publishers pointed out that Canon Moerman had no legal right to do so, since the authors held the copyright. Since Canon Moerman had written the introduction, he was entitled to change that, but no other changes could be made. A compromise was reached and the publishers agreed to remove references to the conference from the introduction.
I criticised this decision as it seemed to me to be immoral to suppress the truth. But the decision was not ratified by the Cardinal Secretary of State who would not be satisfied until the book was suppressed, and this would mean the purchase and destruction of the copies that had already been printed. The story leaked to the press, and the Cardinal l finally allowed the publication to go ahead.
Along with the other authors I was consulted about both the compromise and the suppression, and I pointed out that since the conference had repudiated the book it had no control. Since the Catholic Church had not contributed any money, the trust which had given money would have to be repaid, and I would take legal action if necessary to recover my £1,000. I said also that the authors would want to protect themselves against loss and damage from the suppression of the book,
There are serious moral issues discussed in the book, and it is the discussion that is criticised, together with the neutral attitude that authors take. There are also serious moral issues involved in the behaviour of the ministers of the Holy Father, and I would like to think that if he knew the full facts he would be ashamed of what was being done in his name. It has been those closest to him that have been involved with us and advising him, and we were not able to communicate with him except through them.
The behaviour of some of them has not been a credit to the Church, and their manner of dealing with the publication issue has given free publicity to the book. I hope the matter will rest here, and the world will be able to judge the merits or otherwise of the book for itself.
***
http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/13th-february-1976/5/fr-ingram-clarifies-views-on-declaration
Catholic Herald – 13th February 1976
Fr Ingram clarifies views on declaration
Somewhere between my pen and the church porch my article on January 23 on the recent Vatican declaration on sexual ethics lost some of its sentences, with the result that my meaning was less clear than it should have been, and some critics of my article seem to have missed the point I was trying to make. So please would you allow me space to make my meaning clearer?
My main point is that there are at least three components in a sexual act that should be taken into consideration when judging its morality — pleasure, procreation and love, and the highest of these is love.
The recent declaration, in spite of its high-flown rhetoric, does not take love into the consideration of the morality of an act. It is thus a disappointing document.
For those or us who love the Church, it is frustrating to see our leaders lose respect and credibility by repeatedly issuing documents which degrade man by reducing him to his biological functions, and degrade the sacrament of marriage by reducing it to a licence to enjoy sexual activity.
This document, like others on this subject coming from the Vatican, shows a gulf between its elevated ideals and its reasoning. The mind is cut off from the heart. Aristotle is preferred to Christ.
This splitting is reflected in practice in all sorts of ways. The Vatican glorifies celibacy as the “jewel and crown of the priestly life”, and turns a blind eye to the fact that just round the corner concubinage is rife.
By making procreation the main criterion for morality in the Church it becomes moral for a married couple who hate each other to bring a child into a loveless family, but a sin for two men who love each other to have sexual relations.
A Catholic who sins by marrying outside the Church may get a divorce even though there are several children. But a childless couple who married in the Church may not.
A theologian who wishes to make the morality of sexual activity include consideration of love is aligned with pimps, perverts and pornographers who are undermining the morality of our society.
In your issue of January 30 Fr Giles Hibbert took me to task for generalising from the pathological. In order to put my theory to the test I asked for 25 volunteers from the local “gay” community all men and women who had more or less come to terms with their condition.
I subjected them to batteries of tests and personal interviews. I found nothing to make me change my mind. I used a control group of 25 married men and women. I found only two of them had experienced those conditions that think contribute to the development of homosexuality.
Fr Hibbert suggests that my getting to know him better might make me change my mind. I can only say to this that my services as a counsellor are free, and I would be glad to offer him an appointment on my next visit to England. Alternatively he can say five decades of the Rosary for his penance.
(Fr) Michael Ingram OP
English-Speaking Roman Catholic Mission
36 Avenue William Favre, Geneva.
***
http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/21st-november-1975/1/birth-control-stressed-in-banned-book
Catholic Herald – 21st November 1975
Birth control stressed in banned book
by PETER NOLAN
A new book on the population problem that the Vatican attempted to ban and later censored was published in full in London yesterday. The book contains no statement opposed to Papal teaching and Humanae Vitae, the encyclical on individual morality and birth control, but it places the whole question of responsible parenthood firmly in the context of increasing world population.
“The Population Problem*” was written at the request of the Conference of International Catholic Organisations, many of whom have consultative status at the United Nations. Though closely linked with the Vatican, the CICO is an independent organisation to which many British Catholic groups are affiliated, including the Catholic Marriage Advisory Council and the Guild of Catholic Doctors.
The book, shortly to be published in Italian and Spanish, is certain to spark off a new debate on family planning throughout the Church.
***Edited by Fr Michael Ingram OP of Holy Cross Priory, Leicester***, and Canon Joseph Moerman of the ****International Catholic Child Bureau in Geneva****, it was first banned by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Villot, then allowed to appear in a censored French edition last February.
The section cut from the French edition, on moral and religious considerations, is restored in the English edition. ****This section was prepared by Fr Ingram, a child psychologist****; Dr Jack Dominian, a psychiatrist; Dr John Marshall, a gynaecologist; Dr Pierre Delooz, a Belgian professor of Sociology; and Fr John Harriott SJ.
The book, divided into four sections on Demography, Health, Sociology and Ethics, was prepared by 20 Catholic experts, many with international reputations, in consultation with 50 others throughout the world.
Drafts were sent out to CICO organisations and note taken of all criticisms in the two years it took to write the 150 page work. ***Fr Ingram, speaking from Geneva where he is Chaplain to the English Community***, said, “It is certainly not an attack on Humanae Vitae, it is an interpretation of it.”
He said the abbreviated French edition had caused little debate in France so far but this would change when the new edition was published. “The Vatican think they have killed it,” he said, adding that he was afraid the Vatican would “over-react” to the new publication.
It is understood that a particular interpretation of Humanae Vitae is currently being used as a test of orthodoxy by Vatican officials.
Last minute changes in the membership of the Vatican delegation to the World Population Conference in 1974 are believed to have been made on the basis of whether representatives fully assented to a particular interpretation of Humanae Vitae without any reservations.
Vatican representatives who were present at all major meetings of the CICO population commission, at one point tried to stifle discussion of Humanae Vitae, the publishers said in the introduction to the English edition.
A Vatican representative said there was only one official interpretation and refused to allow a sub-committee of theologians to be formed to advise on the subject.
“But it was impossible to ignore the problem: full respect for the teaching of the Holy See was maintained, but discussion of the topic appeared in the documents,” the introduction said.
Fr Ingram said the work of the population group was under continual pressure from the Vatican and the publishers introduction states that a copy of “a secret directive to hierarchies throughout the world, urging them to put pressure on their governments to make sure that laws concerning birth control were not liberalised. was given secretly to the president of the Conference (of International Catholic Organisations) to persuade him to ensure that the population commission took the same line.”
In the first part of the book on demographic aspects of population, Fr Arthur McCormack, a British Mill Hill Father and population expert, spells out the implications of continually increasing population.
“The Catholic Church and especially lay organisations, must face up to the fact that the world is confronted with a serious and urgent situation,” he said.
In a world where population “is expected to double” in 30 years, he emphasised population policy could only be part of a total development policy and would differ from area to area.
Canon Pierre DeLocht, looking at the ethical implications of population, noted the ability to plan family size, the increasing inter-dependence of all countries on one another and the moral diversity of a world which could not be divided into watertight compartments were all new aspects of the problem.
He said, “So many new realities and meanings do not allow an assessment of the present only in terms of the answers given by our forbears . . . the perpetual rejuvenation of humanity requires more than the handing down of moral principles from generation to generation.”
Rather than trying to force Catholic ethics on everyone, which would only result in a trial of strength, we should “institute a permanent dialogue in order to identify, at the heart of all different views, a common core on which it is possible to base joint work,” he said.
This would be possible without watering down our own beliefs. Such work would “make possible some lines of common human progress,” he said.
It is impossible to summarise such a closely reasoned, carefully written book, but there is no doubt it suggests new and worthwhile possibilities for the Universal Church in facing up to the greatest social problem of our time, the population explosion.
‘The Population Problem,’ Search Press £1.95.
***
http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/4th-july-1975/2/special-report-on-work-with-problem-family
Catholic Herald – 4th July 1975
Special report on work with problem family
***A REPORT by a priest-psychotherapist pointing out shortcomings in the social welfare services appears in a booklet published yesterday by the National Council of Social Service.***
Fr Michael Ingram, OP, who is a professional social worker, described his work with an emotionally disturbed boy and his family at the ***Leicester Family Service Unit.***
Almost 20 social services or officials had to be contacted and Fr Ingram observed: “Only a very inadequate family needs to have contact with so many people and only an adequate family would be able to cope with them.”
The boy, aged nine, was one of a “multi-problem” family of seven. He had been deserted by the mother, his father was emotionally deprived after an upbringing in an orphanage and his two eldest sisters were living with former prisoners in the family home.
The youngster was terribly withdrawn, enuretic and illiterate. Violent rages alternated with a refusal to cooperate with anyone.
Handling the case required contact with the many areas into which social services are divided. Fr Ingram said: “They are in one office and you have been put through to another; they are on leave or sick. No one knows the case or has the authority to deal with it . .. the office is understaffed and there is a shortage of money.”
Even a social worker can become reduced to an anxiety state and Fr Ingram said: “I remember clearly one time when I was so exasperated about not being able to deal with a matter I considered urgent that ***I had a conscious desire to go home and kick the cat***.”
In helping the boy, Fr Ingram spent up to 15 hours a week with him engaged on various activities, using a tape recorder to encourage him to talk and ***taking him on a holiday***. He also became involved in the family’s many problems from housing to supplementary benefit claims.
While praising “the courtesy and sympathy with which I was treated in every department”, the system under which the welfare officials worked was “too cumbersome to deal with emergencies — three weeks apparently being the time needed in any department to attend to a matter.”
Fr Ingram suggests certain services should be combined. But the complexity and inflexibility of the social services have deeper roots.
He said: “The ultimate decisions as regards action to be taken are often made by people who have no knowledge of social work, education authorities, social administrators, housing officers: or if they have knowledge of social work, have no direct knowledge of the case or of the skills of the specialists who may be involved.”
He added: “Action taken is often according to provisions available rather than according to need, the provision of facilities being made at the dictates of the city fathers, one of whose interests is political power, which means keeping down the rates.”
There are 23 family service units, almost half of them in London. They grew out of the work of mainly Quaker pacifists during the last war, working to help bombed out families in the cities. The first unit being set up in 1947.
A registered charity, most of the FSUs’ finance comes from central and local government grants and they work closely with the statutory social services.
***Graham Murphy***, organiser of the Leicester unit, said that while each unit was different, they generally aimed to work with families who had a lot of problems with which they could not cope.
The units had more freedom in the way they worked than statutory social workers, and could concentrate on particular projects. They tried to “examine and make public the cause of family breakdown” while having a commitment to social education, he said.
Fr Ingram, of Holy Cross Priory, Leicester, also helped prepare the book on population originally sponsored by the Conference of International Catholic Organisations, which the Vatican unsuccessfully attempted to ban in February.
Two other Catholic nuns work with ***family service units in Glasgow and Edinburgh***.
The Leicester FSU report with Fr Ingram’s article, called “Time to Consider” is 90p including postage from: Family Service Units, 207 Old Marylebone Road, London NW1 5QP.
***
http://books.google.com/books?id=WLvnAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Leicester+Family+Service+Unit%22&dq=%22Leicester+Family+Service+Unit%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=X3KiU4eVOIySyAThl4LACA&ved=0CEcQ6AEwCQ
[Page 570]
Time to Consider
Papers from a Family Service Unit
Published for Family Service Units by Bedford Square Press 1975, 64pp, 75p.
This collection of five papers by staff of the Leicester Family Service Unit provides rich material for examining two important aspects of social work practice. First, the efficacy of particular ways of working with some of the more severely deprived members of our society; and second, the organisational and relationship ingredients that might be crucial to the creation of a multi-method agency and a staff group able to offer mutual support, stimulus and criticism.
The collection consists of four very different case-studies in which the separate authors describe their own distinct styles and methods of work. They cover family casework by objectives, wok with a disturbed child in a group, work with an even more severely disturbed child through an intensive relationship and the provision of considerable practical help, a community development approach to a deprived and stigmatised neighbourhood. All of the authors are refreshingly honest about their difficulties and uncertainties.
Any one of the case studies would be able to stand on its own merits. However, the opening paper by the Unit Organiser, Michael Laxton, describing the agency’s aims and ethos, and his own style of leadership suggests that the agency context might be almost as important in determining the outcome of each case as the worker’s methods and skills. His paper will interest team leaders in statutory agencies as well as administrators and organisers of voluntary agencies that attempt to offer a variety of social work methods in the hope of making an impact on problems embedded as much in the fabric of society as in the behaviour of individuals and families. Recognising the need for intervention with individuals, families groups, organisations and communities, the unit opted for methods specialist rather than methods generalist workers. It has therefore had to grapple with the problems of a team approach to particular families, and of providing the means to make each worker aware of the other’s contribution and capable of judging when to make use of it. Michael Laxton’s discussion of issues relating to communication, size of work group, participation in decision-making processes, accessibility to authority is all too brief, but nonetheless of practical value in helping other team leaders think through how they will handle these issues.
The case studies allow the reader to appreciate something of the flavour of the unit’s work. Janet Butler’s paper on ‘Casework by Objectives’ is perhaps of greatest importance in providing material for discussion and debate. It is sometimes said that in working with families with multiple problems it is not possible to agree on clearly defined goals; still less to work out carefully graded tasks to be undertaken by the family and the worker. This paper demonstrates the contrary. Work during the first four years of the case had quite specific goals, but lacked a carefully thought out realistic plan for their achievement. During these years the family achieved marginal improvements that were not sustained when troubles recurred. However, quite substantial successes were achieved and maintained after Janet Butler adopted a more systematic method of helping the family to work through explicit tasks that were within the family’s capacity to achieve. The method does not suggest any short-cuts, only a surer rate of progress as families are ‘assisted to change little by little’. The space of this review does not allow justice to be done to the other papers.
Hilary Davies’ study of ‘Donald: a child in a social work group’ demonstrates among other things the advantages of being able to widen the physical boundaries of group work to encompass interaction with all the unit staff wherever they happen to be in the unit building.
****Michael Ingram’s ‘Casework study of a disturbed child and his family’ is an impressive demonstration of a worker capable of conducting an intensive psychotherapeutic relationship, within exceptionally generous amounts of time spent in performing a wide variety of roles and practical tasks. He compares the flexibility of his work with the limits imposed on social workers in statutory agencies. ‘Without all these role-assumptions, however, I consider it would have been impossible to help the boy in any way”.****
Alan Twelvetrees’ account of ‘North Braunstone Age Concern Group’ interestingly concentrates a lot of attention on the task of developing the knowledge and skill of the chairman and committee members. Progress is measured more in terms of group satisfaction and confidence than in services provided for the elderly. A slight defect of the collection is that despite some of the authors’ complaints of the ineffectiveness of other service agencies, (particularly local authority) there is little account, on a case-by-case basis, of the unit giving consistent attention to influencing other agencies’ practices in any general sense. This is not to suggest it is not being done, only that such a difficult but crucial task deserves equally generous attention as the others so well described in the collection.
Anne Vickery
***
Community work: theory and practice
Philip Evens
A. Shornach, 1974
[Page 6]
10. ALAN TWELVETREES: worked as a volunteer with the United Nations association among the refugees in Austria during 1961-62 in building and then in youth work projects. Obtained a degree in modern languages from the University College of North Wales, Bangor, followed by a certificate in social science at Liverpool University. From 1966-67 Alan was a social worker with the Liverpool Personal Service Society. Through this experience he became drawn to community rather than casework, but felt he should widen his knowledge and experience. He lived in a kibbute during 1967-68 and then taught for a while in Haiti. On returning to this country, Alan studied for a Diploma in Community Development at Edinburgh University during 1969, but converted this into an M.Sc. on “Community Associations” during 1969/70.
Alan joined the Leicester Family Service Unit, ****Braunstone project**** in 1970 where, in spite of his work commitments, he maintains a great interest in sport, travel and gardening. Married to an ex social worker they are currently awaiting the birth of their first child.
…
[Page 93]
…on social security and a very high incidence of mental subnormality. One of the everlasting problems arising from the estates reputation is that people with ability to change the area for the better often aspire to move out, and a number of local leaders have left over the years. Correspondingly, some people Correspondingly, some people regarding themselves as ‘respectable’ refuse to be rehoused in the area.
Today, there are a number of social facilities on the estate but these are too limited to meet the needs of the high number of children and old people (350 old peoples bungalows and a further 250 prefabs which often house elderly persons). These facilities include three church halls (not readily available to the community at large), a wooden community centre, two youth centres (both situated just off the estate), an adventure playground, a pub and a large working mens club. Leicester Family Service Unit has provided social work help to a limited number of families on the estate for many years. However, during the 1 96Cs some of the workers felt it was not enough to be working solely with individual families, unless action was also taken to make the area a better place to live in. Consequently, the Family Service Unit (F.S.U.) decided to start practicing community work on the estate.
(2) Encouraging Self-Help – The First Steps
The Family Service Unit felt it to be important that the community worker, who had the caseworker in that neighborhood, should not start by showing or telling residents what should be done. Rather she should spend considerable time getting to know what local people felt about their neighbourhood. In the event, she found that a group of mothers were keen to start a bingo group, and with her help they organised such a group in the mission hall, with a pre-school playground attached. In this, she was encouraging these mothers to participate in an activity which they could both understand and enjoy, and in the process helped them achieve a greater degree of confidence. Later, they organised additional groups themselves.
At one time, two bingo groups were run by people who could have been termed “problem families”. The Family Service Unit had in fact refused to accept one of these families for casework because they were not judged able to use this kind of help constructively. Yet the mother of the family possessed organising ability which became evident with the setting up of the bingo group. The first community worker noted also that in organising the group, one mother found an outlet which gave her a positive interest outside her home and this had a positive feedback into her home situation. She found the confines of her house less frustrating, was more patient with her children, and completed her housework so she could go out, instead of sitting in a depressed and hostile state by the fire. This is by no means an isolated occurence and we often hear such comments: “before we started this group I used to sit at home and feel sorry for myself”.
A variety of different groups have subsequently been organised including more bingo groups, sewing groups, a mothers’ social group, youth groups, a disabled persons’ group, a pensioners club and a playgroup for the under-threes. All of these, except the mothers group and the playgroup, are run by local residents. The groups sometimes require considerable help and support, particularly in the early formative stages, but some now run virtually unaided. Nevertheless, the community worker is in regular contact with the organisers and is ready to be available if needed. This introductory account of what is just one aspect of community work makes it possible for us to now consider two of the principle functions undertaken in the project.
Leicester Mercury, 2000
“Ingram, who had moved to Cambridge…”
http://books.google.com/books?id=kMdcZBgx9iQC&pg=PP22&lpg=PP22&dq=%22Michael+Ingram+OP%22&source=bl&ots=eAFcC4ehmE&sig=FJU0bGQNa6NJPl03hmrIjEv7RZU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mI6iU76XLsegyATE9YHABA&ved=0CDMQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22Michael%20Ingram%20OP%22&f=false
The Thought of Pope Benedict XVI new edition:
An Introduction to the theology of Joseph Ratzinger
By Aidan Nichols OP
…
In 1886, both Ludwig II and his brother Otto being declared insane, the heir presumptive, Prince Luitpold, became regent of Bavaria. During his regency, which lasted until 1913, Bavaria shared in the general prosperity of the Second Reich. She did not, however, forget her particularism. In late 1913, his son, who had succeeded him as regent a year earlier, was made king as Ludwig III. (His wife also claimed a throne. As the senior member of the d’Este family, dukes of Modena, she was the Legitimist pretender to the Crown of Great Britain and Ireland, under the title Mary IV and II.) {9}
{9} Information provided by ****Michael Ingram OP, of Blackfriars, Cambridge.****
[What the f**k?! :o]
http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Owl_and_the_Pussycat.html?id=ry9JPgAACAAJ
The Owl and the Pussycat
Michael J. Ingram
Cambridge Desktop Bureau, 1997 – Priests – 414 pages
https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Michael+J.+Ingram%22&gws_rd=ssl#q=inauthor:%22Michael+J.+Ingram%22&tbm=bks
From Atlantis to Doomsday: Patterns in World History
Michael J. Ingram, Mark Handley
Cambridge Desktop Bureau, 1997 – Occultism – 334 pages
The Spirit on the Deep: Studies in Religious and Moral Education
Michael J. Ingram
Cambridge Desktop Bureau, 1997 – Christian education – 309 pages
And Sparks Flew: Religion, Society and Taboo in the Modern World
Michael J. Ingram
Cambridge Desktop Bureau, 1997 – Religion – 305 pages
The Owl and the Pussycat
Michael J. Ingram
Cambridge Desktop Bureau, 1997 – Priests – 414 pages
Reblogged this on Thinking Out Loud and commented:
You know I think its possible to make almost anything sound or read rational, sensible and something any of us might do given the opportunity. Almost anything with the glaringly obvious exception that is of paedophilia, what on earth is wrong with some academics, lawyers and politicians that they can read some of this and think the author is anything other than certifiable and a danger to young children. Its beyond me.
this is just horrid! Gosh, maybe a little of a consolation how societys acceptance of such nonsense has drastically changed. There is a much better awareness of the debauched nature of such heinous acts. in germany, too, some teachers were known for supporting a “healthy teacher child sexuality”. It even was on the political agenda of one failry big party for a while. Thankfully we have advanced not only 40 years but also many miles from this really ignorant and harmful view.
Reblogged this on Desiring Progress and commented:
Very important collection of articles on key PIE member and priest Michael Ingram.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Move+these+perverts+council+told.-a064191417
The Birmingham Post – August 15, 2000
Move these perverts council told
Campaigners have called on a local council to move suspected paedophiles from their estate.
Portsmouth City Council officers said it was their ‘number one priority’ after meeting police and the campaigners who live in Paulsgrove.
Hampshire Police have agreed to share the list of names with social services and compare it with information from their own records of sex offenders.
Portsmouth City Council said yesterday that it would approach those on the list who were felt to be at risk and offer them temporary safe accommodation.
The campaigners, who handed over the list as part of a deal to stop their violent protests, called for action on their demands within a week.
They want the alleged paedophiles moved off their housing estate and to campaign for changes in the law to allow tougher sentencing, compulsory medical treatment and separate housing facilities for convicted sex offenders.
Portsmouth City Council said today that it would approach those on the list who were felt to be at risk and offer them temporary safe accommodation.
Five families are already known to have been driven off the estate.
Meanwhile, former Catholic parish priest was yesterday found guilty of sexually assaulting young boys in his care up to 30 years ago.
***Michael Ingram (68), of Cambridge****, had denied seven counts at Leicester Crown Court, including indecent assault, gross indecency and a serious sexual offence while he was in charge of altar boys at a Leicester church.
Ingram was not in court to hear the verdicts returned after the court heard he had been involved in a bizarre car accident which left him in hospital.
Judge Richard Benson told the jury an eyewitness saw Ingram appear to deliberately drive a Toyota Carina across a road and hit a wall.
When found he had his seat belt on but was dressed only in a T-shirt and underpants.
A paedophile yesterday walked free from court after a sheriff heard he had gone into self-imposed exile following his offences against a 12-year-old girl.
Thomas Maxwell moved to the Isle of Harris after being arrested by police for exposing himself to the girl, whom he met through the Jehovah’s Witness network, Alloa Sheriff Court heard.
Sentencing him to three years’ probation and 240 hours’ community service, Sheriff William Reid said: ‘I do not think it would benefit you or more importantly society as a whole to incarcerate you.’
***
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.recovery.catholicism/OPF4q16vzrU
Posted 6 August 2000
Abused boys had trusted Catholic priest, court told
A Roman Catholic parish priest who was looked upon as a “saint”
sexually abused boys aged as young as nine while they were in his
care, a court has heard.
Michael Ingram, 68, denied four charges of indecent assault, two of
gross indecency and one of buggery from 1970 to 1978 against boys aged
nine to 12, including two brothers.
Leicester Crown Court heard that the youngsters, some from broken
homes, looked up to Ingram who before one alleged incident had
impressed them with ghost stories. Ingram, from Cambridge, who was
known as Father Chris, is said to have “abused his position of trust”
in an order of Dominican monks in Leicester to target young boys.
The alleged offences took place while he was in charge of the altar
boys at the city’s Holy Cross Church, in Wellington Street, in the
centre of Leicester before and while on trips where he was often in
charge.
The offences only came to light in 1998 when one of the two brothers
said to have been assaulted contacted police, sparking an inquiry. The
alleged victim, who is now 41, kept his assault secret for more than
20 years out of “shame”, the court heard.
The boy claims he was abused by Ingram while in a tent as another
supervisor looked on and only found out more than 25 years later that
his brother was also attacked on the same trip.
Graham Buchanan, opening for the prosecution, told the jury: “What we
are really dealing with here, if the prosecution is right, is the
abuse of children by a person who was in a position of trust. They
didn’t occur last month or last year, but 25 years or more ago. But 25
years ago the abuse of boys didn’t have the prominence it now has in
our society.”
The Dominican order also ran a junior school at the church and a boys’
club, which Ingram was also involved with, the court heard. In
addition he was a child counsellor, and worked with the Leicester
Family Unit, part of social services, which cared for under-privileged
children.
The court was told Ingram ran trips for boys to a ***Coston Lodge, a farm
house near Melton Mowbray in north Leicestershire**** where a number of
the alleged offences took place.
Another victim, who is due to give evidence in the trial, claims he
was made to carry out lewd acts on Ingram with another boy in the bed
while staying at Coston Lodge.
http://www.partiradicaldefrance.com/magpie.htm
Magpie
The journal of the Paedophile Information Exchange
(London, UK) text from issue number 11, May 1978.
…
PUBLICITY SOUGHT FOR BOOKLET
All members of the House of Commons and some Lords have been sent a copy of PIE’s new booklet Paedophilia – some Questions and Answers. This distribution was timed to coincide with a Press Release announcing the publication of the booklet. 180 newspapers and periodicals in the U.K.. received this Press Release.
ALAN DOGGETT MEMORIAL SERVICE
A letter in Magpie 10 reported and commented on the recent suicide of ****Alan Doggett three weeks before he was to conduct the London Boys Choir, together with massed choirs of other children at the Albert Hall****. On the night of that concert the programme contained an insert describing Alan Doggett’s years of dedicated service and paying tribute to his friendliness, integrity and loyalty. Shortly after this date ****a requiem mass was said for him at the Holy Cross Priory in Leicester by the Reverend Father Michael Ingram.****
On Saturday 20th May a memorial service will be held to commemorate Alan’s life and work. It will start at 3 p.m. and will be held at St. Barnabas Church, Addison Road, London, W14, taking the form of a choral evensong, performed by the London Boys Choir. These religious functions, one Roman, the other Anglican must be seen not only as ceremonies of intercession and remembrance, but also as containing an element of protest. It would seem to be true that in today’s society religious organisations provide almost the only vehicle whereby such a protest can be made.
…
Comment posted by Cathy Fox
Coston Lodge Near Melton Mowbray Father Michael Ingram
Leicester Mercury
August 15, 2000
News: 999
SECTION: News: 999, Pg.4
LENGTH: 541 words
A victim of paedophile Father Michael Ingram today told how the priest robbed him of his childhood.
The disgraced former Roman Catholic priest was yesterday convicted of sexual offences involving six boys.
Sex abuse took place between 1970 and 1978 while Ingram was priest at the Holy Cross Priory Church in Leicester. Boys were subjected to sex ordeals on a camping trip organised by the church to the Isle of Wight and weekend trips to a farmhouse n Coston Lodge n near Melton, supervised by Ingram.
In an exclusive interview, one of the victims, a former Leicester altar boy, has told the Mercury of the devastating effects of the abuse and how Ingram’s abuse had robbed him of his childhood.
Difficult
The Leicester-born victim was just 10 when the abuse began.
Talking to anyone about it, not least the Mercury, is incredibly difficult for him. Off-limits subjects include the abuse and his feelings on seeing Ingram across Leicester Crown Court as he gave evidence against him.
In order to cope with what was happening to him, he blocked out all his early memories.
And it was only when contacted by police investigating Ingram in 1998 that the horrific memories came flooding back.
“I spent 20 years of my life not knowing who I was,” he said. “I blocked out my childhood and I think that’s one of the most serious crimes he committed against me.
“When you block out bad memories, you also block out the good ones. I always found it strange that other people would remember their childhood.”
The victim said: “He used a ranking system. He would create an atmosphere of competition among the children. Then once he had ensnared them he would move on to the abuse. I was his special boy.”
He was abused at Coston Lodge, a farmhouse converted into a holiday home for deprived children by Ingram, and during a trip to the Isle of Wight.
“He whipped up enthusiasm in church around the Coston Lodge project.
”A lot of very well-intentioned people put an enormous amount of energy into the project. I think those at Coston Lodge are victims as well. Michael Ingram was an enigmatic man, a classic sociopath. They were not to know.”
****He believes Ingram was not working alone and was a member of a paedophile network.****
**** “There were other men who, to my knowledge had no connection with the congregation, come out and stay (at Coston Lodge) for a night.****
**** ”I have no doubt it was a base for paedophile activity.” ****
Since being contacted by police, he has been supported by family and friends.
He said: “I am maintaining anonymity because I didn’t want to be hounded by the tabloids. I don’t want anybody to think I have anything to be ashamed of.
“If anything, I have something to be proud of, in having gone through with the court case, secured the conviction and protected children in the future.”
Ingram was today under police guard in hospital after being found guilty of the offences.
He was not in court to hear the verdicts because he was receiving treatment for ankle and knee fractures sustained in a car crash on Sunday.
Judge Richard Benson told the Leicester Crown Court jury the defendant’s car was seen to increase speed as it crossed a road and hit a wall.
Sentencing will take place at a later date.
***
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Pervert+priest+guilty+of+attacks.-a064187895
Daily Record – August 15, 2000
Pervert priest guilty of attacks
A PERVERTED priest who rocked the church with his support for paedophilia was yesterday found guilty of sex attacks on young boys.
But Roman Catholic Father Michael Ingram was in intensive care as the jury returned their verdicts, after driving his car into a wall at high speed.
He was rushed to Leicester Royal Infirmary suffering from a broken ankle and two broken knee caps.
Ingram, 68, is now in hospital under police guard until he is fit to face sentencing.
He was found guilty of seven sex offences against six boys, aged nine to 12, when he was priest of Leicester’s Holy Cross Priory in the 1970s.
His victims included altar boys and boys from deprived backgrounds referred to him by social services.
Ingram, of Cambridge, claimed his victims’ memories were confused.
Twenty years ago, there was uproar when he spoke in praise of paedophile relationships.
At his trial, Ingram, who left the priesthood in 1991, claimed to have been misquoted.
***
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1954-04-29a.1767.2
They Work For You
Commons debates on ***29 Apr 1954***
***Father Ingram (Warrant)***
Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department
Mr Norman Dodds (Dartford)
asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what date the warrant was issued for the arrest of Father Ingram, formerly of the ***London Choir School, Bexley***; and on what grounds the warrant was applied for.
Mr David Maxwell Fyfe (Liverpool, West Derby)
I understand that a warrant of arrest was issued on 22nd March on the grounds of alleged unnatural offences against a pupil of the London Choir School.
Mr Norman Dodds (Dartford)
Does the right hon. and learned Gentleman appreciate that this is the evil man to whom I referred in the House some months ago? Is it to be wondered at that homosexuality is on the increase when such men can operate in private schools at will? Will he say whether the warrant has yet been served?
Mr David Maxwell Fyfe (Liverpool, West Derby)
The police endeavoured to enforce the warrant, but they discovered that Ingram had disappeared from the school and they later found that he had flown to Northern Ireland on 24th March. Police inquiries are being made in Northern Ireland and in the Irish Republic.
***
***
[See above image of Michael Ingram’s CV]
Alex, as a last extreme I would consent to say all
or some this in court. If I do so you will need
my c/v, Michael INGRAM (dob 30-04-1932) Curriculum
Vitae
ANNEXE 3
***1952-1957 School-teacher***
1952-1989 Member of the Dominican Order
1964-1965 Part-time course in Educational
Psychology Oxford University Institute of Ed
1966-1968 Associate student in Child Psychology
and Psychotherapy at the Tavistock Clinic
…
Now what are the odds?
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1954-07-26a.4.5&s=%22Father+Ingram%22
They Work For You
Commons debates on ***26 Jul 1954***
Oral Answers to Questions — ***Father Ingram*** (Newspaper Comments)
Mr Arthur Lewis (West Ham North)
asked the Attorney-General if he is aware that, before the expiration of the necessary time for appeal in the case of the sentenced Father Ingram, the “Sunday Pictorial” and the “Daily Mirror” passed adverse comment and opinions concerning ***Father Ingram, on matters not mentioned in the trial***; and, as this will prejudice this man’s appeal, what action he proposes to take.
Sir Lionel Heald (Chertsey)
I have considered the newspaper articles referred to in the hon. Member’s Question. On the information at present available to me I do not propose to take any action.
Mr Arthur Lewis (West Ham North)
While thanking the Government and the Attorney-General for that reply, and appreciating that the newspapers originally did a public service, may I ask whether, though the Attorney-General may not be able to take legal action against them, newspapers should not be advised not to pass adverse comment and attack individuals pending the time of their appeal, so as to allow people proper opportunity to go through the Court of Appeal?
Sir Lionel Heald (Chertsey)
This is a matter on which the House can express its own view without any assistance from me. I was dealing only with the legal aspect of the matter, and at the moment I am not in a position to take any action.
***
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1954-01-21a.1189.1&s=%22Norman+Dodds%22#g1189.2
They Work For You
Commons debates on 21 Jan 1954
Private Schools (Administration)
Oral Answers to Questions — Education
Mr Norman Dodds (Dartford)
asked the Minister of Education what action she proposes to take to prevent ***private schools being run and staffed by those who have served prison sentences for offences against pupils***.
Dr Horace King (Southampton, Test)
asked the Minister of Education whether she will now take powers to prevent unsuitable persons from organising private schools.
Dame Florence Horsbrugh (Manchester Moss Side)
The existing regulations and rules of my Department prohibit the employment in grant-aided and recognised efficient independent schools of teachers unsuitable for employment on grounds of misconduct. I am considering, in consultation with my right hon. and learned Friend the Home Secretary, whether there is any effective way of extending these safeguards to other private schools.
Mr Norman Dodds (Dartford)
While thanking the right hon. Lady for her answer, may I ask whether she will get ahead with this as a matter of the greatest importance? ***Is she not aware that St. Michael’s School, Bexley, is run by an impostor, an evil man totally unfitted to be in charge of boys, and that most of the masters have served prison sentences?*** The Bishop of Rochester and others have tried to clear it up and found it impossible. Is not it shameful that these people should take on private schools and have children in their charge?
Dame Florence Horsbrugh (Manchester Moss Side)
The hon. Member and, indeed, all hon. Members, would render a great deal of help in this problem if they would assist in making it more widely known that there is in existence a list of independent schools which are recognised as efficient. The list does not include all schools which are efficient. There are other schools which would probably obtain similar recognition and be placed on the list if they applied. I am not suggesting that only the schools at present on the list are efficient. But parents should inquire about any independent school to which they propose sending their children.
Dr Horace King (Southampton, Test)
Is the Minister aware that ***the headmaster of a private grammar school in Hampshire was recently sent to gaol for offences against children and that at the trial it emerged that not only had he a long record of such offences, but that he had also been headmaster of other private schools***? Is it not the duty of the Minister to exercise her powers under the Education Act to protect children physically, educationally and morally against people who are not fit to teach them?
Dame Florence Horsbrugh (Manchester Moss Side)
I can assure the hon. Member that this problem is being carefully examined. I am at present having discussions with my right hon. and learned Friend, because there are many difficulties connected with it.
***
http://mcifa.com/parcel2.cfm
Parcel Arrived Safely, Tied with String
The Autobiography of Michael Crawford
TRANSCRIPT OF DAILY MAIL ARTICLE
AUGUST 21, 1999
MY SEXUAL AWAKENING
By Michael Crawford
Eventually, my mother married again: to Lionel Dennis Ingram, known as Den, a sergeant in the Army. At the age of three I was given a new name, Michael Ingram.
Soon after the marriage, Den left the Army to go into the grocery business in Bexleyheath, Kent. It meant we had to live above a shop and far away from everything I’d known. But every weekend and holiday we would go back to see Nan and it was there that my happiest childhood memories were played out.
Shortly after we moved, Den’s parents, Ethel and ‘Pop’, came to live with us. I liked Pop but Ethel had limited tolerance for children, so we just avoided each other. For my mother, however, it was yet another cross to bear. Ethel expected my mother to wait on her constantly and she never got rest. Almost inevitably it placed a strain on her already tense marriage. Den was never a bad man, but he was a complicated and volatile one, with a legendary temper.
…
One night I couldn’t stand it any longer. I burst into the front room where Den was screaming at my Mum. Beads of perspiration were breaking out on his reddening forehead. And then he hit her.
“Don’t you hit my Mum!” I screamed, tears running down my face. With that, he hit me hard around my head, sending me flying across the floor.
I’d never been hit as hard as that in my life. His hand felt like a steel bar as it landed. Mum came rushing to my side. My ear was stinging madly and it felt wet. There was blood dripping on the carpet.
Although my childish attempts to shield Mum were laughably ineffectual, I just couldn’t stand by when Den hit her. But, sadly, the divisions between them grew deeper over the years and the arguments became part of our everyday lives.
Growing up, I was hyperactive, with a tiny attention span. All the promise of life lay outside in the world beyond the classroom.
However, it wasn’t until I was nine and I started attending ***the London Choir School*** that my problems really began. It was an extremely well-respected school and was responsible for supplying choirs to places such as St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Brompton Oratory. It was also a very hard school. ***The head was called Father Ingram***. Unluckily for me, we shared the same name and the school bullies, suspecting he was a relative, would use me as a human punching bag. They were always there, every morning, waiting outside the school gates to steal my pocket money.
It affected me so badly that I became terrified of the dark and couldn’t sleep at night unless the light was left on.
Eventually, when I was about ten, we moved to the London suburb of Herne Hill, giving me the chance to leave the nightmare of choir school behind. Instead, I was sent to the fee paying Oakfield School.
***Shortly after we moved, there were stories in the press that Father Ingram had engaged in improper behaviour with some pupils***. I think because I was one of the youngest I was shielded from most of it, but there was one incident that should have given me a clue as to what the gossip was all about.
On our way back from singing at St. Paul’s Cathedral one day, a few of the boys started kissing each other. My curiosity piqued, I asked my neighbour if, when he had a moment, I might try it too.
Without so much as a by-your-leave, he obligingly pulled himself away from Tibitz Minor and sloppily kissed me full on the lips. I was promptly sick over his shoes, which gave me a fairly clear indication that it wasn’t something I wanted to try again.
***Much later, it emerged that Father Ingram wasn’t a clergyman at all, and I believe he was sentenced to a ten-year term.***
At Oakfield, I started to come into my own. The fees were more than we could really afford but Mum and Den scrimped and saved, giving up many small pleasures to keep me there. It was there that I met the best teacher I ever had, a Yorkshireman called Harold Passey. I had more ruler wallops on the hands from him than from any of the others, but it was Mr. Passey who first saw that I could act.
He gave me the chance to prove it in our school production of Benjamin Britten’s Let’s Make An Opera. It was such a success that we put on a proper performance, on a real stage, and sold tickets to the public. It was a sell-out.
I was hooked. My mother and Den were less sure. It was Mrs. Gray, our next-door neighbour, who finally helped convince them I could really do it.
Mrs. Gray noticed in her daily paper that the English Opera Group was looking for boy sopranos to play in a production of Britten’s Turn Of The Screw and urged my mother to let me have a go.
So I joined hundreds of other children for auditions and they whittled us down to just four. But the pure terror of stage fright overtook me on the last audition and my voice left me completely.
However, they remembered me and I was called back to audition for a production of Let’s Make An Opera, which starred Trevor Anthony.
I had to audition at Britten’s home in Regent’s Park, and I got the part, I was 12 and he was by far the poshest person I’d ever met…
***
[Can’t imagine Michael Ingram being headmaster at age 22. Must be someone else [or a relative?]. Sorry for the false trail. But the info on Michael Crawford/Ingram is interesting to say the least.]
Social Service Quarterly, Volumes 48-50
National Council of Social Service., 1974
[Page 20]
Time to consider: papers from a Family Service Unit Bedford Square Press 75p By post 84p from RPS Ltd., Victoria Hall, East Greenwich, London
[Page 50]
Mary Pimm
* Time to consider: papers by five workers at Leicester Family Service Unit. Bedford Square Press/NCSS, 75p.
I would recommend this collection of papers* to practitioners, teachers and students in social work. It is rare for very busy social workers doing intensive work with their clients to find the time and discipline to write such clear, lively and systematic accounts of their recent work, and to show that they relate current social work theories creatively to the needs of their clients. As Priscilla Young states in the foreword: ‘Developments and innovations in professional practice, such as these papers describe, are manifestly worthwhile for the people served. Further, they contribute to social work as a whole and to education for the profession.’
The first paper is written by the Unit organiser, the following three papers describe work with severely deprived families, each writer having a differing approach. Finally there is an account of a community work project for the aged.
In his paper, the Unit organiser, Michael Laxton, tells us about the Quaker pacifist origins of the Family Service Units, which can be described as a federal body. The values of the FSU have always been to help the most vulnerable socially deprived families. Each unit has considerable freedom in working towards this aim. Recent developments in the Leicester FSU are then discussed in the light of two changing factors. First is the growing realisation that the causes of social deprivation are multiple, needing personal, socio-economic and political insights. As a result there is a need for a multi-method approach. The unit has opted for social workers with specialist roles, each worker having an appreciation of other methods, the focus of the work being problem- rather than method-centred.
The second changing factor is the growing size of the FSU units. At present Leicester has ten social workers and a student unit. The FSU ethos of ‘enabling’ rather than ‘directive’ management is discussed in the context of organisational theory. The objectives are clear and it is good to see a great deal of attention being given to the needs of the workers and students in such important matters as their development and job satisfaction, through supervision and participation in decision making. There is no doubt that the quality of the work benefits as a result.
***The paper about Jimmy, aged nine, written by Michael Ingram, a child counsellor, gives the greatest cause for concern. Jimmy was the most disturbed member of a severely deprived and disturbed family which was disintegrating. He lived in appalling conditions, ‘ which it would take a Dickens to describe ‘, and was suffering intensely both emotionally and physically; in some ways he had almost ceased to exist as a human being. Thanks to some outstanding work by the therapist against great odds, Jimmy made some progress and his symptoms were relieved. In his efforts to help Jimmy and his family with obtaining vital resources from such statutory agencies as housing, social security, education and the social services, the writer is brought face to face with the terrible frustrations with which this family had to live.***
It is a sad reflection on our welfare state that those who are in the most urgent need of help are sometimes least likely to receive it. The paper about Donald by Hilary Davies. the student training officer, is a fine example to [Page 51] illustrate how when efforts over several years to help a family with many problems, have failed, direct work with the most difficult and destructive of the children can lead to success. The unit staff, with the co-operation of the parents, decided to give concentrated help for a year to Donald aged nine and his four younger brothers, who formed a group. The adult-child ratio was high, with three students simultaneously acting as group leaders for nine months, and the whole unit taking responsibility for facilitating an accepting but firm environment for Donald. After a great deal of testing out – making heavy demands on the unit workers – Donald developed a commitment to the unit. To me, his more mature behaviour demonstrated an important turning point in his development. As the writer points out, such direct work with children, who often have the greatest potential for change, may be an important factor in helping families move out of the cycle of deprivation, and should be given far more attention.
PROGRESS BY STAGES
In her paper on ‘ Casework by Objectives Janet Butler, family caseworker, shows how by this method she is able to help a family whose problems had for several years appeared overwhelming to everyone concerned. After an initial assessment the objectives are clarified with the family, and they gradually achieved by a number of phased tasks. There is regular recording of achievements. As part of the planned programme the writer successfully acted as mediator between the family and some statutory agencies. For a limited period the family was thus relieved from some outside pressures such as demands on the father to find work, and the treat of court action regarding the children’s non-attendance at school. Step by step the family’s housing situation was also eased. The family’s themselves made considerable progress in such matters as budgeting and dealing with outside organisations and thus very importantly gaining more confidence and independence. The writer shows clarity, imagination and resourcefulness and the results of the work are impressive.
The last paper introduces us to the important dimension of community work. ****Since 1967, the Leicester FSU has had a community development project on an inter-war council estate*** which has had the reputation of a problem area. ***Alan Twelvetrees***, the community worker, describes a year’s progress of one of the projects with which he was concerned. As there was some evidence that there was sympathy on the estate for the needs of the aged, he initiated in 1971 a group of volunteers to help meet these needs. From this account we see the difficult and complex task of the community worker. He sometimes has to stand by and let the community leaders find out firsthand experience the limitations of what can be achieved and that sympathy and enthusiasm are not enough; they often have to be accompanied by intensive longterm work and considerable organisation. We find that the results achieved are not necessarily the ones to which the community worker aspired, but they are often far-reaching. In this instance, not the least of these was the higher esteem felt by the people of Leicester for the people on this estate.
LONG-TERM NEEDS
What these papers show is that worthwhile results can be achieved in work with severely deprived families with apparently intractable problems, and also on a community work project, but that the cost in resources is high (ie mainly in terms of the time and skill of able social workers). It is unrealistic to expect quick and dramatic results (some of the work described extends over several years), and progress is not continuous. When setbacks occur it may be a sign that a different approach is needed. However, these papers also give cause for concern. They bring us into touch with the hostile world, both in terms of the neighbourhood and the statutory agencies, in which many of our most needy and least articulate clients live. The present shortage of social workers and other important resources is not likely to be relieved for some time. In any case as Michael Laxton points out, ‘social work cannot remedy all the social ills of our society’. Society’s attitude [Page 52] and social policy have an important part to play. As we have seen there are many gaps in the services. Those in greatest need of exceptional help are sometimes overlooked for reasons of economy and efficiency by large organisations which suffer from an acute shortage of resources. Society as a whole is still largely divorced from some of its greatest problems. In some quarters there is intolerance and prejudice against the underprivileged, but there are also to be found a potential for understanding their problems, a fund of good will and a desire to help. We still have a very long way to go in channelling these in the right direction and facilitating mutual help within the community.
***
Snippet links for above article
[Page 50]
http://books.google.com/books?id=MF6GAAAAIAAJ&q=%22having+an+appreciation+of+other+methods,+the+focus+of+the%22&dq=%22having+an+appreciation+of+other+methods,+the+focus+of+the%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xBqmU5SnAsmGyAS684HgBQ&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=MF6GAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Michael+Ingram%22+FSU&dq=%22Michael+Ingram%22+FSU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OhemU4fuDJWuyAS2voLQDQ&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=MF6GAAAAIAAJ&q=%22and+job+satisfaction,+through+supervision+and+participation+in+decision%22&dq=%22and+job+satisfaction,+through+supervision+and+participation+in+decision%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=nRumU5GWJ8eOyASQoILQAw&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?ei=OhemU4fuDJWuyAS2voLQDQ&id=MF6GAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22Michael+Ingram%22+FSU&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22Michael+Ingram%22
http://books.google.com/books?id=MF6GAAAAIAAJ&q=%22a+Dickens+to+describe+‘,+and+was+suffering+intensely+both+emotionally+and%22&dq=%22a+Dickens+to+describe+’,+and+was+suffering+intensely+both+emotionally+and%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SxmmU_K0EsKryATvkoD4Cw&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=MF6GAAAAIAAJ&q=%22obtaining+vital+resources+from+such+statutory+agencies+as%22&dq=%22obtaining+vital+resources+from+such+statutory+agencies+as%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=7hmmU6WtKMKZyATRhoLIBA&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
[Page 51]
http://books.google.com/books?id=MF6GAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Since+1967,+the+Leicester+fsu+has+had+a+community+development+project%22&dq=%22Since+1967,+the+Leicester+fsu+has+had+a+community+development+project%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jx6mU7u-GIKtyASc9YJo&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=MF6GAAAAIAAJ&q=%22had+the+reputation+of+a+problem+area.+Alan+Twelvetrees,+the+community+worker%22&dq=%22had+the+reputation+of+a+problem+area.+Alan+Twelvetrees,+the+community+worker%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=MR-mU8D4L82tyASsuIDwCw&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=MF6GAAAAIAAJ&q=%22account+we+see+the+difficult+and+complex+task+of+the+community+worker%22&dq=%22account+we+see+the+difficult+and+complex+task+of+the+community+worker%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YR-mU4qREM-fyASe0IGwDw&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=MF6GAAAAIAAJ&q=%22on+a+community+work+project,+but+that+the+cost+in+resources+is+high%22&dq=%22on+a+community+work+project,+but+that+the+cost+in+resources+is+high%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uSCmU42sNYusyASy8oH4CA&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=MF6GAAAAIAAJ&q=%22both+in+terms+of+the+neighbourhood+and+the+statutory+agencies%22&dq=%22both+in+terms+of+the+neighbourhood+and+the+statutory+agencies%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=TSKmU-eyIoqfyATgr4CQAQ&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=MF6GAAAAIAAJ&q=%22present+shortage+of+social+workers+and+other+important%22&dq=%22present+shortage+of+social+workers+and+other+important%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1iKmU4aCF5CfyATIpIGADQ&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
[Page 52]
http://books.google.com/books?id=MF6GAAAAIAAJ&q=%22and+social+policy+have+an+important+part+to+play.+As+we+have%22&dq=%22and+social+policy+have+an+important+part+to+play.+As+we+have%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GSWmU66RDNWqyATY0oGYBw&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=MF6GAAAAIAAJ&q=%22economy+and+efficiency+by+large+organisations+which+suffer+from+an+acute+shortage%22&dq=%22economy+and+efficiency+by+large+organisations+which+suffer+from+an+acute+shortage%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=7iSmU96MNpGUyATzl4CIBw&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=MF6GAAAAIAAJ&q=%22for+understanding+their+problems,+a+fund+of%22&dq=%22for+understanding+their+problems,+a+fund+of%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iCWmU–4D9W0yATT44GIDA&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
Friend of the family: the work of Family Service Units
Patrick Goldring
David and Charles, 1973 – Social Science
[Pages 150-154]
In Leicester FSU community work has been established since 1967 on the ****North Braunstone estate, an isolated slum- clearance project of the thirties****. For many years the estate has been a dumping-ground for the city’s problem families and it had acquired such notoriety as a debt-dodger’s haven that those with claims to ‘respectability’ refused council houses there. Set well away from the amenities of prosperous, go-ahead Leicester, the bleak, sprawling estate has few resources of its own. No doctor practises there and as a result of earlier vandalism there is no public telephone. Some of the houses still lack hot-water systems and many are crowded. Families are large and the incidence of subnormality has been estimated at six times the city average. When FSU community work started, morale on the estate was low and the people were depressed and apathetic. The estate’s reputation for violence, however, was undeserved. A Unit caseworker had been helping families on the estate for years past with very little discernible effect. It appeared that the estate itself was not only an important factor in the difficulties faced by families who lived there but was also a problem area in itself. It seemed that there could be little real progress for most of FSU’s families on the Braunstone estate unless the estate itself became a less depressing place in which to live.
Meg Fitzwilliams, the first FSU community worker on the estate, set out first to get to know the people and find out what they wanted and how they could be helped. She found that they wanted bingo sessions and she helped some of the mothers to organise these for themselves. A bingo group was started in a mission hall on the estate, with a pre-school play group to take care of the children. The first group was successful and from this beginning sprang eventually a variety of different groups, for sewing, for social activity, for teenage girls, for pensioners and for unemployed men.
The formation and running of these groups had some effect on the morale of the estate. The Unit worker took care not to organise them herself. In every case organisers were found among people on the estate who had lost confidence in their own abilities and needed encouragement and support to get things going. Two of the groups were for a time run by wives from families which might well have been FSU clients.
In one case, the wife came from a family which had so many problems that the Unit had declined to take it on, as it offered little prospect of benefiting from casework. The wife had little interest in family life but had a talent for organising outside her home. She gained confidence from her bingo activities and the family benefited from this. Other FSU families gained in a similar way from the involvement of members in community activities.
None of this was easily achieved. The community worker had first to gain the confidence of the community and then use this confidence to help leaders to emerge in a section of the community where no local leadership had been exercised for many years. There was already some degree of organisation in the community; a large flourishing working-men’s club was the estate’s principal social asset. But many people on the estate lived at so low a level of poverty and in a state of such social isolation and hostility that they regarded the working-men’s club as too formal or too expensive.
When the inevitable conflicts arose it was the worker’s job to smooth them over by personal contact and to channel activity into positive directions. By the use of knowledge and contacts gained in Unit work, the community worker was also able to help members of the community to formulate demands on the authorities for improved amenities and to give advice and information whenever it wanted. With this sort of help, a parent-teacher association was formed at a school on the estate where there had previously been friction. From this, greater understanding grew between parents and the school.
After a year’s work the city council provided a house on the estate for the community worker and a neighbourhood advice centre was started. Here people could come for help on any matter bothering them, or simply use the centre’s telephone — virtually the only one available to them on the estate. Advice asked for ranged from the sort of problems dealt with by citizens’ advice bureaux to social problems which might need referral to other agencies. The centre developed into a service for passing on people with problems to the authorities which ought to be able to solve them.
One of the community worker’s main problems, Meg Fitzwilliams found, was to resist the temptation to exercise the authority that a social worker was assumed to have. At first, groups expected her to exercise control; this was what they were used to, and the social worker, like the clergyman and the teacher, was assumed to be someone who would take charge of whatever she was involved in. She finally got them to understand that she was not automatically a figure of authoritry when she looked after the mothers’ small children during a bingo session. She was quite unable to control them and had to call on the mothers to reduce the play group to relative quiet. The incident persuaded the mothers that the caseworker was human; she had her inadequacies as a baby-minder. Their own confidence rose as a result.
The event which really established the hitherto despised estate as a living social organism and gave the Braunstoners a pride and community spirit lacking in many more ‘respectable’ neighbourhoods was the Braunstone Carnival. The idea came from the Unit in response to a feeling that a project should be initiated which would pull all the different groups together for a common purpose. Something was wanted which would be recognised as a positive contribution on the estate.
…
[No page 153 found online]
The FSU work there is now being carried on by a trained community worker, Alan Twelvetrees, who lives with his wife on the top floor of the Unit’s advice centre. The carnival, the bingo and the other activities have not changed things so very much. There is still plenty of apathy. People are still suspicious. They will only accept the Unit’s services if they know you, Alan Twelvetrees said. Calls for help at the advice centre are less than twenty a week, only the tip of an iceberg of troubles. Only those who live very near the Unit house use it services.
However, there are signs of progress in the flourishing bingo groups and outings which are centred on the Unit house. Alan Twelvetrees was enthusiastic :
This is more rewarding than casework because that is so often bound up with problems like rent or housing which are not psychological. It’s being able to see the growth over the long term that’s the most satisfying factor; and the fact that we are able to get things for the community by our efforts.
Many FSU cases should not have happened if other things had been right. Many families are isolated and depressed for lack of opportunities. We send out a caseworker to a woman who is neurotic living at home. Greater opportunities to get out might have prevented her neurosis in the first place. We’re here to provide those greater opportunities.
***
Snippet links for above book excerpt
[Page 150]
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=FSU+braunstone&dq=FSU+braunstone&hl=en&sa=X&ei=EiymU7KwMIiYyASpmIHoDg&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAg
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22refused+council+houses+there.+Set+well+away+from+the%22&dq=%22refused+council+houses+there.+Set+well+away+from+the%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uSymU5DhB4ykyATimYHQBg&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22result+of+earlier+vandalism+there+is+no+public+telephone.+Some+of+the+houses+still%22&dq=%22result+of+earlier+vandalism+there+is+no+public+telephone.+Some+of+the+houses+still%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_CymU7mwJsGxyASL9YDQDw&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22estate+itself+was+not+only+an+important+factor+in+the%22&dq=%22estate+itself+was+not+only+an+important+factor+in+the%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oC2mU-mMNNelyAT4yYKoDg&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22FSU+community+worker+on+the+estate,+set+out+first+to+get+to+know%22&dq=%22FSU+community+worker+on+the+estate,+set+out+first+to+get+to+know%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BS6mU5LfHcSzyASguIDYCQ&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
[Page 151}
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22with+a+pre-school+play+group+to+take+care+of+the+children.+The+first%22&dq=%22with+a+pre-school+play+group+to+take+care+of+the+children.+The+first%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Oi6mU9KuBJKlyASouoGAAQ&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22care+not+to+organise+them+herself.+In+every+case+organisers+were+found%22&dq=%22care+not+to+organise+them+herself.+In+every+case+organisers+were+found%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ry6mU9vJGdOkyATepYLoAQ&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22Two+of+the+groups+were+for+a+time+run+by+wives+from+families+which%22&dq=%22Two+of+the+groups+were+for+a+time+run+by+wives+from+families+which%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4y6mU7OeBMKkyATQxoDwBg&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22The+wife+had+little+interest+in+family+life+but+had+a+talent+for+organising+outside%22&dq=%22The+wife+had+little+interest+in+family+life+but+had+a+talent+for+organising+outside%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Ei-mU9z5JsWiyAT6-YKIDw&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22confidence+of+the+community+and+then+use+this+confidence+to%22&dq=%22confidence+of+the+community+and+then+use+this+confidence+to%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Si-mU5q6DouZyASU04Ew&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22exercised+for+many+years.+There+was+already%22&dq=%22exercised+for+many+years.+There+was+already%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ji-mU-aCGc62yASgmILYDg&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22contacts+gained+in+Unit+work,+the+community+worker+was+also+able%22&dq=%22contacts+gained+in+Unit+work,+the+community+worker+was+also+able%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=EDCmU-LBFoSnyASojYKwAg&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22on+the+estate+where+there+had+previously+been+friction%22&dq=%22on+the+estate+where+there+had+previously+been+friction%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bzCmU9bhGdS1yATY-4H4Cg&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
[Page 152]
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22bothering+them,+or+simply+use+the+centre's+telephone%22&dq=%22bothering+them,+or+simply+use+the+centre's+telephone%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uTCmU73jO8mdyASy6IHgDg&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22into+a+service+for+passing+on+people+with+problems+to+the+authorities%22&dq=%22into+a+service+for+passing+on+people+with+problems+to+the+authorities%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6zCmU9e3IpSxyATbdw&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22whatever+she+was+involved+in.+She+finally+got%22&dq=%22whatever+she+was+involved+in.+She+finally+got%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=QTGmU7itCpCYyATCsYLoBw&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22really+established+the+hitherto+despised+estate+as+a+living+social%22&dq=%22really+established+the+hitherto+despised+estate+as+a+living+social%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=tjGmU_jrOtKdyATfsICQDQ&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22feeling+that+a+project+should+be+initiated+which+would+pull+all+the+different%22&dq=%22feeling+that+a+project+should+be+initiated+which+would+pull+all+the+different%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YjKmU9SMGoaeyASE4ICYBQ&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
[No Page 153 found]
[Page 154]
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22members+felt+that+casework+could+rarely+achieve+significant+improvements%22&dq=%22members+felt+that+casework+could+rarely+achieve+significant+improvements%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6DOmU_rtBIawyASKjYDwBw&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22twenty+a+week,+only+the+tip+of+an+iceberg+of+troubles%22&dq=%22twenty+a+week,+only+the+tip+of+an+iceberg+of+troubles%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GDWmU7yZN4KnyASf_4HADQ&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22casework+because+that+is+so+often+bound+up+with+problems%22&dq=%22casework+because+that+is+so+often+bound+up+with+problems%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=TzWmU6v-K8WoyATr9IB4&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22growth+over+the+long+term+that's+the+most%22&dq=%22growth+over+the+long+term+that's+the+most%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bTWmU4D3IsixyATX_IDQDg&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA
http://books.google.com/books?id=iSc9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22We+send+out+a+caseworker+to+a+woman+who%22+%22Some+of%22&dq=%22We+send+out+a+caseworker+to+a+woman+who%22+%22Some+of%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=WjamU7f6FpayyATq2IKoAQ&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA
Respecting children: social work with young people
Margaret Crompton
Sage Publications, Oct 1, 1980 – Social Science
[Page 80-81]
Although an overstretched social worker, especially in a social services department, may not, as I suggested above, be in a position to bring play to a playless child herself, rather recognizing the need for help for the child and finding and making it available, it may be possible for individual social workers to undertake intensive play-work with particular children. Some social-work departments and agencies recognize the importance of such work. For example, ****Leicester Family Service Unit’s philosophy and policy enabled their children’s counsellor Michael Ingram**** to undertake between ten and fifteen hours work a week with a highly disturbed, unhappy and neglected nine-year-old boy. One of the first tasks was to help Jimmy play. In the course of the first fortnight’s work Jimmy moved. from no play at all, just rocking, through ‘very bizarre’ play with animals, furniture and dolls to an interest in ‘playing with keys, knobs, buttons and any sort of mechanical controls’ (1975, p. 42). Michael Ingram used this interest by rigging up ‘a very elaborate electronic system’ and showing Jimmy how to use a tape recorder and numerous other pieces of equipment.
****Quite soon he took Jimmy away for a week’s holiday: After this holiday, he began to show me his aggression.**** He would play games in which he insulted me and I was supposed to chase him in some way. Then he started calling me ‘Frankenstein’ or ‘Vampire’ or ‘Monster’ and the punishments I was supposed to administer became increasingly [Page 81] sadistic. I was to crush his head, bite his throat, flay him, torture him, and so on . . . These games proved to be the most rewarding part of the treatment, for the playful discharge of aggressive fantasies loosened his tongue and we were able to have long conversations afterwards (p. 43).
Even more useful than Michael Ingram’s description of Jimmy’s behaviour is his comment on his own feelings:
I found . . . that these games caused me anxiety at times and I had to limit them to what I could easily tolerate, which was unfortunate, as he began to have a need to discharge in this way and if he did not play because I was tired, he went berserk at home and smashed things up (p. 43).
(The social worker used this problem to engage other members of the family in holding and controlling Jimmy, which proved very beneficial.) It is not very common to read such an honest account of work and feelings….
***
[Dear God. Ingram is practically admitting that he raped the boy on holiday. I can’t believe that other social workers couldn’t see what happened to that poor child?]
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1979/nov/14/council-houses-condensation
Council Houses (Condensation)
HC Deb ***14 November 1979*** vol 973 cc1304-5
Mr. Roy Hughes: asked the Secretary of State for the Environment, if he is considering any fresh initiatives to combat condensation in new council house dwellings.
The Under-Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Geoffrey Finsberg): We will consider the need to take further action, in the light of advice from the joint working party on heating and energy conservation in public sector housing, as soon as we have the results of the current Building Research Establishment survey of complaints about condensation.
Mr. Hughes: Does the hon. Gentleman agree that far more research is needed at national level into this serious problem, and that more money should be made available to individual local authorities to deal with this difficulty? Will he bear in mind, too, that this is a serious problem in Newport and is causing great distress to tenants, especially those in new properties?
Mr. Finsberg: I appreciate that it is a real problem. If the hon. Gentleman will send me specific details concerning Newport, I shall have them examined. I am due to receive a report on the new survey towards the end of the year. In the light of the information that came from the six local authorities involved in the survey, I hope that we can gain a 1305 wider appreciation of the many real problems that are emerging.
****Mr. Greville Janner: Is Leicester one of the six local authorities to which the hon. Gentleman has referred? Is he aware of the valiant efforts that the city’s housing department is making to combat the blight of condensation? Will he do what he can to assist?****
Mr. Finsberg: The answer to the first part of the hon. and learned Gentleman’s question is “No”. Leicester is not one of the six local authorities involved. As I said to the hon. and learned Gentleman on an earlier occasion when environment questions were being dealt with at Question Time, ****my officials will be pleased to examine the problems to which he referred on the Braunstone estate.**** We feel that it is wiser to wait until the city council tell us that its remedial works are sufficiently far advanced.
Pingback: Betrayal of Youth (1986) – including the contributions of Middleton, Owens, Faust, Tatchell | Desiring Progress
Pingback: The Love and Attraction Conference (1977) and book (1979) | Desiring Progress