Bosses at City of Edinburgh Council are alleged to have ignored a slew of sexual abuse complaints against a staff “golden boy,” according to an internal probe.
The local authority launched a £1 million public inquiry following the death of senior manager Sean Bell after a police investigation into his conduct.
It found Mr Bell’s behaviour within the communities and families department was an “open secret,” including formal allegations made by three women concerning sexual and physical assault.
More than a hundred witnesses came forward to give evidence to the investigation, headed up by QC Susanne Tanner.
Mr Bell took his own life last year just over a month after a police charge over historical sexual abuse, the Daily Record reports.
The local authority has since apologised to victims after the QC presented her report to councillors on Friday.
It found one senior manager, Andy Jeffries, who quit in August, was so blinded to Bell’s conduct that he sent out a newsletter after he’d gone off work following the police investigation, saying staff were sending him “warm wishes”.
The report said: “Andy Jeffries’s conduct was bad judgment on his part, given his state of knowledge, and perhaps reflects a wider theme in this report that, regardless of the accusations and allegations levelled at Sean Bell, he was the one who was generally believed and supported by senior management rather than the accusers or witnesses.”
It added: “The inquiry team has been made aware of several other individuals who suffered some form of abuse at the hands of Sean Bell during the years in which he was employed by the organisation.
“This includes sexual assault, attempted sexual assault, physical abuse and verbal abuse.
“He was described as a ‘bully’ and, in respect of his general conduct around women in the workplace, he was labelled as a ‘sleaze’ and a ‘dirty creep’. According to several witnesses, Sean Bell was ‘a lady’s man’ and would always ‘try it on’.”
The QC found “several alarming incidents” led to Bell being questioned by his line manager but the inquiry team were “surprised” to find that his HR record was clear and the matter appeared to have been dropped.
She added the council’s “failure to take action to investigate matters at those times is extremely difficult to understand”.
Presenting the report to councillors on Friday, chief executive Andrew Kerr said: “The council notes the serious shortcomings of some of its employees and former employees that have been identified by the inquiry.
“Formal letters have been sent to survivors who suffered abuse, offering deepest sympathies.”
