One of Britain’s oldest youth charities, the Sea Cadets, has paid out half a million pounds in out of court settlements to victims of an instructor suspected of sexually abusing children over the course of four decades.
Survivors of the abuse committed by Peter Sherwin, who died in 2014, have appealed for others to come forward as an apology was issued by the Sea Cadets following queries by the Guardian.
The scandal is the latest to rock the charity, which has settled so far with eight victims of Sherwin, who held various senior roles in the Midlands and who was awarded an MBE. Victims of his abuse came from different generations, including a father and son, while years of grooming and mental abuse were such that some victims visited him in hospital when he was dying and attended his funeral.
The Sea Cadets – which works with 10,000 young people across the UK and is one of four cadet forces supported and funded by the Ministry of Defence – told the Guardian the first it had been aware of the allegations against Sherwin was when West Midlands police contacted its safeguarding team in July 2013 to inform it of an investigation into a claim of abuse from the 1980s.
Sherwin was suspended after his arrest in October 2013 but after the case was dropped a month later due to a lack of evidence his suspension was lifted in March of the following year. He died three months later.
A national review of historical Sea Cadets safeguarding cases was also launched in 2015 and no records, claims or details of inappropriate acts related to Sherwin were identified, the charity said.
“It is clear that further allegations against the volunteer have since come to light revealing abhorrent abuse of an unknown number of cadets in the 1970s and 1980s,” it said. “Those that have come forward as victims, and those that will, shall be fully supported by Sea Cadets should they wish it. The charity unreservedly apologises for any hurt or anger felt by any victim of such abuse.”
The charity has written to every parent and guardian of a sea cadet in the Midlands to alert them to the forthcoming publication of this article, which it expects to result in an increase in the number calls to its safeguarding line. Letters to those who received compensation were sent out two weeks ago from the Sea Cadets’ chief executive, Martin Coles, to “apologise unreservedly”.
However, lawyers for survivors of Sherwin’s abuse say complaints were lodged about him as early as the 1980s but that he continued to be allowed “unfettered access” to cadets.
A former cadet also told the Guardian that he and a number of others had raised concerns to cadet authorities in the Midlands in 1997 about the amount of time Sherwin was spending with a 14-year-old cadet. He said the letter writers were pressured by local senior Sea Cadet officeholders to either drop the claims, or they were “forced out” of the branch.
Another survivor of Sherwin’s abuse, who had become a Sea Cadet at the age of nine and is among those to receive settlements, said Sherwin was allowed to groom not only young cadets entrusted to his care but also their families.
He told how Sherwin, an electrician by trade, had rigged up an elaborate system of alarms and surveillance at his local Birmingham branch, TS Stirling. The man said Sherwin had sleeping quarters known as his bedroom and two coaches adapted into mobile classrooms and bedrooms.
Sleepovers at the branch took place regularly, mostly with Sherwin in sole charge. The front gates would be locked and cadets would be encouraged to drink at a bar.
“It would be after waking hours during these sleepovers that ‘punishment’ would be meted out, undisturbed and uninterrupted. He had total control over everything,” the survivor said.
Jessica Standley, a solicitor at Bolt Burdon Kemp, the law firm that has been representing survivors of Sherwin’s abuse, said: “Sherwin was allowed unfettered access to the cadets over decades allowing him to subject them to years of abuse.
“Had proper procedures and investigations been carried out when original complaints were made in the 1980s/1990s, others may have spared from the abuse they went on to suffer. He had such power and control over the cadets that many have only been able to speak about the abuse after his death.”
In a follow-up statement by the Sea Cadets, the charity stressed safeguarding measures had been put in place, adding that it had a “zero tolerance” approach to abuse. It said it had a 24/7 safeguarding incident reporting line and all staff and volunteers were recruited following “safer recruitment practices”.
