A Serious Case Review, ordered by Cheshire East Local Safeguarding Children Board, has revealed that three children suffered nearly a decade of severe and recurring abuse at the Prestbury home of the couple who adopted them.
The three siblings, originally from Stoke on Trent, suffered frequent episodes of physical abuse, emotional cruelty and neglect over a nine-year period before one child's repeated allegations of mistreatment were finally acted upon.
The abuse started soon after the children, aged 3, 2 and 6 months at the time, were placed with Dr Jill Newcombe-Buley and Nicholas Newcombe (referred to as M and F) in November 1999.
Author of the report Chris Brabbs said: "The children went from being 'rescued' from exposure to significant harm from their birth parents – where there were issues of domestic violence, substance abuse and mental health problems – only to end up being placed in another abusive situation, where they were subjected to repeated and systematic physical abuse, emotional harm and neglect that was 'hard to comprehend'."
The review concluded that "At various stages over the 10 years, the abuse was both predictable and preventable" and that "The assessment of M and F as adoptive parents was flawed."
The abuse and neglect was mainly carried out by Dr Jill Newcombe-Buley but also her husband Nicholas Newcombe to some limited extent.
In April 2010 Dr Jill Newcombe-Buley was charged with 88 counts of child cruelty and Nicholas Newcombe was charged with 14 counts of child cruelty and one of perverting the course of justice.
In October last year, Dr Jill Newcombe-Buley was given a 4 years prison sentence and Nicholas Newcombe received a 2 year suspended sentence.
Mr Mellor, the independent chair of Cheshire East Local Safeguarding Children Board, said: "All the agencies involved have clearly let these youngsters down by failing to take action. On behalf of these organisations, I would like to offer sincere and heartfelt apologies to all three children for this.
"The nine-year period of this review - starting with a flawed adoption process – shows a series of failings by a number of agencies.
"It is clear that teachers had concerns but never recorded or escalated those concerns to raise the alarm. One of the children repeatedly tried to report the abuse, which all the siblings had suffered, to social workers and police. Time and time again they were let down.
"This has been a particularly difficult case for everyone, not least because of the disguised compliance of the adoptive parents, which staff in many agencies were unwilling to challenge.
"We are taking action to ensure that failings which occurred will not be repeated in the future.
"I would stress that the children are now safe, being protected and helped to recover from their terrible ordeal."
