SEX ABUSE CASE SHOCKS CHURCH

Stanley Sinkins, who attended Falmouth Evangelical Church in Killigrew Street, was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court after admitting the abuse, which took place during his time as a care worker at children's homes in Kent and Merseyside.

Described in court as a God-fearing man and an affectionate, trustworthy neighbour, the 65-year-old was told by a judge that his behaviour, including buggering a seven-year-old boy, had been depraved and evil.

His admission of guilt has been greeted with disbelief among his friends in Falmouth.

Church members, who had been unaware of his previous conviction for indecently assaulting boys, were convinced he would be found not guilty at any trial and would be returning home completely vindicated.

Yesterday, Rev Michael Coles, who has led the church for 13 years, told the Packet he was shocked at the revelations. He considered it completely out of character for Sinkins.

But even the best of people are capable of terrible lapses. It has been a terrific shock. It may be we need to ask more detailed questions about members and their past so we are not so in the dark.

The minister, who is married with four children, had been intending to travel to Liverpool later this week to offer support to Sinkins during the trial.

He said Sinkins had been visiting the church for the past five years, after he was released from his last prison sentence, and had been involved in groups with members.

They had been unaware of his conviction for sexually abusing children but Sinkins had not, to Rev Coles' recollection, ever worked with younger members of the church.

I thought highly of him and he has been well-regarded within the church.

He has been an unassuming man, very hardworking. When-ever minor maintenance work or anything of that sort was needed within the church he would always do it spontaneously without being asked. He was a very loyal man.

Rev Coles, who lives in Pengarth Road, Falmouth, said church members had first become aware of the court case when Sinkins was remanded in custody before the trial.

He said the church would never condone abuse of any human being, particularly children.

But he added there had been cases where such allegations had been fabricated or guilty pleas had been entered under duress, and he would be contacting a Liverpool group concerned about false accusations made against carers.

When we first heard Stan was in custody we were very concerned the charges against him might be false.

None of us were present in those rooms 20 years ago and only Stan and the people involved know what actually happened.

There can be a problem if those making allegations stand to benefit from future compensation claims and therefore have a financial interest.

People saw it as their Christian duty to work in those homes, and thought they had no need to defend themselves against accusations sometimes made by people not always of unblemished character.

Sinkins would be welcome to return to the church like any member of the public, said Rev Coles, but to become a member he would have to show repentance for any wrong-doing. Careful consideration would also have to be given to him working with children.

During a sentencing hearing, Judge Sean Duncan told Sinkins, known to the youngsters as Uncle Stan: You appeared nice and kind to many of the children, especially compared to others, but you used that for your own depraved means.

The potential for harm was obviously enormous and the breach of trust was very great indeed. There was trust in you from your employers and by the children. Sadly you breached that trust time and time again throughout your career between 1967 and 1981.

He said Sinkins, from Clinton Road, Redruth, had also corrupted them because most concealed from their family what was happening and when some complained to other members of staff they were disbelieved.

Ten of Sinkins' victims were boys, ranging from aged six to 15, and the other was the sister of one of the lads. When details of his offences against her and her brother were given by the judge, their distraught sister lunged from the public gallery towards him screaming, You took my brother and my sister. You took my whole family.

She was bundled out of court by police officers but could be heard shouting for several minutes outside. Earlier, one of Sinkins' victims, now aged 46, was also ushered out after jumping up in the crowded public gallery shouting that he had got him a prison sentence.

Miss Pamela Badley, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court Sinkins had befriended that complainant then repeatedly indecently touched him. The boy was moved from the home and sent to an approved school after he got into a scuffle with Sinkins, who hit his head on a table.

Sinkins pleaded guilty to 11 offences involving three buggeries, seven indecent assaults and one of gross indecency.

He had been due to face trial accused of 41 offences of sexual abuse but not guilty verdicts were recorded on seven after three alleged victims decided not to come to court. The other 23 charges, which he also denied, were left to lie on the file after he pleaded guilty to one offence against each of those 11 victims.

Sinkins was jailed for 12 months in July, 1995, after admitting indecently assaulting three boys at the home in Sidcup, Kent.

It was only after the offences at three homes on the Wirral were uncovered by Merseyside Police's Operation Care investigation that the other offences at the Sidcup home came to light.

Miss Badley said Sinkins spent the greater part of his working life employed by local authorities looking after children in care. He worked at Hoblands, in Sidcup, Kent, between 1960 and 1972, initially as a house father and later as senior house father.

During his time there he buggered two boys, aged seven and ten, indecently assaulted two others one beginning on his second night at the home and committed an act of gross indecency with another lad.

When the younger boy told one of the couple in charge of the home that Sinkins had been touching him, Sinkins denied it.

The boy was called a liar and made to wash his mouth out with soap. Sinkins stopped touching him for a while after this but started again when he wished.

When another of his victims, aged 11, complained a member of staff called him a foul-mouthed nasty-minded urchin and he was sent to his room without any dinner.

He left the area in April, 1972, and worked as a Homes Officer, initially for Wallasey Borough Council which later became Wirral Borough Council. His job was to visit and check up on residential homes where the authority had placed young people.

One of these homes was in Gloucester, and while visiting a 13-year- old boy there the youngster confided in him that he planned to run away. He encouraged him and offered him a lift. The delighted boy accepted but en route Sinkins molested him.

Miss Badley said the other offences took place at Poolwood Road Children's Home, Woodchurch, Birkenhead, and Curlew Way, both on the Wirral, and the buggery offence against a 13-year-old boy occurred at Sinkins' late mother's address on the Wirral.

Defence counsel Peter Shier said Sinkins, who had been due to face trial last September but went on the run before being arrested a week later, since when he had been in custody, had become a changed man since retiring through ill-health in 1982.

He was regarded as a God-fearing man by Falmouth Evangelical Church, of which he was a member. Pillars of that church had expressed astonishment and disbelief at the offences. His local community regarded him as a kind, affectionate and trustworthy neighbour.

If the initial inquiries into the Kent offences had been more fully investigated they would have been dealt with at the same time when he was jailed in 1995.