GSCC strikes off social worker over sex abuse claims

A social worker from Kent has been struck off the General Social Care Council’s register over allegations of sexual abuse dating back more than 20 years.

 

Douglas Makey, aged 49 and from Tonbridge, denied the allegations but was not present at the hearing of the GSCC’s independent committee, and chose not to be represented.

 

Makey worked as a residential social worker in a children’s home in Gravesend during the 1980s, when the abuse is alleged to have occurred. The committee found he had abused Ms A when she was nine to 10 years old, and Ms B when she was aged around 10 to 12. They lived in the home during the 1980s but not at the same time.

 

The committee said Ms A’s evidence left it “in little doubt that what she was saying was true”.

 

No action after police enquiry

 

The allegations against Makey were investigated by the police in 2006 but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said there was insufficient evidence to take the case to court.

 

The CPS works to the criminal standard of having to prove allegations beyond reasonable doubt, while the GSCC committee operates to the civil standard of proving a case on the balance of probabilities.

 

The committee said Makey had groomed one of the women with treats and affection and had taken advantage of the other’s “obvious affection” for him.

 

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