News

The NSPCC has suspended a staff member over his role as a character witness in a court case involving a man found innocent of sexually abusing children,writes Sally Gillen.

Director Mary Marsh said the NSPCC had received an external complaint regarding the participation of a member of staff as a character witness in a court case, and had “personally commissioned an independent inquiry into this issue”.

Marsh said its head of media relations Gerry Tissier, who gave evidence at the trial of Henry Bran, a music teacher cleared at Southwark crown court a fortnight ago of abusing three girls, had become involved in the case in a personal capacity.

But the mother of one of the girls wrote to Marsh saying she was “stunned that an organisation we previously trusted and have raised funds for should abandon its guiding principles”.

The letter says Tissier stated that Bran was a “respected musician who had raised money on behalf of the NSPCC”.

Bran was cleared 18 months earlier of abusing a five-year-old girl at the same primary school where he was a learning support assistant.

He began guitar lessons at the school, but later began offering private tuition instead.

A year after the home lessons began, allegations of abuse emerged. Bran was sacked after failing to attend disciplinary meetings.

Tissier told Community Care: “What I did was in a personal capacity, not as a representative of the NSPCC. And what I did was to fulfill my public duty to give evidence in court when called upon to do so.”