Police ‘should take lead on abuse cases’

Police – not social workers – should take responsibility for
protecting children from abuse because they are “less easy to
intimidate,” according to a group of prominent
paediatricians.

Professor David Southall, Martin Samuels, senior lecturer in
paediatrics, and John Bridson, a retired consultant paediatrician,
argue that “most perpetrators” of child abuse, “deceive and
intimidate social and health workers who are trained to work with
families”.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, they recommend the
setting up of inter-agency task forces on criminal abuse run by
“experienced and adequately resourced” police units because police
are more likely to be cynical about statements made by abusers and
less bound by confidentiality rules.