GSCC case: Woman recounts being told to strip at children’s home

A woman told a General Social Care Council conduct hearing yesterday that she was forced to strip to her underwear for a physical examination by a social worker on admission to a children’s home.
 
The woman, known as Miss G, was 14 when she and her two younger siblings were admitted to the Stuart’s Road home in Birmingham in 1982 and were physically examined by Wladysaw Piotr Kiczma, who said he was a doctor.
 
Kiczma, now 65, is facing allegations the he carried out inappropriate physical examinations of children, which involved touching their genitals, when he ran the home.
 
Brother told to fully undress

Miss G said her brother, known as Child E, had been seen alone and later told her that he had been asked to remove all his clothes. She said Child E had alleged that Kiczma had touched him, adding: “I just thought it was something that doctors did to boys because I had heard the expression ‘cough and drop’.” A cough and drop test involves an examination of the testicles.
 
She went on to say that Kiczma examined her brother weekly and also examined her on other occasions, saying he was concerned about her development because she had not started her periods.

On one occasion she ran out of the home, followed by her sister. Kiczma then locked all the windows and doors so they could not get back in and her brother threw blankets down to them so they could sleep outside.
 
Miss G said she and the other children would be watched when they washed in the morning and alleged other staff knew Kiczma was examining children. She had been in other homes where medicals were always undertaken by GPs and children had been allowed to wash in private.
 
‘Ballistic’

She and her sister were also banned from going into their brother’s bedroom. She had visited once and found Kiczma there and he had gone “ballistic”.

Her brother later told her that he had been molested by Kiczma. Child E later became a male prostitute, contracted HIV and died.
 
The hearing continues.

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