Social worker denies rape and sexual assault

A social worker has vehemently denied allegations that he repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted a child in his care in the 1990s.

Peter Fordham is accused of abusing the boy, who had emotional and behavioural problems, when he was aged between 12 and 14.

Fordham told a jury at Northampton Crown Court that there was no truth in the charges, the Northampton Chronicle reports today.

The charges relate to his time as a key worker at St John’s Centre, a secure home in Tiffield, Northamptonshire.

It is alleged he sexually assaulted the boy on fishing trips and raped him on trips back to the centre as well as at his then homes in Towcester and Northampton.

Fordham has denied all the allegations, which also included giving the boy alcohol on one trip, punishing him less than other children in his care and scuppering a move to a boarding school so that the alleged abuse could continue.

Fordham told the court: “I was manoeuvring my hardest to get him to a quality school that I thought would benefit him.”

Matthew Kirk, defending, asked: “Looking at the entirety of your work with him, was there anything inappropriate about your conduct with him? Was there anything inappropriate in your motives in caring for him as you did?”

Fordham replied “no” to each question.

Fordham is under investigation by the General Social Care Council and has been suspended from the register until May 2012.

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Social worker accused of rape by former child in care