Document believed to be the Jillings Report leaked, eBay cancel the listing after concerns raised

A document believed to be a highly confidential report into child sex abuse in North Wales was listed on internet auction site eBay.

The Jillings Report – which focused on allegations of abuse within council care systems in the 1970s and 80s – was compiled in 1996 but has never seen the light of day.

Flintshire County Council has announced it will publish – for the first time – a redacted version of the report on July 8. But County Hall lawyers are now looking into how the report was obtained.

The report was listed on eBay but the auction website was able to cancel the listing before a sale could take place.

A spokesman for eBay said: “We were made aware of concerns regarding this item and took swift action. The transaction was cancelled and no sale took place on eBay. We take the safety of eBay very seriously indeed, and do not allow the sale of items of this nature.”

North Wales Police and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) say it is now up to the council’s legal team whether a criminal investigation is launched.

Keith Gregory, a victim of abuse within the North Wales care system as a child, has long campaigned for the Jillings Report to be published.

Mr Gregory, now a Wrexham councillor, told the Chronicle he was disgusted the report – which it is said  accuses 210 people of abuse – was leaked.

Gareth Owens, head of legal and democratic services at Flintshire County Council said: “The council was aware of the listing which was highly insensitive and inappropriate.

“There is a moral issue over whether any person should potentially profit from the sale of this document. I made representations asking for it to be removed and was given assurances that it would be and that the transaction would not be allowed to go through.”

Flintshire County Council reportedly took legal advice before announcing it would publish the report, as a fresh inquiry – Operation Pallial – into historic allegations of child abuse in the region continues.

The report was compiled for the old Clwyd County Council – Flintshire’s predecessor – by social services chief John Jillings into allegations of abuse in children’s homes in the 1970s and 80s.

Seven care workers were convicted in 1991 following allegations of abuse centring on the Bryn Estyn home in Wrexham.

However as further claims involving more homes emerged, Clwyd County Council commissioned Mr Jillings to investigate.

It was thought copies  were destroyed because the authority feared it might be sued, but a handful still remain.

The report outlined the widespread abuse of children in care years before the tribunal chaired by High Court judge Sir Ronald Waterhouse revealed its findings.

Last month officers working for Operation Pallial, which was launched in November, said they have uncovered ‘significant’ new evidence of ‘systematic and serious sexual and physical abuse’.

Detectives revealed they have so far received 140 allegations relating to 18 care homes between 1963 and 1992, including fresh claims by 76 complainants.

The alleged victims were aged seven-19.

A total of 84 individuals have been named – 75 male and nine female. Of these, 16 have been named by more than one person.