Social worker keeps job after being found with photos of boys

A SOCIAL worker who was found with photographs of boys under his supervision in various states of undress will be allowed to continue working with vulnerable children.

David Lee faced a General Social Care Council (GSCC) tribunal after complaints were msade by parents of children in his care that he was acting inappropriately by buying the children gifts and allowing them to stay at his house.

An investigation found about 100 photographs in his office while Lee was working as a team leader for Essex County Council’s adolescent fostering team, a post he held from 1998 to 2005.

While it was claimed the photographs were not “indecent” and Lee described them as the sort of photographs any parent might have of their child, the GSCC panel ruled that he had overstepped professional boundaries and issued him with an 18-month admonishment.

However, they said that his actions did not warrant barring him from the profession which the county council has struggled to find suitable candidates for.

Rebecca Harris, for the GSCC, said that parents had complained after Lee had bought one child an Xbox games console, and the following investigation found that Lee, a father of two, had taken other children in his care on unauthorised trips.

She said that although some of the pictures of the prepubescent boys were taken when they were in various “poses and states of undress” there was no suggestion they were indecent and no evidence of any abuse.

The allegations involved a total of eight children in Lee’s care.

GSCC panel chairman Laurence Peterken said: “The relationships which the social worker established with some of the children were in conflict with his professional responsibilities and he allowed them to influence his judgement.”