Social worker allowed ‘rapist’ to slip through net in litany of failure

A SOCIAL worker has been found guilty of 15 counts of serious misconduct after a man he failed to assess as a danger to women was charged with rape.

Andrew Bennett was employed by Dundee City Council’s social work department, which was criticised after the murder of toddler Brandon Muir in 2008 at the hands of his mother’s boyfriend.

He failed to submit applications or risk assessments for service users with histories of paranoid schizophrenia, homelessness, alcohol abuse and self-harm, resulting in disastrous consequences and even putting infant children in danger.

One charge revealed that Mr Bennett failed to carry out a risk assessment of a man despite his being charged with an attempted rape.

By the time Mr Bennett filed the case, police had charged the man with another, subsequent rape.

Another charge showed that Mr Bennett had failed to process another man’s benefits claim, resulting in him begging on the streets.

At a Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) hearing it was revealed that Mr Bennett was suspended for failing to process referrals for vulnerable people over a ten-month period.

Now he has been found guilty of the charges after a two-day SSSC hearing and faces being struck off the social workers’ register and banned from working in the sector.

Anna Fowlie, chief executive of the SSSC, said: “Mr Bennett repeatedly did not follow procedures and in doing so failed to meet the standards expected of registered social workers.”

At the SSSC hearing in Dundee on 11 and 12 November, which Mr Bennett did not attend, the extent of his misconduct came to light for the first time.

Mr Bennett’s manager at the Dundee City Council community and mental health social work team, Dominique Chawin, said she was “shocked” at the extent of her social worker’s failings.

She told the panel how social workers were supposed to log referrals into an internal computer system, so that help could be administered by the department.

Ms Chawin, who has been a social worker for 21 years, said: “I was made aware that Andrew had made ten referrals for the admin staff to process, which was very unusual.

“Normally, a social worker would make a maximum of three referrals a month.

“He was suspended immediately. Afterwards, I went to check his desk. It was a mess. A lot of papers were piled high on his desk, in trays, and the drawers were packed with papers.

“There were case notes on various service users, letters from psychiatrists and psychologists, forms for benefit claims and community care grants that were half completed. I was shocked. Some of the referrals were really serious.”

She said there was documentation that dated back to 2005, and added that by ignoring the referrals, he had put vulnerable service users at risk.

Mr Bennett had admitted failing to log referrals into the social work computer system between November 2007 and August 2008, but denied that his inaction resulted in consequences for his service users.