OBE recipient speaks out after being cleared of child cruelty
A woman who was awarded an OBE for services to the vulnerable has spoken out after being wrongly accused of child cruelty.
Aideen Jones, 63, and her husband Denis, 66, were acquitted of all five charges relating to child cruelty towards two boys between 1975 and 1980 whilst working at a care home, following a trial at Chester Crown Court.
Mrs Jones, from Seaford, East Sussex, had been awarded the honour in 2014 for services to people with intellectual disabilities while she was under arrest.
She told The Argus: “Of all the things we could have been accused of, it was the worst in the world – murder would have been lesser.
“But this case should never have gone to court. All the evidence that contradicted the accusations was ignored.”
During the trial jurors were told that care worker Mr Jones had beaten the two boys at one of the privately-owned Bryn Alyn Community care homes in North Wales as Mrs Jones watched.
They were arrested under Operation Pallial led by the National Crime Agency (NCA), which is investigating historic allegations of child abuse in the North Wales care system.
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2016, All Rights Reserved.
