John Fitzgerald

Lessons Learned?: Reflecting on forty years in childcare. A Memoir by John Fitzgerald

CONTAINS CONTROVERSIAL VIEWS AND ADULT THEMES

I spent my entire life working in the arena of childcare; the final twenty years working on inquiries and investigations into the deaths of children through abuse. Among those investigations were high profile cases including the twelve murders of children, young people and young women, carried out by Fred and Rosemary West, plus continual instances of the most horrific sexual abuse, torture and trafficking.

Over the last thirty years, faced with these unimaginable incidents, public agencies and governments have repeatedly vowed that "lessons will be learned", but have they been? How did I and others do in our world and what part did politics play? And to what extent did my own childhood experiences lead me to follow this path?