The Chief Minister is set to apologise on behalf of the government for ‘past mistakes’ that contributed to children being abused at the Knottfield children’s home.

Joseph Marshall, who sexually abused young boys at Knottfield, was found guilty of three counts of indecent assault and two other sexual offences after a five-day trial in December 2021.

The 85-year-old has been jailed for six years.

In the upcoming sitting of Tynwald this month, on February 21, a debate is scheduled on the social affairs policy review committee’s report on historic child abuse at Knottfield and the Council of Ministers’ response to the report.

The government says that the Council of Ministers understands and is ‘acutely aware’ that the upcoming debate, and associated media reports, may be ‘retraumatising’ for the victims, and their friends and families.

The Council of Ministers ‘regrets the delay’ in holding this debate, which was due to the court proceedings involved, and appreciates that added delays and further news coverage contribute to the ‘revictimisation and retraumatisation which is so damaging to those seeking to heal and find closure’.

The government has liaised with charity Victim Support, which provides an independent sexual violence adviser to support victims of sexual crime, on the handling of this.

Anyone who is concerned about themselves, or someone close to them, can access free and confidential support and advice from Victim Support.

In Tynwald, chair of the Social Affairs Policy Review Committee Ann Corlett will move that the report be received and 11 recommendations be approved.

The recommendations include asking that Tynwald moves forward with the opinion that the public interest demands the ‘most rigorous approach’ to crime against children, irrespective of the age and state of health of any alleged perpetrator.

It also asks that Tynwald authorises the social affairs policy review committee to receive and to report further evidence on the management of the Isle of Man Children’s Home and its successor bodies at all periods in their history.

Within the recommendations, Tynwald is asked to acknowledge that ‘serious mistakes were made’ in relation to the care of children between 1961 and 1983 and in relation to the subsequent treatment of former residents of the Isle of Man Children’s Home.

It’s also asked to state that it ‘deeply regrets and sincerely apologises’ for its part in the failures of the island’s public authorities over many decades to detect and prevent the abuse of children in the home, to bring the perpetrators of abuse to justice, and to provide support and assistance to individuals who have been abused.

Its fourth recommendation says that Tynwald acknowledges the right to privacy of adults in the island who, as children, were abused in the island or elsewhere, but also affirms the right of those adults to be heard and supported in the event that they choose to disclose abuse.

Its remaining recommendations suggest Tynwald should call on the Council of Ministers to consider what improvements were needed to services for adults disclosing abuse as children, to consider appointing a person to promote the interests of victims and witnesses of crime, and to bring forward legislation to place the concept of corporate parenting on a statutory footing.

It adds that the Attorney General and the Treasury should review the sums payable under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Schemes 1983 and 2005 to ensure that they properly reflect the ‘degree of pain and suffering caused by physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect during childhood as they are today understood’.

Another recommendation is that Tynwald's social affairs policy review committee should hear oral evidence in public from the Safeguarding Board annually.

Contact the charity on 679950 or email [email protected]

Read the jury's verdict after his trial here.

Read our coverage of his sentencing here.

The government has already apologised but not in Tynwald yet. Read our story about that here.