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Feedback from his peers at Off Centre, his counselling supervisors and management at both Off Centre and Sub19 was extremely positive. Colleagues commented on Brian’s breadth and depth of knowledge of counselling approaches, his ‘uncanny knack of understanding a person right from the word go’ and his life experiences, which made him an engaging and popular employee.
Against this background, he was approached by John Hilton, the newly-appointed Clinical Manager at Off Centre to apply for the post of Group Therapist.
Brian obtained a copy of the job application form via email using his Off Centre account. He did this for a reason: he wanted a record of his application saved on his work computer. It was saved at the following address: <c:\Documents and Settings\brian.pead\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK22\GW JD.doc>. This was saved on the Off Centre main server. His laptop at home was an extremely old, second-hand machine which had started to take a considerable while to load, a fact noted by friends David Cox, Geoffrey Bacon and his lover, Maya Walker.
This dying laptop was also to prove to be a significant piece in the ensuing drama that was soon to play out.
As is his usual custom, Brian studied the Job Description and the Person Specification for the post of Group Therapist – a post which he badly wanted.
The Job Description gave an overview of the post as “…Responsible for delivering group therapy and self-development groups to young people…”
Specific tasks included “…To design, plan and implement therapeutic and personal development groups to young people with complex needs…”
Under ‘Development of Service’, the Job Description required the postholder to “…build up a library of group work resources…” which Brian interpreted as conducting research into all areas of psychology and counselling, including child sexual abuse. He was also required to “…identify areas of development in conjunction with line management and take a lead in implementing these…”
Immediately following his success by taking Staff Training at Sub19, Brian interpreted this to mean that he could continue in his research into the subject area of child abuse and take a lead in ‘teaching’ his colleagues in this subject area.
Under ‘Provision of Training’, a requirement of the post was to “…produce articles to contribute to the development of the Off Centre website and to publicise the work where appropriate…”
Given that his case study into his work with ‘Jemima’, in which the marker had suggested that it was worthy of publication, Brian felt that he was adequately qualified to fulfil this criterion. He was keen to publish on the subject of child abuse.
On page 3 of the 8-page job application form, Brian was required to provide details of examinations passed and professional qualifications in the customary reverse order.
The first entry, therefore, was “…2008. CPPD [www.cppd.co.uk] Advanced Diploma in Humanistic Integrative Counselling. Not graded…”
The second entry read “…2007. CPPD [www.cppd.co.uk] Diploma in Humanistic Integrative Counselling. Not graded…”
These truthful entries – which can easily be substantiated by Jenny Sandelson or Lynne Kaye at the Centre for Professional and Personal Development (CPPD) – were to become extremely significant in the ensuing months.
Once completed, the job application form was to be sent to Nicola Noone, the Administration Director at Off Centre. It was also read by John Hilton, the Clinical Director.
It is important to note at this point that the management at Off Centre were completely aware that Brian Pead was undertaking an Advanced Diploma course at the CPPD at the very same time in which he applied for the post of Group Therapist.
On page 5 of the 8-page job application form, Brian was required to demonstrate his “…Experience of working with a range of client groups including those who have been sexually abused, those who self-harm and those with disabilities…”
He replied as follows:
“…My work as a teacher of over 25 years has given me significant experience in working with such client groups. Furthermore, in working as a Special needs teacher, I gained insight into working with such students. A fortiori, my work as the Head Teacher of a Pupil Referral Unit in Lambeth brought me sharply into contact with students who had issues of sexual abuse, terminations, ectopic pregnancies, bereavement, self-harm, drug abuse, alcohol abuse and other issues.
I was also responsible for integrating the Borough’s out-of-school Refugees and Asylum seeker students into the PRU and liaised with interpreters and social services on a regular basis.
My work as a School Counsellor in Barnet also enabled me to work with these issues. My work as a Substance Misuse Counsellor at CDS in Wallington, Surrey also included work with clients with such issues, and my work at Off Centre also provides me with clients with similar issues…”
This is an important response by Brian Pead for a number of reasons.
Firstly, it was a requirement of the post that he had experience of working with clients who had been sexually abused.
Secondly, he informed Off Centre that he had been employed as a Head Teacher in Lambeth and that he had had recourse to counsel some of the vulnerable students. He describes in great details some of the issues he discussed with students – which included sexual abuse.
Thirdly, he informed Off Centre that he had had a spell as a counsellor in a school in Barnet. He was hiding nothing.
Fourthly, he informed Off Centre management (Nicola Noone and John Hilton) that he had clients at Off Centre with issues of sexual abuse.
It is inconceivable to those who know Brian Pead well that he would not be conducting research into the topic of child sexual abuse as part of his role at Off Centre in such circumstances. Added to this was his research into Faceparty, his awareness of the sexualised displays by Elizabeth McIntyre in the bedroom at 62 Days Lane and his ongoing reading and research at CPPD into psychosexual matters.
On 29 January 2008, Brian Pead had received his Enhanced Disclosure form (Disclosure number: 001186666451) from the Criminal Records Bureau. It had been requested by Sarah Baker of the East London and the City Mental Health Trust. The form clearly stated that the name of the Employer was Off Centre and the position applied for was a Substance Misuse Counsellor. All sections of the form came back with ‘None Recorded’ against Brian Pead.
Opposite is the page from Brian’s job application form which clearly shows that a requirement of the post of Group Therapist was to have a good understanding and experience of sexual abuse.
On 31 March 2008, he completed the job application form at Off Centre.
The management of Off Centre, therefore, had considerable information about Brian Pead at its disposal. In three months, the management had received excellent reports about Brian from colleagues and clients, it had increased his working week from 3 days to 4, and it had offered him the full-time post of Group Therapist. These actions would suggest that the management had some considerable faith in Brian’s abilities and in his character.
Yet, within a month, such faith was to swiftly evaporate once management had been paid a visit by the Metropolitan Police.
This page from Brian’s job application form for the role of Group Therapist at Off Centre clearly shows that the post-holder needed to have experience in working with clients who have been sexually abused
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