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UK police withheld details of sex abuse at orphanage from Albanian
authorities
• Tirana court jails British charity worker for 20 years
• Two more Britons still on trial over allegations

* Paul Lewis in Tirana
* guardian.co. uk, Thursday November 20 2008 00.01 GMT
* The Guardian, Thursday November 20 2008

British police helped cover up a horrific sex abuse scandal at a
Christian missionary orphanage in Albania, a Guardian investigation has
found.

Senior officers agreed to keep details of abuse secret from their
counterparts in Albania after the British director of the orphanage,
David Brown, persuaded them that while children had been sexually abused
in his care, he had played no part in it.

Brown, 57, an evangelical charity worker who founded the His Children
orphanage seven years ago, was yesterday found guilty of "sexual
relations" with minors.

Sentencing him to 20 years in a maximum-security jail in Albania, Judge
Gerti Hoxha said the home had been used as "camouflage" for sexual
abuse. He hoped the sentence would serve as a warning to other
paedophiles.

Looking unstable on his feet, Brown was escorted from the courtroom.

Two other British helpers at the orphanage remain on trial for their
alleged part in the abuse. Dino Christodoulou, 45, a social therapy
nurse from Blackburn in Lancashire, and Robin Arnold, 56, a salesman
from Cromer in Norfolk, were extradited to Albania from Britain in May.
Brown's shelter cared for 40 abandoned children and babies. It was
raided by Albanian police in May 2006. Ten children, aged between four
and 13, told Albanian police they had been sexually abused by Brown and
the two Britons. In some cases the children claim to have been bound to
a balcony, gagged and raped.

But an investigation has revealed that Britain's National Criminal
Intelligence Service (NCIS) received details about abuse at the home 18
months earlier, in December 2004, and failed to tell their Albanian
counterparts.

Brown gave members of NCIS, stationed in the region to fight organised
crime, harrowing accounts of abuse suffered by boys at his home, but
denied he was involved. Taking his word, officers decided not to inform
Albanian police about the abuse.

Before speaking to the detectives, Brown sought advice from his friend
Alan Moir, a retired police superintendent from Inverness. Moir, 64, who
supported the running of the home, convened a meeting at a hotel in the
capital with officers from NCIS. At that meeting Brown claimed that
Christodoulou, whom he had allowed to return to Blackburn, had sexually
abused the children behind his back. He did not say anything about
Arnold's alleged involvement and claimed to have had no prior knowledge
that children were being harmed.

"We made a decision that we would not report [the abuse] to the
authorities, " said Moir. "We knew what would happen - someone would be
arrested and the children would be back on the street."

Asked if that constituted a cover-up by those at the meeting, Moir
replied: "That is a fair and accurate description. We kept it secret
from the Albanians. But it wasn't that we wanted to hide anything - we
were trying to protect the children, open a new orphanage and make
something good of this. That was my view at the time - it may have been
wrong. Looking back I do feel misled by David. At the time I was under
the impression that this was a bona fide home."

NCIS contacted Lancashire police requesting they check the background of
Christodoulou and ensure he was not looking after children. No checks
were done on Arnold, who had two convictions for indecently assaulting
boys stretching back to the 1980s, leaving him free to travel to Malawi
on what he described as an aid mission, where he met children while
preaching the Bible.

There were no attempts to rescue the Gypsy children at the orphanage,
where Brown slept with boys in his bed.

"A lot of us were uncomfortable about what was going on in there," said
a pastor who agreed not to inform Albanian police about the shelter. "
But we believed David was a good man. And we didn't want all the good
work our churches were doing to be associated with David's orphanage."

By May 2006, Brown was under the impression that the attempted cover-up
had succeeded and looked forward to opening another home under a new
name. Moir took around €20,000 (£17,000) of his own money to Albania,
which he said was for a deposit on land where they could construct the
new shelter.

But for Brown, the game was up. Receiving a tip-off about a suspected
paedophile ring operated from the home, Albanian authorities raided the
ramshackle orphanage, arrested Brown and, some months later, extradited
Christodoulou and Arnold to face trial in Tirana.

It was only then - 18 months after British law enforcement had been told
about abuse at the orphanage - that a full criminal inquiry was opened.

A senior UK police source involved in that inquiry said he was
"flabbergasted" to discover the abuse had been covered up by colleagues.
"The very basis for child protection is: rescue the children," he said.
"The decisions that flowed from December 2004 were clearly a mistake. It
endangered the lives of vulnerable children."

In a statement, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), which has
taken over from NCIS, denied its officers were involved in a cover-up,
pointing out that the allegations "precede the formation of Soca" and
communication between Britain and Albanian law enforcement had since
improved. "There has been no cover-up. The relationship with the
Albanians in 2004 bears no comparison with the relationship Soca has
developed since 2006. At the time, officers acted on the best advice
available in the circumstances. The excellent relationship we now have
has led to three UK nationals standing trial in Albania."

Interviewed in prison before yesterday's verdict, all three accused
Britons told the Guardian that children had been abused at the home. But
all denied their personal involvement in the abuse, instead blaming each
other.

Christodoulou said the children had been encouraged to tells lies about
him. "It was cruel for someone to use the children to spite me," he
said.

Arnold said that while he had indecently assaulted boys in the past, he
too was innocent of the charges. "I am here because God is using me to
pull these other bastards down," he said.

The pair's defence lawyers have questioned the validity of testimony
given by the children, claiming they were "manipulated" by the
prosecution.

Brown described Christodoulou and Arnold, whom he blamed for the abuse,
as "wolves in sheep's clothing". He described his trial as "my day on
the cross". "I am the father of these children and I have a duty under
God to defend them," he said.
Trial and terror

1999 Brown travels to Albania to help refugees from Kosovo and, in
Tirana, encounters abandoned Gypsy children.

2001 Vowing to help, Brown returns to open the His Children orphanage,
above, initially providing shelter and Bible lessons to a handful of
children.

2002 Dino Christodoulou moves to Tirana to work at the orphanage. Robin
Arnold begins visiting the home and has unsupervised access to some
children.

October 2004 British police are told about sexual abuse. They agree not
to tell their Albanian colleagues. Brown continues to run the home.

May 2006 Albanian police receive a tip-off. Brown is arrested and
extradition requests are made for Christodoulou and Arnold.

November 2008 Brown is jailed. Christodoulou and Arnold remain on trial.

http://www.guardian .co.uk/society/ 2008/nov/ 20/police- abuse-albania-
child-extradition