CARE WORKER CAROLYN BROMILEY FROM CHESHIRE LOSING APPEAL OVER SEXUAL ABUSE OF YOUNG BOYS

In June 2000, a care worker named Carolyn Bromiley, who had seduced boys as young as 12 for sex, was denied her appeal and ordered to serve her five-year prison sentence. The Court of Appeal rejected Bromiley's bid to reduce her sentence, which was imposed for preying on vulnerable children at a residential school in Cheshire.

Formerly from Callands and aged 37 at the time, Bromiley was incarcerated in January after admitting to committing ten indecent assaults on young boys over a span of 15 years. Her counsel, Michael Davies, argued that all the boys involved had been willing participants, but the law lords emphasized that sexual abuse in care homes was a matter of "acute public concern."

Rejecting her appeal, Lord Justice Rose stated, "These victims were in no sense criminal delinquents; they were in a residential home because they had learning difficulties. Those of either sex who are in a position of trust and responsibility in such homes must expect to go to prison for a substantial period if—in breach of that trust and taking advantage of that responsibility—they prey sexually on those in their care. In our judgement, it is quite impossible to say that five years was manifestly excessive or wrong in principle."

It was noted that Bromiley, who had a history of good character, struggled with maintaining mature relationships and had experienced a series of failed relationships with men. Despite this, she was not driven by "predatory or sadistic desires," according to the judge.

Details of her offenses include having sex with a 13-year-old boy and then pursuing him with love poems, as well as sleeping with a 12-year-old boy and warning him not to tell anyone about what had happened. During her sentencing at Warrington Crown Court earlier that year, Judge David Hale described the case as "the worst case of a woman abusing boys that any court had faced."

The court revealed that Bromiley had groomed the boys at either her live-in accommodation for carers or at the school itself. Her role was supposed to be that of a "mum" to the children while they were away from their families, but her actions resulted in lasting distress for the victims.

Bromiley's offenses, committed between January 1984 and April of the previous year, also require her to remain on the Sex Offenders' Register for life. She was acquitted of one indecent assault charge after a trial and denied six other similar charges, which were ordered to be kept on file.