Scots mum of four who suffered years of abuse in foster care says apology is not enough after £500k settlement
A SURVIVOR of horrific abuse in foster care insists £500,000 compo isn’t enough — and says an apology to her is “an insult”.
Claire Greer, 37, told how she suffered sexual and physical attacks from the age of three.
And she hit out at the repeated failings of social workers who “abandoned” her with three different families where she endured hellish ordeals.
North Lanarkshire Council agreed a £500,000 settlement after a civil claim and said sorry to Claire, now a mum of four.
But she waived her right to anonymity in the hope that revealing what happened to her will ensure other kids avoid the same fate.
Claire said: “The apology I received feels like an insult.
“My childhood was ruined because social workers didn’t act. I was abandoned in houses where there was abuse. People knew about it, but it was covered up.
“They said mistakes were made but I want them to take responsibility.”
Claire was taken into care at just seven months old after being born to a “disinterested mother” and criminal father.
At two, she was placed with a family in Shettleston, Glasgow. And she was left there for nearly four years despite “consistent allegations of sexual abuse”.
It emerged social workers failed to properly investigate concerns from psychologists, her GP and the foster mum.
Claire was moved to a children’s home then placed with a family in Cumbernauld, aged five.
But during her four years there she was “neglected and subjected to sexual, physical and mental abuse”.
She said the family also failed to stop Claire and other kids being abused by adult foster son, Steven Nevitt, now 48.
The beast was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for lewd and libidinous practices against her and another child in 1997.
In March this year, Nevitt was jailed for a further six years and nine months for raping two other girls between 1989 and 1993.
Reports said authorities were “expressly warned” about abuse and manipulation of them “to a degree that paralleled a grooming process”.
But social workers said Claire was “thriving”.
In 1995, she moved in with her tenth foster family in Clydebank, near Glasgow.
While there she was repeatedly assaulted by a family member. But a probe was dropped after her carers denied the allegations.
Claire, of Clydebank, later decided to “fight the past” by requesting access to her social work records.
She said: “Reading through the files destroyed me, seeing all the abuse and cover-ups.
“I was so angry so many people got away with it.”
Claire has been diagnosed with complex PTSD, OCD, depression, anxiety and borderline personality disorder.
Experts said she’d suffered from an “exceptionally high level of childhood adversity”.
After her 20-year fight for justice, North Lanarkshire Council’s chief social work officer apologised in a letter for “the long-term impacts of your care experience”.
But they admitted it was “not possible to do justice to your experience and the trauma you have faced”.
Claire is now pushing for a “proper” apology and plans to set up a mentoring organisation for young care leavers.
She said: “Nobody was helping or supporting me. When I finally got help, it was like stepping stones to a better life.”
oliver.norton@news.co.uk