Ex-Volunteer Cop And Children's Home Boss Jailed For Sexually Abusing Young Boy In 1970's

A former volunteer police officer, who ran a children’s home in the 1970’s, has been jailed for abusing a young boy in his care.

Bernard Philip Collins, 73, Holly Court, Worcester Road, Sutton, was convicted of five counts of indecent assault at Fircroft Children’s Home, Kingston-upon-Thames between 1976 and 1978.

He was sentenced at Inner London Crown Court to four years imprisonment.

Detectives from the Metropolitan Police’s Homicide and Major Crime Command launched an investigation - known as Operation Trinity - after one of several victims came forward in 2014.

Another victim was found who revealed he was a resident of Fircroft in 1976 and had been abused by Collins when he was aged just eleven years-old.

The investigation also revealed abuse at Rowan House, Shirley Oaks and Walker House, Llanishen, Wales.

Collins’s co-defendant Patrick Grant, 69, of Partridge Road, Roath, Cardiff is already serving eight years imprisonment after being convicted at the same trial of ten counts of indecent assault.

Recorder of Southwark Judge Usha Karu told Collins that as a special constable he enjoyed a “close relationship with the local police” and the young boy felt there was nobody he could complain to.

“He said he was aware you were a special police constable and any time there was any trouble with the police it was dealt with by you,” said the judge.

“He was too scared to come forward. This was a gross abuse of trust.”

Collins has previous convictions for child abuse in the 1970’s and admitted in 1980 to abusing three boys at two homes in Kingston-upon-Thames and was fined £450.

This conviction ended his career as the superintendent of children’s homes.

However, in 2015 he received four years for spanking and sexually touching a child at his residence.

The eleven year-old Fircroft victim recalled his abuser’s hand covered in gold rings and old home videos revealed Collins wearing extravagant jewellery, despite his claims he wore nothing more than a gold wedding band.  

Both Collins and Grant were exposed by an investigation into Lambeth social services employees in the 1970’s.

The duo’s stint at another home, South Vale, ended after six months when they were arrested in July, 1978, with Collins going on the run until 1980.