NYP: Throxenby – The Death of Martin Mennell

NYP: Throxenby – The Death of Martin Mennell

by TIM HICKS

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Introduction: The Throxenby Hall Paedophile Ring

Throxenby Hall was a residential care home for boys. It housed about 60 boys aged 9 and over. It was not an Approved School or Borstal (Young Offenders Institution run by the Home Office) and the boys there were not convicted of anything, so it had minimal security with few restrictions on movement. It was run by the former North Riding County Council from 1946 until 1974 when responsibility for the home was transferred to the former North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) Social Services Department, until it closed in 1991. NYCC was renamed North Yorkshire Council (NYC) in 2023.

The boys there were routinely physically, sexually and emotionally abused by NYC Residential Care Workers, with the full knowledge of the NYC Social Services Department  A former pupil at Throxenby Hall has come forward to the NYE. His evidence can be read here.

The Death of Martin Mennell

Martin Mennelll was a pupil at Throxenby hall who drowned in the swimming pool there. The Office of the Coroner for North Yorkshire has confirmed that the cause of death was:

“…drowning due to a cardiac arrest due to floppy tricuspid and mitral valve.”

The verdict was accidental death. The coroner will not release any further comment.

A floppy tricuspid and mitral valve is a condition when a valve on the heart does not seal properly and leaks blood. This can cause a cardiac arrest. However, this in itself need not be fatal. Martin did not die of a heart attack as was originally reported to the NYE, nor did he die of the cardiac arrest. He drowned because he was incapacitated by the cardiac arrest.

We know from NYE correspondent “John” (not his real name), who was a pupil at Throxenby Hall, that swimming in the Throxenby Hall pool was not at any time supervised by any member of staff.

There should have been a trained Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) Lifeguard on duty at the pool when the children were swimming, trained in how to get a casualty out of the pool quickly and to give Cardiopulminory Resuscutation (CPR). It is unclear how long Martin’s body was in the pool for before it was discovered.

Had there been a RLSS trained Lifeguard there, he would probably have been able to prevent Martin from drowning and give CPR until the ambulance arrived.

So it would appear that the failure by NYCC (now NYC) to ensure that swimming was properly supervised by an appropriately qualified adult was a major contributory factor to Martin’s death, which was probably avoidable. This was a very serious incident and I would normally have expected NYC and the Residential Care Offices to be prosecuted. As an example of what should have happened, please see this Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland report of a recent case involving the death of a child in an inadequately supervised pool in Leeds here.

Had NYP performed a meticulous investigation in which all the boys and NYC Residential Care Officers were interviewed, the full facts of Martin’s death would have been established. It is also possible that the scale of the physical, emotional and sexual abuse the boys were being subjected to at Throxenby Hall would have emerged. NYE lead reporter Nigel Ward has commented on Throxenby Hall:

“A number of former pupils at Throxenby Hall have told me that they saw NYC Councillor Peter Jaconelli at Throxenby Hall and that he took boys from Throxenby Hall into Scarborough. I have no doubt these boys were being trafficked to Jaconelli to be abused.”

Unfortunately, they will not give an attributable comment to the NYE because of their lack of trust of North Yorkshire Police.

I also have no doubt that boys from Throxenby Hall were being trafficked to Peter Jaconelli and Jimmy Savile in Scarborough. A competent investigation into Martin’s death could also have revealed this and led to the arrest of Jaconelli, winding up his ring and the exposure of Savile.

However, a superficial investigation was conducted, the full facts did not emerge at the inquest by the North Yorkshire Coroner. Consequently, no action was taken against the NYC Residential Care Officers for their neglect and mismanagement, and for allowing a child in their care to die needlessly, Jaconelli, Savile and their accomplices at Throxenby Hall escaped detection and NYC was not prosecuted. How very convenient for NYC and NYP.

This was not the only failed investigation into Jaconelli and Savile. There have been eight police investigations into the Peter Jaconelli/Jimmy Savile paedophile ring in Scarborough that the NYE is aware of.

• The first was into an allegation of rape against Jaconelli in 1972, covered below.

• The second was by NYP in 2003 investigating paedophile activity in Scarborough in 2003. Witnesses were questioned about Savile and Jaconelli (who died in 1999), but no charges were brought against Savile.

• The third occurred when the Jimmy Savile scandal broke in 2012. It concluded he had no connections to North Yorkshire, although he lived in Scarborough.

• The fourth was by NYP Deputy Chief Constable Sue Cross, who did not interview any of the witnesses traced by the NYE and the BBC. She then went on to conclude there was no evidence of any offending by Jaconelli or Savile and to bury the investigation.

• The fifth and sixth investigations were Operation Yewtree and Operation Hibiscus in 2013 in which both Nigel Ward and I gave evidence. They both failed to identify that the Peter Jaconelli/Jimmy Savile paedophile ring included paedophiles employed by NYC who abused the boys at Throxenby Hall and trafficked them to Jaconelli and Savile.

• The seventh was by the IPCC in 2014, which identified misconduct by a Detective Sergeant, who had mishandled intelligence on Jaconelli. No action was taken against him.

• The eighth was Operation Manuka into Throxenby Hall, which did not result in any convictions.

All of these police investigations failed. None of them identified the trafficking of children to Jaconelli from Throxenby Hall, or if they did, they kept quiet about it. No-one has ever been convicted of anything despite rampant police and local authority corruption.

The only organisation to have consistently uncovered the truth is the NYE.

How many others died?

In addition to the death of Martin Mennell. The NYE raised concerns in 2017 about the disappearance of a man known locally as the Spanish Waiter who had been attacked by Jaconelli in 1972, leading to Jaconelli being arrested for rape. His disappearance ensured Jaconelli was never charged. It was all hushed up by NYP and he continued abusing children in Scarborough with impunity.

The NYE raised the possibility that this victim may have been murdered to prevent him from giving evidence. This allegation has never been investigated by NYP and to this day, no-one knows who this man was, or what happened to him. NYE investigation Jaconelli Savile The Spanish waiter. Missing or murdered.

This report from the Yorkshire Post here alleges that “many” former pupils from Throxenby Hall have committed suicide. The implication being that his is because of the abuse they suffered there.

Some of the men that abused children at Throxenby Hall and bear some responsibility for the death of Martin Mennell, and the Police Officers and NYC Social Workers that protected them are still alive and could still be prosecuted.

You would think that NYP and NYC would be anxious to get to the bottom of the case and perform an investigation into non recent sexual abuse crimes. However:

• Chief Constable Forber of North Yorkshire Police is refusing to confirm how many former pupils from Throxenby hall committed suicide as a result of the abuse they suffered there.
• When asked to confirm Martin Mennell’s full name, age and the date of his death – information she has available – the manager of the North Yorkshire Coroner’s Office refused to release it: “The death will have been registered so details are available to the public in the usual manner”.
  

I emailed the leader of NYC Councillor Carl Les OBE asking for a media statement in the following terms:

Please can I ask for a media statement from North Yorkshire Council on the allegations of abuse at Throxenby Hall by employees of the former North Riding County Council and North Yorkshire County Council and that it was covered up. In your statement, please can you cover:

• • Was North Yorkshire County Council Social Services Department aware of any cases of physical, emotional or sexual abuse of pupils at Throxenby Hall and if so, what did they do about it.

• • Was any action taken against any North Yorkshire County Council Social Worker or Residential Care Officer over the abuse of pupils at Throxenby Hall.

• • Has any North Yorkshire County Council Social Worker or Residential Care Officer been investigated by North Yorkshire County Council or North Yorkshire Police over the abuse of pupils at Throxenby Hall.

• • What was North Yorkshire County Council policy on having a lifeguard or responsible adult present at Council swimming pools, when children were swimming.

• • The names of the Headmasters at Throxenby Hall and the dates of their tenure as Headmaster.

• • If any internal investigation was undertaken by North Yorkshire County Council into the death of Martin Mennell and if so, the conclusions it came to and if any recommendations for improvements were made.

• • If North Yorkshire Council would wish to issue an apology and statement of regret over the way pupils were abused by its employees at Throxenby Hall and the way it was covered up by the North Yorkshire County Council Social Services Department. As North Yorkshire County Council did in response to the NYE investigation into the paedophile ring run by North Yorkshire County Councillor Peter Jaconelli and Jimmy Savile.

Councillor Les responded with a forthright and clear email, headed: “CONFIDENTIAL. Contains legal advice.” to ensure it could not be published. So I am effectively prohibited by NYC from releasing its response to the public.

Could it be that in pressing for the prosecution of paedophiles who worked for NYC and the Police Officers and NYC Social Workers that protected them, the NYE has hit a nerve?

It appears that the prospect of NYC employees being prosecuted for abusing children has prompted NYC to get ‘lawyered up’, form the wagons into a circle and maintain its right to silence. In short, the Police and the Council are continuing to protect paedophiles now in the same way they did in the past.

So the answer to the question “How many other victims died?” is: We will never know because NYP will not release the information.

Coming Next

Operations Yewtree and Hibiscus re-assessed.

NYE Appeal for Information

If you have had a bad experience of being strip searched, or if you were badly treated in an NYP Custody Suite, at Throxenby Hall, or at Kirklevington Detention Centre, please contact the NYE in complete confidence using the letters@nyenquirer.uk email address.

The NYE would particularly like to hear from:

• Anyone who knew Martin Mennell.
• Anyone who knew Graham Atkinson, who was a pupil at Throxenby Hall, who died on the 23^rd of November 1975.

Right of Reply

If you are mentioned in this article and do not agree with the views expressed in it, or if you wish to correct any factual inaccuracy, please let me know using the letters@nyenquirer.uk email address and your views and a correction will be published if appropriate.