We are told that children in care were punched, locked out naked and had vinegar poured on cuts, among other horrors that can only be classed as deliberate torture, according to reports that were filed over three years before the homes were finally shut.

This follows hot on the heels of police forces being asked to urgently check all officers and staff against the national police databases and make their recruitment procedures more robust following the conviction of a Metropolitan police officer with 20 years service of dozens of rapes and sexual offences.

We are told that the Angiolini Inquiry, set up in the wake of the Sarah Everard murder by a serving police officer, will also look at the David Carrick case. As if this were not enough, the Met Chief has said that 800 officers are being investigated for 1000 sexual and domestic abuse claims. He cannot even guarantee that a woman visiting a police station will not meet the officer she is complaining about, or meet him on the street.

Other police forces are also dealing with similar complaints. For instance a police officer from Truro will stand trial later this year accused of coercive control and actual bodily harm.

We have seen horrendous tales of abuse in care homes for the elderly, mental health institutions and hospitals. The situation is so bad that there are solicitors who specialise in claims relating to sexual, physical and emotional abuse of patients by medical professionals, medical professionals have been accused of killing vulnerable patients in their care, and there are groups where people exchange their horror stories and support each other through the nightmare.

There are regular complaints that officials who have been granted powers by local authorities have abused their powers and positions, demanding that people comply with orders they have no power to give. Many of those complaints now refer to demands of licensing bodies before they will even consider an application for a dog breeding, or other animal related activity, licence.

Having spent thousands on environmental healths whims, getting planning permission for 3 litters a year and then being denied a licence after promises that if I did just one last thing (metal wall coverings at £1600 a room) I’d get a licence and then being denied on nonsense such as ‘with six bitches of breeding age you need six whelping rooms’ I can understand people having no where to turn but to surrender pups.

As reported to The SHG

That brings us to the continual complaints received by The SHG about the behaviour of RSPCA employees and the way they investigate and bring private prosecutions.

So where are the safeguards and protections that are supposed to be in place? Why do things have to deteriorate to the point of horror before anyone with the powers vested in them to protect the public actually listens and does something?

The safeguards do not work. Complaints or appeals for help fall on deaf ears, possibly because the overseeing bodies have become too cosy with the organisations and individuals they are supposed to be regulating. Even when they investigate a complaint it is often the individual at the bottom of the heap who carries the can while t heir superiors mouth platitudes and promise that they will learn and improve.

What can be done to protect the public from officials who should never have been let near the power that they wield?

No-one who is going to have dealings with the public should be appointed without a clear DBS check followed by a full psychological examination. If they pass they should then be re-assessed regularly.

All complaints need to be fully investigated, no matter how minor, and any individual or organisation found at fault should face stringent penalties. Each breach and its outcome should be published and posted on an easily accessible, public website.

The only safeguards that will have any effect are those that impose a penalty on the individual and whoever failed to properly oversee and quality control the safeguard in question.

A penalty has to hurt if it is going to be effective. We should see hefty fines which increase exponentially with each successive breach imposed on both the official and his ultimate superiors in the same way that corporate manslaughter applies to whoever is in charge of an organisation whose employees have caused a death by negligence.

Without penalties the individual or organisation just says “Oops Sorry” and carries on and those who should have prevented the abuse might never even be told of their failure.

Proper, regular, training, monitoring and assessment for those who interact with the public and those who work in the regulatory bodies is vital.

It should be a criminal offence for any official to mislead a member of the public in relation to the extent of their powers or to give orders that they have no power to make. Allowing a mistaken assumption to go uncorrected should also be a criminal offence.

Members of the public should be informed in language that they understand of their rights. Appeal against orders should not be so expensive or difficult that it becomes impossible. Appeals should be fully legally aided. If the state cannot afford such provision then it should not be allowed to impose penalties that are effectively unappealable and indefensible on a public that is even less able to afford to fund such an appeal.

There is much more that should be done but until the basics are put in place the public will remain fair game fr those in positions of power. How long is that disgraceful situation going to continue?