Audio: The 'scared to act' social workers who failed victims of rapist father

Listen to audio from the conference

The pair were seen by more than 100 social and health workers during their sickening 30-year ordeal, but nothing was done until 2008 when the victims finally contacted police.

Suspicions had been raised about their treatment as early as 1975, and over the next 33 years a total of 28 agencies were made aware of possible abuse and worries over incest.

Between them, the women became pregnant 18 times as a result of their father's abuse, suffering abortions and terminations.

The family lived in both Sheffield and Lincolnshire and the shamed authorities in both areas yesterday admitted "systemic failings" that had led to the case being ignored.

Senior officials from both Sheffield City and Lincolnshire County councils offered an unreserved apology to the women, saying: "We are genuinely sorry. We should have protected you."

The father of the two victims was jailed for life in late 2008, and the case drew parallels with that of Austrian Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned his daughter for 24 years, fathering seven children by her.

An urgent investigation began after the sentence and yesterday's report was an summary of the findings of Prof Pat Cantrill, a former senior civil servant at the Department of Health.

The 40-page document makes 128 recommendations for action, and Prof Cantrill said the two victims had "lived through an experience which for most us is unimaginable".

She said social workers in both Sheffield and Lincolnshire had failed to help the women for a "number of reasons" but added the victims were not listened to when they tried to make complaints, at considerable risk to themselves.

Instead, she said, a culture of "having a quiet word" had developed, leaving them to their fate.

The father had moved his family a total of 67 times in a bid to escape the attentions of the authorities, and was often assisted by council workers to find new houses.

The family lived mostly in Lincolnshire between 1988 and 2004, during which time medical professionals and social workers became aware that babies were being born as a result of the incest.

But they took no action, and when the two women moved back to Sheffield in 2004, information about the suspicions was passed on but not acted upon by social workers in the city.

At yesterday's Press conference nine people, including representatives from police, the NHS and the two councils faced questions but it was revealed that no one had been sacked or disciplined.

The independent chairman of the Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board, Sue Fiennes, said: "The question is, why did so many people, for so much time, do so little? Its our job to protect children from such people. There was collective failure. We all failed those children."

Prof Cantrill's report said there was initially "significant misplaced optimism" about the family, and later professionals were "paralysed into a collective helplessness" by the situation.

The report says social workers and doctors felt unable both "personally and professionally" to deal with the problem and were also frightened of being taken to court for making accusations.

REPORT CALLS FOR BETTER TRAINING AND GUIDANCE

The report made almost 130 recommendations. They included:

Improvements nationally between agencies such as social services, the NHS and police in sharing records and information about cases in which incest may be taking place;

Training for professionals who feel they do not have the skills to deal with incest, rape and sexual abuse within families;

National guidance for health, social care and other professionals about the use of genetics to investigate sexual abuse in such cases;

The use of DNA profiling to investigate the paternity of children who may have been born as a result of sexual abuse;

Instructions to staff that rumours or suspicions regarding infants born as a result of incest are discussed with senior management and recorded to ensure investigations can take place;

National guidance on how social workers should carry out monitoring of families where sexual abuse is thought to be a problem;

National guidance for staff on how to deal with the fear of dealing with families where there may be a threat of violence;

Better training for midwives, school nurses and health visitors which would allow them to spot and report sexual abuse and the possibility of incest.