David Harris: another account from Grafton Close

First-person evidence · 2022 interview

David’s experience in care

In an interview published by MyLondon on 18 October 2022, David Harris described being placed at Grafton Close as a child and alleged that he was sexually abused by a manager of the home. He also described being given alcohol and being taken to the manager’s private residence, including after leaving the placement.

In private correspondence supplied in September 2024 with consent for use in writing, Harris identified the manager he alleged had abused him as Dennis Brown, and said the abuse continued away from Grafton Close. These are Harris’s allegations. Brown was deceased and could not be prosecuted for those alleged offences; he was not convicted.

Keith Hinchliffe’s separate firsthand account: I lived at Grafton Close in 1984, when Dennis Brown was the manager of the home. I remember Brown holding that position during my time there. This is my direct recollection, separate from David Harris’s account and the later documentary evidence.

Harris described the long-term impact of abuse and his later work supporting people experiencing homelessness. His story should be read as his own account, not as a substitute for police or council files.

Read Megan Stanley’s 18 October 2022 MyLondon report ↗

Published personal account · MyLondon · 27 November 2022

David Harris: the lasting effects of abuse, and supporting others

In a second MyLondon interview, published on 27 November 2022, David Harris spoke about the effects that he said childhood abuse and his experiences in care had on his adult life. He described relying on alcohol and drugs to cope, periods of homelessness, difficulties with mental health and a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. These details are presented as Harris’s account reported by the newspaper.

The interview also explains how seeing a person sleeping rough in Kingston while shopping with his son led Harris to begin helping people experiencing homelessness. He went on to work with charities supporting people facing homelessness and addiction. The report also discusses his efforts to obtain criminal injuries compensation, including a reassessment informed by specialist psychiatric evidence.

This later article adds context about Harris’s reported experiences and the consequences he described. It is not, by itself, a finding of criminal or civil liability against Dennis Brown or Richmond Council.

Read the full 27 November 2022 MyLondon interview →

Firsthand message record · 2024–2025 · privately preserved

David Harris’s own messages: what he recalled, and when

In addition to his published interviews, Harris sent direct messages describing his experience. The sequence matters: his earliest substantive SMS account is dated 18 April 2024, before the detailed 2025 discussion of possible dates and other witnesses. The original messages remain private. This is a careful summary rather than publication of the correspondence itself.

18 April 2024 — early substantive account. Harris described being at Grafton Close around 1981/82, possibly later, when he was roughly 11 or 12. He said the abuse he alleged continued beyond the placement, into his teens. These are approximate dates from his recollection, not admission-register dates.

25 April 2024 — memory and source influence. Harris said conversations and reading this website had prompted further memories. Later details must be assessed against this earlier account; they should not be represented as independently recalled at the first contact.

22 September 2024 — police-interview concerns. Harris said reading the interview again refreshed his memory but that he believed parts had been inaccurately recorded, including the manager’s forename. The original police record and his later correction need to be kept distinct.

1 June 2025 — trips away from the home. Harris described bowling outings involving Dennis Brown and remembered Tolworth and Heathrow. He separately recalled a river trip involving adults he associated with the home, while explicitly expressing uncertainty about who was present at the particular time. Independent dates, supervision arrangements and locations have not been established.

1 June 2025 — permission qualification. Harris stated that his parents had allowed the manager to take him to his house. This is an important qualification: it does not establish that the council authorised, recorded or assessed the visits, but the outings must not automatically be described as without parental permission.

July–August 2025 — uncertain placement reconstruction. The discussion explored whether Harris had left and returned to the home. Some of the later propositions were suggested during the conversation, so the exact dates and any second admission remain unproven pending original records.

Evidence status: These are Harris’s firsthand recollections as preserved in authenticated private SMS material (internal source GC-0065). They are not independent official findings. Subsequent details and chronology should be distinguished from the earliest account. No message screenshots, telephone numbers or personal addresses are published here.

Documented police correspondence · 2017–2021

Not just a newspaper allegation: a recorded police complaint

Harris reported historical abuse to the Metropolitan Police in 2017. Copies of his subsequent exchanges with a police investigator were forwarded to this investigation in September 2024.

Police correspondence dated August and September 2019 shows case reviews, including a decision that there was insufficient evidence to charge in a particular investigation. An officer expressly told Harris that the enquiry had revealed nothing to suggest he was not a genuine victim of abuse.

On 15 September 2021, Harris asked for the crime reference specifically relating to Grafton Close. An officer replied that his cases were linked. The exact separate reference for the allegation against Brown has not been independently confirmed.

Why Dennis Brown could not be prosecuted: Brown was deceased. The contemporary press report records that Harris learned the former Grafton Close manager had died. Criminal proceedings cannot be brought against a person who has died. The separate 2019 insufficient-evidence decision described above concerned another suspect and should not be presented as a decision about Brown. Read the October 2022 report ↗ · CPS guidance on deceased suspects ↗.

Contemporary primary evidence · 18 April 1985

The council recruitment advert naming Dennis Brown

A notice published by the Middlesex Chronicle on 18 April 1985 advertised a Senior Residential Child Care Officer for the council’s purpose-built community home at 37 Grafton Close, Hanworth Road, Hounslow.

The recruitment notice named Dennis Brown (Officer in Charge) as the person to contact for an informal discussion of the post.

Keith Hinchliffe was resident at Grafton Close in 1984 and recalls Dennis Brown as the manager during that period. That is his firsthand account of the position Brown held at the time. The April 1985 recruitment notice separately confirms that Brown was named Officer in Charge by that date. The advert does not itself establish Brown’s exact appointment date or the circumstances of Harris’s alleged abuse.

Original source exhibit: Middlesex Chronicle, 18 April 1985, page 13.

Former staff recollection · witness evidence

What a former Grafton Close employee recalled

A former staff member, whose identity is deliberately withheld here, recalled a change in management after John Stingemore’s departure. The witness estimated that Brown began working at the home around 1983, but expressly said the exact date was uncertain.

The witness also recalled that Harris had left and later returned and was present when Brown worked at the home. That is a potentially useful route to reconcile different accounts of Harris’s placement dates. The original admission and discharge registers remain necessary to establish a definitive chronology.

The same former employee recalled that some staff-organised outings involving children used two accompanying members of staff. This describes a recollection of particular outings, not proof of a written two-staff rule governing all visits or departures.

Source handling: these statements are paraphrased to preserve anonymity and are drawn from private messages. No staff member’s name, photographs, contact details, direct quotations or unique personal identifiers are published. Later reconstructed dates are not treated as independent proof of events.

The historical accountability question

What did Richmond do after the earlier safeguarding failures?

Management and supervision

What recruitment, training, staff-supervision and council-oversight arrangements applied to the successive managers of Grafton Close after 1981?

Children leaving the home

How were adult visitors, private outings, permissions, overnight absences and subsequent follow-up recorded and monitored during the 1980s?

These questions are sharpened by Harris’s account and the site’s author’s separate 1984 evidence about Philip Saunders. Similar accounts of adults taking children away from the home do not, on their own, establish that the same procedure was breached in both instances.

Richmond’s public position · 2022

Richmond Council’s response

The 18 October 2022 MyLondon article included an official Richmond Council response apologising that children in its care had been sexually abused and characterising the historical service leadership and management exposed in the 2015 criminal proceedings as unacceptable.

That statement is important, but it should not be represented as the council admitting every allegation in Harris’s account or legal liability in a separate 1984 claim.

Read the separately sourced Richmond Council statements page →

Evidence and provenance

Original articles and source register

Date	Source	What it supports
18 October 2022	MyLondon / Megan Stanley ↗	Harris’s published account, police-reporting history, CICA outcome and council response.
18 October 2022	Brentford Nub News ↗	Contemporary reporting that the former home manager was deceased and therefore could not be prosecuted; this is distinct from other evidential decisions.
November 2022	MyLondon — November 2022 interview ↗	Harris’s account of coping with trauma and his work with people experiencing homelessness.
18 April 1985	Middlesex Chronicle, p. 13 — facsimile shown above	Brown described contemporaneously as Officer in Charge at Grafton Close.
2019–2021	Metropolitan Police correspondence forwarded in September 2024	Police case handling and linked case references; original correspondence withheld from public display.
September 2024	Harris’s direct correspondence	Firsthand identification of Brown and clarification that alleged abuse continued away from the home; consent for written use preserved.
2025	Private former-staff messages	Qualified management and placement recollections, anonymously paraphrased.