Victim of children’s home sex abuse scandal stuck in council flat with broken door and strangers sleeping in hallway

A woman who was sexually abused in a children’s home is still stuck in a council flat opposite the home she was abused in with a broken front door and strangers sleeping in the corridors.

Julie Bull, 45, who lives in Loughborough Junction, was a victim of child sexual abuse at the nearby South Vale assessment centre and Angell Road children’s home.

Both homes were included in an independent inquiry into child sexual abuse which found 705 children under the care of Lambeth council had been abused in five homes between the 1960s and the 1990s.

Many years after leaving the Angell Road children’s home, the council moved Ms Bull into a two-bedroom council flat on an estate opposite it. She suffers from PTSD, depression and anxiety and has been trying to get the council to move her out of the property for three years.

The South London Press reported on Ms Bull’s housing situation in August – which she said was making her mental health dramatically worse but nothing has changed since.

Her front door has been broken for a year and there is a constant draught that runs through the house.

Ms Bull, who has waived her right to anonymity to speak to the South London Press, said: “A workman came to repair the peeling ceiling a few weeks ago.

“He left a mess I had to clear up and just covered the gaps in the windows with masking tape.

“My seven-year-old daughter sleeps in my bed because she gets so cold.

“My 19-year-old daughter has the other room and my 23-year-old sleeps in the living room.”

The estate Ms Bull lives on is managed by the Loughborough Estate Management Board (LEMB). 

Ms Bull said: “Three weeks ago I found a homeless man lying in the corridor.

“I called the council and after a few days he was gone.

“I’m scared to walk into my own home – if he can get in anyone can and my front door is broken.

“This isn’t the first time – there was a man in here last year too.”

Ms Bull has been bidding on properties for the last three years. She said: “I feel let down by the council.

“They’re not bothering with me. I’m probably never going to get out of here.

“I’m getting to the point where I’d rather squat somewhere – I cry every night and can’t sleep.”

Ms Bull also suffers from sciatica which causes severe pain in her legs. She said: “Getting up and down the stairs is so painful.

“Sometimes I have to crawl up the stairs but that makes it worse, my daughter has to help wash me.”

Ms Bull was sexually abused by a member of staff at the children’s home and an older boy who was in their care.

She said: “Lambeth gave me compensation and some therapy but they don’t help anymore.”

The inquiry into the council, concluded in October last year, found Shirley Oaks and South Vale to have been “brutal places where violence and sexual assault were allowed to flourish”. 

A spokesman from Lambeth council said: “We understand the concerns Ms Bull has expressed over the location of her current home, and we have been working with her to find alternative accommodation that meets her requirements.

 “We offer all tenants the opportunity to apply for a transfer to a new home, but the acute shortage of social housing in Lambeth and the size of the waiting list for council housing means these transfers can take some time to arrange.

“We appreciate the trauma Ms Bull has experienced, and we have provided specialist support to help address this.

“The settlement agreed through the Lambeth Redress Scheme also included a specified payment to cover the agreed cost of therapy, which enabled the applicant to source their own therapy.”

Pictured top: Julie Bull and a picture of her front door which has been broken for a year (Picture: Julie Bull)