Families of children in care in North Tyneside have described living a nightmare after discovering that a now-convicted child predator had unsupervised access to their children. Mark Campbell, 52, was jailed last week for 18 months for attempting to incite sexual activity from a young girl and possessing indecent images of children.
Predator's online activity
Newcastle Crown Court heard that Campbell used Snapchat to ask a person he believed to be a 13-year-old girl if she liked older men, stating he did not care about their age difference. He said they needed to be 'discreet and careful' as he sent images of his penis and asked for images of the girl's private parts. The account was actually a decoy operated by police to identify sexual predators.
Unsupervised access to children
Campbell was employed by North Tyneside’s Children Services and transported children alone to planned visitations. Logs shown to Metro reveal that Campbell had unsupervised access to children months and weeks before his arrest. One document described him picking up two children in his car in early May.
A guardian told Metro: 'The stress and anxiety this has placed on our family is completely overwhelming. Every day is filled with doubt, worry, and anger. The system has completely failed us, and their total lack of transparency has broken our trust in local authority safeguarding beyond repair.'
Failures in communication
Families were not proactively informed by the council. Instead, some discovered the situation through local news articles. The guardian added: 'Finding out completely by accident through a local news article that a now convicted child exploiter had sole, unsupervised physical custody of our children was a sickening betrayal. But the council’s cold, silent response has made the trauma so much worse. They didn’t proactively reach out to warn us, they didn’t offer any professional support they just buried the incident to protect their own reputation while we were left to pick up the pieces of our shattered trust.'
Council response
North Tyneside Children’s Services said they were unaware of Campbell’s offending until August 11 and took action as soon as they were told. Rebecca Wall, Director of Children’s Services at North Tyneside Council, said: 'We are sorry that some families learned about this matter online rather than hearing from us directly. We completely understand the worry, upset, and frustration this may have caused, and we would like to offer our sincere apologies. We know that parents place immense trust in us, and we recognise how unsettling this situation will be for many. Our ambition is always to be as open and transparent as possible. However, we have to work with the legal and court processes and while these processes are ongoing there are legal limitations on what can be shared. As soon as we became aware of the outcome, we took immediate steps to contact families and provide reassurance and support. We remain committed to listening to families’ concerns and responding to any questions they may have.'
