A REPORT published today into child safety in North Wales after a head teacher sexually abused girls has found there were more than 50 missed opportunities to stop him.

Led by Jan Pickles the Child Practice Review looked into the crimes of 68-year-old Neil Foden, from Conwy county, who was jailed for 17 years after being convicted of 19 charges involving four girls.

For almost 30 years, Foden was headteacher in the largest school in Gwynedd.

Ms Pickles review said a total of 52 concerns about safeguarding and other issues were found to have been raised and not acted on by Cyngor Gwynedd council and other agencies, saying: “those arrangements failed.”

Children’s Commissioner for Wales Rocio Cifuentes said: “What is heartbreaking is not only the number of children who were abused by Foden, but also the sheer number of opportunities missed.

“Children were not listened to; they were failed by people who should have acted and by institutions that should have protected them.

“Themes like poor information sharing, poor record keeping, a lack of professional curiosity, inadequate training, and incoherent multi-agency responses have been repeated themes in child practice reviews.

“Their consistent presence should be a source of national shame, and to avoid further repeats of these failures, this report should be a real turning point in how the child protection system functions in Wales.”

The report has been accepted by the Welsh government and Education Secretary Lynne Neagle said she was determined to prevent this happening again.

Cyngor Gwynedd Council accepted all the findings, took responsibility for the failures and apologised to all victims.