Care home boss quits as firm at centre of Panorama abuse exposé prepares for critical report

A scene from the Panorama programme that investigated abuse at the Winterbourne View care home in Bristol. Photograph: BBC/PA

The chairman of Castlebeck, the company behind Winterbourne View, the care home at the centre of the recent BBC Panorama abuse expose, has resigned as the group braces itself for what it expects to be a highly critical report into care standards conducted by the Care Quality Commission and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Paul Brosnan, the 35-year-old son of Denis Brosnan, one of Ireland's richest men, will make way for Dick Stockford, a veteran healthcare consultant and troubleshooter who has worked with senior figures across the NHS including chief executive David Nicholson and Lord Darzi.

Castlebeck is owned by Denis Brosnan's Jersey-based Lydian Capital, which is backed by fellow Irish tycoons JP McManus, John Magnier and Dermot Desmond.

Paul Brosnan, who has served as chairman of Castlebeck for almost three years, called in PwC to conduct a review of systems and controls at care homes after being presented with Panorama's findings. The CQC also began its investigation in response the abuse secretly filmed by the BBC and broadcast in May.

Winterbourne View has closed since the programme and the firm, which operates 56 sites, has apologised. But last week four workers at Rose Villa, a rehabilitation centre in Bristol also run by Castlebeck, were suspended amid fresh allegations of misconduct.

Denis Brosnan owns Croom House stud in Limerick, where Paul grew up, and is chairman of Horse Racing Ireland. He made his fortune as the former boss of Irish food supplier Kerry Group and went on to lead Lydian Capital, whose backers are sometimes known as the Coolmore mafia because of their close business ties and their shared passion for horseracing. The Coolmore stud in Tipperary is owned by the Magnier family. Lydian investments included Global Radio, the firm behind Classic FM, Heart and LBC, and preschool nursery operator Casterbridge Care.

Stepping down from Castlebeck leaves Paul Brosnan, a former banker with Allied Irish Bank, with more time to concentrate on Casterbridge, a business he is credited with building up into 26 sites looking after almost 2,500 children. Castlebeck said: "Paul Brosnan has told the board that he believes the company needs a chairman with relevant health and social care experience at this time."

Casterbridge attracted controversy after the 2007 death of two-year-old Rhiya Malin at its Eton Manor nursery in Chigwell, Essex. Last year it emerged Casterbridge had re-registered the nursery under a different company name.

Lawyers for Rhiya's parents have claimed this effectively removed her death from records on Ofsted's website. The regulator has since said it would change the rules on how it treats such re-registering. Casterbridge said it was an unintended result of a corporate consolidation. The super-rich tycoons behind Lydian are also big investors in several other care providers in the UK. Another Jersey investment vehicle called Grove Limited — again led by Denis Brosnan — also counts Desmond, McManus and Magnier among its investors. This business controls the Barchester Healthcare empire of more than 200 homes. Grove is also a major shareholder in Cygnet, one of the largest private provider of psychiatric care services to the NHS.

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Paedophiles jailed after 3,000 child abuse drawings found

The former leader of the paedophile pressure group Pie was jailed after becoming the first person to be convicted for making drawings of children being raped. The prosecution, under the 2009 Coroners and Justice Act, was described as a landmark case by Scotland Yard.

Detectives found 3,000 drawings at Steven Freeman's home, where he held weekly meetings to view and trade images of child abuse. The images were described at the Old Bailey as "vile and disgusting" and were amongst the worst seen by police, they said. Some 14,500 pictures and films were found on computer discs there and at the address of two of his paedophile ring. Detectives believe tens of thousands more were stored on encrypted computer hard-drives they have been unable to access.

Officers from the Child Abuse Command also found computer games where players tried to abuse as many children as possible. Three of the defendants had been leaders of Pie, the Paedophile Information Exchange, which was disbanded after members were jailed.

Freeman, 57, previously known as Smith, the chairman of Pie, was given an indeterminate term for public protection. He was given a minimum term of 30 months after pleading guilty to specimen charges of possessing indecent images, having prohibited drawings, distributing indecent images and failing to disclose the password for an encrypted computer.

John Morrison, 44, was jailed for 24 months after he admitted having indecent images and failure to disclose a computer password. John Parratt, 63, a former vice chairman of Pie, also known as Warren Middleton, was jailed for 12 months for having indecent images. Barry Cutler, 60, pleaded guilty to three offences of having indecent images and failure to provide a password, and was jailed for 15 months. Leo Adamson, 49, a former executive member of Pie, was found guilty of failure to disclose a computer password and was jailed for a year at an earlier hearing.

Mark Gadsden, prosecuting, told the court: "These defendants were paedophiles who would regularly meet up at Steven Freeman's address to view images of children – specifically boys."

He said some of the images had been burned on to discs so they could be viewed later by some of the accused. Three discs containing more than 5,000 images were found at the home shared by Parratt and Morrison after a police raid in July 2008.

The judge, Recorder Oliver Sells, told Freeman: "You were at the centre of this network intent upon possessing and distributing serious forms of indecent material."

Detective Inspector Paul Maddocks said: "As a former executive committee member of the Paedophile Information Exchange, Freeman was instrumental in bringing this group of men together and encouraging the exchange of material.

"Even when caught, his arrogance was such that he refused to provide police with the key to a large quantity of encrypted information held on computer discs."

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