A notorious paedophile in Lambeth’s care system had a wall of pictures of topless children at his home “like a serial killer”, an inquiry has heard.
Leslie Paul was jailed for 13 years in 2016 for a string of abuse against children in the Eighties, when he was working as a Lambeth social services carer.
A woman taken into care at the age of 11 told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse yesterday that Paul had groomed her as a child and eventually tried to rape her.
She said he gave her cigarettes, sweets and money, and would encourage children to sit on his lap in a common room of one of the homes.
“My mum never said to me ‘come and sit on my knee, come and give me a cuddle’, so when somebody is saying that to you, you’re thinking ‘finally, somebody is just paying me a bit of attention’.”
She said Paul carried round a camera and watched children showering, and she would often go to his home. “I remember the first time I went there and there was a wall and it was just full of black and white pictures,” she said.
“It just reminded me of when I watch horror films or films about serial killers and they have got everything mapped on the wall… it was just full of topless children everywhere.”
The woman, who had spells at the Shirley Oaks and Southvale care homes, said she was once taken to another man’s flat for photographs to be taken.
She added that she tried to report abuse to Lambeth council in the early Nineties but was threatened with being taken to court for slander. The inquiry continues.
