L'Arche, which has Catholic roots but now describes itself as an "ecumenical" organisation providing residential "communities" for people with learning difficulties, told DN it "continues to have full confidence" in its UK chairman, Brian McGinnis, despite the two separate arrests by different police forces.Mr McGinnis, a former special advisor for the charity Mencap, who is also believed to have been a senior civil servant in the Department of Health, has worked with people with learning difficulties for 40 years.He was arrested last August over allegations that
he raped a child with learning difficulties at the Betts Way respite home in Bromley, Kent, in the mid-1990s.
A Metropolitan police spokeswoman confirmed that an allegation of rape of a child with learning difficulties was made to police in November 2004.
She added: "A 68-year-old man from the Croydon area was arrested on 5 August 2005.
...
None of those allegations concerned
Mr McGinnis, who had been a volunteer visitor at the home, which closed in 2000.
An investigation by police, the London Borough of Bromley and health authorities took place between 1999 and 2001, but no-one was charged.
DN has discovered that Mr McGinnis was also arrested and questioned in 2001 on allegations unrelated to Betts Way, when he was still employed as Mencap's special advisor.A Kent police spokeswoman said: "A 63-year-old man from the Croydon area was arrested on suspicion of rape in March 2001.
He was later released without charge."
Mr McGinnis is an influential figure in the disability world, with links to a string of charities, learning difficulty organisations and
his local church in Shirley, Croydon, south London.
As well as chairing L'Arche, he is on the ruling national council of the Association for Real Change (ARC), which represents providers of care homes for people with learning difficulties. John Peet, general secretary of L'Arche, said the charity was aware of both arrests and trustees "continue to have full confidence in Brian McGinnis as chairman". ...
Mr Peet said: "Mr McGinnis informed L'Arche immediately after the police spoke to him, and took the initiative to withdraw from any activities involving contact with members of L'Arche with learning disabilities. ...
"We have not informed
ARC that
Mr McGinnis was arrested and questioned by police last August.
...
Mr McGinnis also represents
L'Arche on the
Royal College of Psychiatrists' patients and carers committee.A college spokeswoman said: "We were not aware of the allegations so obviously we will be looking at the membership of our committee."
A spokesman for Bromley council said it had advised its staff to "disassociate"
Mr McGinnis "with anything related to children with learning difficulties and council services" and informed him of this decision by letter four years ago.
He added: "To the best of our knowledge
he hasn't a connection with Bromley any longer."A spokeswoman for
Croydon Council said it told church authorities that
Mr McGinnis "should be suspended from duties that involved him working with children", after being told by
Bromley council about last August's arrest.
Mr McGinnis had been working with a children's church group.A spokeswoman for the
Diocese of Southwark, which covers St George's - the church
Mr McGinnis attends in Shirley - said it agreed that
he "should have no direct contact with children or vulnerable adults and this policy has been followed".
Mencap says Mr McGinnis retired in 2003, "for reasons unrelated to the allegations".DN contacted
Mr McGinnis for a comment on the allegations
he faced.In a message left on our answerphone
he said: "I am not going to get in discussions over details.