Olympic medallist Kriss Akabusi says Islington Council has lost his care records, meaning a large chunk of his childhood is doomed to remain a “big blank”.
The athlete and television presenter spent much of his childhood in one of the council’s notorious children’s homes before joining the army at 16.
He later became a sprinter, winning a silver medal at the 1984 Olympics and a gold at the 1986 Commonwealth Games.
He told the Gazette how he grew up in Copthorne, one of the council’s out-of-borough homes in Village Road, Enfield.
“It was supposed to be a short-term home… but I stayed there,” he said.
“For what reason, I do not know. I’m sure that would have been in my files.”
“Draconian”
Akabusi spent roughly a decade in Copthorne, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, living through several changes in management.
One, he said, was “draconian… a very austere and strict regime”.
“I was only a kid so I’m not quite sure whether we deserved that – whether we were tough to deal with,” he said.
“No one ever punched me… But there’s that psychological terror where you know: don't cross him. A very hard, draconian man. Corporal punishment. The slipper. A cane… A very tough, tight ship.”
But unlike some former residents, he doesn’t recall going without food or clothes.
On the contrary, he said: “You had to finish what was on your plate. I witnessed people having their nose held and shovelled down their mouth. So I witnessed force feeding.
“We had new clothes in the winter, new clothes in the summer… It’s not in my memory that I felt neglected.”
“A Blank”
In the early 1990s, a biographer was granted access to some of Kriss’s care records – but he only personally went looking for them around 10 years ago.
“I wanted to know what happened to me. I wanted to know about my mum,” he said.
“I just wanted to know my past, you know? Because there’s this great big blank, I think, around that period.
“It’s like I created a new self once I joined the army, but I recognise that that kid in the children’s home is a major psychological driver of who I am and became.”
He knows that in care he started refusing to celebrate his birthday – but he has no memory of why.
“I was adamant,” he said. “I must have had half a dozen years in the children’s home where I stopped celebrating my birthday.
“Why? I don’t know. Did I tell my social worker? I don’t know.”
“Accidentally Destroyed”?
Kriss said his quest for answers led him to visit council buildings and send emails and letters, aided by Dr Liz Davies of the Islington Survivors Network (ISN).
But in February 2013, a council employee wrote by email: “Our archive and business managers have now reported to me that unfortunately they cannot locate the files.”
They said the council believed the files had been stored at Highbury House, near Highbury Fields. When it was sold in 2009, records were sent to the council archive.
“If the files had existed at the time of that building move they would have been entered on our electronic system,” the employee wrote.
“As they were never entered onto the system, we can only guess that the files must have been accidentally destroyed between 1992 and 2009.
“The archive manager feels sure that if the files existed now they would have turned up during one of the many building moves and been recorded on the electronic system.
“I am sure that this result is disappointing for you and on behalf of the council I can only apologise sincerely.”
When he and Dr Davies tried again in 2018, the council claimed it had given Kriss 50 pages of records in 2014 – something he said he had no recollection of at all.
He decided to speak out after the Gazette reported on others whose files were missing or incomplete.
Catch up:
- 'I was abused in children's homes. Islington Council won't accept I was there'
- 'Care home abuse left me hooked on heroin - but council says it's lost my files'
The Council
Islington Council said: “We will do all we can to support care leavers to access records relating to their care.
“We are very sorry for the difficulties Mr Akabusi has faced in trying to access any records.
“We would very much welcome a new application from him and will give all the support and advice we can.
“We will continue to do everything we can to locate any records relating to children in care from previous decades.”
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