'Child sex ring' official to inspect care homes

An official embroiled in a paedophile scandal has been appointed to a senior post in the Government's childcare watchdog.

Ofsted has named John Goldup as its social care director - a job which gives him effective control of the protection of children in care homes and nurseries. Mr Goldup said when he was appointed: "I am absolutely convinced that effective inspection and regulation are the key to driving up improvement."

During the Eighties and early Nineties, Mr Goldup was a senior figure in the children's department at Islington council. The council was criticised in a series of official reports after the Standard revealed how a child sex ring had operated throughout the borough's care homes for years.

An independent inquiry headed by Ian White - then director of social services in Oxfordshire - reported: "Line managers should have visited children's homes, should have taken necessary action, should have spoken to children and ... should have responded to allegations as serious as the ones now made and now being investigated."

Mr Goldup had left his post by the middle of 1994 and has spent the past 15 years with another London borough.

An Ofsted spokesman said: "While allegations relating to Islington are ultimately a matter for the council, we are confident that there is nothing to support suggestions that he acted, then or at any other time, in anything other than a professional manner."